If you happen to’re a muskie angler, you already know there are solely two certainties. The primary is that every part else is simply bait. The second is that at someday in your life, it’s a must to fish Northwestern Ontario’s Lake of the Woods.
It’s becoming, too, that the 1-million-acre physique of candy water (the thirty seventh largest lake on the planet) with its unbelievable maze of 14,000 spruce and pine studded islands and 64,000 miles of spellbinding shoreline, lies smack dab within the centre of the continent.
Discuss being the main target of consideration.
And whereas the waterway hosts an incredible range of 47 completely different fish species together with unparalleled alternatives for walleye, sauger, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, lake trout, northern pike, yellow perch and black crappies …… solely muskies matter.
Commercial
However, be forewarned, the massive toothy critters come at a price.
By the point your journey is over, you can be attempting to determine methods to reside right here ceaselessly. I do know as a result of I arrived in 1976 with muskie sticks in hand. And dealing for the Ontario Ministry of Pure Sources, I gained an incredible perception into what I can say with confidence is the best muskie fishery on the planet at present.
These are fairly heady phrases contemplating that Northwestern Ontario boasts the best focus of high quality muskie waters on earth, however think about the information.
Whereas most folk have a look at Lake of the Woods and see a single magical physique of water, it truly encompasses seven fairly completely different sectors. Why is that this necessary? As a result of every big lake-within-the-lake presents a distinct muskie fishing expertise.
Within the southern zones, as an illustration, round Nestor Falls, Morson and the Northwest Angle, as much as Monument Bay and Massive Island, the water is of course stained and comparatively shallow. Thirty-five ft is deep in these elements and you may come throughout loads of muskie attracting weeds.
Over in huge Whitefish Bay, then again, you will discover many stretches the place the water is over 100 ft deep and so crystal clear you possibly can see a dime glowing on the granite all-time low. And, relying on the time of 12 months, you will discover the muskies feeding on the lake trout, whitefish and ciscoes with which they share the water.
The north sector of the lake, south of town of Kenora, the central sector beneath the Barrier Islands, and the realm encompassing Shoal Lake presents distinctive habitats and traits considerably in between these two boundaries.
Why it’s so necessary for the muskie angler to know the varied elements of the lake is which you can match your favourite type of fishing to a specific a part of the lake. So, when you like casting topwater lures, double-bladed in-line spinners or comfortable plastic swimbaits, yow will discover the proper match. You may even enterprise to completely different sectors over the course of a day and fish a “new lake” with out ever getting out of the boat.
Another excuse Lake of the Woods is the cream of the muskie crop is as a result of you possibly can catch nice numbers of massive fish. Most different muskie lakes are noteworthy for churning out portions of small- and medium-size fish, or for coughing up just a few knee knocking giants. Not often, nevertheless, are you afforded each alternatives. However on the finish of a stellar day on Lake of the Woods, you should have bruises in your physique, they usually will not be from the fish. As a substitute, they’re going to be the marks the place you pinched your self all day to be sure to weren’t dreaming. However it not an phantasm.
I’ve had 9 fish days the place the smallest muskie exceeded 20-pounds and the stoutest was properly over 40-pounds. I launched the most important muskie within the province of Ontario three separate years and my private greatest fish, based mostly on the size/girth conversion weighed 57 1/2 kilos.
And do you wish to know one thing else?
The muskie fishing is even higher at present, due to the trendy administration and high-quality fishing laws which were rigorously crafted by the OMNR working with Muskies Canada, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, the Northern Ontario Vacationer Outfitters Affiliation and native anglers. The target was to take the best muskie fishery on the planet and make it surreal. And it labored out splendidly
“If you cannot catch a muskie in Lake of the Woods,” chuckles renown muskie angler, Dick Pearson, “you have to be doing one thing flawed.”
Legendary information, Doug Johnson, then again, stories catching and seeing as many as 35 high quality fish in a single day. And picture being the visitor of Kenora-based information, Darcy Cox, who on nearly his first solid of the season this 12 months caught an enormous 52-inch muskie.
“We noticed it on a sand flat in a single foot of water,” says Cox. “The Godzilla-like wake on the comply with was epic. The strike on the figure-eight was epic. The struggle was epic. It was a sunny day so we obtained to observe the entire present from begin to end.”
So, it may well’t get any higher than this, can it?
Effectively, it truly can whenever you see the variety of choices for high quality lodging and tremendous eating. Every thing from provincial parks and personal campgrounds, to drive-in resorts and boat-to lodges the place your each want is taken care of and also you’re pampered with plush lodging, maid service, gourmand meals, sizzling tubs, each day shore lunches which are to die for, and guides working model new boats and motors geared up with the most recent sonar.
It’s why Lake of the Woods is the place to go to make your muskie goals come true.
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