Post Your Sept/Oct 2010 Trip Reports Here

[Justin Gaudry]

Here we are into September already. The fall is my favourite time of the year around the lake. With the coolness of the mornings and fall colours starting already, you can't beat the gorgeous setting of fall time on Lake of the Woods.

The fact that the fishing ooportunities for all species is simply limitless is a huge bonus. In general, there will be fewer boats running around the lake which will make the fish hungrier from having less presented to them for meals.

Walleyes will stick around the rocks until the transition to some sand/weeds and then fall current areas. Muskies will typically be around the rocks, but will use green weeds in clear water as well when the perch and walleyes are nearby. Bass will start getting caught jigging reefs and he crappies should be schooling as the water temps come down a bit.

Birds will be open season soon as well so we'll have some blasting in the distance as well.

Let us know how you did, what worked, what didn't and if you found anything else significant.

Ahhhh yes, fall is here. If you've never experienced fall on LOTW, you don't know what you're missing!

[Rich]

Justin, you are correct. Fall is a fantastic time for fishing. You forgot to mention the lack of bugs! I noticed that most of the skeeters, etc were gone and boat traffic was definitely down. Water temps were around 64 in the morning warming to 68 in the afternoon. Sunday (the 5th was unseasonably warm with water temps reaching all the way to 71. It was also a calm day with not much activity other than a couple lazy follows from low 40 inch fish. Sat had much more activity with one 40" boated and two other hot fish in the same class raised. We got most of the activity on smaller bucktails, but did make contact with a good fish Friday night using a D10. All of the action we had was from rocky boulder points.

[ducksnbucks]

Justin,

Thanks for all of the reports and advise, only issue is, it makes the itch all the worse to get up there and fish!!! We will be headed up to a buddy's cabin between Rainy River and Morson on Thursday, I was just curious if you could tell me if the water is still green or if it has cleared up with the lowering water temps?

We have had good luck with large spinnerbaits this time of year for skies and big pike, casting on points and weed patches. Hoping the bite will be on the blades again, but bringing the whole arsinal just incase!

Thanks again for all the reports! Will let you know how we do after the weekend. D&B

[Justin Gaudry]

D&B,

Welcome to the board! Water is still greenish here and there. Wind blows it around and it settles on the surface when it's calm. Water is 58 most areas now and seen at 61 in a shallow bay yesterday. Not ready to turn over yet it seems.

Points have been particularly good the last week to 10 days in the cold weather period we've had. Don't count out the green weeds in days with some sun and warming as they have still spit out a fish or two for the guests this week as well.

Good luck!

[ducksnbucks]

Justin,

Looks like we will be fishing some cold front conditions this weekend, but no matter what the conditions we will be out casting our arms off. Just picked up a new Jake in the Tiger color you recommended in your trolling post. May have to give the arm a break and cover some water trolling.

Picked up 3 pike 38-42" and 2 skies 40" and 46" skies this weekend last year, with some smaller pike, however the water was warmer and the air temps were close to 80 degrees, what a difference.

Will let you know how we do on Monday. Thanks again for the tips, D&B

[ducksnbucks]

Well it was pretty slow for us over the weekend. Had plans to go places out on the main lake but the heavy winds kept us from doing that. We ended up going out of Morson Friday and Saturday. Fished the calm sides of bays and islands as the wind was so strong. Only ended up catching one musky (46") and seeing 2 other fish, no pike which I thought was strange.

We threw lots of stuff at them including bucktails, large spinnerbaits, suicks, topwater, and Jakes. O well, sometimes that happens. Although we didn't catch much it hard to beat the scenery up there!!

We will be back up the second weekend in Oct. to try our luck at some trolling. Good luck fishing, D&B

[mlures]

Just got back from two weeks at our trailer at Mylies. Wind, wind, wind. Kept us from fishing a lot of favorite spots. Caught all our walleyes East of the camp. Deep water (17-28") current areas (necked down areas and windy, rocky points). The size of the fish were very good. Lots of 17-18" fish. !0 over 24". One 50" muskie on a jig and many very heavy northerns. Tried fishing our usuial spots around Hidden Island Camp one day and did zilch. First time all year we didn't bring some decent fish in. Most of our fish were caught using bottom bouncers and spinners. Minnows outfished crawlers. Did some jigging with a friend and did alright using Gulp and twisters. Took two limits of BIG crappies around the Bottleneck using crappie rigs. Did alright on ducks, not as many as we hoped for. Lots of rice, too thick in places. Didn't see anywhere near the mallards and ringnecks that we usually see. Did well on geese. Back in 10 days.

[Eastwind]

Justin,

As you know, I will be up next weekend. Plan to do a little trolling for Muskies between walleye spots. What is the current water temp?

E.W.

[Justin Gaudry]

hey eastie,

boards were done for a couple days. check the water temp thread. warming up instead of cooling down!

[ducksnbucks]

Justin,

Just curious if you have been out trolling yet or if casting is the way to go with the warm water temps. We are headed back up this weekend, was hoping for colder water temps than 3 weeks ago so we could troll, but they are warmer!!! Thanks for the reports, D&B

[Justin Gaudry]

I'll be trolling this weekend.

You could look for cooler water (likely east) to perhaps have your best results. The simple theory is, find the bait/food and you will find the muskies.

Last fall when the water was a bit warmer in the early part of the trolling season, the muskies were a bit tighter to structure and we had better results using one rod inside to structure and one rod over the motor, leaving the outside open with only 2 rods in the boat.

I would likely start with that setup this weekend if pulling 2 rods. It produced a fish last Saturday for us (middle position) when the temps were still a bit warm.

Diehard casters will love this weather and will likely get some action around points, especially with current and some weed growth, as well as midlake rocks.

Good luck.

[ducksnbucks]

We were up over the weekend and trolled for 90% of the weekend, casted the other 10%. We boated a 37" muskie and lost one trolling while missing/losing 3 fish while casting. Fairly slow weekend, expected to catch a few pike trolling but nothing. Mostly concentrated in depths of 8-15ft along rocks.

Water temps was warm, ranging from 58-63 depending on location. Great fishing weather however, with each day being calm and 70+ degrees.

That concludes our open water fishing on LOTW for this year, thanks gain Justin for the reports. D&B

[Eastwind]

Just got back from three days of fishing on LOTW. Beautiful weather. Too beautiful. Only a slight breeze on occasion with the water being smooth as glass most of the time. Very few clouds. Very pleasant temps. It was great weather to be out in the boat but the conditions made for tough fishing. We got enough for two fish fries and were able to bring home a few but most were caught in 1 1/2 hour time spans each morning. Got a few either side of 20" but not many in the 16 to 18" range. Did get fish in the afternoon but not the usual numbers and mostly smaller. Rocky points and narrows between islands 28' to 32' of water.

[mlures]

I'm a little late with this report. Spent almost three weeks at our trailer from the end of Sept. until Oct. 16. Did very well on good size walleyes (16-18"), lots of fish over 20". Most were caught off rocky points in 20-28 FOW. We still were using bottom bouncers and spinners. Minnows were the bait of choice. We didn't get as many fish in the necked down current areas as we usually do at this time of year. Water temps were well above normal. We ended up with 6 limits of crappies. Wife and I got our 30 in less than an hour. We fished the east side of Miles and up by the waterfall. We used crappie rigs and had to keep moving. We had one of our worst years for diving ducks in a long time. Major flocks just weren't down. We did alright on mallards, so it still was good hunting. Shut the place down until Feb. Have a great Winter.
Dick