August 1st through 7th

[Dave B]

I know everybody opens a thread to get the fishing report, but let me start my report with a comment about why we go back to Witch Bay for our trips. Its all about the people and the service. With the boats we bring to camp, we can and do cover a lot of water. So, we can fish out of a lot of different camps if we wanted to do so. We keep coming back to Witch Bay because of the great people and great service. For example, one evening one or our trolling motors was making a strange sound and we were trying to figure out what was going on. Within a minute, 4 staff members, including a pro and a guy who was off duty that evening, were there trying to help us figure out what was going on. That's just one of a dozen or more stories I could relate. You don't get that type of help, attention and service anywhere else.
The fishing reports by Russ and Wayne are spot on. My group fished almost exclussively for muskies. We probably spent a total of 2 or 3 hours fishing for other species. Weather conditions changed daily with no real stability or trend. One day it would be cloudy and and the wind would be 15 to 20, and the next day it would be mostly clear and windier. The next day would be overcast with rain showers. You get the idea. So, we really didn't get much stable weather or any building trend with the weather. Despite that, we still were able to find plent of fish. We averaged 16 follows per day per boat, and we boated 16 fish between 2 boats in 6 days of fish. The lengths were 32, 35, 37, 38, 38, 38, 38, 39.5, 41, 42, 44, 44, 44, 44.5, 46, and 49.5. We caught at least 1 muskie everyday, and had a couple days with 4 fish. We saw lots of fish in the mid to upper 40" range, and probably 8 or 10 we would estimate at 50", give or take an inch or so either way. The number of mid 40" fish we saw and caught was truly amazing, and a great indication of super fishing in coming years. LOTW is truly an amazing fishery. We also caught some real quality northerns, including fish of 43.5, 38, 37, 37, and a number of 34 to 35" fish.
Water temps for the week were in the mid 60s for the most part. We saw temps of 63 after storms moved through and the wind was blowing out of the NW, and we saw temps as high as 67 during one of the warm and sunny days. When I say warm days, it almost got up to 70. Most of the days, the air temp was between 63 and 67. As Russ mentioned, weed growth is different this year. It seems that most weeds end at about 8 or 9' instead of the 10 to 12' depth. Many of the big weed beds are much thinner than normal. However, we were able to find nice cabbage beds throughout Moore Bay and in areas in Andrews and south of the Narrows. Fish were definitely relating to the cabbage in Moore Bay. However, as Wayne said, there were lots of fish on the rocks as well. I would estimate that 3/4 or more of our fish came off rock structure. Early in the week, pencil reeds and boulders were the ticket. Later in the week the cabbage and boulders worked. But, throughout the week, just boulders were producing fish, and quality fish.
As far as lures go, Russ gave a pretty good summary. We caught more than 50% of our fish on bucktails, with a black and silver (or similar color combo) double cow girl accounting for most of those. We also caught fish on weighted suicks, shallow invaders, and jackpots. We had plenty of follows on top raiders, but no hits from muskies (we did caught quite a few northerns on them).
As mentioned above, we were able to consistently raise good numbers of fish each day. However, it seemed that the fish were keyed into rather short feeding windows, and there seemed to be only a few windows each day. Thursday, the rise of the full moon seemed to be a key trigger, with the 49.5" fish in our group and a 50" fish caught by another group coming within 15 minutes of each other at the time of moonrise. Moonrise was in the evening all week, and fish did seem to be active in the evenings, and particularly around the moon rise. Rain and storms also seemed to be a trigger one day with lots of activity right before and right after the storms moved through. Otherwise, you had to be in the water hitting good spots or you might miss one of those short windows. You could go through an area or some spots and not see a fish and then somebody else would go through a half hour later and see 2 or 3 and catch 1 of them. You just had to keep at it. When the fish were hot, they were hot. We caught a lot of our fish in the figure 8, and a number of them after they had hit and missed the lure during the retrieve.
I would say from what we saw, despite the cool water temps and the relatively poor weed growth, the fish were where we expected them to be at this time of year -- on the rocks. For the most part, they were active and willing to show themselves. I think if the water temps were in the low 70s, we would have seen longer feeding windows and maybe more windows during a given day. Doing figure 8s at the boat was very important for us. Musky Mark caught a 46" fish on the figure 8 that he never saw until it hit the 2nd time through the 8. All in all, the fish were cooperative and we had a great time.
For the walleye guys, we did spend a few hours throwing crankbaits on the rockpiles and managed to catch a few walleye in the 21 to 26" range, but it was kind of tough with the winds we had. We also picked up a few smallies and a few northerns on the rocks as well.
Thanks to Russ and Wayne for all the help during the week. Thanks to Gail for letting Wayne fish with us for a couple of days. Thanks to Jeff and Mike from Chicago for enduring our stories. Thanks to Gail, Steve and all the staff for another great trip to Camp. We can't wait to get back.

[Ed Petro]

Ahhh the remnant fragrance of Ben Gay still lingers in the cabin of the Brown Group used to sooths pain in their arms after their successful hunt. Congratulation's Dave. The water mark has been set and we hope that we can come colse by matching your success when we come back next month. Of course we do need to see some pictures. Ed

[Red Team Leader]

Dave,

Great report and congrats on all your success you and your group had with our friends with teeth!

