Lake Willoughby First Timer

[Jack1972]

Okay I hope it's okay to ask about open water fishing on this forum because I'm heading to Willo Labor Day weekend. Going to a wedding but hope for some free time. Probably staying at Willoughvale right on the water. Can I expect to catch anything decent in the salmon family from the dock or do I need to score a rowboat?

[rbobby]

Yes you can catch salmon from shore. Bobber and night crawler.

[Cascade77]

From the Willoughvale's website:

"The WilloughVale Inn has 1 double kayak, 2 single kayaks and 4 canoes available first-come/first served at no charge with a 2 hr limit."

[IPflagkickr]

I know someone who works there. Last May we were running lines out from shore with a boat and my son caught a 17.6lb. Laker. We caught a few running 5-8lbs. The picture is blown up inside the Willoughvale

[TRT]

Labor day weekend will have warm water around Willoughvale. The lake is shallow near the inn. You are going to need to get offshore at dawn/dusk and get down 30 feet to find the thermocline. Suggest light line floro and either a small fly or nightcrawler and you have a chance. I have access to a camp next lake over and there is nothing prowling the shallows till it cools off in Oct. There are perch off the dock at Willoughvale.

[Jack1972]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll have to try scoring one of the canoes as I could do without perch.  Probably try a crawler on one line & do some bottom jigging with another.

[fishingidjit]

Pay close attention to the wind as you might get blown across the lake!

[thefishingweatherman]

If I were you I would get a canoe and a finder and jig in 100 to 50 feet of water for lake trout that time of year. They will be around, especially near where streams come in. Salmon and rainbows will be up higher in the water column, but are tougher to catch unless you are trolling, at least in the late summer.

[Ice-n-Snow]

If I were you I would get a canoe and a finder and jig in 100 to 50 feet of water for lake trout that time of year. They will be around, especially near where streams come in. Salmon and rainbows will be up higher in the water column, but are tougher to catch unless you are trolling, at least in the late summer.

What he said.  He knows his stuff. 

[Jack1972]

If I were you I would get a canoe and a finder and jig in 100 to 50 feet of water for lake trout that time of year. They will be around, especially near where streams come in. Salmon and rainbows will be up higher in the water column, but are tougher to catch unless you are trolling, at least in the late summer.

  Will give that a shot. I won't have a finder with me but hopefully will have enough cell reception so Navtronics will work for me for approximate depths. Looking more forward to hitting that lake than I am my nephew's wedding that Saturday. Is that wrong???

[thefishingweatherman]

Nice! A finder will help immensely, but it's not impossible to jig up lakers without them. I wouldn't count on cell reception there, but you can download maps onto your navionics app before hand. Haha, maybe your nephew could skip his honeymoon to fish for a while with you? Is that wrong? Haha.