Guided Musky Fishing on Lake of the Woods with Drew Cohen

Lake of the Woods holds more than fourteen thousand islands. For a group that gets one week a year, the hardest part of a musky trip isn’t casting — it’s knowing where to start.

A guided musky day with Drew Cohen at Saarela’s Moonlite Bay Lodge is the fastest way to learn this water. Drew guides out of the boat-in lodge on Little Raspberry Island near Morson, Ontario, and a single day on the water with him can set the tone for your whole trip. You can plan it at saarelas.com.

Why hire a musky guide on Lake of the Woods?

A guide turns an overwhelming lake into a short list of spots that are actually holding fish that week.

Without local knowledge, a group can burn two or three days just locating productive water on a lake this size. A guide compresses that search into hours — he already knows which weed edges, rock bars, and saddles are producing, and how the pattern has been shifting. The days you would have spent guessing become days spent fishing. On a trip you only take once a year, that is the difference between a good week and a frustrating one.

Who is Drew Cohen?

Drew Cohen is the resident fishing guide at Saarela’s Moonlite Bay Lodge, and he moved his life to Lake of the Woods to do exactly this.

That is the difference a local guide makes: he reads the water, puts your group on fish faster, and runs a traditional shore lunch over a fire. You can meet your guide on the fishing guides page, and follow his time on the water through his fishing content.

What does a guided musky day look like?

A guided day runs a milk run of proven spots, with Drew coaching the boatside figure-8 where most big musky actually eat.

The day usually starts in the low-light window, working high-percentage structure while Drew reads the electronics and the conditions. He sets up the boat, calls the casts, and walks your group through the figure-8 on every retrieve — the boatside move that turns a follow into a fish. Midday is a traditional shore lunch over a fire, then back out for the evening window. By the end of the day your group has seen how the lake is fishing and why.

What will our group take away from it?

The point of a guided day is not just one fish — it is the structure-reading and boat control your group keeps using for the rest of the week.

You learn which weed bed out of a hundred is the productive one, how to position the boat on a rock bar, and how to work a follow instead of spooking it. Groups that book a guide day early in the trip apply what they learned on their own rental boat for the days that follow. That is why one guided day often lifts the whole trip.

How do we book a guided musky day?

Booking is by phone — call Andrew and Meagan to add a guided day to your trip and match it to your cabin and dates.

Ask how many anglers can fish with the guide per boat, and book the guide day early in the week so your group has the rest of the trip to use what you learned. Stay in one of five island cabins — Musky Manor, Bear’s Den, Beaver Lodge, Loon’s Nest, or Squirrel Lodge — and see current rates, boat rentals, and guide fees.