Come Fish With Us at Thorne Bros Summer Outing--the Moonlight Muskie--at Muskie Bay Resort, Nestor Falls, Ontario, Canada. August 5-12, 2006. Crow (Kakagi)Lake and Lake of the Woods.

Luke Ronnestrand, Steve Jonesi and Brett Erickson from Thorne Bros will be on hand for this mid-summer Outing. On the gin clear lake trout water of Canada, we have identified two “windows” where the muskies are more predictable. The full moon of August is one of these. Casting and trolling can both be effective, but, if conditions allow, night fishing can be awesome. This is an American Plan trip and to accommodate this “second shift” approach, we will have a late breakfast (around 9am) and an early dinner (around 5pm). Lunch, or bag lunch, is also available. Muskie Bay’s location is ideal in that you can fish around the conditions. The resort is on Crow Lake, which is extremely clear with few weeds, but just across the road is Sabaskong Bay of Lake of the Woods, which is brown water with an algae bloom in August and full of weeds. If you can’t find water you like between these two systems—they don’t exist!!!

At the end of the week, Muskie Bay will be having their second annual muskie tournament. Muskie Bay is also putting up a $1000 prize if someone catches a legal muskie of 54”. For more information on the tournament, check out the Muskie Bay website at www.muskiebayresort.com

Here are our most productive baits while staying at Muskie Bay:

Casting: Showgirls, Cowgirls, Eagletails, Bull Dawgs, 10” Jakes, 7.5” A-P-Lures, Jackpots, LOWRiders, M&G Spinnerbaits, CJ’s Spinnerbaits, Husky Hawg Wobblers and 10”Jointed Believers

Trolling: 14” Jakes, 13” Believers, Cowgirls, 10” and 12” Slammer Deep Minnows and 10” Deep Shad. Crow is a VERY vertical lake, so make sure your leaders are at least 48” long or longer for trolling.

The price for the Moonlight Muskie Outing is $400USD. Rental boats and guides are also available. To book your trip, contact Paul or Chris Trinkner at Muskie Bay Resort at 1-800-363-3379. A $100 deposit is required. For more information, contact Brett Erickson at Thorne Bros at 763-572-3782 or brett@thornebros.com

I should stop by to at least do a meet and greet considering I live in Kenora, and work in the Sioux Narrows and Nestor Falls area.
Seems like you guys spend a fair amount of time in Sunset country

Stop on by and say hi. Might not be a bad idea to call ahead first and find out when we might be in (dinner) as we will be all over the place and out at all hours.

Just got home at 2am this morning from Canada. First half the week I was at Muskie Bay and at Rough Rock the second half. Fish are moving good, but not hitting really solid yet. Lots of short hits. Luke and his buddies got a couple of upper 40"ers on the Wave Walker creepers after dark on Crow and I boated an upper 40" on a Llungen-tail. Lots of hits on Reef Hawgs, but nothing hooked up good yet. Tried a fly rod for the first time for muskies. Didn't get any (they wouldn't even look at it!) but did get a 40" pike. Kind of cool, but man does it feel awkward fighting them on a fly rod.

Out of all of us, I spend the most time in Canada. Luke, Steve and Murph are all guides here in Minnesota and only get up there on their vacations. We all pretty much fish out of the same locations (Muskie Bay Resort, Rough Rock Lodge, Andy Myer's Lodge, Sandy's Blackhawk Island Camp), it's just that some of us burn a lot more gas running around up there!!! 6 more days and I'll be back up and they should be hitting a little better. Weeds really shot up in the last 4 days.

Look forward to meeting you,
Brett Erickson