Lake of the Woods - Morson Fishing Report

[jerkin'm]

Marknamy-thanks for the offer-sent you a pm too-Shorelunch thanks for the detailed info on the phone-makes it a ton easier when you have local knowledge-do any of you guys use 3 way rigs? That's what I normally use with spinner rigs-hit Gander yesterday and got some bouncers and recommended spinner colors-thanks again everyone, this will really shorten the learning curve-will report back after our trip-

[Shorelunch]

No problem. Bottom bouncers. Too rocky for 3-ways.

[Shorelunch]

Had a really nice weekend up in Morson. Saturday and Sunday had beautiful weather. Walleye fishing was really good numbers wise. I think we boated around 70 walleyes Sat - Sunday without tring too hard. Biggest for the weekend was a 22 incher, otherwise just good numbers of 12-18" fish. Trolled spinners with bouncers and crawlers, anywhere from 10 - 20 feet, with the best catching from 12-15 feet. Best structure was more island points and reefs/humps off of islands. We only found small fish at the reefs up by Dawson Channel or west of Manitou. We did best around Sunset Channel and south of Obabikon Bay area.

My 10 yr old and I put a solid effort into muskie fishing this weekend. We fished on the east side of Burrows Bay without much luck. A couple of northerns was about it. This was my first time muskie fishing "for real" and we plan to try them again over Labor Day weekend, along with smallies.

[jerkin'm]

Thanks to these reports and some more personal advice from Shorelunch and Marknamy we had a blast on Monday in the Morson area. I used bouncers briefly to find fish and then used a jig and minnow and got plenty of eater size fish and lots of 12" eyes and saugers. We even got a half dozen tank sized perch. I found the fish much deeper, 22-30 feet. Kids had a blast on the beaches and none of us really fished a lot. When we rolled up to the beach that was suggested all the kids were in awe. My 6 year old son said "Dad, it's like paradise!" Pretty awesome....

[Wild Thing]

Well, it had to end sometime...

Made a quick trip up to do some pre-hunting season chores and clean the carpeting in the cabin and assumed the fishing would be easy again.. wrong...

I should have gone out early Saturday but waited until chores done and by the time I went out after noon wind was howling out of the southwest... battled big whitecaps and managed to catch enough to feed the family, but fishing was not great... only fished about 90 minutes... trolling motor was out of he water more than in...

went out to visit a friend on an island at sunset and got the bad news... the walleyes appear to have left the reefs! Heard the same on the radio, lots of slow fishing reports... It might be the cold front and lots of wind, or the seasonal shift that happens about this time every summer, but they had 8 guys in 3 boats over 5 days and the last 2 days they caught almost no fish on the reefs....

On Sunday wife and I caught a few on 2 reefs but not much in an hour out... pretty slow... biggest of the weekend only 20"...

Time to change the game plan! I hate this late summer pattern from now on.. I can never seem to find them as easy... and not nearly as close to the cabin... maybe I'm just lazy!

Out of 6 trips since Memorial Day had 2 good ones, 3 incredible ones, and only one slow one, so can't complain... now on to birds... goose season starts on the 1st and ducks on the 10th!

Water temp is 69, down 10 degrees in 2 weeks.. algae bloom is starting to pile up in windward bays etc.... water level still pretty low...

take care all

[Gusser88]

10-4 to Wild Thing. Was up last weekend and fished Fri, Sat, and Sun AM. Wind was tough on Friday and Saturday. Not many fish left on the reefs. Split our time between walleyes and muskies. I ended up with my first muskie 40". It was cool! Our buddy Jason caught a 49" muskie which was awesome. Probably won't be back until our March ice fishing trip which is sad. Looking forward to retiring in about 25 years and spending about 6 months a year fishing up there. LOL!

[Shorelunch]

Here's a couple of photos from the Summer of Morson . . .

Next trip up is Labor Day weekend, which we're going to concentrate on smallies and muskies. If anyone has any Fall patterns to share, please PM. Thanks!

