Canadian Reports/Discussion
Lake of the Woods Reports (Morson area)
5/26/14 @ 2:37 PM
Hello All --
Anyone interested in fishing reports from the Morson area of Lake of the Woods can keep an eye out for weekly (sometimes more often) updates from me through the fishing season.
NOTE: Sort posts in "ASCENDING ORDER" for proper timeline.
OPENING WEEKEND 2014
Fishing results was fantastic for our guests this year. Fish were biting on opening day and continued through the Canadian long weekend of Victoria Day.
Walleyes were hitting jigs/minnows with a bit more frequency than spinners and other live baits the first day, but then seemed to even out. Reported depths varied from deep (30 plus feet) to as shallow as 10-12 feet, but the most common report was the fish came in the 15-23 foot range.
Multiple fish from 25" to 28.75" have already been released this year.
Water temps started out in the 43-47 degree range and have come up to about 47-53 degrees.
With these temps, walleyes will be still be spawning and even some pre-spawn so PLEASE be selective with respect to the fish you harvest for eating. Many 17"-18" females are still full of eggs and need to be able to drop them to keep the fishery happy and healthy for the long term. We don't want to be light on a year class or two in the coming seasons!
Plenty of small northern action and several incidental big smallies and muskies have been caught on walleye presentations already as well.
Attached is the largest walleye of the weekend reported.
A 28.75" beauty for Mike C of Canton, GA. Not a bad second day ever on Lake of the Woods for Mike.
Caught, Photographed and Released on May 18, 2014.
The week ahead looks great in the weather forecast and the lake will be filled with Memorial Weekend anglers so we expect to get a lot of great reports and photos.
Good luck on the water and thank you for practicing CPR fishing!
J-Man
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Got home yesterday afternoon. Tough weekend for us.
Made it up late morning Saturday. Got unpacked into the cabin, ate a sandwich, and headed out for the afternoon. Saturday was windy but not unmanageable. We were able to make a decent run and we caught fish just about everywhere we went. We were able to eat walleye for dinner and put three in the freezer as well.
Sunday was crazy windy and rainy on and off all day. It didn't look that bad when we woke up but by the time we got out on the bigger water we realized how rough it really was. We still caught fish but we had to work pretty hard to get them. We tried to fish in the wind a bit but it wears on us after while. We were able to catch some fish on the protected sides of islands it was just nice to be out of the wind even momentarily. Still made our daily limits but it was a lot of work.
We were going to try to go fish yesterday in the morning for a couple hours before heading home but it was raining pretty steadily again so we just pulled the boat and decided to head home. Especially after being pretty well soaked all day Sunday we just called it a trip.
We caught decent numbers Saturday and I thought we did ok Sunday given the conditions. We just didn't see very much size at all. Biggest fish was 19"(caught on a jigging rap). We saw tons of 8"-12" fish. Caught one lonely crappie(13") and one lonely perch(I had one get off at the side of the boat that looked like a keeper as well). Best depth was probably 18-24', but we caught fish in a variety of depths. Minnows and crawlers seemed to fish pretty even to me.
We fished August 8th-15th out of milesbay and it was around or above 90degrees everyday but wednesday It took a couple of days to figure things out but after I did we had one of our best weeks for walleye in years. We caught several walleyes over 20"s and several nice eater sized. Smallmouth fishing was a little slow and we got into some nice crappies. Didn't fish for northerns but caught a couple nice ones.
Fantastic time of year to he on the water here at the Lake of the Woods!!
Walleyes, crappies, muskies and pike are all very catchable as the temps cool.
Walleyes have been snapping in 25-35 feet. Current and breaklines near main lake point with deeper water have been excellent. One boat reported 20 or more walleye over 20" (biggest being 25") during yesterdays action with 2 anglers on board.
Muskies have started to move around, with both trolling an casting producing some activity. Fish are still close to structure so needing to get baits in closer to get the best chance at most of the active fish.
Crappies were caught in Miles Bay last weekend and have been reliable on Obabikon Lake throughout the fall so far.
Northerns have been picked up jigging for walleyes and trolling crankbaits for muskies.
Take advantage of this great multi-species time of the year while you can. Ice is coming..and it is always much too soon for my liking.
Good luck. Stay warm and dry. BE SAFE!
J-Man
Labour Day Weekend 2014
Some great action on Lake of the Woods in our area over the weekend. Walleyes were mostly in the 18-20 foot range. Bait didn't seem to matter as long as you matched your speed to your presentation of choice. Several nice fish up to 27" caught and released. Deep humps, hump edges and points held the most fish.
