Tenth post,
December, 6, 2013
Musky Fishing In Rivers
You can find some of the biggest and hardest fighting fish in rivers. The Ontario record was caught in the moon river for instance. Because the fish are constantly swimming against current they develop strength almost as if they are a different breed. Fishing in rivers provides a new challenge, new technique, and new thrills.
The best thing I enjoy about river fishing for Muskie as appose to lakes is the fight the fish provide. As stated earlier because of the current 24 hours a day 7 days a week they are stronger.
Rivers contain different features than a lake, in a lake you may find the fish on a point connecting a bay to the basin area or a mid-lake hump. Larger rivers I key in on areas such as large deep pools, slower eddies, narrows, luscious weed cover, Islands, and where rivers open up into lakes or just widen.
Some first spots I look for are narrows and islands. The first spot I look for is a narrow, bait fish school up drawing in the big ones. Another first spot I look for is an island they provide shelter and slower water attracting fish. These primary spots usually will hold more fish because of the abundance of bait fish.
Some secondary spots I like to try are pools, back waters and eddies, and areas where thick, luscious weeds grow. Deep pools attract fish as they have lake like characteristics; the faster water is closer to the surface so they can have well oxygenated slow water with an abundance of baitfish. The second, secondary spot is where the river widen, opposite from where the river narrows, when the river opens the water slows down, most of the fish I have caught come from these areas. A third secondary spot in rivers is dense weed cover, bait fish use this for protection and the Muskie uses it for cover.
All of these spots will attract fish you just have to go with the weather conditions and find the fish. There’s no magical formula for catching Muskie but these river tactics might just help.
December, 6, 2013
Musky Fishing In Rivers
You can find some of the biggest and hardest fighting fish in rivers. The Ontario record was caught in the moon river for instance. Because the fish are constantly swimming against current they develop strength almost as if they are a different breed. Fishing in rivers provides a new challenge, new technique, and new thrills.
The best thing I enjoy about river fishing for Muskie as appose to lakes is the fight the fish provide. As stated earlier because of the current 24 hours a day 7 days a week they are stronger.
Rivers contain different features than a lake, in a lake you may find the fish on a point connecting a bay to the basin area or a mid-lake hump. Larger rivers I key in on areas such as large deep pools, slower eddies, narrows, luscious weed cover, Islands, and where rivers open up into lakes or just widen.
Some first spots I look for are narrows and islands. The first spot I look for is a narrow, bait fish school up drawing in the big ones. Another first spot I look for is an island they provide shelter and slower water attracting fish. These primary spots usually will hold more fish because of the abundance of bait fish.
Some secondary spots I like to try are pools, back waters and eddies, and areas where thick, luscious weeds grow. Deep pools attract fish as they have lake like characteristics; the faster water is closer to the surface so they can have well oxygenated slow water with an abundance of baitfish. The second, secondary spot is where the river widen, opposite from where the river narrows, when the river opens the water slows down, most of the fish I have caught come from these areas. A third secondary spot in rivers is dense weed cover, bait fish use this for protection and the Muskie uses it for cover.
All of these spots will attract fish you just have to go with the weather conditions and find the fish. There’s no magical formula for catching Muskie but these river tactics might just help.
Ninth Post,
December, 4, 2013,
The importance of good electronics
In Musky fishing good electronics like fishfinders and chartplotters are needed, not so important in finding the musky themselves but using your G.P.S. to find features of the lake such as points, shoals, lead ins or using your fishfinder to find bait fish, bottom types, depth and water temperature.
Most new Fishfinders come with G.P.S. this can be extremely helpful in locating fish because you are able to see the lakes features by just scrolling around on a screen. As long as your G.P.S. chip has the lake on it such as Navionics chips then you can do this feature.