[cbrooks]

I'm waiting for the musky pic Shore

[Shorelunch]

I'm waiting for the musky pic Shore

Exactly - me too! We've gone out a few times now without success. But we're going at it again over Labor Day weekend. I need to find a copy of "Muskies on the Shield" - or find a guide. I'd say about 2/3 of the tackle box has gotten wet though. We've gotten a couple Northerns and a few follows.

[AaronM]

Exactly - me too! We've gone out a few times now without success. But we're going at it again over Labor Day weekend. I need to find a copy of "Muskies on the Shield" - or find a guide. I'd say about 2/3 of the tackle box has gotten wet though. We've gotten a couple Northerns and a few follows.

Toss bucktails, best way to fish muskie on LOTW if you haven't done it much before.

[Scoot]

I need to find a copy of "Muskies on the Shield" - or find a guide.

Get the book, skip the guide- 90% of what you need to know is in that book! If you absolutely, positively promise to give it back to me, I'll lend you my copy of it. PM me if interested.

Not the pic you're waiting for, but here's an LOW muskie from this past June. 50.5 and full of eggs.

[cbrooks]

Exactly - me too! We've gone out a few times now without success. But we're going at it again over Labor Day weekend. I need to find a copy of "Muskies on the Shield" - or find a guide. I'd say about 2/3 of the tackle box has gotten wet though. We've gotten a couple Northerns and a few follows.

Hey Shore, I have a extra copy of "muskies on the sheilds". I think I have a the secret bait that can get you that muskie or should I say muskies . I'll be in your neck of the woods this Friday PM me if your interested.

[dmoore]

Just got back from two weeks at Morson. Had good walleye fishing. Lots of fish in the 16-18" class. A few over 23" and lots of small fish. Fished points and shorelines, 16-25'. Bottom Bouncers and spinners, crawlers and minnows. Tried a few reefs, not much happening. Got 3 limits of crappies. Nicest fish we caught in a while. A few were 14" or better. A lot of very BIG perch. Didn't get to do any muskie fishing. Back after Labor Day to start our duck season.

Richard

[tearin' lips]

My buddy and I left from the Falls early yesterday morning for a day trip out of Morson. Not the worst trip that I have had, but it was far from the best or even an average trip to LOW. It was one of the worst algae blooms I have ever seen, most of the water we fished looked like pea soup. Our brightest colored lures were disappearing 6-8" below the surface.

It didn't effect the fish's aggressiveness. We boated one, and had 3 get off. We fished a little of everything, but the fish were definitely on the rocks. All fish were hooked with tinsel bucktails. We had an hour and a half frenzy of fishing before the cold front moved in. After that front hit last night everything shut down for us.

Just curious as to how everyone else fishes a bad algae bloom? We didn't even see fish until they hit the lure at the boat. I can't wait for one more trip and hopefully no algae.

[Shorelunch]

Had an eventful week at Morson. Arrived Friday afternoon and fished some points for walleyes. Caught a few small-to-eater size walleyes and then casted for smallies and caught a few.

The wind howled on Saturday. Hid behind some islands and shorelines in the morning and again caught some small-to-eater sized walleyes off of points in 18-20 feet. Jigs and minnows. Marked fish deeper but no takers. Went out muskie hunting in the afternoon. Not too much action, but my oldest son caught this northern on a bucktail. He was really happy.

Sunday was a nicer day and went for walleyes up in Miles Bay. Caught lots of small-to-eater sized walleyes off of points in 18-20 feet and bonus crappies at 25 feet. Jigs and minnows. Could not find any bigger fish.

We also threw for smallies around the area and caught a few along with either a very big northern or decent muskie who owes me a DT-10 Rapala.

Threw for muskies again Monday morning. We caught a few small northerns and snagged a turtle. Went walleye fishing for a little while and you guessed it, caught lots of small-to-eater sized walleyes. Was a fun weekend, but didn't connect on any bigger walleyes nor a muskie, but still had fun and am learning every time out.

Back up in a couple weeks for "Fall Fishing."

