We’ve got a couple weeks of the musky season under our belts now and so far it’s been a tale of up’s and down’s. The cold spring we experienced left us with stunted weed growth in many of the lakes around the metro area. The early season saying "find green weeds, find muskies" has been very true this year. We’ve really had to dig the fish out of the weeds for most of our good bites this year.
Once we are locating good weed growth it has been crucial to work baits slowly over the tops of the weeds. Glide baits, jerk baits, and straight retrieving shallow dawgs has been the most effective presentation for my boat. This often has us holding our rod tips up in the air and stearing the baits through cabbage tips. Don’t be afraid to get right in the thick of the jungle and rip your baits through to free them up.
Timing has been crucial this year. The first week was cool, cloudy, and sometimes rainy. There seemed to be a good mid-day bite going during this weather. We were getting bites in the 2 hours leading up to moonset. Last week seemed to shift to a mid-morning bite but was much more scattered. Weather has been a huge factor. On cooler years, fish seem to be even more sensitive to fronts and this year is no exception. Before a front moves in, the fish have been active but the following day or two can be extremely tough. It’s tough, but looking at the forecast and trying to pick a day on the front end of weather can make a huge difference right now.
Lastly, I fished with Mike Keyes of Keyes Outdoors and Brad Ruh of Musky Innovations last week to film for Mike’s TV show. We were greeted by one of these nasty fronts on Wednesday morning and ended up getting chased off the water for over 3 hours of non-stop rain and lightning. This effectively shut down the fish for the remainder of the day. The following day we fished in the dreaded post-frontal, high skies weather and were able to grind out a metro beast! You’ll have to tune in to Keyes Outdoors TV show this winter to see how tricked this brute!… As for the coming days, I expect the bucktail bite to pick up as we are now dealing with water temps around 70 degrees. It’s only going to get better! Let me know if you’re looking to get out… I have some openings
Awesome report ryan! Good to see you are still ahead of the bite. Can’t wait to see your starring appearance on the big screen. Haha keep up the good work my friend.
Sweet fishes, and looking forward to the film also. That’s a heckuva gash on that one muskie, ouch!
Joel
Great report and nice fish. I haven’t given ’em much of a shot yet this year. Hopefully soon.
Thanks guys. The bite should really be picking up here… They are biting bucktails now.
Yeah, I’ve seen some beat up muskies in my day… but that was a very large chunk of meat that was bulging out. Pretty wicked stuff. Didn’t seem to slow the fish down.
Great Report Ryan
That 49″ is a beautiful looking fish
Thanks again for giving me a tour of Lake “X”
As for green weeds, that doesn’t seem to be a problem out there
It’s just getting the fish to play nice
Great advise on the green weeds!
Ecspecially this year when it appears that many northern lakes have endured a hefty winter kill on weeds from the extended time of thick ice and deep snow 
Right on Joe, you’re definitely heading in the right direction out there. The fish really seem to be in a transition phase right now.
Yeah Randy, I keep waiting for an open water bite but the fish we’re catching keep coming from the best weed patches in the lake. If they aren’t showing themselves, we just dig deeper into the weeds with our baits.
Very Nice Ryan, I got some lakes out here stocked with the big dogs, but at the moment cant apply the patience.
. Keep on the big toothies, – QB