March 14th Muskoka Region, A familiar sounding report

Michael Kerwin and I got out yesterday to a location familiar to several members on the Northern Lakes forum. As it has been for the past week or so, surface conditions on the lake were fantastic and the weather was just as good.



We began our day planning to fish the top edge of a break line and ended up being closer to the base of it (80'-85') due to some mapping inaccuracy on Navionics. There was activity on bottom so we decided to stay put and after an hour or so I landed a small lake trout, released after a quick photo:



2nd lake trout I kept, about 20 minutes later:



Louse on the caudal fin:



As the marks dried up in the deeper water, we headed shallower in hopes of finding some whitefish.



A few came by but they remained uninterested in just about everything we offered them:



Right before we started packing up (as is often the case), a fish did finally bite but unfortunately it broke Michael off right after the hook set. At the very least, we got ourselves a healthy dose of vitamin D and enjoyed some beautiful weather on the ice.

It was great to get out with Mike again and to try a new area. Despite stable weather conditions and the intel from fellow board members, the fish were few and far between and the ones that we did see were, for the most part, just not interested. (So much for the solunar calendar that claimed this would be an excellent day -- hahaha!)

We will definitely have to have another go at this spot....

Congrats on the lakers, our last 2 outing in Muskoka the solunar tables said it wasn't going to be good days for fishing and we had the best 2 days of fishing in a long time

Well you got your limit....kind of. Yep, those large lazy blobs....all winter. Not sure what's up with these WF. I am surprised that you guys didn't mark any lakers in shallower. I haven't fished deeper than about 50 in that area and most in the 30-40 range and it's been mostly lakers. I have fished deeper in a couple of other areas but still lakers. Hopefully before the end of the ice, the WF will get "hungry".
Was the fish that broke the line another laker? Could you tell?

The fishing is always volatile. The Lakers pretty much always show up, but how many differs everyday. Pretty sure I saw you guys out there fishing by the island. I was the guy in the white sweater, hauling the oversized smitty. Slept there overnight. Did better on the Thursday, 8 Lakers, 5 of them in the 3-5 lb range. And that was with alot of spots with alot of travel time because the ice was firm and I skated around the lake trying spots I couldn't normally walk to. And yes, navionics is crazy wrong sometimes. 2 ling overnight. Then not as good on the Friday, 1 whitefish, 4 Lakers.

No kidding, yeah you were set up just behind us. Glad you did well from the sounds of it, and a whitefish too. The other two anglers came by at the end of the day and said they caught 1 lake trout.

Solunar theory: Sun comes up, sun goes down. Moon comes up, moon goes down. Any hour of the day is a good time to fish. Too bad there was not more action. That weather was amazing last two days.

Sunburn weather! Great day to be out.

Sunburn weather last few days indeed.

all I can say is I am jealous...been laid up for a couple of weeks now so I have to get my fishing fix through you guys


Enjoy the rest of the season

Thanks, Longshank. Hopefully, you'll be back up to speed soon.

I guess Muskoka fishing is like that. The fish seem to be there but whether or not they will bite? It could seem like a stellar day when you just mark a very few but each one is super aggressive and so you hook them and get your laker limit in like 10 min and then WF come along and eat as well (as we have seen other members experience with both lakers and WF caught). Other times, you can mark constantly but none want to bite. The difference between a decent day and a skunk is only two bites! Even one bite and landed and it's not tooo bad a day.

I don't know for sure what I hooked: I felt some weight, the rod loaded up, I set the hook... and my knot failed. Serves me right for not checking my knots and not retying; won't make that mistake again!

Okay interesting. That makes it harder to know if it was a very large fish like a laker that broke the line or just a largish fish that was just lost to the knot. Hey, I forgot to check my snap was still in place after catching one fish and then hooked another and the snap of course opened all the way and gifted the fish a $10+ lip ring to show off to all the other fish of a fight he/she won!

WTG guys. Looked like a gorgeous day with bonus fish caught