Headed to Witch Bay

[Icedog]

I am headed to Witch Bay camp this year for the first time.
Never fished LOTW before (been to Lac Suel, Tobin, and Dogtooth). I was Wondering If you have been there how is the fishing, food and cabins.
I am going mid-July. What can I expect for walley numbers and size, smallie and Muskie? Any info will help.

ICEDOG

[brian1785]

Fishing is good there. I've been going there for 5 years and always fish in early August. Fish the reefs. Also, the "pros" are always willing to put you on the hottest spots. You'll enjoy yourself for sure.

[Wingman]

You are in for a great trip. Witchbay is an excellent camp. The owners and their staff will do everything possible to help you have a great vacation. Food is excellent and all you care to eat. I especially liked the ribs they serve. The fishing pros will help you find and teach you how to catch fish. If you are using their boats, you will really enjoy them. They are big lunds with electric start motors, depth finders, livewells and carpeted flooring. They have a mixture of cabins (some new some older/rustic). The only drawback is that the showers and toliets are not in the cabins but behind them.

I have gone up twice in June and the fishing was good for walleye and northerns. Two years ago we had warm temperatures and had good luck with the smallmouth but last year had record cold weather and the smallies were hard to find. We did however get a couple of nice muskies.

Have a great trip!

Wingman

[Skippy the Great]

Hey what are you guys doing. Quit telling the truth about this place. If this gets around we will have to be making reservations 2 years in advance. We need to tell big, I mean big lies about this place. It's to late here, but next time say something like this:

1. The cabins are never neat and clean. They never bring coffee to your cabin in the morning. The sheets, blanks, and towels are old and need replacement. The cabins are not air conditioned and the heat never works. Upon your arrival you will not be greeted with a gift basket in your cabin. Better bring your own toilet paper cause the stuff there will give you splinters. The toilets are so bad that you may want to observe how the bears do it.

2. If you rent a boat, it will never be cleaned every day when you get back from fishing. Don't expect the dock boys to have your boat gassed for you and the trolling motor battery fully charged in the morning or help you "set-off" or dock your boat. Speaking of the dock boys (I think the politically correct term is "Dock Technician") they are never around and will go out of their way to avoid cleaning any fish, help launch or trailer your boat or try to make your stay a pleasent one.

3. The fishing stinks and hardly any fish are caught near camp and you have to boat miles to have a chance at a 28 inch walleye or a 50 plus inch Muskie; and you haven't seen a decent size smallmouth since they started commerical netting for them in Witch Bay. On the bright side you can catch all the 4 inch perch you want. The "Pro Staff" will never put you on fish, show you the best methods of catching fish or help you in any way. They are there just to be able to get a free fishing trip. Heck they got to pay them to come cause the food and lodging is so bad.

4. As far as the owners and staff goes, there's a reason it called "Witch Bay". Gail, who owns the camp with her husband Steve ( by the way Will Rodgers never meet Steve), never has time for you and just looks at you as a walking dollars sign. She could care less about you as a person. The only time you will see a smile on her face, or see her at all, is in you rear view mirrow as you leave the camp. Regarding the food, if that's what you call it, the only good think you can say is there is never enough. You are always hungry; its how they can sell the stale candy and chips at outragous prices. You could put a "good spin" on this by saying that because of your stay at Witch Bay you have learned that many types of tree bark are digestable and filling and they don't charge for it either.

5. An last but not least, that the moto of Witch Bay is "Hey Bud, this is not Burger King, you will get it my way or you won't get it at all"

Ok, I know all of this is nothing but lies and the opposite is the truth. Its a great place, the people are wonderful (both the owners and the staff), the fishing is outstanding and its the best place I have stay at in the 38 years that I have fished in Canada (that's right 1966, it was my high school graduation present), BUT we have our future vacations at stake here!

P.S. Tell Gail Hi from Skippy when you see her...She will know who you are talking about.

[Dave B]

