Moon River Woods Bay

[rockhard99]

Hey Everyone,

I am new to the forum but have been reading some threads here just within the last few weeks. My brother and I are taking a trip to the Moon River the first full week of September. We used to go every year, but it has been 10 years now. Anyone have any fishing reports? Water temps? We will be fishing for Musky, Pike, Walleye, and Smallies. We are very familiar with the area. We will be staying at the Grisdales on Woods Bay. I read an earlier report that waters are high and temps are relatively cool for this year. Is this still true? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[AKRISONER]

same deal water is extremely high, surface temps around 70 as of Sunday most likely higher now due to the heat wave...but not significantly. Thermocline was still only about 6 feet down and its cold down there.

Edited August 2, 2017 by AKRISONER

[rockhard99]

AKRISONER,

Thank you for the information! We are looking forward to the trip.

[Cast-Away]

WElcome aboard Rockhard99.

 

You can read a report I posted about the area a few weeks ago here: http://ontariofishingcommunity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=84809

[Reef Runner]

Welcome to the board.

 

I'll be up that way in a few weeks; hell or high water, I'll be targeting the same.

Cast-Away put up a good report with some great info in the thread

 

Tight lines,

Reef

[rockhard99]

Great info, thanks! Let us know how you do, Reef.

[Reef Runner]

Reporting back rockhard99.

 

I was on the moon this past weekend (August 26-27) coming on blue bird skies, high water levels and wind around 5-7km from the west. Started by following earlier reports that the bass were up right up against shore, which I found to be vacant of fish. Moved out to off shore rock structure in 5-8 fow and started locating a mix bag of smallies and largies. Best fish was a small jaw pushing 4.5#. Average size were 1-2 Lbs'ers. Love those GBay green trout, certainly have shoulders on them. They were eating leech imitations (slammers) on a drop shot 12-14 inches off bottom. Braided line with a 3-4 foot floro leader was needed to detect the bites. This was concentrated in the Iron City Bay area.

Put in a few hours of musky/pike trolling in IC bay, Captains Allen's, even went into the fabled Blackstone with out a sniff (didn't have my yellow jacket). Got a good wash on the lures.

Love the area, tough fish sometimes.

 

Reef

[rockhard99]

Reef,

Thank you for taking the time to update! My brother and I will be up there next week for 5 days or so. I will post an update when we get back. We will probably target pike more than bass, and try and find some walleye, so we will see. We are definitely looking forward to it.

[AKRISONER]

Reef,

Thank you for taking the time to update! My brother and I will be up there next week for 5 days or so. I will post an update when we get back. We will probably target pike more than bass, and try and find some walleye, so we will see. We are definitely looking forward to it.

 

back out even further for those smallies...ive been getting them between 15 and 35 FOW!

 

if its morning and low light you can find them shallow, but they are definitely moving out.

 

lakes been absolutely on fire the past few weeks, 17 smallies boated in a morning on sunday, the sunday before i had 17lbs in 2 hours.

 

Try jerk baits

Edited August 29, 2017 by AKRISONER

[Reef Runner]

Akri has been doing better than I have apparently lol! Good shootin'.

 

I was without the benefit of sonar on this trip; rented a tinner from Moon River Cottages and relied on my handheld GPS with hotmaps as we were backwoods camping.

I'll second Akri, move off the shore to structure to locate fish.

Talked to some guys at camp down in Arnold's and they laid a beating on pike apparently. We weren't so lucky on the snakes.

 

Just for fun, if you're down that way, the falls are absolutely furious this year. Cool to check out. Strongly advise against swimming there, the locals were warning not too.

 

Tight lines.

[rockhard99]

Hey Everyone,

It has been a week since we got back from Moon River. A big cold front moved in the week we were there. We fished four days and the three of us boated about 90 fish. We have certainly had better days up there. We only caught pike on the edge of cabbage, and there was a lot less of that than when we used to go. However, we usually go in the spring. We caught 3 pike over 30 inches with an average of 23-25 inches or so. We caught a smallmouth, or largemouth occasionally, but mostly pike. Overall, we had fun, but I think the week before or after would have been excellent. Thanks for all the info guys.

[Rizzo]

Thanks for the update...sounds like some pretty good action just not too much size.