Eagle Lake, ON

[cupper]

I've read quite a bit about this lake and how it is a fabulous musky fishery. I had the opprotunity to fish it last August for the first time. Both my buddy and I were rookies to the lake and had no success. Follows by small fish, but no hook-ups and no follows to make note of. We tried lots of different presentations (speed, slow, plastics, bucktails, jerkbaits, trolling, etc...) with no success. We focused most of our attention to weeds, but I am thinking that rocky main-lake points were the way to go at that time of year... unfortunately time ran out before I could test my theory. It's been bugging me ever since and I was wondering if I could strike up a little discussion about Eagle Lake with any of you who have fished it and had success. What time of year was it and what patterns were working for you? Any good stories from this massive body of water?

Since we can't satisfy our musky-jones by fishing we might as well do our best by talking about it.

[Cooter]

I fished Eagle the first time last Aug - the pic on my avatar is from that trip. We fished the Osbourne(sp?) portion of the lake and mostly fished shallow bays with good weeds. Fishing was tough, it was hot and bright, the only consistent action was at last light. The guy I went there with said cloud cover can make a huge difference - like so often the weather seems to be key, which is tough to hit right when you have to plan ahead and travel. As far as lures, nothing special, the standard arsenal will work if the fish are cooperating.

[MUSKIEMAN8]

I fished Eagle for the first time 3 years ago out of Andy Meyers Lodge. The first cast of the trip I seen the biggest fish of my life! I was fishing the rock points of strawberry island and the fish was very lazy but hung around the boat forever. Seen a few more fish around the rocks but no hook ups. We did a guided safari into fluke lake and if you are into numbers wow! boated 11 in one day biggest being a 41. Funnest day of fishing muskies ever but hard to beat Eagle lakes girthy muskies!

[Stratosman]

I have fished it two times now and have not been entirely impressed. I think that the lake is a tad overrated, now don't get me wrong, there are some giant fish in there and we did catch few on our trip, but I have been to better muskie waters. The pattern that we pegged were points with a good mix of weeds and rock with the wind blowing across the point. I bet if one were to frequent the same area each year, one would develope greater knowledge of the area and probably have greaters sucess.

[RK]

Hiya,

Eagle is a pretty neat body of water, and certainly has some big fish in it. As some of you have learned though, the learnign curve can be pretty steep on Eagle. DOn't fish it a lot these days. Haven't in several years in fact, now that I think about it. But...Left there with my tail between my legs more than once when I did fish it more often.

If you're heading back, the thing to do, I think, is don't try to fish it all at once. Do a little homework to find historically productive areas of the lake, then narrow it down as far as you can. Pick a manageable section of the lake given the time you have, and fish the ENTIRE area. I mean fish everything, whether it 'looks good' or not. You'll find some awesome but not at all obvious spots this way (little rock points, small weedbeds, small reefs, etc), plus really learn what fish are up to on that body of water. After a few days a pattern will emerge if things go well, and you'll geta sense of the day to day things - times of day weeds may be better than rocks, what kinds of weeds are holding fish, where fish are parked on rock spots, etc. Then you can take a few longer trips outside your chosen area and see some new water to see if your patterns hold up. Best thing is it's a real investment for later trips.

Actually - doing this doesn't just apply to big lakes either. I've been doing this on a 3000 acre lake over the course of the last two seasons. Divided the lake into three sections, and am spending an entire season learning one section at a time. I mean REALLY learning it. Driving around looking at weedgrowth, fishing the entire shoreline, mapping out breaklines. Been a real education. And this is a lake I thought I knew fairly well...

To answer the origional question though - rocks are where I'd at least start in August. That, and red or tobacco cabbage beds. And if you're on the clearer portions of Eagle, stay back off structure, and work your way in. They can sometimes be a long ways from sructure, especially on spots that get fished a lot...

Good luck up there. An awesome fishery....

Cheers,

RK

[MuskyBrian]

Ha I have fished Fluke Lake. Last time I was out there it was 99 degrees with not a cloud in the sky or a ripple of wind. Probably SAW over a 100 Muskies, struggled hard to catch 5, 3 of them in the first 20 minutes before it got hot out. It was fun but did not feel right, it was like sitting in an aquarium. Those fish really gorge themselves on those schools and schools of small perch.

And this angler gives a big thumbs down to Eagle, not enough action and too many people out there for driving that far up into Canada with so many other lakes around you.

[jdbigeye]

I made my first trip to Eagle two years ago and caught my first muskies ever. The biggest was 48". I had very little knowledge about the lake or musky fishing at all. The friend I went with had been there once before, but hadn't spent much time chasing ski's. We caught several very nice pike including a couple 40s and a 42. Due to lack of lake knowledge, we just started fishing spots that "looked good." We covered a lot of water and that seemed to get us into fish pretty consistently. Bucktails and large spinnerbaits in the weeds were our biggest producers in the mornings and evenings.

I am not missing the trip this year. I have been kicking my self ever since my buddy came back from this summer's trip with pics of his 51.5 incher! I couldn't go because of work. That won't happen again.

[cupper]

What time of year were you up there?

[jdbigeye]

Mid-August. We were there for 5 days. Good weather, not very warm though.