Icedog -- The other guys summed up the camp pretty well. Great food and service, good cabins and accomodations, and excellent equipment. The fishing is very good. I also will be there in mid July, and we have been going at that time the last couple of years. The thing I like most about Witch Bay is their "fishing program." They have solid, experienced fishermen in camp who are out on the water every day, and they are available to assist in anyway you want. For experienced fishermen like yourself, you don't have to use them if you don't want to, but if you start to struggle a little, they are there to help, and usually are very, very helpful. Here is what I hope/expect as far as the fishing goes. The smallies are kind of tough early to mid July. You can catch decent numbers of the smaller males swimming jigs or cranks along boulder strewn shorelines, and pick up some on the surface. The bigger fish -- say 17" plus -- seem to be a bit deeper, and you need to either slow down your top waters and cranks (suspending ones) and allow the fish to come up, or you need to go down after them. Our biggest smallie last year 19.5" came off a rock pile in the middle of the lake casting a shad rap for walleye. I spend about 70% of my time chasing muskies, and mid July for muskies has been kind of a crap shoot for us. Every year we see a lot of quality fish, have some good opportunities to put them in the boat, and end up catching a few. However, we are still struggling a little to put everythign together. Last year by all accounts was an odd year for muskies on LOTW. Cool water temps, but real large, full weed beds. When we got to Camp, the first couple of days we found the active muskies to be predominantly weed oriented. By the third day, we were getting lots and lots of follows on rock structure, but we had a tough time getting them to eat. Usually, by mid July I would expect the top water bite to be in full swing, but we didn't have much luck, except for a low 40" range fish that hit a top raider at boat side. Based upon my experience over the last 4 or 5 years, I guess my expectations for a couple of experienced muskies guys in a boat hitting it pretty hard, would be to see 10, maybe more, fish a day, have 2 or 3 strikes, and have a good shot at landing one every day or two. You will catch some smaller fish (low to mid 30" range), and see plenty in the low to mid 40s, and during the week see a couple of high 40" fish, with maybe a good shot at putting one of the brutes in the boat. I've talked with plenty of guys who have seen/caught 50" class fish, but I haven't seem them there yet. We put on quite a few miles fishing Andrews Bay all the way down to and around Shore Island, but most of our fish, year in and year out, come from Witch Bay and the East end of Andrews, so you don't have to go far for quality fish. In mid July, don't forget to spend a little time walleye fishing. Last year we hammered some real quality walleye on the mid-lake reefs, points, etc. using crankbaits. The hot colors seemed to be perch colored and/or gold colored shad raps (the large SR-9s). Well, I didn't have any of those colors, so I switched to a perch colored Super Shad Rap that I have for muskies, and it worked as well, if not better, for the big walleyes than the SR-9s. One morning, in about 2 hours of fishing, my partner and I put 16 walleye in the boat over 20", with 10 being over 24", and the biggest 29", all on Super Shad Raps. That was a blast even for a couple of die hard muskie nuts.

[Dave B]

Icedog -- The other guys summed up the camp pretty well. Great food and service, good cabins and accomodations, and excellent equipment. The fishing is very good. I also will be there in mid July, and we have been going at that time the last couple of years. The thing I like most about Witch Bay is their "fishing program." They have solid, experienced fishermen in camp who are out on the water every day, and they are available to assist in anyway you want. For experienced fishermen like yourself, you don't have to use them if you don't want to, but if you start to struggle a little, they are there to help, and usually are very, very helpful. Here is what I hope/expect as far as the fishing goes. The smallies are kind of tough early to mid July. You can catch decent numbers of the smaller males swimming jigs or cranks along boulder strewn shorelines, and pick up some on the surface. The bigger fish -- say 17" plus -- seem to be a bit deeper, and you need to either slow down your top waters and cranks (suspending ones) and allow the fish to come up, or you need to go down after them. Our biggest smallie last year 19.5" came off a rock pile in the middle of the lake casting a shad rap for walleye. I spend about 70% of my time chasing muskies, and mid July for muskies has been kind of a crap shoot for us. Every year we see a lot of quality fish, have some good opportunities to put them in the boat, and end up catching a few. However, we are still struggling a little to put everythign together. Last year by all accounts was an odd year for muskies on LOTW. Cool water temps, but real large, full weed beds. When we got to Camp, the first couple of days we found the active muskies to be predominantly weed oriented. By the third day, we were getting lots and lots of follows on rock structure, but we had a tough time getting them to eat. Usually, by mid July I would expect the top water bite to be in full swing, but we didn't have much luck, except for a low 40" range fish that hit a top raider at boat side. Based upon my experience over the last 4 or 5 years, I guess my expectations for a couple of experienced muskies guys in a boat hitting it pretty hard, would be to see 10, maybe more, fish a day, have 2 or 3 strikes, and have a good shot at landing one every day or two. You will catch some smaller fish (low to mid 30" range), and see plenty in the low to mid 40s, and during the week see a couple of high 40" fish, with maybe a good shot at putting one of the brutes in the boat. I've talked with plenty of guys who have seen/caught 50" class fish, but I haven't seem them there yet. We put on quite a few miles fishing Andrews Bay all the way down to and around Shore Island, but most of our fish, year in and year out, come from Witch Bay and the East end of Andrews, so you don't have to go far for quality fish. In mid July, don't forget to spend a little time walleye fishing. Last year we hammered some real quality walleye on the mid-lake reefs, points, etc. using crankbaits. The hot colors seemed to be perch colored and/or gold colored shad raps (the large SR-9s). Well, I didn't have any of those colors, so I switched to a perch colored Super Shad Rap that I have for muskies, and it worked as well, if not better, for the big walleyes than the SR-9s. One morning, in about 2 hours of fishing, my partner and I put 16 walleye in the boat over 20", with 10 being over 24", and the biggest 29", all on Super Shad Raps. That was a blast even for a couple of die hard muskie nuts.