Sorry for the lack of reports lately. I was guiding for pike in Northern Manitoba for a while at the beginning of the month and have been fishing since I got back in town.

Lake of the Woods has been a little tough for muskies since the season opened almost 2 weeks ago. I'm thinking our unstable weather and early mayfly hatch is likely to blame. Many of the fish we're seeing have been slow and sluggish, and not too many big fish are being seen. Surface temps are in the low 70's and some areas are as much as 76 degrees right now. Even with all the wind and rain we've been getting, the water temps are remaining high. Topwater baits have been getting the most attention, but the fish are blowing up on the baits but not hitting it. Crankbaits and spinnerbaits are also bringing in follows, but the fish don't even follow through the figure 8. Cowgirls are producing the majority of the fish in the boat, but aren't getting many follows. So far the fish have been mostly in the weeds, but we've seen some rock fish as well.



Sand produced this one here which has been the best one in the boat this year.



That being said, the walleye bite has been unreal! We had one incredible day with a 24" average with the big fish being a 27.5"er. Lindy rigs with crawlers were outproducing jigs and spinners. Fish are still being caught in 15 - 25' off points, but are also on the humps, and some even still in the weeds. Bottom line is play around and be versatile, because big fish are moving all over the place right now!





I took a break from some walleye to fish some bass areas and we did alright. The fish weren't quite ready for topwater but were hitting wacky worms fished slow on the shallow boulders. Can't say we boated any giants, most fish were 15 - 17", but Jeff Davey caught this dandy.





Andrew Klassen