Muskies were active chasing bucktails and topwaters around rock structures.
Smallies were mixed in with walleyes as well as being near points.
Crappies were popping up here and there but seemed to be relocating multiple times a day so it was hard to stay on them.
Air temps are a bit below normal at the moment. Water levels are coming down nicely. Water temps have dropped below 70 most areas.
Fall colours are coming! The lake traffic has thinned out considerably.
It is the BEST time of the year to be on the water!!
Was up from Aug 25-29. Stayed at Mylies and was super pleased! What a great place, super clean cabins, super helpful and friendly staff, protected bay from the wind, and the list goes on and on. This was my first fishing trip to LOTW. We caught fish, not a ton, my dad got his biggest walleye @ 25''. I had hooks in a couple musky, one was mid 40's. So I will chalk this one up as experience. And will be back next year!
Fishing action has been great in our area. Water levels are going down some and the weather has been stable for almost 3 weeks.
Getting a little rain today and though we would rather keep the lake dropping, it has been getting dry so it will be nice to get some moisture and keep the fire dangers to a minimum.
Walleyes have been biting on the reefs and points. Big fish and spectacular numbers. Depths very from 12-14 up to 30-35 depending on the avg depth of the basin you are fishing.
Muskies have been active, if not biting hard. Plenty of fish located and enough hitters to keep people going back out day after day. Fish up to 52" were caught and released last week.
Rocks and bucktails have been the most common, but fish have been seen and caught in all structures with a variety of baits.
Smallies have been popping on shorelines. Small spinner baits and little cranks are the ticket.
Big pike have been mixed in with muskies in places and have been making things interesting for people casting as well as those walleye fishing.
Summer is flying by so don't miss out on what is left of it on Lake of the Woods!
Replied to another post. See that for info. Busy up here and lots of fishing being caught, seen, lost, photographed, released etc.
Have been delinquent with reports as that is something that sometimes gets bumped down the list of things to do when things get so busy.
Will try to be more timely with a weekly update at least.
Thanks!
J-Man
Hey Guys --
Quite the opposite. So busy up here that it has been tough to get time to write reports and updates for all the sites I have tried to keep people informed on.
Fishing has not been steadily spectacular, but has been avg-good most weeks when weather has been up and down. Lots of fronts moving through with changes in temps and big shifts in wind directions, etc.
Any period of stable weather for a couple days has turned on activity for walleyes and muskies. Big pike were hot the last few days for a couple groups I spoke to today.
Lake peaked on July 10 and had dropped on inch according to the control board website, but there was a couple inches of rain in Morson and 4-5 in Rainy River and Baudette so expecting lake to rise a bit again the next week or two.
Lots of places and private properties with major dock issues. We are managing nicely so far.
Walleyes have been on the reefs/humps for a few weeks. Find a slope and fish it top to bottom as well as off the edge a bit to make sure structure is covered. Presentation doesn't seem to matter as long as you match speed to what you are doing.
Muskies have been shallow on shorelines and points with rocks for the most part. Several nice fish up to 50 inches in the last week or so.
I will try to keep updates coming weekly now that things have settled down a bit with respect to preparing for high water and keeping everything else under control.
Nobody is really staying away...perhaps a few local seasonal residents or cabin owners have not fished as much if they have issues with keeping their boats in the water because of dock and boat house issues in the high water.
Lots of comments about the numbers of boats on the water the last week. Debris situation still exists, but has not been as bad the last couple weeks. With the rain creating some more inflows through the water shed, I would expect debris to stay a concern for awhile. Not much fishing and boating after this year compared to other years.
Be smart and safe out there.
The lack of reports is kind of telling us things are not very good up there? I have heard from several guys (don't go as the high water has things so messed up)& the debris issue isn't any fun.
I was on LOTW 6/28 - 7/5. Yes, the water is very high, but the only problem you're likely to have is if your camp's gas dock is under water. The water was already dropping when we left on 7/5.
We had way more problems with WIND than with high water. You probably know what LOTW is like with 20-30 MPH wind with gusts to 40MPH. There are a few trees bobbing around here and there; just be careful.
Fishing was "good", not "great". The walleyes were keying in on crayfish and were way shallower than you might imagine. Dink walleyes were deep, along with the sauger. Fat northern pike were deep, pigging out on dink walleye. The one (murdered) pike we kept had two dink walleye in his belly. Smallmouth bass and crappie were snappin'.
Get out there and fish!!!
RR
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