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...or Seven Muskies in Seven Days, The Way to a Happy Heart. Wasn't quite a musky a day, I zeroed on Thursday after loosing a mid 30's fish at the boat, but I'd caught two on Wednesday, so I kept my average up. Nothing huge, started with a 37" right away Saturday night, then a 22" on Sunday, then a 30", a 29", a 27" and 9", skipped Thursday per above and finished with a 34". All were fat, healthy fish, only managed the 29" on a fly, but it was one of mine, and my fishing partner caught a 37" on one of my flies too, so that was cool. No, the 9" isn't a typo...and that was with the tail pinched...cutest little toothy fish I've ever seen. Typical Canadian weather: got clobbered by a storm on the way to the island and soaked everything in the boat that wasn't wrapped in plastic, including me and my fishing partner. Sunny, muggy and hot Sunday and Monday, with buckets-o-skeeters at night to match. Temp dropped 20 degrees and rain and wind kicked us around Tuesday and Wednesday...smallies turned off hard, but musky follows came way up. Had 11 fish follow on Tuesday, 9 on Wed. I can live with that... Sunny and warmer on Thursday, which slowed things down, and about the same on Friday, but more follows. At one point on Wednesday we had two muskies taking turns following everything we threw at them for about 45 minutes. We saw a low 30s fish first, got it to follow a 2nd time, then a high 40s mama came out to play. Tried 4 different flies, spoons, inline spinners, top-water plugs and flies (thought my fishing partner was gonna fill his pants when the big girl came up and stared at his musky popper. No love though, moved on to other spots. Another cool thing - we were working a spot where a tree had fallen off a point - musky city to anyone who's fished for them and a mid 30s musky followed a #5 Mepps out to the boat...we worked her on a big orange fly, a red/white Doctor Spoon and red/white fly. No love (went back and caught her Friday, that was my 34") but at one point we lost sight of her and I went to move the boat off the tree further...and she was hanging off the bow, staring at the trolling motor. She actually tilted down and followed a bit when I bumped it to move us. Proof they're not afraid of anything... My best fish of the trip was a 38" pike that looked like it'd just eaten a bag of bunnies. Caught her on my 2nd cast Tuesday morning in a spot we'd had a follow on Sunday. Our most productive pattern was to approach a spot, work it with gear, working up in size to see if we got a follow, then try flies. We might have done better on flies if we hadn't done this...but I'm glad we didn't. Switching back and forth is lot easier on my 55 year old body that either chucking gear or flies for 6 days straight. Mixing it up when stuff starts get sore made a difference. I'm happy to report that Humminbird's SmartStrike works exactly as advertised. Cut out a lot searching through unproductive water once you got on the pattern for the day. Biggest fish for the week was a 49 1/2" monster caught by our one of our cabin mates on Friday afternoon. Weird catch...the fish was feeding on something on the surface and Ron saw her, fired a topwater muskie lure in front of her...and she ate it. Got real exciting after that to hear them tell the story as she wasn't real interested in coming to the boat...she tail-walked on him twice, went under the boat once and tried to head into Sioux Narrows once. I've got no idea how many musky were boated, but it was a bunch - 4 cabins with 2 boats each with two mostly experienced musky guys can put a lotta fish in boats in a week...the most "total inches" by one guy was just shy of 400". Number of follows was nuts. We were the least experienced guys there, and we went 3, 7, 5, 11, 9, 4 and 6. Anyone who has chased these things will get that. Pike were consistent, lots of 30" plus fish, buckets full in the 20s and a few hammer handles. Smallies were a crazy hot bite Sunday and Monday, but shut down hard Tuesday and Wednesday and came back up to decent fishing Thursday and Friday. LOTW is a lot of fun...I'll be back.

Just wondering if anyone on here fished LOW at all? My parents have a house down there and I fish down there maybe 10-12 times a year.

Gang Whats going on? I have to admit that I'm quite addicted to this site since joining a short while ago. Not sure How Im able to get all my work done because I think Im on here most of my working day!!! I currently live in Springfield/Burke area of Va. Just getting back into the sport of Bass Fishing. It was a big hobby of mine as a teenager. I subscribed to about 2-3 B.A.S.S. magazines, even tried my hand at making my own lures. I fished Burke Lake, Occoquan and Potomac, but all form shore. But after College, I picked up DJing and havent fished as much. I'm familiar with alot of techniques, and with fish themselves. (Studied Marine Biology in school but changed my major senior year to Biology) because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. So I do have a good deal of Bass fishing knowledge but havent been able to apply it much these last 10 years. I thought this would be a great resource to get my feet wet again, pick up tips, hopefully make a few new fishing buddies and enjoy some time out on the water. If anyone ever needs a partner, and is local, would luv the chance to fish with you sometime. Fish On!! --Chris

Hi Gang, I'm fairly new to bass fishing. Grew up putting worms on a hook and catching pan fish but never graduated to the next level. Last year my parents moved to Lake of the Woods in Locust Grove, Virginia, giving me access to a boat and lake. Got a crappy rod and reel as a 10 year anniversary gift with my company, bought a pack of senko worms, and the rest is history. I'm hooked now and spend as much of my free time as I can on weekends fishing. Unfortunately, nobody in my family, nor any of my friends, like to fish. So I'm flying blind, trying to learn anything and everything I can on the internet. Was wondering if there's anyone here on this board that fishes Lake of Woods at all. Looking for tips on anything and everything. Spots to fish, what lures you find work well, ietc... Even looking for someone to fish with. As far as I can tell, the lake is nearly devoid of vegatation at the moment and the only real cover are the docks. I've got no electronics and the only information I have to work with is this depth map http://www.lowa.org/getmedia/77771a11-14b5-4777-a467-da969a4d09cc/Main_Lake-Contour.aspx. So info from someone that actually knows the lake would be a huge help! Anyways, happy to be here and looking forward to learning much and more.