Post Your September 2009 Trip Reports Here

[Justin Gaudry]

Let's get it started for September.

There will be plenty of fishing action to come.

Crappies should be warming up in a week or two.

Fall muskies will be getting fatter as the water cools and they look to feed.

Walleyes will soon be heading to fall structure near current and deeper water for the most part.

Smallies will be jigged up on the rocks in good numbers and size.

Bird hunters will be sneaking around looking for ducks and grouse.

Fall colours are starting and are worth the trip no matter where you are coming from.

Stay safe out there as there will be less traffic on the lake which makes it more difficult to flag down help in the event of a problem. Take your cell phone along and/or make sure your marine radio is working properly.

My favourite time of the year is coming up. I can't wait.

[BB3]

Was up for a four day weekend walleye fishing out of Morson. Found lots of eater size eyes in 20-24'. Didn't find many big ones- 20", 22" and a 27 1/4" being the biggest. Went thru 20 doz of Justins minnows for 2 guys, so had good action anyway. We fished late morning till mid afternoon,then cocktails and HOT sun on the dock with the wives. Water temps low 70's in some places.

[basil]

We fished sat thru monday just fishing a few hours monday morning . The muskies were active although are number of muskies caught doesn't reflect that for the weekend . We caught 1 - 44 muskie sat evening we saw 3 other muskies on sat 1 early 40" class fish on top water 1 about mid 40 " class fish and one that would be very close to that 50" mark for sure high 40" class. We didnt see any on mid lake rock all fish were contacted on shoreline related spots. We fished walleyes during the mid day time period sat and sunday and caught a limit of walleyes in short order no big ones just eater sized fish trying 1 new spot sat and another new spot sun seemed like wherever we dropped our lines there was walleyes to be had bottom bouncers with spinners hammered gold blades .Every muskie that came to the boat tried to hit though very aggressive all in the figure 8 sat except the 1 that was caught she hit mid cast . Sunday morning saw another mid 40 " class fish she hit in the first turn on the figure 8 just getting a mouthfull of tinsel no hooks didnt see any more fish sun till evening was trying new spots most of the day sunday. Sunday evening went back to the spot i missed the fish in the morning she missed my bucktail mid cast actually poping the bait out of the water as she went under it she swung back and hit again just wasnt meant to be just a solid strike no fish. Monday morning we went back to where we missed the fish no movement from her tried a few more spots but didnt move any muskies monday. Once again labour day weekend proved to be a good time to be up on sabaskong for muskies have learned from past years on the water not to miss this weekend good action from muskies and no pressure usually not many guys out casting.
basil

[Justin Gaudry]

After not being out in the boat for 2 weeks, I managed to get out a couple of times on the weekend of Sept 12/13.

A few hours after dinner on Saturday night gave my wife and I only a small northern. We tried a new area that a guide/friend said we should check out sometime after he had some action there the week before. I wasn't able to get in touch with him to get specifics so we just went out and explored a little. The water temp was 68-70 degrees and water clarity was fair. It will be an area I try again and explore further as there was some nice looking structure there. I wasn't too disappointed after speaking with a group of guys staying at the resort and hearing they were having really tough muskie fishing that weekend.

Sunday morning was more of the same weather. Hot, sunny high sky with little to no wind. The algae bloom was making some of the most desired fishing spots green and soupy so we looked for cleaner water. We got out about 10:30 Sunday morning and tried some of the most reliable stuff we had. Fishing with a couple of friends (Captain and Middle Man) in Captain's boat, I was camped on the back deck. I lost a fish (after a couple of hours of absolutely nothing happening) in a shallow boulder saddle that came after a purple eagle tail with brass blade and big yellow trailer. After a good hook set, it just fell off. We only got to see the side of the fish when it turned on the hook set. It wasn't a giant, but was in the 40 inch class for sure.

We then made our way to a couple more historically productive areas, but were blanked there as well. At about 1:15, we pulled into a small sand beach area that still has nice green cabbage and started to make a pass through to see what we could find. I have fished this spot twice this year in the last month or so and have had an aggressive fish in the low to mid 40's come and play both times. The first time I had to try real hard not to get it hooked up at boat side. The second trip through there later in the week had a fish eat half way in and give me a great fight; only to be lost at the boat after it was mostly in and then out of the net. OOPS!

Anyway, we pull up to the weed bed. I have not been throwing a DCG yet because I was trying to take it easy on the body (more on that in another post) but I busted it out here because the fish that have come out here have both chased the same DCG (secret weapon colour pattern) and I don't want to mess with what worked here.

