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Northwest Angle - Muskie


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Hey all,

I have been soaking up all the wisdom on this site for some time and finally decided to join as a registered user. Everyone has been very helpful so I was hoping to get some information on a Muskie trip I have scheduled with family in the Northwest Angle area from July 2-10. We will be staying at Monument Bay Lodge on Monument Bay. Any reports from the area? We will have a guide for the first couple of days, but I was hoping to get some up to date info before we head out. Also, I have found 4 different suggested routes to take on the trip up there. What do you think is the fastest way to Warroad from the Twin Cities? Thanks for any responses.

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I go up there a couple of times a year. There are two different routes that I take depending on how much traffic I think I will have to deal with. I prefer to get to Grand Rapids going up past Mille Lac but in the summer, the traffic is killer. The other route is 35 up to Moose Lake and over to Hwy. 2. From Grand Repids I always go west to Deer River, up to Northome, over to Waskish, then Baudette and then Warroad. I don't remember the numbers of the roads. Monument Bay Lodge is a good place to stay. You will be in the center of a lot of fishing. If you have never been there, getting a guide is a good idea. Pay attention to the structure you are fishing and ask lots of questions. The trick up there is to eliminate as much water as you can to make yur fishing more productive. Who will your guide be?

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I just got back from LOW (stayed on Oak Island) and fishing was good. In 5 days we saw 40 muskies but only landed 4. (Just bad luck or poor job of hooking because we lost around 12 fish that were hooked). The fish were in 4 to 9 feet of water in weed covered bays. We mostly fished the edge of the weeds in 8-9 feet using bucktails. We did see and catch some in the thick weeds. Good luck. The road from Warroad to Youngs bay is good (the last 24 miles is dirt). Youngs bay had greatly improved their parking lot sot there should be no parking issues. Cost, $5.00 to launch and $2.00 per day for parking.

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Pastor: I have fished out of Monument Bay for many years, back when the Sandy's owned the resort. Bill Sandy, their son was a terrific guide and we always got Musky. He now has his own resort and has been on ESPN several times, fishing in the water you'll be in. You have to go North to Outer Bay, Portage Bay or east to Big Narrows areas, where there is lots of good water. Ask at the Resort and they will let you know where Muskys have been spotted. Good luck, and don't eat to much of the good food they serve there, it's hard casting on a full stomach....LOL.. If you have a Marine radio, channel 9 is the partyline up at that end of the lake.. If you want to get out to have drink, a quick run down to Oak or Flag Island takes only 20 minutes or so.. If you haven't been to Monument Bay before, cross over the boarder by the big rock with the marker and keep left. Birdhouse Island will be on your right, owned by Bill Marvin of Marvin Windows, now decesed, then streight ahead to MBR... Have fun and bring BUCKTAILS, BUCKTAILS, and BUCKTAILS. BenGay also helps the sore arms.... Have a good time ...Kaz

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Also left you a post on the musky forum but i;ll add a little more info here in six days of fishing landed 17 fish over 40" and a total of 32 fish for the week most of these fish were caught on twitch baits on the weed edges you won't find to many fish back in the deep weeds due to water temp.Try around the big narrows area and you will do well.also next time your up check out sandy's blackhawk island owned by Bill Sandy top notch resort and one of the best guides on the lake.

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Thanks for the reports and advice, guys. My father-in-law said that our guide's name was Mark. He wasn't sure about his last name.We will be drilling him for information. Hope he can help us get on a pattern. We are planning on bringing the bucktails along. Never thought about Ben Gay. I remember the last time we were there - after a week of 12 hour days of solid casting, I thought I could crush a tennis ball with my bare hand . Lucky, any color pattern or blade style that seemed to produce better than others? What was the weather like?

Here are my set-ups I am bringing along - St. Croix Premier MH 7'6" with Ambassador C5 loaded with Power Pro 80 lb test. That will probably be my main rod. My potential second rod is a Falcon MH 7' rated for 15-30lb test, lure weight 3/8-1oz paired with a Stradic 4000. Do you have any suggestions on line for that reel? Should I go braid or mono? What lb test? Maybe it is too light for LOW muskie. I thought I could use it if I need to throw some smaller bucktails. The Stradic has a great drag so I thought it shouldn't give me a problem even with the lighter rod. What do you think?

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I would't recommend using that light of a set -up you don't want to break line and lose a nice fish or worse yet leave a lure in a fish.As for bucktail color always black but also black with a white tail worked well. also had some success on yellow last week.

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Thanks for the advice, Suick. Hey, if you don't mind my asking, what twitch baits do you recommend using. Last time we were there, we threw a lot of buck tails, but got in a rutt. I would like to add them to the mix if you had some success on them.

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i was using 6" crane baits they go down about 3'to4' perfect for twitching above the weeds but any smaller crank bait with a smaller lip that doesn't go deeper than 4'should work fine. colors were black and perch color.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Great information everybody. Our party of six leaves for the Angle on Saturday for a week. Any recent updates? It sounds as though the action has picked up with the warmer water temps.

We've got bucktails, topwater, glide/jerk baits so I think we're well prepared.

Can anybody advise how long it takes from Warroad to the Angle? How about a place across the border to get milk/eggs, additional liquor?

Final question: for a good estimate on a muskie's weight is it length x girth x girth / 800? Thanks in advance. I'll give a report when we return - hopefully a good one!

DB

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Doonbuggy, Sprague (Manitoba) has a Shell gas station that sells licenses, the hotel in downtown Sprage sells beer, and milk and eggs are allowed to cross the border, but if you still need some, I'm sure there's a grocery store in Sprague too, just can't think of where.

Good luck to you. They were calling for a big storm at the angle last night. Haven't heard if it hit there or not. Shouldn't effect Saturday and beyond fishing.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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