eagle lake

[Guest]

Hi.

Is there any news from the West Arm area of Eagle Lake?

Thanks,
Mike

[TomBow]

I'll be checking with Vermilion Bay lodge, we are headed for honeymoon number 3 in mid June. I heard they had 12" of snow a few weeks ago and a week and a half of rain. I'll find out and get back to you.

[Guest]

Thanks.

It seems not many fish Eagle on this board. Or maybe alot do and have great info that must be kept under their hats, LOL?

Mike

[Stratosman]

We are heading up there in mid june to chase muskies, that will be our second time there. Last time we had awesome fishing, we stayed eagle lake lodge, this time we are staying at cedar point lodge which is in a different part of the lake, but I'm positive we will find fish. There seems to be walleyes on pretty much any structure you can find, we usually just fish walleyes enough for a fish fry a couple nights and fish muskies the rest of the time.

[Guest]

Thanks,

I am wondering how it might be when I am up there July 17-24. Sure, I would like to troll for some walleye early evening or so for a meal or two but... I would rather catch pike all day big or small. I guess I am hoping the action will be good there. I will be staying on the western arm are.

Mike

[Stratosman]

There should be no problem catching pike all day long, one thing you might want to try if you are into numbers over size which is great entertainment is to throw buzzbaits right into the pencil reeds. If you can find isolated patches of reeds along any shoreline there will be pike on them. Not big but plenty of fun, all were around 2-5 pounds and there is nothing better than getting bit on topwater!

[Guest]

That is great news. 2-5 pounds with the occaisonal biger one is fine w/ me. I would like to try some buzz baits this year. Any colr or type work best or is it just the noise/splashing that doese it?

Mike

[TomBow]

Here's what Gord from V.Bay lodge said:
"we had about 10-12 inches of real wet snow followed by freezing rain. It was a real mess....trees down, highway closed etc. We were without power for almost two days. The melt has caused the lake to go way up...seems to be no happy medium! Weather has been cool and the water temps are in the mid 40's. We had some good trout caught but sporatic.....even Clearwater lake was unusually slow. Some bigger walleyes caught but usually in very shallow and only for brief periods of the day....seem to be spawning on shorelines in the evening. Caught some eaters in Sportsmans Bay in about 16 feet of water. Hardly a northern caught until just the past few days. All in all a poor start but with some warmer weather that should get things back to normal. Still waiting for a few leaves to open up!"

Last year the water was pretty low when we were there in mid-June, the weather was fairly warm to hot most days. We mostly fish the North Central (Vermilion Bay) area for walleyes and northerns. Last year, trolling Fire Tiger Rogues was the hot tactic for us but we didn't do much venturing. This year, we'd like to do more exploring and hopefully find a few smallies. Anybody want to share some info??

Hope you have great luck and an awesome trip, wherever you go!

[TomBow]

Oh ya! Any muskie tactics, areas to try would be greatly appreciated. I must confess I am amateurish at best when it comes to chasin' 'skis. I had (possibly) one one last year throwing a Red and Black 1/2 oz. spinner bait but never saw the fish (I can still here the annoying "snap" as the fish went that way and my line went the other.

[Guest]

TomBow,

Since I switched to Frieline and Titanium leaders I no longer hear the snap.

Mike

[Stratosman]

White was the only color of buzzbait we brought with so who knows? But if I had to guess I would say the pike hit it out of aggression so the color probably wasn't the key.

Osbourne Bay is the place to be for muskies on Eagle, but don't get after them half a**ed. Get some real muskie equipment, for the beginner, I would recommend an all around rod reel combo, like a 6-6" heavy rod like an All-Star or such and a 6500 Abu Garcia, That reel might be a little hard to use of you throw crankbaits because of the higher gear ratio, but works great for bucktails, topwater and even jerkbaits. I like Tuffline Xp on my muskie setups in at least 80lb test with flourocarbon leaders. This should work for the person who doesn't want to invest a ton of money for something they do once a year.

[TomBow]

tanks fer da tip! I have a muskie rig so I have the tackle, it's the technique I need to work on.

Anybody got tactics/areas to hit for smallies on Eagle?

[czl99]

mike
Are you going to be staying at stanley's?

[Guest]

Yep!

I will be at Stanley's the week of July 17-24. Will you be there? It may not be the best fishing week but will be a better family week. I am hoping the Pike and Smallmount will still be around?

Mike

[pikemania]

Any fishing reports from eagle lake. I am heading up there in two weeks and was curious on how is it going up there. We will be fishing out of Temple Bay Lodge

[TomBow]

The latest that I've heard is that last weekend's weather was about the same as ours, rainy, but they've been having better weather and warmer temps, daytime highs in the 60's and 70's. Weed growth is a little behind but improving daily. Walleye's are starting to show up, latest: some real shallow, others around 25 ft., Pike are hanging with the walleye's due to lower weeds. Trout have been shallow but a couple weeks of warm weather will probably have them moving out to deeper water soon. A few bass around but not much going on, water temps in the lower 60's so activity should be on the rise for all species. This is second hand information, coming from Vermilion Bay on Eagle Lake. Best of Luck!

[czl99]

We will be going up July 3-10. I hope the northern fishing is still good. We went up to Canada last year at about the same time but we were farther south. We slaughtered the northerns and lake trout. So I hope we will get the same results this year.

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Fishing isn't everything it's the only thing.

[pikemania]

Thanks for the update TomBow