Muskoka lakers, scarce as hens' teeth!

Has anybody else found it  tougher than usual fishing Lake Joe and Rosseau this year? My 2 buds and I have caught far fewer than prev years. In fact, on some days we have hardly marked any fish. We can usually count the strikes one person gets per day on one hand. Three fish each is the best we have done. On the worst day we caught just 1 fish. I'm a bit puzzled by this. Has there been a population crash?

I was up to joe last week 4 days in a row and it was on fire but mostly small fish where im fishing...marking lots of bait with most fish caught on bottom either before or after the bait rolls through....probably iced 30 plus fish between two or three of us in the 4 days...the biggest about 6lbs...stayed late one day and got two ling after dark, the biggest was 27in...most fish caught in 60 to 70fow..but nothing really hitting hard or chasing...most fish was caught a foot off of bottom with jig n minnow or a buckshot n minnows....did have one hit a williams while my buddy was trying to fish up his auger that found bottom after his drill attachment broke off...thought he got the auger but it was a fish....good times.
Heading up again in the morning ill let you know how thing go.

Happy fishing folks.

Our group of guys is experiencing the same this year. The fishery definitely has taken a hard hit. Hopefully mnr adjusts things based on the crazy amount of extra pressure recently before the lake crashes to unrecoverable levels.

My uneducated opinion is that fish are shallower this year. At least in my area, many numbers in shallow this year. 20-40fow. Guys fishing the rock piles near the edge of flats and near deep water in my area. Not any specific lakes, whichever lakes they happen to be on, that’s the preferred structure. Maybe an abundance of a certain type of feed is his year, or a lack of other feed in the usual areas, or late freeze and higher oxygen. Lake I usually fish has completely different bait patterns this year than I’m used to, and seemingly different bait even though the last 5-6 years pretty consistent in terms of bait behaviour. Who knows. I would of course assume more fish being harvested than reproducing is likely the cause on those lakes. There are no shortage of lakers storming through on my graph, getting them to chomp seems a bit trickier though this year.

You can thank the internet for what’s happening. Even though these are larger lakes, they are getting absolutely hammered compared to even a few years ago. I drove by one launch on lake Joe last week on a Wednesday, and it was full of trucks and trailers and right out to the road. I’ve lived here my entire life, and never seen once than about 4 trucks there on a weekend, and almost nobody on a weekday.
These aren’t put and take lakes like Simcoe. They’re northern, naturally reproducing trout, and they take a long time to grow. Even a bigger lake like the muskokas can only have so much taken out of it before it can’t keep up with reproduction and growth. 20 years ago we’d get some monsters out there, and a much better average size fish, and hardly see another angler. Nowadays, I don’t even go out to those spots, winter or summer.

I live 6 mins away from rosseau and have been experiencing this the last 3 ,4 years. I fished rosseau a few times last year but didn't even catch a laker in the summer. I ended up switching to another lake and have found success with walleyes. Like seguin fisher said propably too much pressure. I Don't bother with the big lakes anymore I have found results elsewhere.

The only exception to what I said about lack of marks was on Feb 2, a totally miserable day to be fishing. Worst slush ever, windy, then snow so we called it early. Lots of marks, not many hits but I think we managed 5 or 6 small ones.

We have fished 4 different areas, usually 60-80 ft with similar results. The first day may have been a bit shallower but not much---maybe 50 ft. Maybe the extended open water season affected the feeding pattern.

Even though we have seen few people this year, I suspect the pressure has been a lot higher during Covid. I know that trying to book a site in a Provincial Park in the summer has been a real challenge. The hiking/walking trails in our local PP have been a lot busier. I guess all local outdoor activities have been more popular when travelling has been discouraged and more difficult in general.

Well we had a late start today on the ice by 9 off by 1...iced 8 fish lost 6 and kept 2 about 2lbs each for dinner....not a bad few hours fishing...most hooked and lost by a chartreuse jig n minnow...one cought on a buckshot and another on orange jig...slow day....12in of ice where i was.
Happy fishing folks.

We had a slow start on Rosseau today, countless fish on the graph and VERY light bite. Iced one very small Laker at 9 am then nothing till noon when we caught this male and female 27&28" Laker. After noon, not a single fish on the graph. Beautiful day to be on the ice though!

Small Laker returned to the lake

wow--That's a lot of fish for such a short time. I bet you marked that spot!

How deep were you fishing? Minnows or lures? thx

Nice fish. That last one is closer to the size we have been catching.

We were in 45'. Just minnow on a treble and split shot 12" up.

wow--That's a lot of fish for such a short time. I bet you marked that spot!

How deep were you fishing? Minnows or lures? thx

About 70fow...chartreuse jig and minnow bounced off of bottom was the winner.
I get about foot n a half dead zone on my sonar from the slope i fish on so most fish weren't marked at all.

Heres a few we kept last week...the smallest was hooked through the eye so we kept that also.