Fishing Report August 11/21

Only a week out from my last Northwestern Ontario report, the bite is still hot. With the first American anglers crossing the border, lakes will start getting busy. This past weekend my buddy Dave Chaval and I hit the Cedar Lake / Perrault Lake system. With barely a boat to be seen, and no boats casting for musky, we truly had the lake to ourselves.

Starting up on Perrault, with water temps in the 69-71 degree range and a dreaded east, southeast wind we didn’t have high expectations. Casting a variety of weeds, rocks and main lake points, in an effort to patten some fish, we were drawing a blank. A few fish on rocks, a few fish on weeds, but nothing to really work off of. The only constant, pike were everywhere. In total we caught 17 pike, ranging from 20” to 38”.

Finally committing to a big weedy saddle, and battling nuisance pike, we got the bite we were looking for. A big female came charging out of the weeds and crushed my Dadson Blade Bait on the outside of the second turn in the 8. After pulling drag and a short fight Dave slid the net under her to a sigh of relief. Bumping out at a respectable 47 ½”, just after the moon overhead major, she gave us some hope for the day.

The rest of the afternoon was a mixed bag of no action, dropped fish and missed hooksets. Finishing up the evening on Cedar Lake, we started in weeds and found the same results as the afternoon. Lazy fish that would not commit to a figure 8.

The turning point of the night was the call to finish on rocks. Moving a nice fish on the first rock pile, we made the call to focus only on rocks to finish up the evening. The moonset / sunset were only 10 minutes apart and we knew this would be a key time.

I dropped a nice fish on the next spot after she gave huge headshakes at the boat. Without hesitation I cast back out and only a few casts later another came in hard. She hit in the second turn and pounded her head violently in an effort to spit the hooks. The Dadson Blade Bait was T-boned in her mouth as we pulled her in the bag. One of the heaviest mid 40’s fish I have ever lifted from the bag!

Moving to the last spot of the evening, I was on the hunt for the musky hat trick. Only a handful of casts in and a low 40’s came out of nowhere and crushed the same Dadson Blade Bait in the 8! After a big jump against the boat and a seemingly long battle for Dave to free the tangled net we completed the hat trick.

Trips like this keep us going.

Sunday I got an invite from Hunter MacDonald from Temple Bay Lodge to fish Eagle Lake for the afternoon, and of course I accepted.

With a slight south west wind and clear conditions we focused on wind blown structures to start. On our second spot I missed one in the 8, however on the next cast another one followed my Dadson Blade Bait in. On the second turn she ate it hard. Bumping out at 46 ½” with some good girth it was a good start to the evening.

After not moving much on rocks as the wind died down, we changed our focus to weeds. I moved a good fish in weeds and as Hunter was contending with an epic backlash I moved to the back of the boat to run the trolling. Running up the outside of the weed line I got hit in a blind figure 8, and for the fifth time this weekend the same Dadson Blade Bait got hit. We didn’t bump her but she was a healthy low 40’s. 

One spot later, in a transition area between weeds and a reef, Hunter got hit in the second turn of the 8. We got the hat trick again, for the second day in a row! Hunter got hit on a Spanky Bait!  The blade bite is on right now in Northwestern Ontario. Water temps are around 70 degrees and weeds are still close to summer maximums. The new moon period hasn’t disappointed! With the long range forecast calling for stable weather we should be in for a good bite. Looking forward to the next full moon period we should be in for an amazing bite to finish out August.

Look for video of all these catches, and more on our youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/c/54orbust