Some early season Muskie holding areas easy to locate on your Electronics are shallow bays dark bottoms such as mud will warm faster drawing in more fish. As the water warms and summer approaches try looking for structure close to those same bays but in deeper water such as a point located off of one of these bays. When fall comes and the fish are stocking up with food you can locate river mouths with your electronics. With your Electronics you can make waypoints and remember these spots
Another great musky locating feature with having electronics is the fishfinder. It is not as important for locating the Muskie’s but it is for locating the Muskie’s food source. Bait fish are easier located with a high tech fishfinder, when you find large quantities of Muskie sized bait fish like perch or panfish but also pelagic fish like Cisco and whitefish. Another feature that will enhance your fishing performance with a fishfinder is your ability to pick apart weed structure; you can locate fish on weed edges or find fish in submerged weeds you would not have seen with your regular eyesight. When fishing the basin area of a lake it is hard to find structure but with a fishfinder you can find small humps or depth transitions your G.P.S. might not have picked up.
On the more high tech units they can have features such as side imaging or structure scan. This will help because it casts a transducer beam down and out so you can see the bottom structure for up to 150 feet on both sides of your boat as you drive. With this bottom features and bait fish are easy to spot out.
For these reasons I use great electronics on my boat.
Above: This is the side imaging part of structure scan, it shows the bottom on either side of your boat
Below: This shows a split screen of all the features you can use at one time |
Above: This shows bait fish in the upper left on structure scan
Below: This is a comparison of regular fishfinder to structure scan, the structure is easier to see on the structure scan (left) but the bait fish are easier to see on regular fishfinder (right) |
Sixth post,
November, 14, 2013
November, 14, 2013
This Musky was caught early July on a large rock shoal with sparse weed cover in around 3-5 feet of water. It was caught on a 4 inch long white spinner bait. the fish itself was 4 inches long.
October, 30, 2013
Third post
There’s the old saying, “big lures big fish”. Although that holds true most of the year sometimes trading your 16 inch jerkbat can be beat by a 5 inch “mini version”. Although large plastic baits like musky innovations “pounder” (which does weigh a pound) or the Musky Mania 14 inch Jake bait are a great choice for a 50 incher, some of the biggest musky I have caught including my personal best 45 incher was caught on a small 5 inch swimbait. Some people may ask why it is true that such big fish would eat such a small lure, I do have some ideas of why though.
The best time to musky fish is in the spring when the season firsts opens in most Ontario waters the season open sometime in early June. The fish are in the shallow bays for spawning, they move to darker bottom bays because the water warms faster with the heat of the sun.
The best time to use small baits for musky is when the season firsts opens, the water is cool so the fish’s metabolism is slow. Because the fish’s metabolism is slowed down they are not interested in the larger meals they are looking for more of a “snack”. Also when the water is cool they may not want to spend their energy chasing around larger forage fish when they could ambush smaller prey, using less energy to get the same amount of food.
Another factor about the spring being the best time to musky fish with small baits is the bait fish are smaller this time of the year, to match the size and profile of the musky’s main food source. When they are up shallow the types of fish they eat are warmer water species such as perch, so perch and fire tiger colours are best.
Another time to use smaller baits is in the heat of summer, when water levels drop and warms. This is another period of the season when the fish’s metabolism slows down and they would prefer to “snack”. Smaller baits may work better this time of the year as they become lethargic and do not want to spend their energy working for something they will not gain anything from.
My tackle of choice for this style of musky fishing is a heavy “flipping stick” bass rod or light musky rods like the St. Croix legend tournament Downsizer. A “flipping stick” bass rod has enough power to handle big fish but in my opinion a light musky rod is better they come in a range from 6’6” to 8’. The Downsizer in St. Croix legend tournament musky is ideal because it is powerful enough to handle large fish yet light enough to use small lures it is a 7’3” rod.
For a reel, I would use a low profile reel, the best two in my opinion would be a Shimano Curado 300E or 301E series (300 is right handed 301 is left handed), or Diawa Lexa 300 size which comes in left or right handed. I would spool both reels with 50 pound braided line with a 80 pound fluorocarbon leader or 30 to 80 pound titanium leader.