A few casts in, a fish comes charging out towards the bait eyeing up the big bucktail...I take it around twice in big turns at boatside with the 9 foot rod and realize I'm crowding Middle Man so I bring it out behind the boat around the 115 HP motor to the other side and it stays with me. Around a couple of more times and then I feel weight as I'm pulling through so I set the hook back at the fish and I get nothing!! It must have been holding on to the tinsel. DAMMIT!! Captains thinks that fish was 44-46 inches. Now, I missed a fish earlier that day and have been beat 3 times by a fish in this same spot so I'm starting to get a little riled up. A few deep breaths, a quick check of my hooks find them razor sharp and I throw the DCG back out as we continue through the spot. At this point, only myself and Middle Man are throwing. Captain is resting and watching so we have two lures going. Middle Man sees a fish about 3/4 of the way back to the boat and it jumps his smaller buchertail. A hook set followed by a couple of head shakes and the fish swims off. Another close call with a nice fish in the 40 inch class.

A couple of more casts and I have another fish coming behind the DCG. This fish spooks about 15 feet from the boat and darts off. I make a few wide turns with the hope that is was faking me out and just wanting to adjust it's attack angle. After two revolutions in the water I saw a flash from under the boat and I'm fighting the fish. It came out of nowhere (under the boat) and tried to destroy my bait. After a couple minutes, it slips into the cradle and we measure it at 41 inches before putting it back in the water.

I get a few pats on the back for "restoring their faith in me" after a few less than stellar results with fish at this spot previously (and the misfire earlier in the day.) As I'm carefully removing my big 7/0 hooks from the cradle, Middle Man says "there's another one", but it rolls on the bait out further and doesn't hook up. With my bait free of the cradle mesh and then straightened out again, I'm now back in the game. Not 10 casts later, another seemingly bigger fish than the one I just caught comes in hard. I take it around one big turn at the boat and then steer it out around the motor to head to the other side where there is more room for sweeping the 9 foot rod. It jumps on the bait just as I lift my rod slightly to go over the motor and I quickly rip the rod back towards the tail of the fish and the fight is on again. This coming only 5 minutes or so after releasing the last fish and barely a couple of minutes after starting to cast again. This fish was a great adversary doing all kinds of head shaking, short bull dog runs and heading 3/4 of the way towards the front of the boat before we're able to slide it into the cradle on the opposite side of the boat than we did with the other fish. It's a nice thick specimen and measures 41" again, but it quite a bite heavier than the other fish. At the point I'm about to bring the fish in for a quick photo I ask if anyone has a camera along and the answer is no. OOPS! Not a big deal since it's not the fish of a lifetime, but I spent a few extra seconds holding the fish in the water and admiring it's girth and previous battle scars on the nose. It looks like it's been hooked at least one other time before it ate my bait. Who knows, maybe I had it one a few weeks ago.

Feeling pretty good about the day now, we make one more run through the weed bed and middle man has two more fish come out. The first is a follow that nipped twice on the way back ot the boat but never got a hook and didn't go around at boatside. The second is a smaller fish (37-38 estimate) that goes around and around at the boat before we see middle man's rod buckle over and we think he's got one this time. But it was not to be on this day. Not 2 seconds later, the buchertail comes flying out of the water as the fish seemingly sucked it in and spit it out just as fast.

Adding it all up,p that was 7 muskies, we believe 7 different muskies in one small weed bed, in about one hours time that all tried to eat. The boat captain is a muskie veteran; fishing many lakes over the years and has fished lake of the woods for 30 years. We ask if he's ever seen anything like that before. He says he's seen it a couple of times on Leech, but not on LOTW. He's has plenty of days and times he's seen multiple fish in the same spots, but never has he seen that many fish in one spot that all wanted to eat. Had we been better anglers, or a little bit luckier with hook-ups, we'd have caught 5 of those fish.

We fish a few more spots and then come back for one more pass through the weed bed, but nothing shows itself this time. I have to be back at the dock by 3 so we head in. Thinking about what I experienced and knowing it was possibly a once in a lifetime event. Sharing that hour and weed bed with a couple of good friends and being able to tell other good friends about it is better than any digital photos of my pair of 41 inchers could ever be. The double 41's made it the best casting day of my short career so far. I have previously caught two muskies casting in the same day twice, but on both of those days, each fish was less than 40 inches. I'm trying not to think about how good a day it could have been if I hadn't missed both those other fish that tried to eat. Or what might have happened if the fish were "on" in general and we hit that weed bed after already having 2 or 3 fish in the boat.

WOW! That's we we chase those big toothy critters. That's how "muskie fever" takes hold of someone and infects them for life. Captain answered a question I posed to him about muskie fever ever getting any better as your life goes on. He smiled and said simply, "No, it gets worse."

I should add, I was only on the crew of this trip after calling to ask if Captain has plans for that morning. He said he had made plans with Middle Man to go muskie fishing that day so I said I would make a few more calls because I didn't want them to stunt their trip to bring me in early or have to limit their area if they had planned to go on a big boat ride. The number of people around at this time of the year is much less so I had quickly exhausted my call sheet without even reaching someone. Wife has decided to pass on this trip so I was going to head out on my own before the phone rang and the Captain asked if I wanted to fish 3 in his boat. Having had them both in my boat on a previous occasion, I was fine with it was ok with them. We already knew we could make it work so it it was a no-brainer when the offer was made to me.

It's funny how things work out sometimes. Thanks for letting me tag along, Guys.