[Eastwind]

Shorelunch,

Great fish (both) that your son caught. Always great to see kids that enjoy getting out fishing.

[cbrooks]

Darn wind has to blow on the weekends. Nice fish shore. Did you get any follows muskie fishing?

[Shorelunch]

Darn wind has to blow on the weekends. Nice fish shore. Did you get any follows muskie fishing?

Brooks, Kyle claimed he did, and I'll believe him - he's only 10, so he's not learned the art of "fisherman's interpretation" quite yet.

[cbrooks]

Mark those spots on the GPS and keep going back. Put together a milk run. Deep figure eights when they follow. Don't just do one eight do a few even if you can't see them. I think 80 to 90% of the fish I catch at LOW is on the eight epecially with bucktails and spinnerbaits. Topwaters on the other hand... not so much.

[Wild Thing]

Forgot to post.

Caught fish last Friday in current, enough for dinner. Nothing spectacular, but my kids caught fish as did my sister from Oregon who now thinks LOTW is some sort of secret place of giant fish. (Also got 2 smallies over 18 inches, wow!)

Too much wind Saturday, didn't even try to get out. Have I ever mentioned that I hate wind? Give me flat calm any day.

Sunday fished reefs, just for old times sake, and caught a few walleyes, biggest 19 inches. Oh man how I long for those July and early August days! I hate this time of year. I'm terrible at finding fall fish. Caught yet another 18 inch smallie however.

Heading up tomorrow to shoot ducks. Might fish, but doubt it. Hard to think of fins when there are feathers to be had!

[ducksnbucks]

We fished from Thursday through Saturday. The cold snap made itself known as temps were in the low to mid 20's Thursday morning with Friday and Saturday

We fished mostly for muskies and pike. Fishing proved slow for the most part catching 0 muskies and about 15 pike for the 3 days, biggest pike 37". We did have 6 follows from muskies including 2 very large fish, all very hot follows just would not commit. 2 of the muskies swiped at the lures but missed. We also missed strikes from 6 more fish that could have been muskies or pike but didn't see the fish. So we were close to having a great weekend.

Of the 3 days, we fished for walleyes roughly 4 hours total. During that time the fish bit well, we caught roughly 100-125 fish. Most of the fish were in the 10-13" range but we did catch a fair amount of 14-18" with the biggest being 22". We only used jigs and minnows off of reefs in depths ranging from 13-22 feet with the best bite in 16-19 feet.

Even if the fish didn't bit very well it was still great to get up thre!!

[dmoore]

Just got back from Morson. Had good walleye fishing. Deeper water 20-25'. Bottom bouncers and spinners. Minnows outproduced crawlers. Got most fish off shoreline points. Started getting more fish in current areas toward the end of the week. Did very well on crappies. We don't fish Obabikon, stay away from crowds. Duck hunting for us was very poor. Didn't see anywhere near the usual amount of ducks. Heading back in two weeks. Hopefully the divers will be down.

Richard Moore "Baitmaker"

[Eastwind]

dmoore,

Also heading up in two weeks. Thanks for the fishing report. Sounds like the typical Fall patterns will be in place by then. See you up at LOW.

[Shorelunch]

Got up to Morson Friday - Sunday. Weather was fantastic and so was the walleye fishing. Nearly all of our traditional Fall walleye spots we had time to fish held nice sized walleyes (20-26") and some great eaters. Jig and a minnow or grub from anywhere to 12 - 30'.

We found crappies were sparatic. Couple here couple there. Fished up in Miles Bay and Hay Island. Our neighbor one day caught four in four hours and the next day his boat limited out.

And finally . . . my son caught his first muskie while muskie fishing. He caught it Saturday afternoon in Burrows Bay on a Cowgirl. 43 incher. Of course, the boat we fished in "always" has a camera in it - except this trip. However, if you were within a 10 mile radius, you probably heard him! He had a smile from ear-to-ear.

Hope to get back up in two weeks.

[Eastwind]

Thanks for the report, Shorelunch. Sounds promising for my trip coming up this weekend. BTW, did you happen to get a read on the water temp?