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2011 Year End Newsletter
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Hello Friends,

The 2011 fishing season has come to a close recently, and another fine year it was for both the fishing, and the weather!  We had a late spring in 2011, which put our usual fishing patterns about one month behind.  Walleyes never really got up on the sand beaches in 2011.  Therefore, it was another spring of heading straight out to the reefs, many of which were located very close to Moonlite Bay Camp.  Northern Pike were of very good size in 2011, however, they were a little hard to find at first, due to the lack of weed growth caused by the late spring.  Small mouth bass and musky fishing were just what you would expect on Lake of the Woods, exceptional on most days.

As for improvements to Moonlite Bay Camp in 2011, we finished two major improvements, started a third, and did a handful of minor improvements.  Our first major improvement of the year was finishing the section of pathway between the fish house and cabin 3.  This new pathway makes it much easier to haul gear and equipment from the main dock to cabins 2, 3, and squirrel lodge.  Our second major improvement was to re roof cabin 2.  The new roof looks fantastic!  Our third project, which we started, but did not finish, was to replace all of the eye bolts, metal plates, and some of the lumber on the floating docks.  The wear and tear from wind storms over the years has loosened and damaged most of the connections between the floating docks, there by, requiring us to replace those connections.  We will finish this project in the spring of 2012.  As for minor improvements, we built a shed for our emergency generator, behind the lodge.  We built another shed behind the fish house for extra storage.  We also built two new picnic tables.  Lastly, Serge's guide boat got a new 40 horse 4-stroke Yamaha motor and a new deck.

When talking about the weather in 2011, the main topic of discussion was the early spring.  Our part of Canada must have had a cold April.  By the time I arrived at Moonlite Bay Camp on May 1st, it looked like all of the snow had just melted.  There were no leaves on the trees, and there were no visible weeds in the lake.  We don't expect to see to many weeds in the lake, around camp, at that time of year, however, we do expect to see them in the shallow areas of the lake such as Burrow Bay and Obabikon Lake.  Even these areas took almost a month before we saw any substantial weed growth.  Other than the late spring, there was nothing major, weather wise, that happened in 2011.  We had one wind storm in early June which caused some minor dock damage.  We also had a two week spell in mid July where we averaged 85 degrees fahrenheit, but it never got as warm as what was recorded south of the Canadian border.  The heat never affected the fishing in 2011, in fact, the cool spring and moderately cool summer caused our part of Lake of the Woods to have a much smaller than normal, green algae hatch.  This was a pleasant surprise for all of our August guests.

Walleye fishing on Lake of the Woods, was as good as ever.  Basically we went straight out to the reefs, many of which were very close to Moonlite Bay Camp, and started jigging up the walleyes.  Some days it took a handful of spots to find the fish, other days they were on the first spot you tried.  Early on, in the season, we caught most of our walleyes close to the 15 foot mark.  By mid to late summer we were still catching some at 15 feet, but we were also catching them 5 to 10 feet deeper.  The best colors for jigs in 2011 were white, green, gold, silver, and pink. 

Speaking of pink jigs, I was out with my family in late July and we were about to jig some reefs just west of camp.  I tied a pink jig on to my son's line.  He was not at all impressed with my choice of color for his jig.  He reluctantly lowered his pink jig down to the bottom of the lake.  A few moments later his rod was bent over and he was fighting a very large fish!  He got it up to the surface, and I was lucky to get it in the net.  It was a 39 inch northern pike, my son's largest fish to date.  My ten year old son, Charlie, was thrilled.  Can you guess what color jig Charlie requests every time we go jigging now? 

Crawlers and leeches work pretty well at times, but minnows seem to be the most consistent and productive of all the live baits.  The best time for catching walleye seems to be before lunch.  After lunch, when the sun is high in the sky, and the daytime temperature is at it's highest, seems to be the slowest time of the day to catch walleye.  I have also had some excellent success catching walleye just before dark.

Northern pike as I mentioned earlier, were hard to target, early on, due to the lack of weed growth everywhere on the lake for the first month of camp.  Even though you couldn't see the weed growth until nearly July, logic tells us that the weeds are going to be in the shallow sandy bays.  So casting spoons, spinner baits, buck tails, and some wobbly crank baits up into these sandy bays should still produce some quality northern pike.  This is exactly what happened, however, we also caught a good number of northern off the rocky shores, and even off the reefs.  They just seemed to be a bit more scattered in 2011. The average size of the northern pike we did catch, however, was very large.  We caught a good number of northern around the 40 inch mark.  I absolutely love it when a guest, or even my son, catches his personal best fish, taking into account size and weight.  Northern pike account for a large portion of our guest's, personal best, fish.

