Late Summer Musky Report

The musky action has been heating up lately in the metro. The bite has been consistently inconsistent, but productive…not sure if that makes any sense, but I’m going with it! What I mean is that we have been catching fish pretty much every day for the last couple of weeks, but they are rarely coming from the same spots or eating the same baits. The rough outlines of a pattern or two have taken shape over this stretch of time and I’ll try to describe them here…

First of all we have been catching some fish in shallow and this seems to only be happening in the mornings. This isn’t uncommon for August. Fish will usually sneak up tight under the cover of darkness and set up on inside weed edges or rock/gravel areas when the nights start to get a little cooler. This is yet another area where 2013 differs from years past; the fish aren’t on these traditional shallow spots but are not far from them. We are catching them right over thick weedbeds (usually milfoil) that on a normal year would be unfishable. Burning small bucktails has been the most popular item on the menu.

Weedlines have started to chip in a little and pull their own weight as well… For a good portion of the year the outer edges of big weed beds will produce some of the best action for us musky nuts. This year weedlines have not been producing like they have in the past and I’ve been neglecting them a bit. In the last week and half though we have put a few fish in the net that have come while casting bucktails and bulldawgs down the outer weed edge.

Finally, while we may be catching fish in 4 feet of water in the morning and another buried in the weeds with it’s nose right on the edge, we are still catching fish over open water and on deep water humps. Bulldawgs and Bondy’s have been the best producers for my boat. I’m not exactly sure how defined the thermocline is this year. Also, with the Autumn-like weather we had at the end of July the surface temps are lower than usual for this time of year. This means that the fish have not necessarily been in any certain depth in the water column. We have had our best success when we are covering different depths with our baits. Once we find a depth where the fish are feeding, we will try to stick with that as our target range with our Dawgs…

The bite has been goofy but about as steady as it has been all year. It’s been kind of nice for clients that don’t have as much experience with musky fishing because we are covering so many different techniques throughout the day. I have a few days open in the next few weeks so let me know if you’d like to get after some big toothies!