(Jimmie Pedersen photo)
January 24, 2025
By Pat Pendergast
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This article appeared in the 2024 Destinations special publication. Click here to purchase .
EDITOR'S NOTE: There are two spots available for a July 18-23, 2025 trip to Epic Narrows Musky Camp. Contact author Pat Pendergast for details.
As a kid growing up in Northern California, I fished mostly for trout and bass. I remember reading stories in Field & Stream and Outdoor Life about muskies devouring whole families of ducks, of muskies being big enough to eat adult muskrats, and of some poor swimmer in a North Woods lake getting attacked by one of these toothy predators. On the West Coast, muskies were definitely not in our wheelhouse, but any fish that ate mammals seemed outrageously cool to me. Fast forward 45 years. When my buddy Derek Botchford called and asked if I wanted to put together a group of anglers to experience Epic Narrows Musky Camp , his new muskellunge fly-fishing program on Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada, I was already in.
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Lake of the Woods (LOTW) is massive, covering an area of greater than 1,700 square miles in Ontario and Manitoba in Canada, and in Minnesota in the United States. LOTW has 65,000 miles of shoreline and roughly 14,500 islands. And perhaps best of all, this immense lake boasts the largest population of muskellunge in the world.
The lake was formed more than 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age, when receding glaciers carved its basin into the granite of the Canadian Precambrian Shield. LOTW has a recorded maximum depth of just over 300 feet. The shoreline and islands are covered in dense forests of quaking aspens, paper birches, jack pines, white spruces, black spruces, and balsam firs. Wildlife sightings are frequent, and include otters, beavers, Canada geese, mallards, loons, and bald eagles. The forests are also home to whitetail deer, moose, black bears, elk, foxes, and wolves.
Lake of the Woods is steeped in history. The first explorers were military officers, fur trappers, and French voyageurs, along with trading enterprises such as the Hudson’s Bay Company. The first known European history of Lake of the Woods began in 1688 when Jacques de Noyon traveled from Quebec and paddled the lake’s waters. It wasn’t until 44 years later that a French Canadian military officer, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, along with 50 men, ventured into northern Minnesota and found native populations of Cree, Monsonis, Assiniboine, and Sioux—the latter not having been driven out yet by the Ojibwe coming from the East. Gaultier de Varennes and his men engaged in frequent skirmishes with natives, and they were eventually killed. There are now two islands on LOTW named Massacre Island.
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It was not until 1832 that a commission of U.S. and Canadian officials started to establish the international boundary lines on the lake, and both nations did not agree on the northernmost border point until the 1920s. By the mid-1880s, towns and villages were established around Lake of the Woods. Kenora, the closest town to Epic Narrows Musky Camp, was originally called Rat Portage, and officially renamed in 1905. Kenora is Ojibwe for “place of the muskrat portage.” The Ojibwe name for Lake of the Woods is Pikwedina Sagainan , meaning “inland lake of the sand hills.”
The southern end of LOTW historically had a strong population of sturgeon, and I suspect the Native Americans hunted these with spears. In the late 1800s it was reported that two thirds of the world’s caviar was from LOTW sturgeon in the Rainey River area of Minnesota.
Lake of the Woods has been a famous sport-fishing destination for more than 100 years. Throughout the 1920s it was the top destination for trophy muskies among both U.S. and Canadian anglers. Even during the Great Depression things didn’t slow down. In 1929 Lake of the Woods got its first world-record muskie, weighing in at 53 pounds. Two years later that was beaten by another LOTW musky weighing 56 pounds, and that was again beaten by a 58-pounder in 1932. This changed a few more times until 1949, when a 69-pound muskie was recorded in Wisconsin (though many people doubt that record’s validity).
Today, LOTW is a popular retreat for boaters, fishermen, hunters, and vacationers. Interestingly, the Safeway in Kenora is the only grocery store I have seen that has a parking lot and also 20 or more slips on the water where folks buying groceries can tie up their boats. You gotta love it.
Epic Expansion Derek Botchford grew up in Canada, just outside Toronto. Like most kids, he spent his summers catching sunfish on local ponds. When not outside, he scoured fishing magazines, gawking at photos of huge fish, including the mythical creatures called muskies. But he was also magnetically attracted to steelhead. Botchford became a fishing guide and eventually joined forces with partners Steve Morrow and Dave Page to create the company Epic Waters Angling . They started with British Columbia steelhead lodges on the Babine, Bulkley, and Haida Gwaii and grew to include programs in Alaska and Labrador.
In 2019, low- and warm-water closures in the Pacific Northwest began to dominate the news, and Botchford started exploring fishing options for fish species that were actually doing better with climate change. His passion for muskies quickly resurfaced, and Botchford was immediately drawn to Lake of the Woods. He wanted to fish for native fish and wanted a waterway that was relatively shallow. LOTW has extensive shallows and has more than 14,000 islands to explore and provide cover from the wind.
