Northern Minnesota Muskie Report

Over the last 12 days I had a chance to fish my way across Northern Minnesota. I started this trip on Vermillion, and spent 4 full days hucking baits for the mighty Lunge. From there is was over to our cabin in the Walker area, to spend a week with the family. One thing I have come to learn over the years is that regardless what you plan for, you had better have a back up plan if you expect to find success in the hunt. This trip was nothing short of a lot of change. Change in plans, change in weather, change in wind, a major change in water temps, and almost a change of undies for two grown men. More on that later.

I got to Vermillion on Wednesday afternoon, checked into the Marjo, and hit the water. I was greeted with very nice weather, a dead calm lake, and water temps in the low 70’s. Seeing this I had one thing in mind and that was all the big reef complexes out on the big part of the lake. A run and gun approach was my plan being that the lake was flat. I hit the first reef, and not 10 casts into the trip an absolute tank comes out of no where, and she was HOT and BIG. She follows around a few times on the "8", but to no avail, she sunk back down to the depths. I marked her on the GPS, knowing that I would be back to work her again over the next 4 days, or over the next 40 minutes. I moved on to the next 4 reefs, and could not move a fish. So back to the big girl I went. It only took about 15 casts on that GPS mark and she was back at the side of the boat, charging hard behind my Dunwright. Again, right at boat side she turned away. It was very apparent that she had played this game before, and was not ready to plow into a set of hooks. I worked her for a while, and had her up one more time, but just could not get her to go. I left her alone for the rest of the afternoon, in hopes that I could come back and get at her the next day. From there it was run and gun all over the big lake. I did manage to move some smaller fish in a few places, but never did manage hooks into anything other then some pike. One of the toughest things about Big V, is that every rock complex looks like it should be holding fish, and I would guess on most days this holds true. I focused on a few things when choosing reefs. I was looking for rocks, with deep water adjacent, not hard to find on Vermillion, but the one key factor to seeing fish for me on this trip was to locate reefs with a big feeding shelf on them. This typically was a shallow flat on the reef complex, holding a few weeds in the mix. That was where I saw them! I did spend some time fishing in a few weedy bays, but I did not get really excited about what I was seeing, so it was back to the stones for the balance of the day, and the trip for that matter.

I got on the water early Thursday knowing that I had one more day to find some fish prior to my good friend Mike joining me on Friday. The morning was cool and brisk, and the water temps had dipped a few degrees over night. As I came out of the channel from the Marjo and looked to the West, all I saw was a big wall cloud that looked like it was going to open up and dump on me all day. I turned on the marine radio to see what was on its way. The day was going to be front after front pushing through the area. Some of which they said may be severe. I wasted no time getting the Guide wear on, and preparing myself for what was going to be a wet day. Thursday was a wash in more then one way. The boat got a wash from all the rain, and the fishing was about the same. I must have run off the lake about 4 times that day, trying to out run storm fronts, and some of them were nasty. At days end, I went to bed with hopes that the weather would be a little better for us on Friday, after all Mike was on his way, perhaps he was going to bring us some luck.

Mike got up really early on Friday, to be honest, I was still in bed! Still half asleep, I asked how does the weather look. Mike’s response was "WINDY and WET". That was not what I was dreaming about, but let’s go fishing. We again came out of the channel from the Marjo and more big fronts were hanging to the WNW, and the water temps had dropped even more. We were now looking at water temps in the 64 degree range. We were on the water for about 2 hours prior to the first front of the day pushing through. This front was nasty, big dark clouds, a ton of thunder, and eventually what pushed us back to the Marjo were a few big bolts of lightning. We got back to the Marjo about 10am, and turned on the radar. It looked like we had about a 2 hour wait for this to push through, and then a window of about 3 hours before the next front was going to come in. We waited things out in the room, and we were back on the water around 12-noon. The wind had kicked up with that front, and we were fishing in 2 footers now. We did not run back out to the big lake, instead changed gears and worked some islands. We located some new structure, well new to us, and came across some active fish. We had a few lazy follows, and one 47" that crushed the Dunwright Squirly Tail over some big stones at the end of an island. Funning thing about these fronts, they were strong, there was lot of thunder and lightning, and normally in my experience, that is the kiss of death when Lunge hunting, but not today. After we boated this fish, with not an hour past, we could see the next front showing its ugly head from the WNW. We had moved a few good fish, so we decided to wait it out a while longer. We had the marine radio on, and at one point they had said to get off the lake. Against our better judgment, we decided to say for a few more casts. If you have ever been in the boat with me, you know that I am the man of "One last cast". Big mistake! We had a clap of thunder that honestly rattled my teeth, and not seconds later, a bolt of lightning that had both Mike and I wondering who needed a change of pants first. This lit up the lake, and came close to lighting us up with it. The Opti got the hammer dropped and we were running back to the Marjo, with hopes that we could out run this front. We did, but just barley. Back at the room we turned on the radar again, only to see that the rest of the day was not going to be safe for fishing. So, we had a few beverages and fired up the grill. An early dinner, and off to bed.

Saturday morning was windy, 30+ mph to be exact, so we made a decision to shift gears and go explore the west side of the lake in hopes to hide from the wind. We hit the water, and the fronts were gone, but the wind was almost unfishable, even on this side of the lake. We hit a few bays, found some good weeds, but just could not move a single fish. We both had bad thoughts about what those big storms had done to our active fish. We opted to fish the wind in hopes that we could find the unthinkable active fish. I should mention at this point Mike had been throwing nothing but big blades. We found a really nice rock flat, that was getting pounded by 3-4 foot rollers. This was interesting fishing to say the least, but we kept at it. Riding the rollercosters and hucking, Mike decides it’s time to see the light, and he started pitching big plastic along with me. The very first pass down this reef Mike locks into a fish, however in the wind I did not hear him say anything, until he started yelling…DUDU…DUDE…DUDE at the top of his lungs. I turn around to see this fish has come to the surface; it has its mouth wide open, full of plastic, and hooks, thank God! I get the net, and we scoop her in from the waves. Now comes the fun part. Trying to get hooks out of a fish in 3-4 footers is no easy challenge. About the time you go down with the needle nose into the net, you’re riding the next wave, which has now, pushed you about 2 feet above the fish in the net. We cut hooks, popped a few quick photos, and got her back in the water. She hit the tape at 44" but was just a big fatty. Congrats Mike on a nice fish, DUDE! I will not forget that one for a long time. Sunday the winds were even worse, so we packed up and Mike headed for home and me to the Walker Area.

I spent the next week at the cabin with my family, and had a blast. I got a chance to fish with a good buddy from Grand Rapids for a day. We moved some fish and I lost one that was in the mid 50" right at the side of the boat. I also got to spend some time in the boat with my wife, which we have not had the chance to do in a very long time. The Warden and I got out early while the kids slept in. The morning was wet, but not a lick of wind. We did manage to boat one fish that morning; it hit the tape at 42". We also had some good top water action going, but the walk the dog style baits, yelled not a single hook up on a Lunge, but I got one fat bass. Just shy of 21.75, and my personal best largie.

Happy Hunting and keep huckin!