Fishing tournamnet gone wrong ?

[lotw bassman]

Hey guys i got a question and want everybody's opinion so we just had a 120 boat field fish a tournament on lake of the woods usually you see guys bringing anywhere from 17-21 pound bags consistently but this 2 day tournament was different 

 

so here's the thing out of 120 boats the winning weight was 15 pounds each day which was a nice bag for this tournament as everybody struggled to catch 5 fish all day and i mean 8 hours of fishing deep fishing shallow fishing rocks weeds trees ledges humps everything you can imagine but why out of 120 boats 240 people all have a hard time to struggle to catch 5 fish all day I came in 18th with 12 the first day and 13 the second but i only caught 5 and almost 100 boats not even weighing 5 fish why did the fishing die ???

[ironbjorn]

We're getting late into the hot summer. Also, pressure.

[BayouSlide]

Welcome to my world ?

 

Spent the whole day fishing for bass and the only thing that were biting were gar. ?

[gim]

The water levels at Lake of the Woods this season are at record levels. I was told by someone up there around the 4th of July that it was about 6 feet up. High water has to be murkier than usual, which probably does not favor a smallmouth bite.

[Woody B]

40 minutes ago, lotw bassman said:

why did the fishing die ???

 Too many tournaments.   No one will EVER convince me that carrying bass around all day in a livewell isn't detrimental.   

[WRB]

Lake of the woods is a massive natural lake.

Can’t imagine this natural lake being higher then full pool.

High wind can push water up foot or so on the down wind areas. The majority of docks and boat houses are mounted on rock cribs, they don’t adjust to high water levels.

What bay was this terminate located in or was it open to the entire lake?

Tom

 

[FrnkNsteen]

4 minutes ago, WRB said:

Lake of the woods is a massive natural lake.

Can’t imagine this natural being higher then full pool.

High wind can push water up foot or so on the down wind areas. Docks are mounted on rock cribs, they don’t adjust to high water levels.

What bay was this terminate located in or was it open to the entire lake?

Tom

 

You'd think that would be true that it couldn't flood like that, but it's absolutely not. My family, friends and I go to Rainy Lake every summer ( well, except the two previous years blocked by Covid.

 

We were finally able to go up there mid-June for the first time in three years and the water was higher than I or the resort had ever seen. The resort owners home, store and office were in the water, as were the majority of cabins and year round homes around the lake

 

Rainy Lake is approximately 225,000 - 240,000 acres depending on what you are reading and I had to offset the lakemaster maps 9 feet to calibrate them. I know the areas we fish like the back of my hand and can confirm how high the water was. We've been fishing this area for 25 years. Shorelines and reefs that are typically at waters edge had 8-10 feet over them and peninsulas and saddles we typically fished were completely gone from sight.

 

I read an article that said water was flowing into Rainy Lake 28,000 cu ft/sec faster than it could flow out and was flowing into Lake of the Woods 25,000 cu ft/sec faster than it could flow out.

[MN Fisher]

It's up around 5' - resorts are closing because their docks are underwater, Warroad won't know the damage to the lake-side bike path until the water receeds and they can assess.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/northland-outdoors/extreme-high-water-levels-continue-to-cause-problems-on-lake-of-the-woods-and-other-border-waters

 

This week in 2021 gage height was around 58.7' - https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv/?cb_00045=on&cb_00065=on&cb_63160=on&format=gif_default&site_no=05140520&period=&begin_date=2021-07-18&end_date=2021-07-25

 

This week in 2022 gage height is around 63.2' - https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?05140520

[gim]

51 minutes ago, WRB said:

What bay was this terminate located in or was it open to the entire lake?

Tournaments out there are generally limited to the US portion.  My parents fish walleye tournaments there and they are prohibited from fishing in Canadian waters, even if they are legally allowed to.

[FrnkNsteen]

Yep,.. All the pole docks were underwater with sandbag bins stacked on the to keep them from floating away. Floating docks were above water but the bridge sections to the shore were deeply submerged.

 

I nearly drove the trollung motor up on a few docks because you couldn't see them until right on them. Learned to watch for arm rails and poles up on shore leading into the water.

 

Question for the OP.... How do they run tournaments up there with the small slot lengths? On Rainey you could only keep smallies under 13.5". Slot lengths for everything were pretty limiting. Walleyes had to be 13.75 - 17.5 with only one over 28" if I remember correct.

 

Highlight of the trip was a 52" Tiger Muskie caught off a sunken island on a craw colored OG Slim! ?

[WRB]

That’s a mess for sure.i

Tom

[gim]

1 minute ago, FrnkNsteen said:

Highlight of the trip was a 52" Tiger Muskie caught off a sunken island on a craw colored OG Slim!

A 52 inch tiger muskie? Are you sure it wasn’t a pure strain? A 52 inch tiger is unheard of. Even a 40 inch tiger is big.

[gim]

35 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

It's up around 5' - resorts are closing because their docks are underwater

Considering how massive Lake of the Woods and its tributaries are, that is a lot of water. 5 feet doesn’t seem like much but on a lake that big, it is.

[A-Jay]

41 minutes ago, FrnkNsteen said:

Highlight of the trip was a 52" Tiger Muskie caught off a sunken island on a craw colored OG Slim! ?

That's a Beast.

Really hope you're planning on sharing a pic or two of that 'Highlight' ~

A-Jay

[Clumsy fisherman]

2 hours ago, Woody B said:

 Too many tournaments.   No one will EVER convince me that carrying bass around all day in a livewell isn't detrimental.   

Most of them will not survive long term.

[813basstard]

2 hours ago, Woody B said:

 Too many tournaments.   No one will EVER convince me that carrying bass around all day in a livewell isn't detrimental.   

