Inner City Muskie Report 8-23-07

With normal water temps finally making an appearance, the metro area Muskies have responded accordingly. The last week or so has shown positive results with numbers of fish being seen. At the beginning of our cool down I was noticing lots of very large fish making their presence known although very few of these fish were in an eating mood. As the cool down has progressed over the last few days of steady weather the fish are becoming much more predictable in their patterns and seem to be on the feed for the first time in quite a while. Here’s a photo of Stingler with a chunky little Calhoun Tiger from Wednesday night ( who says Tigers don’t bite in the evening on big baits) He caught this little fella on a bait we call "Bruce". A frankenbait made from a Storm kickin’ minnow and a Bulldawg mashed together with the cigarette lighter melt technique. If my pal Stingler is kind enough he might just post a picture of Bruce.

Anyway, Stingler and I got out tonight again for a few hours on another lake within walking distance of Calhoun and the results were fantastic for a three hour tour. The hot ticket for the evening was focusing on shallow milfoil flats. Actually, the bite as of late for us has all been way shallower than expected..All the fish we’ve seen and/or hooked up with have come from 6 feet of water or less. Tonights tactics involved casting directly into schools of panfish busting the surface trying to avoid the predators below. Two of three fish this evening were caught in this manner. Here’s another Stingler fish measuring out at 40" caught on a Funky Chicken amonst the Pannies.

After a very hot start and one of the crappiest mid-seasons I’ve ever witnessed the metro bite is once again heating up and should only improve from here on out. I bet I could even catch a fish on good ol’ Cornholio right now!

……And once again here’s another Stingler fish from tonight, a nice 38"er caught on topwater.How many fish can the back of the boat produce in one night? (He should have boated 4, although I can’t blame him for the swing and a miss on a Jackpot) Also on a milfoil flat. The fish really seem to be relating to the barometer right now much more so than the moon phase typical of Muskie huntin’. Watch the weather( clouds and rain are always a plus), look for a steadily rising or falling barometer, and get yer butt out there and try some fine metro fishin’.