It’s been one of the better weeks of muskie fishing since I can remember. In fact, it’s been the best I’ve experienced in the Northwoods in all of 2013! Due to the recent cool down, water temperatures on area lakes have finally fallen below 60 degrees, and turnover on the smallest waterbodies (300 acres or less) has finally begun!
I gave up bass fishing last weekend. It was time to call it quits but I still may give deep water jigging a try for some of the biggest fish I can find. I think I made the right choice in quitting bass for the most part as I’ve boated nine muskies in the last five days. Followers are few, but strikes are plentiful for my boat partners and I. The fish are aggressive and on the prowl to feed.
Rubbers (Curly Sues) and crankbaits (Cisco Kids) ripped through and over the weedgrowth has been catching majority of my fish. However, a good number are also taking glide baits (Softail Phantoms) and jerkbaits (Suicks). As for the livebait fishing, however, I have yet to catch a single fish on a live sucker on the quick strike rig. Fish are picking them up, but many baits are being dropped prematurely without allowing reaction time for a strong hook-set. This form of fishing will drastically change, and improve, as water temperatures keep dropping.
Throughout this week I’ve fished just about everywhere except the flowages and rivers, but have fished a combination of action and trophy lakes throughout the Minocqua, Boulder Junction, and Saint Germain regions. Feeding windows (sometimes very ferocious ones) are occurring between 730am and lasting until 12pm. The hour between or after moon-set has been phenomenal, and is a must-fish period for everyone. I suggest everyone on getting their asses out of bed by 630 am on a daily basis in order to get to the lakes at a respectable hour. Additionally, the moonrise bite during late afternoons and evenings has yielded great catches as well, along with immediately after dark. Meanwhile, the midday bite has been virtually non-existant, and is better suited for quick explorations or travel to the next lake on the hit list to be fished during late afternoon through evening/night. Note that many areas and spots are containing multiple fish at this time. So if you catch one fish from a certain area, you can either expect immediate action from another in the same area, or close nearby.
Early in the week before the cooldown took place, I focused heavily on shallow dark waters. Water temperatures then were still in the yucky range of 64-66 degrees, and weather was sunny and windless. At these places, most of the habitat is found in the shallows, so I focused on fishing the shallow slop areas by keeping the boat in 1 to 2 feet at most. I caught muskies on topwaters and my homemade orange flashabou double-8 bucktails. The best was a pair of 38 and 44 inchers caught within 40 minutes of each other. I could have had the hat trick had a possible 40 incher not sliced right through my leader and entire rig.
44″ – musky prostitute bucktail
Since the dark waters of last week, I progressed onward to my clearer lakes. Some have been producing exceptionally and surprisingly well while others yet haven’t. Luckily I’m here for another two weeks and I know they will improve. I’ve been scoring both numbers and sizes from some of these places. Here is a sampler:
Unmeasured…. weighted Suick
36″ – Shack Attack Curly Sue
38″ – Cisco Kid deep diver
Recently in others news, I fished our fall club tournament with the Minocqua, WI based Northwoods Muskies Inc. I teamed up with my good buddy and musky tournament partner, Steve Peterson, and we hit the Presque Isle region. Participating anglers had the option of fishing four different lakes and live bait fishing was allowed.
Neither Steve nor I had ever fished this region before as it is a 120 mile round-trip for us from Saint Germain/Minocqua, but after some suggestions from friends and individual research we settled on fishing one of the smaller lakes that is known for numbers and had the possibility of kicking out a nicer one. I had a contour map of the lake and circled five areas for us to heavily concentrate on and establish patterns on. These areas were all rock oriented, and they were fished successfully as muskies were contacted. However, we had troubles setting the hooks into them with our glide baits. However, the surprise of the day occurred from an area that was not circled on the map; a deep slot with junk weed next to reeds. Second cast in with a 6 inch curly sue ripped back over the weed tops, the first place catch of the tournament (43.5″) was boated after a powerful fight. All of our action on this soaking wet day took place immediately after we launched at 8am, and lasted past noon.
Thank you Steve for the fantastic net work with the Frabill!
At 10am, we called and reported the fish to tournament headquarters. It was the first catch reported. Because our chapter is comprised of many members who are talented and successful tournament anglers I was skeptical that this would be the best catch of the day. Although Steve and I needed to catch one more number to ensure a win, no other fish was boated by us. All total, six muskies were caught with the next largest, a pair of 39 inchers. The 200 plus acre lake we fished on yielded four of the six fish caught. By 4pm, victory by Peterson & Ragas was had!
I would like to thank outing organizer Bryan Schaeffer, club president Mike Sasse, events coordinator Brent Kiedrowski, and marketing director Pete Stoltman, for putting together a fun event for local and regional anglers to assemble and competitively fish for bragging rights and prizes. The camaraderie and accommodations of the Presque Isle Yacht Club made this day enjoyable and one to remember.
If anyone is interested in joining a club that is serious with its fishing, and helping area fisheries with research and conservation I encourage all to become members of Northwoods Muskies!
I’m here for two more weeks. It’s nice to wake up early every morning knowing that you’re going fishing somewhere. I encourage all to do the same, at some point whether it’s for a day, or a full month.
Till next week. I will start seeking trophies this week.
