Canadian Muskies

[Tonka Boy]

I've been fishing Canadian lakes each year since I can remember. However I've only put in limited time muskie fishing there...usually we go prior to opener. This year we are going in July specifically to chase skis. So, my question is what type of baits and structure do I want to fish? I can imagine things will be much different than what I'm used to in the metro here.

The lake I'm fishing (Wabigoon) is very stained and quite good sized. There are a few smaller, clear lakes in the chain I can try as well. Any suggestions would be appeciated.

[MuskyBrian]

Structure...Patterns change a little bit as you get into July. Rather then fishing large, vast weedbeds try to find small patches of weeds on other peices of structure ( rocks, near a point,etc...) Also, up north, my best spots often are in relation to grass, again if the grass is near a point, some type of rock/logs, or getting battered by wind even better. You also probably want to do some fishing on Main Lake Reefs by this time of the year as it seems the weather may be stabilizing. Always check out a Rock Wall Face from time to time as well, not all of them but quite a few hold musky up there.

For lures, you probably want to throw Bright bucktails on the 'Goon cause it is such dark weater. Maybe a Shumway Flasher, Maribou, or any other bright colored bucktail to your liking. Get a bright colored glide bait (The Manta?), some type of twitch bait, and always go up there with a Top Raider. Hope that helps somewhat, that's what I would do at least...

_Brian

[Shorelunch]

I Muskie hunt occasionaly with my brother-in-law on LOW (also very stained). The areas he takes me are always weed related. The best spots are saddles out side of weedbeds, small reefs/humps/islands near weed beds and points off of weedbeds. All areas should have deeper water nearby. Our best luck has come with black bucktails with orange or silver spinners. We also use a twister tail as a trailer.

[srj]

On the chain of lakes, Wabigoon and Dinorwic are seriously stained mostly by wave action on the clay banks--visibility is often inches. Don't expect to see the reefs by a water color change. However, the fish feed well and are fat. Real fat. The cabbage weed line is usually very narrow and quite shallow, but still a big fish key. Almost every bay and island/shoreline indentation with a clay bank will have a good cabbage line. Deep water nearby isn't as important on these lakes as others. As mentioned before, bright stuff works well including flourescent orange, yellow and chart. If you can find someone in a bait store to point out on a map some of the unmarked shallow reefs that would be a plus both for navigating and fishing. On the reefs, make a few casts with smaller shallow running cranks.........and hang on. A fun lake, indeed. We are heading to Lac Suel on Wednesday and might hit the Goon or Thunder on the way home on Sunday,

Good luck.

[Tonka Boy]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch this thread before I left, but it really didn't matter as far as fishing goes. We got the first week of hot weather and it really turned those skies on. We ended up seeing well over 60 fish during the course of the week and boated plenty. All the skies went 40-45" and I lost one at the boat that went 5' easy. Oh well, so the record still stands, but I'm putting that away next summer for sure!!

For anyone who is wondering, the cabbage just started coming up this past week. Many of the "prime" areas had yet to develop, although it should be any day with these steady temps. On 7/8 the surface temp was in the lower to mid 70's, but when we left of 7/15 I saw 91 degrees in the smaller bays (83-84 main lake). Both muskies and walleye fishing is as good as it has ever been as our group, and all who stayed at the resort, put on a clinic for each.

Gotta love it...I'll be back soon!