I can’t agree more with how you feel about WBC, it’s staff, the water and of course the best guests on earth! LOL

Tight lines,
RTL

[Dave B]

Ed -- I did hear some moaning and groaning about sore shoulders and muscles, but I must say after 6 solid days of casting heavy metal, it was the hands that needed a rest. I think it will take a few more days yet before I'm pain free. Most of the pictures attached to Wayne's muskie report were from our group. If I could figure out how to post pictures, I would add some more.

RTL -- I suspect Wayne has already sent you a message, but the 49.5" fish came off one of the spots you showed Wayne, so thanks for being willing to share spots. We tried to pay the favor forward by working with Jeff and Mike from Chicago. I can assure you, the big fish was in good shape when we released her.

[Jratthelake]

Great Report Dave, I will post some more photos, and I noticed I doubled up on one of them. I am limited to 10 photos per post so I will add more soon.

[Red Team Leader]

Dave,

Your welcome,

And I am glad you worked one of my big girls off “Motor Block”.

That’s a great fish you hooked up on; please keep the spot in your hip pocket of milk run spots from now on, and enjoy the fruit it can provide for years to come.

Until last year that spot held the largest girl I have ever seen on LOTW’s at well over four and a half feet and a girth that haunts me to this day.

It’s a small reef structure adjacent to deep water with other great structure nearby; it can be over worked but can pay big with fish of both size and big water girth.

(Note the great large water girth and rock markings on your fish, she’s very clean, thick and silver)

I remember a day like yesterday some years ago before I had my own boat. I was running a camp Lund 17’ tiller over that spot with a howling wind out of the south West.

White capping waves where breaking that point and I had no hope of dropping the bow mount trolling motor and holding so I shot the point with the big motor and held it as well as I could so Alex could cast it quick.

I handed him a rod rigged with a Fire Tiger Double Tail Stomper, a very large Top Water Bait made by Holcombe Tackle, it stretched over 10” long and could stand up to the heavy chop.

The lure looked ridiculous but was perfect because it could handle the large waves with a great combination of top water commotion and the ability to dive the next incoming wave for some real distress features.

On Alex’s second cast he had to rip the bait back to the boat as we washed towards the rock point.

The boat spun quickly around after I slipped it in neutral and I had to shift it into forward and gun it a bit to avoid the point.

I remember seeing this tanker of a Muskie with gill’s flared rising quickly on his bait right over my shoulder boat side as he ripped the lure back to the boat.

She broke the surface after his bait as it popped out of the water and all Alex caught was her giant red tail floping back towards the deep but I saw her true size and mass in full glory just feet from my body.

This grotesque lure was half way down her throat and had I waited a second longer this fish was ours, a massive mid 50’s Muskie as hot on a bait as one fish could be.

It’s what keeps me working hard every trip, a true fish of a lifetime!

We missed her that year but will see her again I know and hope the ball fumbles our way that day.

Dreaming of October again now after writing this post.
RTL

[fishhateme]

Hi All,

The aforementioned Jeff from Chicago here.

I would just like to say a big THANK YOU for the incredible hospitality shown to Mike and me by the entire Witch Bay crew including Gail, Wayne, Russ and the awesome dock boys and wait staff. This was Mike and my inaugural trip to LOTW and believe it or not - we did not land a single musky (still in disbelief). However, we certainly were not without our chances including some of the largest fish I have ever laid eyes on including one that threw Mike's jackpot after coming our of nowhere to nail it on about 6 feet of line.

The whole week was everything we expected and more and nobody could have been any nicer.

I'd also like to extend a special thanks to the boys in cabin 15: Dave B, Joe, "Musky Mark", Deano and Steve.

These guys went OUT OF THEIR WAY BIG TIME to point Mike and me in the right direction, mark our maps, offer encouragement, and endure Mike and my stories nightly of "woulda/shoulda's", and the fish we blew. They were all great sports and great guys who were free to share information as well as a few too many shots of whiskey! Oh - and who can forget the moose $@#! appetizers!

Thanks for making us feel welcome guys - we really appreciated it!

No doubt we'll be back to Witch Bay - what a great place with a great staff on an incredible lake. I've begun working on the "boss" for a return trip next year, but if not - definitely the following and hopefully when the Cabin 15 boys return!

Best,

Jeff Sevcik

[Dave B]

RTL -- I get goose bumps reading your story. I can't imagine the feeling you must have. Motor Block will go down in our log of trip stories, as much for the big fish Mark caught as for what happened the next night. The next evening, I went back with a couple of guys and fished the spot again and didn't see a fish. After our other boat finally made it back to camp Friday evening, they said they went and fished Motor Block and caught 2 fish on it. After de-briefing them a little further, we discovered they in fact hadn't fished Motor Block, but had fished a spot within spitting distance, and caught 2 muskies, a 41 and a 38. To top that off, the Chicago boys Jeff and Mike went off to fish the spot based upon suspect directions and/or limited information and ended up fishing a spot on the complete other side of Andrews and they had action from a couple of good fish. Everybody came back to the cabins that evening pumped up that they had seen/caught all these fish off Motor Block, and thinking it was the best spot ever. After those experiences, I'm thinking of calling every spot Motor Block.