After two years of exploration, the inaugural season was set for 2021. All the 16 guests that year had daily encounters and everyone hooked at least one of these notoriously difficult fish. Many guests landed several specimens, and every single one of them returned the following year. The only true litmus test for a great angling destination is whether folks will return, and since 2019 they have enjoyed an 85 percent return rate and a growing following.
Lake of the Woods has an interesting feature in that half the lake is clear, and the other half is very tannic. The lodge is located halfway between the clear and the tannic waters. It creates the perfect mixture. The clear water allows fish to see the fly from farther away, while the colored water provides security and the advantage of ambushing prey.
The main lodge is a 2,500-square-foot lakeside house, and offers a mix of shared and private rooms for six anglers a week. Chef Peter and his partner Lindsay work full-time with Epic Waters Angling , also spending part of the year at Babine Steelhead Lodge, Copper Bay Lodge in Haida Gwaii, and Bulkley Basecamp.
(Jimmie Pedersen photo) With seven years of providing anglers with excellent cuisine, they strive to blow away everyone’s expectations every night. Their style is elevated comfort food with every dish made from scratch. It’s creative and refined, but never pretentious.
The coveted Outpost Camp is located on a spectacular five-acre private wooded island in the most remote reach of the lake, called French Narrows. This area of the lake is far from any cottages and boat traffic, and has a high density of muskies. At French Narrows, the lake necks down, increasing the current flow and producing seams upstream of islands and back eddies on the downstream sides—perfect ambush water for lurking muskies.
The beautiful, hand-crafted log building was built in 1937 and has hosted muskie anglers for nearly 100 years. The two-story log cabin has three single rooms upstairs, one single and a triple room downstairs, two full bathrooms, a covered porch, kitchen, dining room, and living room. Old sporting art, including skin mounts of muskies along with moose and whitetail heads, decorates the walls—typical of a turn-of-the-20th-century Canadian North Woods lodge. Each Epic Waters Angling guest has the opportunity to spend two nights at the Outpost Camp and explore a full two days in this seldom-fished area of the lake.
Prime Season After the muskie opener, usually in mid-June, the guides start fishing prime post-spawn water, targeting structures such as downed trees, rock ledges, and granite outcrops that form ideal ambush points. Ideally, they prefer to see water temperatures in the high 60s to mid-70s Fahrenheit.
After a couple of weeks, they follow the muskies out to rocky outcrops closer to deeper water and focus on land points, saddles, and sunken islands. Once you get an idea of where muskies are staging, you can start to search out similar areas to fish.
Many people are surprised to learn that Lake of the Woods has a significant amount of current. It flows north from the Rainey River in Minnesota toward the Winnipeg River and eventually into the Hudson Bay. The flow keeps foraging muskies on the move in search of prey attracted to the current. There are locations that attract transitory fish that are regularly refreshed with new fish, and other spots where the muskies park for weeks at a time. The guides have what they call their “milk run,” a series of key locations where they have recently spotted muskies. They will continually fish these areas until they find a feeding window when muskies are actively hunting prey. They fish only about six weeks of the summer when the fish are most active and aggressive.
(Jimmie Pedersen photo) Fly Versus Gear As long as muskies are holding in less than 6 feet of water, fly rods are equally as effective as conventional gear. The big advantage of gear fishing is the amount of water anglers can cover in a day, about 60 percent more than a fly fisher. However, a fly is extremely effective at grabbing a muskie’s attention, perhaps because it’s something the fish have rarely seen before. Due to the mechanical disadvantages of fly casting, it’s important to select the right water, and cover it methodically with efficient casts.
Each year seems to be different when it comes to successful fly patterns and colors. In 2021, white flies reigned supreme. In 2022, black flies were the most consistent producers, and 2023 was a year for tan-and-gold shad colors. The goal is to find large-profile flies that are easy to cast and display erratic movements while being stripped back to the boat. The standard patterns are Bufords, Hollow Beast Fleyes, and Blane Chocklett T-Bones. A sparsely dressed Buford is the easiest to cast, especially on a two-handed rod, which is a huge advantage when it comes to casting flies between 6 and 12 inches all day long. Big flies equal big fish.
What do muskies eat? Just about anything they want, including yellow perch, which may be the most important forage item. They also eat walleyes, bass, pike, sunfish, suckers, ducks, gulls, muskrats, mice—you name it, they will eat it.
