November Muskies

November is here and we’re getting down to the bitter end of musky season. Short, cool days can be tough on the mind and body when you’re out heaving giant baits into the water. Some days it’s easy to start wondering if the muskies have moved south for the winter or if the fall feed is still on. Although feeding windows can be extremely short, muskies WILL be eating baits all the way to the end of the season/ice up. It can be tough to press on some days if you’re not seeing fish and the weather is less than desirable but when a hungry musky shows up the rewards can be gigantic…

This time of year everything you know, hear, or read about fall can be multiplied about 3 times. Fish slow in fall… Fish even slower in November. Feeding windows can be much shorter and bait fish can be balled up even tighter and tougher to find. This doesn’t mean it’s time to hang it up… To me, it means that I want to nail down the answer to two of the essential variables in catching muskies. Timing (feeding windows) and finding baitfish. Once I’ve figured out these two key variables, I will then fish slow and methodically. Most fish this time of year are still eating bulldawgs in my boat. Suckers are also a very efficient way to boat fish. Once the water gets below 40 degrees, suckers can outfish artificials by a great margin.

Last week I had Matt, a repeat client that I’ve had in my 3 times this year. Matt and I always have a great time fishing and he had gone 2 for 2 on his prior trips with 46" and 40". I was feeling pressure to get him the hat trick. We started out by moving fish almost right away in the morning. None of the fish we were moving early in the day really seemed to be all that interested. As the day wore on, the fish seemed to be a bit more squirlly as they would follow our baits around a couple times in the "figure 8". Boatside maneuvers are always fun this time of year with the crystal clear water… We did find one small spot that seemd to be holding the same fish pretty much all day. We hit this spot right at sunset. I had the fish follow my Double Dawg in, I slowly figure 8’ed until Matt brought his bait in. I then lead the fish behing the boat around the motor and over toward his bait for the "hand off". It kind of worked. The fish followed Matt’s bait around a couple of times and then slunk down out of sight. It wasn’t over at this point… We tried another spot for about a half hour with no luck and then returned to this fish that we were getting to know pretty well by this point. We fished through quickly, I told Matt that I’d just have him take about 10 casts and then we’d head in. It was dark and not getting any warmer. After a few casts, Matt announced that he had 2 casts left in him and asked where I wanted them. I flipped the boat around because I wasn’t completely satisfied how the boat drifted over the spot… I then pointed in the direction of the deep rocky finger that protruded out from a large weed flat. On the first cast of Matt’s remaining two, he had the fish come charging up on his bait. Like good musky fishermen do, Matt saw this even in the dark and made a perfect "L" turn at the boat and hooked the fish! A few good head shakes later and she was in the net. Hat Trick! Good way to end the day. Nice job Matt.

One more thing I notice this time of year is that the later you get, the better it is to fish on "nice" days. Good weather isn’t always conducive for catching fish, especially muskies. November is one time of the year, along with the first few weeks of the season, where calm sunny and above average temps can really get the fish snapping. This is nice for Mr. Musky Hunter as well, because let’s face it Fishing in 30 degree weather with 25 mph winds can be a little tough…

Good luck to everybody the rest of the musky season! If anybody is looking to get out one last time and catch a fat fall musky… Let me know. I have a few days open over the next couple of weeks.