Some lures of choice for me would be 4 to 7 inch jerkbaits. Some are Rapala Husky Jerks, Original floaters, and X-raps. Smithwick’s rogue, Megabass vision 110, Lucky crafts pointer and other similar profile baits. Other great downsized musky lures are spinnerbaits, I would recommend terminators spinner baits because of the super strong terminator wire arm, small Bucktails also work well. Some small Bucktails are the Mepps Musky killer or Musky Mayhem Baby girl. Another great early season Musky lure is a mini bulldawg style lure my favourite is the Musky Innovations spring Bulldawg.
Small lures can be great for musky so I would encourage you next spring to try it out.
For tackle talked about in this article images can be found at "Small Lures for musky tackle reference" in the Musky tackle section of this blog.
Third post
There’s the old saying, “big lures big fish”. Although that holds true most of the year sometimes trading your 16 inch jerkbat can be beat by a 5 inch “mini version”. Although large plastic baits like musky innovations “pounder” (which does weigh a pound) or the Musky Mania 14 inch Jake bait are a great choice for a 50 incher, some of the biggest musky I have caught including my personal best 45 incher was caught on a small 5 inch swimbait. Some people may ask why it is true that such big fish would eat such a small lure, I do have some ideas of why though.
The best time to musky fish is in the spring when the season firsts opens in most Ontario waters the season open sometime in early June. The fish are in the shallow bays for spawning, they move to darker bottom bays because the water warms faster with the heat of the sun.
The best time to use small baits for musky is when the season firsts opens, the water is cool so the fish’s metabolism is slow. Because the fish’s metabolism is slowed down they are not interested in the larger meals they are looking for more of a “snack”. Also when the water is cool they may not want to spend their energy chasing around larger forage fish when they could ambush smaller prey, using less energy to get the same amount of food.
Another factor about the spring being the best time to musky fish with small baits is the bait fish are smaller this time of the year, to match the size and profile of the musky’s main food source. When they are up shallow the types of fish they eat are warmer water species such as perch, so perch and fire tiger colours are best.
Another time to use smaller baits is in the heat of summer, when water levels drop and warms. This is another period of the season when the fish’s metabolism slows down and they would prefer to “snack”. Smaller baits may work better this time of the year as they become lethargic and do not want to spend their energy working for something they will not gain anything from.
My tackle of choice for this style of musky fishing is a heavy “flipping stick” bass rod or light musky rods like the St. Croix legend tournament Downsizer. A “flipping stick” bass rod has enough power to handle big fish but in my opinion a light musky rod is better they come in a range from 6’6” to 8’. The Downsizer in St. Croix legend tournament musky is ideal because it is powerful enough to handle large fish yet light enough to use small lures it is a 7’3” rod.
For a reel, I would use a low profile reel, the best two in my opinion would be a Shimano Curado 300E or 301E series (300 is right handed 301 is left handed), or Diawa Lexa 300 size which comes in left or right handed. I would spool both reels with 50 pound braided line with a 80 pound fluorocarbon leader or 30 to 80 pound titanium leader.
Some lures of choice for me would be 4 to 7 inch jerkbaits. Some are Rapala Husky Jerks, Original floaters, and X-raps. Smithwick’s rogue, Megabass vision 110, Lucky crafts pointer and other similar profile baits. Other great downsized musky lures are spinnerbaits, I would recommend terminators spinner baits because of the super strong terminator wire arm, small Bucktails also work well. Some small Bucktails are the Mepps Musky killer or Musky Mayhem Baby girl. Another great early season Musky lure is a mini bulldawg style lure my favourite is the Musky Innovations spring Bulldawg.
Small lures can be great for musky so I would encourage you next spring to try it out.
For tackle talked about in this article images can be found at "Small Lures for musky tackle reference" in the Musky tackle section of this blog.
This 45 inch Georgian bay fish was caught on Sunday November 13 2013 (Picture above). This fish was caught on a terminator half ounce spinner bait tipped with a Berkley Havoc Grass Pig swim bait. The water temperature was 60 degrees Fahrenheit water in 14 feet of water up river of an island.