Musky fishing continues to be steady this week even as we change patterns and techniques. I’ve done a bit of lake jumping and tried a few different things to find some fish this week as we transition into the heat of summer. Last week was more of a speed thing, burning bucktails like windowmakers and cowgirls through weed flats and down weedlines was definitely getting reaction strikes high in the water. We have still seen a few fish doing this lately but this week has been more about slow rolling these big bladed bucktails and fishing bulldawgs over deep weeds.
Finding deep weeds has been a key in finding fish the past couple of days and will continue to be vital as the surface temperatures sky rocket with this current heat wave. I prefer to use bucktails in low light periods, including cloudy skies, while I have had better luck with bulldawgs and other large plastics when the sun is shining bright. We have been seeing fish on a “pull/pause” ripping technique as well as straight retrieves with these large plastics. However the fish that have been more prone to eating baits have been enticed by the erratic “ripping” retrieve.
Timing has been all over lately. Morning has been decent but we saw fish steadily through out the day yesterday and actually had it slow down a bit towards sunset. This could be due to heavy boat traffic during these busy evenings that summer has to offer. As we heat up there is no doubt that there will be a good night bite coming. Sometimes this might not get going till several hours after the sun goes down and the lake quites down.
A couple things I’ve noticed is that fish are already starting to be a little leary of coming into the warm surface water when following baits up to the boat. This means deep figure eights, there is nothing wrong with dipping your rod in the water all the way up to the cork handle to keep the bait down where the fish are comfortable eating. Also, keep your hooks sharp and set the hook on anything when fishing with double bladed bucktails. Fish like to bump these baits and when you rip them away from them and keep the blades turning, they will often times follow the bump up with a strike. Ripping through weeds will have the same effect. We had a real heartbreaker yesterday as a client fought a nice fish all the way to the boat only to have her turn away from the net, get under the motor and shake free…. Oh well, that’s fishing…
Here is another one from this morning. This one couldn’t resist a large double bladed bucktail being slow rolled over deep weeds.
Great Report Ryan
Awesome report ryan! Let me know when you can make it up here for some shield style fishing on the big waters!! Keep up the good work and good fishing buddy!
Thanks AJ. I am guiding this Sunday but I would be more than willing to leave the metro zoo behind on a weekend to come up and fish with ya… Every body that owns a boat thinks they need to take it out at least once in June and July. Can’t wait for late August… Actually I can, cause there will be alot of fish in the boat between now and then… Just wish people knew how to be respectful when on the water… I’ll admit, I had a bad morning…
Gonna take ya up on that offer though…
Also, I forgot to mention that I’ve got a few openings this coming week, so if anybody is staying in town and wants to catch some big muskies… let me know. It’s turning into vampire time so evenings and under the cover of dark should be prime time.
Also, the week following the 4th I have had some cancellations so I’ll have some days open as well….
Let me know if you’re interested
Hot weather but good fishing! Hope to see you fill some of those seats. Maybe a bit less comfortable, but just like ice-fishing the weather extremes keeps the riff-raff out.
Joel
Nice report good details on the trasitioning of bites relating to water temperature changes. – Quintin