Fishing report now July 19/21

Hot, dry and calm conditions have continued to be the story in Northwestern Ontario. Incredibly the lake temps have managed to stay below the benchmark of 80 degrees. I’ve fished Eagle Lake, Cedar Lake, Indian Lake Chain and Canyon Lake recently and can report all have been well below 80 degrees. We finally had a storm push through over the evening of the 18th, to bring some much needed rain to the area.

Fishing across the region has been fantastic. Reports of fish being caught on every body of water and almost every day reports are coming in.  We caught a giant of a sub 50” fish on Eagle Lake with only minutes to spare as night crept in. She hit a Dancin’ Raider at the side of the boat and measured a big, heavy 49 1/2” on the muskie bumper.The guides out of Temple Bay Lodge have been putting multiple fish in the boat every night, with Hunter Macdonald and Miah Gardner lighting up social media nightly.

Danny Herbeck finally got his new boat and hasn’t wasted any time loading it up with Eagle Lake muskies. He posted 17 fish to hit the deck in just over 2 days of fishing.  Over on Wabigoon Lake Tiyanna Lambert hooked into a beauty. Caught during the mid part of the day on a spinner bait in weed cover, measuring 44”. Nice catch Tiyanna!

We’ve had multiple fish days on both Canyon and Cedar recently and the videos are up, or will be soon on my YouTube channel. See link below During this warm spell most of the active fish we have been seeing are mostly buried in the weeds. That being said, deep and steep break lines have been holding fish as well. The tactics are a little different to target these areas, and we are mostly going off of historical log data to target known good spot within the spot areas.

Our hot baits so far this season have been Dadson Blade Bait bucktails, dive and rise baits such as Suick’s and Harvey’s. We have moved a bunch on WTD top water and caught a few, but we use that as a search bait in shallow areas.

This past weekend I got to fish with my wife and we pulled up on a familiar spot on Indian Lake Chain. Kyla caught one of her biggest fish in this weed bed years back. Only a few casts in, with guests from Sunset County Adventures lodge watching on I hooked into a stunning tiger musky. Not the longest one I have ever caught, but she was fat and heavy and very unusual. She had a hump back, signaling an old injury perhaps. A video of this catch will hit my YouTube in a few weeks as well.

Of note on this trip, many anglers tell stories of pulling hooks away from sub 40” fish. I seldom believe them, as most anglers stick any fish that comes close to lures. On this trip Kyla raises a 38-40” fish and on the next cast the fish swipes at her from under the boat and Kyla truly pulls the hooks away from a sure strike. All on video. This is the type of conservation we practice at 54 or Bust. I applaud Kyla for thinking of the fish before herself in those types of situations.

We are expecting an announcement concerning the border closure sometime this week.  By now everyone has heard the mid August date as a possible date to reopen. Our Canadian government is planning on some type of official announcement this week. We are hoping it will be a hard decision on a date. One of the criteria will be fully vaccinated Americans only, it does not sound like unvaccinated Americans will be allowed in any time soon.

We’re all hoping things will start to open up and get back to some normalcy. Our tourism industry could really use a boost.  The musky fishing has been amazing and I hope some of our American friends can come enjoy some of Sunset Country with us soon.

Glenn McDonald

54 or Bust

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