As a bonus, LOTW has an incredible population of smallmouth bass. The smallies often hold in muskie water, so they are caught as bycatch, or you can decide to target them. A few hours of popper fishing for bass at midday provides a great break from the big rods and big flies. They see a lot of bass in the 18- to 19-inch range, and the action can be fast and furious.
An interesting fact about muskies is that the lakes that have the largest muskies also usually have good populations of northern pike. Through evolution, female muskies in lakes with pike lay a lot more eggs—up to three times as many eggs as muskies in lakes with no pike. The hatched muskie fry have to compete a lot harder, and the ones that survive are much more robust than in lakes without pike. The guides don’t typically target pike, but you will usually catch half a dozen a day, with the larger ones getting close to 40 inches. Most of them are on the smaller side.
(Jimmie Pedersen photos) Dipping My Toes On my first trip to Epic Narrows I traveled with five other fly anglers to test our mettle on muskellunge—the largest native freshwater predators in North America. I am not sure we knew what we were getting ourselves into, but we were up for the challenge and the adventure.
To say that muskie fishermen—gear or fly—are a different breed is a gross understatement. I thought permit fishermen were monomaniacs, but muskie anglers take it to another level. Muskie fishing is intense. Every cast, every retrieve, every figure-8 at the boat demands total concentration and maximum focus. Inevitably, it is just when you are getting tired, discouraged, and mesmerized by your 300th cast of the day that mama muskie strikes.
And if you are asleep at the wheel—even on cast number 10,000—you miss your opportunity. You are back to cast number one. It’s exhausting fishing, physically, mentally, and emotionally, but man does it ever have a way of piercing deep into your soul.
We fished very full days, and not on a set schedule. Botchford and his guides feel the best fishing for the biggest muskies comes during moonrise and moonset, sunrise and sunset, which are called majors and minors. Some mornings we were up at four, waking up to coffee and a snack, hitting the water at dawn, then knocking off for breakfast after a few hours. After eating, we pounded the water until noon, then it was back to the lodge for a big lunch and some naptime before heading back out to fish until nine or ten in the evening. Ten to twelve hours on the water each day is what to expect—this fishing is definitely for hardcore monster hunters.
I will never forget the first time I witnessed a muskie follow. The guide was maneuvering our boat around a secluded cove while we blasted casts toward the bank, lobbing our foot-long flies toward trees, boulders, rock ledges, ambush points, and cabbage (underwater vegetation) . On my next cast, like a hundred others before it, I shot my long, white streamer close to a likely looking muskie lair and began an erratic strip back to the boat. Halfway back a huge fish appeared, like a small submarine, floating up from the depths and following lazily. Her tail barely moved, her pectoral fins were fully flared, and her gatorlike head was inches from my fly.
I continued my staccato strip, desperately trying to induce a strike, but Mrs. Muskie never broke stride. With my fly and the great beast now at the boat, I jammed my rod into the water in one continuous move and seamlessly started my figure-8s in hopes of convincing the big girl to attack at boatside. As quickly and effortlessly as she appeared, she vanished, leaving me stunned and shaken, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually destroyed. I was jacked up with adrenaline and, although disappointed, strangely more motivated to get my fly back in the water and duplicate the visceral experience.
In five days of fishing, the six of us did not land a muskie. We fished incredibly hard, and we saw fish every day. We experienced daily knee-rattling “follows” but no eats, and no hook-ups. Our guides were amazing, and dedicated muskie hunters. They are technical in their fishing, always optimistic—cheerleaders, therapists, good watermen—and relentless in their pursuit. They kept our heads in the game and never gave up. I’ve been asked if I would go back, and the answer is a definite, “Yes, in a heartbeat!” I loved every minute of this trip. Lake of the Woods is gorgeous, the accommodations are very comfortable, and the food is off the charts. As one of our guides, Jeremy Seteu, said as he greeted me at the dock returning from a late-night session, “Muskie fishing is hard!”
Yes it is, and that’s why I want to return and personally shake hands with one of these incredible, elusive behemoths.
(Jimmie Pedersen photo) Recommended Gear Most fly fishers at Epic Narrows Musky Camp use 11-weight single-handed rods like the IMX-PRO Muskie or Sage R8 Salt , but many anglers have recently been experimenting with two-handed rods and overhead casts to launch large flies long distances and reduce fatigue. The 10-weight Thomas & Thomas Exocett Surf is a two-handed saltwater rod made for overhead casting and works best with the 11-weight Elite Predator line .
Book Your Destination Epic Waters Angling guests fly to Winnipeg, Canada, and overnight there. In the morning, a shuttle drives you to the small town of Kenora, and it’s a 30-minute boat ride to Epic Narrows Musky Camp , which is located on a private island.
Pat Pendergast is the director of the International Travel Department at The Fly Shop (flyshop.com ). He lives in Redding, California.