Message from Wayne and Lydia at NCL

[mikeuwl]

Hey Everyone,
Love the forum you have here. Going to be staying at Blyths in early August, anybody know what the fishing is like that time of year? Any tips on walleye and musky would be greatly appreciated. Looks like night fishing is popular for musky, any worries with navigational hazards such as large rocks?

[North Country Lodge]

With the early spring everything seems to be ahead of schedule. I am expecting in August for the musky and walleye to be deeper as usual though. A little harder to find but definitely worth it once you find the honey hole. Try the reefs and drop offs.
Bruce and Joan should be able to let you know the hazards. Like any lake, don't go wide open right close to shore and there are a couple other reefs to worry about but overall it is pretty good.
Good luck this summer!

Lydia

[mikeuwl]

Thanks Lydia,
What types of baits do people use that time of year as well? Are they using live bait for walleyes or crankbaits?

Mike

[Russ]

I've fished Canyon Lake for the last 28 years and always go the last week of July and first week of Aug. We have always had great fishing, infact the walleye fishing gets better every year. We use mainly live bait for walleyes, leeches and night crawler and fish mainly in the bays and on the reefs. You can get the leeches in Vermillion Bay, can't bring them across the boarder anymore, I always bring my crawlers from home. Don't overlook the beaver house for both bass and walleyes, had great luck with slip bobbers around them. Musky is always exciting, I like to use topwater baits for them, I love to see the water explode. The cowgirl baits have really been hot the last few years, if you going to buy them, do it in the states, they are exspensive in Canada. Try using topwate for sm. bass also, it's a blast.

[North Country Lodge]

Last year lot's of people were catching big walleye on crank baits too while musky and bass fishing but that is not the norm. They sure had fun with it though!
BTW....Wayne and I were out for walleye last evening and did well but nothing big. Lots of May flies around now. A report from a friend said the May fly hatch started a couple nights ago so I knew it would happen right away.

Lydia

[mikeuwl]

I was checking out the double cowgirl on-line, any colors seem to work better on canyon? I think I am going to pick up a few to try them out. Once again thanks for the info....August can't come soon enough!

Mike

[Russ]

2 years ago some guys from Wis. had good luck with the blue ones with silver blades. Try some top water also, it's exciting.

[pfessor]

[QUOTE=Russ;.Don't overlook the beaver house for both bass and walleyes.
QUOTE]

Russ,
You mention the Beaver house. Are you speaking about a specific beaver house or just beaver houses in general. I've fished Canyon the past 3 years and trying to learn as much about the lake as possible. If you are talking about a specific one, would you share the location. All help appreciated.
pfessor

[Russ]

I fish every beaver house I can you just never know what you'll catch by them, walleye, bass or musky. I have some favorites and they are all over the lake, Outlet Bay, Canyon Bay, pass the Narrows and also some on the main lake. Some produce better than others, depends on time of day and depth of water out in front of them.

[MikeGRB]

We arrived on Sat. with water temps close to 80F, muskies were really active and netted a 34 and 35.5 and several 50+ follows Sat. ..............and then the weather kicked in with wind shifts for the first 5 days and the water temp cratered down about 8-10F with muskie fishing going along with it. We have found that muskie fishing is phenomenal when water temps are > 75F on this lake. Walleyes are finding something else to eat or are not biting. We spent too much time on them trying to get enough for 3 fish fries and a conservation limit of 12-13" fish during the week. This was our first time back in 3 yrs and walleye fishing is in serious decline and was a great disappointment, we went to this lake for 5 yrs straight from 2003 to 2008 and every night, regardless of weather, you would get sick of catching 30 or more 20-27" fish, my nephew caught 6 26" fish in two hours one night. We would have 3 on at once and would just pitch them in the boat with the net, a total gas! 3 people would go through 2# of leeches in 5 days. There is something going on in the lake and we couldn't figure it out. We had our best luck gunning beaver houses and fallen trees. We didn't catch one fish over 15"! Normally, we have a difficult time getting enough eater size fish (<20") during the week and will keep none larger in the interest of keeping this lake the great fishery it is ( or was). I did notice Mayflies for the first time on the dock, not in great numbers, some never the less.

We had the great pleasure to cross paths with Russ and Kathy, whom we had gotten to know over the years. If Russ isn't catching walleyes, somethings wrong! Great people!

I'm sure some folks did better and were more adaptable but we really didn't see or hear of anyone crowing about how great the walleye fishing was. Bass (not in great numbers) would only take a vertical jig with leech usually off the beaver houses and trees but showed no interest in artificials. I'm sure the weather shifts played a role in our luck. I hope we hear some more positive news going forward as this is an awesome lake. Looking to see what Russ posts as he will be up there until mid Aug.