Small mouth bass fishing was very good, as always.  Although a fair amount of people catch smallies trolling or even jigging, the predominant method for catching small mouth bass, is casting lures.  When I go out casting for small mouth bass, I have at least one rod set up for the smallies, usually with a diving crank bait that looks like a crayfish.  I also have at least one rod set up for casting the weeds.  On this rod I usually put a northern/musky lure such as a buck tail or a spinner bait.  While a person is working a rocky shoreline for smallies, they will inevitably run across some shallower weedy sections of shoreline, along with the rocks.  When this happens, I like to put down my diving crank bait, and start throwing my shallow running buck tail or spinner bait.  By using this method, you don't have to move to a new spot just because you run out of rocks, and you simply catch more fish, usually a mixed bag.  Sometimes I catch smallies on my northern/musky lures, and sometimes I catch northern/musky on my small mouth bass lures.  This happens a lot more often than you would expect.  Not only can a small mouth bass fight hard, it is also one of the best looking fish.  Their patterns can vary from green to bronze and usually with stripes, but not always.

Musky fishing in 2011 was very good, I think.  Since we don't get too many groups at Moonlite Bay Camp, that primarily focus on these fish, and since the folks who do focus on musky can be a little quiet about their success, it is sometimes hard for me to gauge how well the musky are biting during the season.  On Lake of the Woods, there is always the chance of hooking into one of these monsters, even if the feedback from the guests is minimal.  I usually get some feedback from the guides as well.  Most guides don't like to target muskies, because they can be elusive at times, and guides are all about immediate success, however, most guides also see a lot of follows and hook ups that they usually tell me about.  From this feedback, I can tell you that the musky fishery on Lake of the Woods, is as healthy as ever!  I was able to get out and do some guiding during the first week of August.  During that time, we saw two enormous muskies and a few smaller ones.  We were not really fishing for muskies, but they showed up anyway, which is always a thrill.  My favorite musky/northern lure is a buck tail, and my favorite colors are white with red, black with red, and fire tiger.  I also like the double bladed buck tails a lot.  I usually use gold and silver blades, but not always.  The shiny new chrome crank baits are also worth a try.

Crappie and Perch fishing really turned on during the later part of the summer.  We started seeing perch on our walleye reefs in early July.  These perch were quite big, and a bonus for anyone wanting to have few shore lunches.  Many of these perch felt like descent sized Walleye while they were being reeled in because they were so chunky.  Once a perch is filleted and fried in the pan, it is very hard to distinguish it's taste from that of a walleye.  Most of these perch are caught while fishing for walleye using the basic, jig and a minnow rig.

Crappies were a little slower to start than the perch, however, once they did start, some really nice stringers were brought in.  Most of these stringers were caught up in Obabikon Lake on sunken brush piles after the first week in August.  Some years we also catch them in July, but if you like to catch crappie, August is your best bet.  Crappies are usually caught with the same rig as you would use for walleye, a jig and a minnow, however, the jig is smaller, 1/8-1/4 once, and the minnow should be smaller as well.

That is a wrap on 2011, another wonderful year at Moonlite Bay Camp on Lake of the Woods.  As always, I would like to thank everyone who booked a trip or made the trip up in 2011!  I would also like to invite anyone who booked their first trip ever to Moonlite in 2011, to book another trip in 2012, and their price will not change.  Please remember, bookings are on a first come, first serve basis.

I will be promoting Moonlite Bay Camp at three venues. The Rockford Illinois Boat Vacation & Fishing Show, February 17-19, 2012, at the Indoor Sport Center/Expo "ISC".   The Omaha Boat Sport & Travel Show, February 23-26, 2012, at the Qwest Center.  The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel Sport Show, March 7-11, 2012 at the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center.  If you are in or near any of these fine cities, please stop by and say hello, but do not wait for the shows to book your fishing trip if you already know your vacation dates.  Until sport show time, I can be reached easily by email at mike@moonlitebaycamp.com.  We can also be reached by telephone at 239 249 0100.  Please don't hesitate to email or call if you have any questions, at all, or you would like to book a trip to Moonlite Bay Camp in 2012.

I wish everyone a happy, healthy and safe holiday season.

Sincerely,

Mike and Tasha Evans           

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