Casting and Blasting at Temple Bay Lodge

A grouse hunt & trophy fish paradise in Ontario's Sunset Country

By Ty Sjodin Ty Sjodin, co-host of The Ontario Experience TV, has a strong passion for multi-species fishing and hunting.

April 12, 2023

Temple Bay Lodge is the type of destination you plan to visit at least once a year, but two or three times would be much better! To describe Temple Bay Lodge, it’s a pristine paradise deep in the woods of Sunset Country, Ontario. The beautiful lodge is a short two-hour drive from the International Falls and Fort Frances border to the doorstep of the most incredible grouse hunting and trophy multi-fishing destination that will have you coming back every year. An unforgettable experience!

Eagle Lake is a naturally reproducing lake and home to some of the best (if not the best) trophy musky, pike, walleye, and smallmouth bass I’ve ever experienced! Plus, their waters are home to a huge population of eater-sized walleyes perfect for the frying pan. I’ve been to Eagle Lake multiple times, and every trip has included at least one fish of a lifetime and plenty of shore lunch opportunities. Talk about winning!

If you’re looking for a grouse hunting adventure, Temple Bay Lodge offers a great experience with hundreds of miles of logging roads, back roads, and walking trails within minutes of the lodge. This region has a great population of grouse with many days, depending on your shot, leading to a limit of grouse by lunchtime. Flushing those tasty birds is a great way to spend time with your favourite four-legged hunting partner along with family or buddies.

An advantage of visiting Ontario’s Sunset Country during the fall is the “cast and blast” opportunities. Spend a couple of days grouse hunting and fishing—or spend time flushing and shooting birds part of the day and the other half setting the hook. It’s the best of both worlds in my book!

On my trip to Temple Bay Lodge, I spent every morning chasing after a limit of grouse with my white lab Rikki and my good friend Jeremy Smith from my office at Lindner Media. With the Ontario grouse limit being five per day per person and a possession limit of 15 per person, my dog got her full week’s worth of flushing in and Jeremy and I were able to limit out every day. Jeremy had never shot a limit of grouse before, so that was a really nice experience for him.

By lunch each day, we were ready to get on the water and chase the trophy fish Eagle Lake has to offer. Our main goal on this trip was those elusive huge apex predators, the muskellunge; along the way, we’d go after big pike, smallmouth bass, and walleye. Oddly enough, the musky and pike fishing was much easier than the walleyes, but to be fair, when you’re catching those big toothy giants of Eagle Lake, you’re only focused enough to spend a couple of hours catching walleye after walleye. It was without a doubt the most amazing musky fishing I’ve ever experienced. We boated eight giant muskies during our stay and added five big pike, along with a few smallmouth and lots of eater-sized walleye.

On this fall trip, in terms of winning presentations, we primarily cast and trolled with Rapala Super Shad and Storm FlatSticks. These baits both do double duty on Eagle Lake’s musky and pike. The smallmouth bass and walleye all came on Rapala #7 Jiggin’ Raps, and we switched out the treble hook with the new VMC Bladed Hybrid Treble, which was the ticket.

Temple Bay Lodge offers customers very comfortable 17’ Lund Boats with 40 hp electric start motors, depth finders, swivel seats, and live wells. In addition, they offer guided 20’ cruiser boats. If you’re hardcore and want to bring your own boat with all the gear you own, that is an option too.

Temple Bay Lodge is its own self-contained little town, with unique old-fashioned lampposts and street signs to guide you around. The lodge offers a tackle shop for your fishing needs and a gift shop for snacks, drinks, pizza, and ice cream. Overlooking beautiful Eagle Lake, you will enjoy your meals in the “Angler’s Dining Room,” where your meals will be prepared and served by their experienced and friendly cooks and wait staff. You can enjoy a breakfast buffet each morning before ordering your main breakfast from their menu. Their newly redesigned dinner menu features everything from BBQ ribs to roasted chicken and all the fixings. The meals are top-shelf and you won’t go hungry!

All the cabins at Temple Bay are fully modern living with single beds (queen beds for couples), full washrooms, air-conditioning, and wi-fi, along with refrigerators, microwaves and coffee makers.

To wind down, you can sit around the fire pit area or enjoy their game room with a pool table and other games, or sit around and enjoy a beverage of choice at the spacious Jigger’s Pub.

The lodge is positioned in a perfect location—you can catch fish minute from the dock! Everything from musky and pike to walleye and smallmouth can be caught in numerous locations close to the lodge.

Eagle Lake isn’t short on fishing locations and consists of over 68,000 acres of water with countless islands, points, channels, rock humps, and reefs. It would impossible to fish every spot on the lake, but it’s sure fun to try!

If you’re looking for a lodge with amazing trophy fishing and fantastic grouse hunting that offers exceptional and friendly service and hospitality, where each guest is catered to from the day of arrival until the day you leave, Temple Bay Lodge needs to be on top of your list! Give hosts Jeff and Marieanne Moreau a call. I know I’ll be back again next year!

Ontario Musky Fishing Trips

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About Ty Sjodin

Ty Sjodin is the co-host of The Ontario Experience airing on The Sportsman Channel, The Sportsman Channel—Canada, and the World Fishing Network (WFN). He enjoys traveling across Ontario, experiencing everything the province and lodges have to offer—including the amazing hunting and multi-species fishing! Ty can’t remember when he wasn’t outside fishing or hunting, but it was about the same time he started to walk. He has a strong passion for the outdoors that was instilled in him by his father and has been shared with his older brother to this day. That is the same passion he now shares with his son, Tyson. Ty spent his college years earning a Business Management / Sales Degree at Bemidji State University, while feeding his obsession of being outdoors in a boat, on the ice, on his bow hunting stands, in the duck blind or shooting grouse. Getting his start in the fishing industry, Ty went to work for In-Fisherman joining the Lindner’s in 1998 to sell everything from TV, print and digital advertising as well as working with and promoting the In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trial (PWT). After 10 years he moved on to sell TV and digital advertising in the hunting industry as well as fishing for Babe Winkelman Productions for the next 6 years. Ty has come full circle rejoining the Lindner’s once again, now at Lindner Media Productions handling the multi-media sales efforts as well as some on-camera talent.