P.S. The secret weapon colour pattern is simply a black/copper combination. Middle Man's fish all came after his all copper buchtertail. Captain and Middle Man couldn't resist another run out to the weed bed the next morning. I noticed Captain was ready to get back in it and had his copper based double 10 bucktail already on the rod. There was one fish in the mid 40 inch range that came through after the copper bucktail, but no catches reported on Monday.

[JSONDAG]

SO that's the secret color huh? Big mouth!;)

[Justin Gaudry]

DANG.

That last part was supposed to be encrypted for only those SUPER VIP status to view. II'll have to check with the board admin about that problem.

Yeah big secret, eh?

Apparently, the secret colour only works for fish in the 40-44 inch range. You must have another fave colour for the 50s, eh?

Everybody wants Black/Silver, black/silver, black/silver. That's kind of boring, ain't it?

:eek:

[mlures]

Got home on Thursday. Had some of the best walleye fishing we had all year. Good sizes of fish. Bottom bouncers with hammered gold spinners with minnows or crawlers. Fished east of Morson on shoreline points, 15-25 FOW. Finally found the crappies after chasing for three days. Found them shallowwer than usual. Brought back three limits. Lots and lots of BIG perch. Didn't fish muskies. Poorest duck hunting in years. Absolutely no rice anywhere. Saw very few puddle ducks. We did manage some birds and four geese.

[Steve D.G.]

Just returned from a great week at Mylies and have already had my maps out plotting next year's strategy because as I get older I tend to forget. The week started out slow seeing only a couple of active fish per day. Sunday brought a nice northern in the 38" range but nothing for musky action. As the week progressed we started seeing more and larger fish one pushing 50" that we didn't bring up again. We boated our first nice musky on Tuesday that being a 41" fish. That evening a heart breaking loss of a 45" at the boat brought on an overall feeling of despondency. We fished on catching several more small muskies and some smaller northerns. Thursday evening we boated a nice 37.5 incher and had some nice follows. On Friday morning at 8:05 on the first drift we boated a nice 42". Later that morning another 42" and a couple of short hits of some nice fish by the boat. We continued to have follows and that evening when the wind picked up a nice 44" was boated so it was a great day. Always nice coming back in the fourth quarter! The majority of fish were seen and caught on rock shelves in anywhere from 4-7 feet of water well away from the actual shoreline. I was there for a week in August and never wore shorts one day. This past week we wore shorts and a T-shirt everyday with winds being mild most days which is something I thought I would never see. Water temps. averaged 70 degrees at most spots. So in summary we caught 44,42,42,41,37.5,31,30 for musky and 38" northern. If we would have caught some of the nice ones lost it would have been a banner week but I guess most crews can say that. Looking forward to next year already!!

Steve D.G.

[basil]

sounds like you had good fishing steve i bet it was nice having the lake to yourself see many out casting ? thanks for the report . Cmon captain Rich L I heard rumor you were up in sept lets here a report !!

[Rich]

OK, Baz, here is my feeble report from Labor Day weekend. Not nearly as exciting as others, but gives a different view...

How was the weekend? Very puzzling. Th and Fri were stable days with not much wind. I only saw two fish each day and only one was aggressive. Granted, we didn’t have the luxury of hitting it hard since we had two families up there. Sat we got some much needed wind and the group was intent on….walleye fishing. Ugh. Oh well, we caught plenty and were set for the fish fry. I tried the early afternoon to no avail. Every evening we fished pre and post sundown with zero action. Best conditions of the entire year with stable weather and full moon and we couldn’t find ‘em. It’s been that kind of year (for me) up there. We tried big/small, slow/fast, top/diving, etc., etc…I sure hope they turn on soon. The water had greened up a bit, so its always possible there were several follows we couldn’t see, but we did the “eights” religiously. There hasn’t been a single week where anyone has had tremendous success. It seems like there might be a 2-4 hour window each WEEK that may be hot, but that’s been it. Many have seen several follows, but few biters, which is unusual up there. Best times of day were mid-day from 11-2. My hope is that they are all saving themselves for the fall feedbag…and I’ve got plenty to feed them!!

Rich

[Nic O Satre]

Well I'm back at work, bummer.
Well I would like t thank the weather for being perfect! Man was that a nice week! We went up for crappie and muskie mainly but did manage to get in a couple days of bass and walleye fishing. I would say the bass bite was good with most fish coming on jigs in 17ft-25ft. on steep rock struture.
Walleyes for us were a little slow. finding them wasn't the problem it was finding decent fish that was the problem we only fished two mornings for them, but they weren't on a fall patern yet. The few decent fish we did get came on jigs in 25ft.-40ft.
Crappies on the other hand were excellent with the only slow day being Sat. the 26th when the wheather went to crap. They were still on more of a late summer type patern relating to structure in 9ft-17ft. We were picking up fish later in the week in more traditional fall spots, just not as many in the fall spots. 1/8oz. jigs with minnows,gulp, or tubes all caught fish. the most active time of the day coming after 1pm
Muskies were really slow for me with only one fish caught all week:D