Fall Transition Musky Report

The past two weeks has really been a tale of two different weather patterns. The past 6 six days I have really been eating my words from 2 weeks ago… “need a little wind here” was being muttered quite often in my boat at the end of September. Now, in October I am praying the winds will lay down to a steady 15 mph rather than 30mph. Old Mother Nature has a rye sense of humor, doesn’t she?

In the Metro area where I do most of my fishing, I like to refer to the late Sept/early Oct. time period as the “fall transition” period. The lakes are changing and in a lot of cases they are turning over. This time period usually includes algae blooms that are set off by calm sunny weather. Muskies can be scattered and tough to catch through out this time period. Often times muskies are still found shallow but will only follow the bucktails that they would have crushed a week or two earlier. These shallow fish can often be coaxed into eating a glide bait or a jig that makes bottom contact. Topwater isn’t a bad option either. We have had success this year using shallow Bulldawgs in ultra skinny water. Simply straight retrieving these baits has been effective. We were able to take 4th place at the George Wahl Metro Tournament a couple of weeks ago with this method. After raising a few fish on topwater baits, we switched to rubber and my partner Dave stuck a 49″ fish.

If you’ve left your house in the past week, you might have noticed a change in the weather. Blustery, cool, and often times cloud covered has been the theme lately. This has cleared out the green water for the most part and allowed fish to set up on weedlines. With fish on weedlines, we have been putting them in the net using Double Dawgs from Musky Innovations. If you had a chance to read my article in the Oct/Nov issue of Musky Hunter Magazine, this is how we have been catching fish the past few days. It’s happening a bit earlier than it did last year but it’s essentially been the same bite. Straight retrieving double dawgs with very little pull and pause in the presentation.

We have still been seeing and catching a few fish in shallow, so they aren’t all stacked up on weedlines just yet. As the water cools I find it harder and harder to catch the shallow fish. Bottom contact becomes a big part of triggering fish to eat when fishing shallow or deep hard bottom areas. Remember to fish slow and thorough this time of year. Slow down and bounce the bottom on secondary spots as we move deeper into fall… That’s how you trick the big girls!

If anybody is looking to get after some fall monsters, let me know… I have a few days open and will also be taking some trips a little further north to chase fatties!