Hows the fishing???

[mofferman]

Hey andrew just wondering if you've been out at all on the river. If so was wondering what water temps were like and if there has been any weed growth. hows the overall fishing been? Hopefully the weather straightens up. Also if you have noticed/heard of any muskie spawning? Looking foward to june 18th biggie time. thanks for your time.

[Andrew Klassen]

Hi there, I sure have. Fishing has been great, weather has been terrible! This is one of the wettest, coldest summers I can remember but the fish don't seem bothered. Water temps have been between 52-55 on the river. Weed growth looks to be about normal, maybe a bit behind but not enough to change fishing habits over. I've been busy doing sturgeon trips so haven't been around any musky areas, but I know bass and walleye anglers have been catching a few by accident so they do seem to be moving close to spawning areas if they aren't there already! I've got a few days of sturgeon left before I can head to LOTW and get dialed in over there.

Can't wait for next Saturday! See you out there!

Andrew

[mofferman]

Wow i was kind of expecting temps to be a little warmer but yea its been a crazy spring everywhere i guess. Where do you fish for sturgeon? The winnipeg? Hopefully the weather stabalizes with a little more warmth/sunshine to get the weeds up a bit. What is your best guess in regards to muskie spawn for the opener? Pre?Post? we've had some years where we pretty much hit the spawn dead on for most fish and im hoping this isnt one of those years.

[mofferman]

Well i answered my own question with where you fish sturgeon. I saw your website. Swwwweet. I might throw a line out at night as the cabin we stay at is directly on the river.

[Andrew Klassen]

After finishing with sturgeon for the day, I checked out some back bays. Weed growth is looking good, and temps were as high as 63 degrees in the isolated protected bays. I would expect you to find a mixed bag of spawning and post-spawn fish on the opener. One area of the lake (river) that is less isolated from the main water's temperature influence may be cool enough to still have spawning fish, but isolated areas protected from current and wind will probably be post-spawn already. I wouldn't be worried about any pre-spawn fish so things should start off on a good note!

I fish sturgeon on the Manitoba side of the Winnipeg River, but there are still some kicking around on the Ontario side. The MNR was doing a netting study on sturgeon a couple years ago around Minaki and only netted one sturgeon during their entire study... but it was 8 feet long... probably worth at least tossing in a line if you have nothing else to do, haha.

[mofferman]

I gotcha, Yea the old timer we know on the lake said they were in there but he told us a bay way back in sand lake where he saw/caught them. But i would assume they stick closer to the river. ahh im sure ill have muskie fever way to bad to probly mess around with them, if only i had longer than a week. I need to move there.

[Andrew Klassen]

They do move all over the place, but current is key to catching them in numbers. I know of a couple that were caught by walleye anglers just off points nowhere near any type of current though, and they were enormous fish. But I'm with you, its musky time in 8 days!

I'll should be in Kenora most of next week so I'll head out and do a quick visual check on a few spawning sites to see what's going on out there. Can't wait to start throwing the big baits again!