Ehhh, maybe not, but I do know a Curtis who sits on a 5 gallon bucket with a heater going, straw hat and a speaker who has a 100% kill rate of whatever animal that happens to tug the line. So all things considered…

[WRB]

My knowledge of Lake of The Woods is limited to Kabaskong bay, White Fish bay and the Big Traverse on the Canadian side, between Nestor Falls and Kenora. 

No experience with US water of LOTW.

Tom

[king fisher]

     It wasn't me.  Honest I wasn't even in the country.  Should have been here yesterday is the explanation I have heard all of my life.  Everywhere I go the fishing goes from record highs to record lows the minuet I get to the lake or river.  Sometimes all I have to do is cross a state line and all the fisheries in the state take a nose dive.  I fear some day the authorities might start putting up road blocks to keep me out of any state during fishing season.  I was at a sportsman's show once and they had a fishing pond for kids to catch trout.  I walked up to watch the kids catch some trout, and the bite completely shut down.  I disappeared before any one figured out what happened.  I hadn't seen all the show yet, and was afraid they would kick me out if any one put two and two together.  This time I can guarantee the poor fishing at Lake of the Woods was not my fault.  I was thousands of miles away in Alaska shutting down the king salmon fishing on the rivers of Western Alaska.  Probably best to blame it on the moon cycle, that is what all the saltwater fisherman here do when the bite stops, and I'm not going to clue them in on the real reason.

[FrnkNsteen]

10 hours ago, WRB said:

My knowledge of Lake of The Woods is limited to Kabaskong bay, White Fish bay and the Big Traverse on the Canadian side, between Nestor Falls and Kenora. 

No experience with US water of LOTW.

Tom

I know that area too. Used to do fly-in trips out of Tinkers Too resort near Nestors Falls using Northwest Flight Service.. Beautiful area up there!!

 

I remember hearing of a year the water was so high that it got up into the cabins there too. The guide we used said floating bogs were floating in the current of the lake flowage and blowing apart when they hit the bridge going under the highway towards LOTW.

[FrnkNsteen]

11 hours ago, A-Jay said:

That's a Beast.

Really hope you're planning on sharing a pic or two of that 'Highlight' ~

A-Jay

Unfortunately we didn't get a pic. We lost it while trying to land. We didn't have a net big enough to get him. My wife grabbed our bigger net we use for walleyes and northerns, but when we got the head in, it only came to between the back of the gills and pectoral fins. 

 

The lure got caught in the net so I tried to grab the tail and scoop my arm under the body while she lifted the net with its head in it, but it only had the rear treble of the OG Slim in its lips and spit it as I was reaching for it, then slowly swam away. My wife immediately said that we should have snapped a pic BEFORE trying to land.

 

Beautiful blue/green striped Tiger Musky!!

 

We gauged length on where its head was in the net at the windshield to where its tail was forward of the front boat cleat and grabbed a tape measure to measure length feom spot tospot

[Sphynx]

6 minutes ago, FrnkNsteen said:

Unfortunately we didn't get a pic. We lost it while trying to land. We didn't have a net big enough to get him. My wife grabbed our bigger net we use for walleyes and northerns, but when we got the head in, it only came to between the back of the gills and pectoral fins. 

 

The lure got caught in the net so I tried to grab the tail and scoop my arm under the body while she lifted the net with its head in it, but it only had the rear treble of the OG Slim in its lips and spit it as I was reaching for it, then slowly swam away. My wife immediately said that we should have snapped a pic BEFORE trying to land.

 

Beautiful blue/green striped Tiger Musky!!

 

We gauged length on where its head was in the net at the windshield to where its tail was forward of the front boat cleat and grabbed a tape measure to measure length feom spot tospot

Dang...I woke up early to check this thread for a picture, I feel so disappointed lol.

[gim]

6 minutes ago, FrnkNsteen said:

We lost it while trying to land.

 

So technically you didn't actually catch it then.  Just for clarification.

[FrnkNsteen]

12 hours ago, gimruis said:

A 52 inch tiger muskie? Are you sure it wasn’t a pure strain? A 52 inch tiger is unheard of. Even a 40 inch tiger is big.

Well,.. It may have been, but with the coloration and striping, it looked exactly like Tiger Muskie pictures I found inline.

 

Really wish we would have gotten a picture. I've seen a LOT of muskies that were either spotted or striped, but all were more of a silverish color. This was a bright sunny day and the colers were bright greenish blue. Beautiful fish! Length was estimate, but was within +/- a couple inches because we instantly measured reference points.

18 minutes ago, Sphynx said:

Dang...I woke up early to check this thread for a picture, I feel so disappointed lol.

LOL!! So were we! My wife kept apologizing like she did something wrong, but she didn't. We just weren't prepared for that. Never had a muskie up in that area of the lake, or even a follow.

 

It grabbed it after it ticked off something and was just a weight on the line. I couldn't bring it up for quite a while. 21 Zillion G on a Mojo MHMF spinnerbait rod. I can say Zillion drag was smooth as can be.

 

Anyways,... Sorry for getting off track and highjacking the thread. Don't know why sizes of bass would be dropping because we caught good sizes and numbers of Bass on Rainy. 95% were larger than the slot. Can't speak to LOTW though!

[FrnkNsteen]

19 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

So technically you didn't actually catch it then.  Just for clarification.

LOL!! It was a water release like they do with  grouper or tarpon. I touched the leader!! LOL!! ??

[gim]

I doubt the bag limits are down because of too much tournament pressure.  The lake is enormous and its not an overly pressured body of water, even if its limited to just the US portion of the lake.  Most of the anglers there are not even targeting smallmouth either.

 

Tournament pressure, or just fishing pressure in general, can certainly affect catchability or bag weights, but in this specific case I don't think that's the reason.  I honestly think its the record high water levels.