Western Arm, Bass info

I'll be in the western arm starting next Friday for 3 days and was wondering if anyone could give me some info on the state of bass fishing in the area. I managed to catch a load in North Muskrat Bay so I'll definitely be visiting that area again. I'm not asking for specific locations, just general info like water depth and structure.

Thanks in advance.

Lots and lots and lots of smallies were caught and released during the week of August 10 through 17 in the West Arm.
We had 120 smallies over 15 inches for the week. Good size group of 7
Probably 300 or so in total....
It is a healthy fishery for these scrappers.


Best baits in order were
Senkos.. watermellon green and the pumkinseed with black flecks doing the job.
A few on rapalas... classic floating black and gold...
A few more using number 2 size mepps....Silver or Bronze.
And one (which says more about our ability to use it propperly) on surface frogs...

Look at Jennings Point just north of the Muscrat Bays and then down the shoreline to Merganser Bay ...

We got them in about 4 or 5 feet of water.. surface temps were about 73-74 degrees at the time....

Check out the Rock points .. and there are hundreds of them...along the transition line between the weed bed and the rocks generally hold smallies..

Thanks a ton. The information s much appreciated. I know the region has tons of quality smallies….I've stayed at the same resort twice before. I've been anxious to get back there all season. It's gonna be a fun few days there again!!

So how did it go ?

Im sure you did well.. but brag a little !

So how did it go ?

Im sure you did well.. but brag a little !

It went very well. I was a little concerned when I saw that the water clarity was off (visibility in some parts was only a foot or so), but it didn't seem to shut the smallies down. I spent 3 nights at Memquisit Resort and did most of my fishing within a 15 minute run of there. Quite a few were caught just outside of the resort cove!

I first went back to North Muskrat where I caught 62 largies and smallies in 2 days. It was totally different. With the water level being a foot higher than last year, it was now a 4' massive grass flat. What was totally different though was the grass. Last year, it was about 3-4" below the surface....right now, the grass is about 6" above the bottom. I could see small boulders in 4' where I never saw them last year. I only caught one 18" pike in this area this time.

Your tips were spot-on. About 70% of the smallies that I hooked into were on Senko-type worms on a drop shot. I had a few on small crawfish and one on a creature bait rigged weedless with a ¼oz slip sinker and bobber stop. Other successful baits were a perch-pattern jerk bait and a small popper top-water (the larger one only caught 6 moderate sized pike).

I managed to hook up with 28 smallies, landed 22 in 2 full days of fishing (one day was solid thunderstorms and high winds). No huge weights were caught this time around, but I did manage to land what I thought were identical twins. I landed one smallie on a worm drop-shot that was 4.1lb. By the time I released it, I had drifted 50 yards away from the spot so I had to motor back over there. Threw the same rig in the same area and hooked into another one that looked exactly like the first, but this one was 3.95lb. Not bad on two successive casts!

I've always enjoyed going to this resort, and I'll be back there again next September. Thank you again for your information.

Glad to hear you had a great time on the lake and that Frank and Charlene at Memquisit have a return customer.

Will give those perch pattern raps a go next year as well.

Stay well.