I spent the first week of November guiding on a few lakes in West Central Minnesota. November is trophy time and these are trophy waters that we’re fishing on. So naturally, the expectations are to catch the biggest fish of the year. This all sounds really good in the planning stages, but when you realize just how short the feeding windows for muskies can be this time of year, the pressure to produce a trophy bite can start to mount. Short days and fridgid conditions can make things tough but we’ve all heard the cliche’… “The rewards can be huge!”
Experience is one thing that my boat has on it’s side. I’ve been fishing this area of Minnesota in the fall for many years. The late fall patterns will usually hold some consistency from year to year… Even on a screwy year like this one, the fish seem be using some of their old haunts. This happens to be in weeds like cabbage and coontail. Fishing methodically through the weeds with suckers or big rubber was what produced the best results for us.
We are seeing a lot of action with large suckers dragged behind the boat on Stealth Tackle quick strike rigs. In general, we’ll drag a large sucker in the 16″ to 20″ size range about 50 to 60 feet behind the boat. I’ll put a large slip bobber about 5 to 10 feet above the sucker which has 1/2 to 1 oz of weight on the line directly above the quick strike harness. We had our best fishing in 10 to 12 feet of water with the suckers hanging pretty high in the water.
Lastly, A new bait that has been making a little noise in my boat this year is the Underdawg from Musky Innovations. This bait is very similar (in appearance) to the Double Dawg. However, the two tails are split vertically rather than horizontally. This, coupled with the fact that there are extra weights in the body of this bait, makes it a fast dropping bait and a deadly presentation in late fall. This bait will be available this winter at the musky shows in the Musky Innovations booth. I recommend grabbing one or two!
I will be guiding in this area again next year in September and again in Oct/November. Contact me to get more information about scheduling a trip. Ryan 651-206-8767