Northern Minnesota Muskie Report

Over the last week I got to enjoy some quality time with the family up at our cabin, I also got to sneek in some muskie hunting too! The best part of the week was wathcing the kids race turtles in Longville, what a blast. We had some strange weather over the week, which made it interesting to keep the kids entertained, but we made the best of it. Long walks in the woods, rides on the 4-wheeler, swimming when the sun came out, playing fetch with Champ off the dock, topped off with a campfire most nights, is the way the week went. It was a very relaxing week up north with the family, just what the doctor ordered, now toss a few a lunge in the mix, I have to be honest, it was heaven!

When we first got up north and on the water we had water temps in the low 70’s. The weather soon took a major shift and water temps dropped fast. With temps dipping down into the upper 40’s overnight, the surface temps dropped almost 5 degrees in one night. Finding active fish was going to be difficult. I hit a few different lakes in the area, seeing very little, a few fish here and there, but no real patten seemed to be sticking out. We did move a few really big fish during the middle part of the day, but nothing wanted to eat and the follows were low and slow. Sunday through Wednesday were the hardest days of fishing, hucking two full days with nothing to show for it was growing old. We had a major front push into the area and with it came more cold weather and more dropping water temps.

My brother in law got up to the cabin on Wednesday night and our plan was to hit it hard on Thursday through the weekend. We have been out together a lot hucking baits and have yet to have the muskie gods shine on us, until Thursday. The bulk of the fish movement that I had seen earlier in the week was happening very close to moon set, which happened to be late in the day, also noting that at this time of the day, the water temps were at their warmest. Mick and I had two great hours of fish movement, and two very nice 45’s in the Beckman. Mick was the first to score on a fish that we had up to the boat, following around while I was stirring the pot, but it would not eat. I marked that fish on the GPS, we gave her about 30-40 minutes and we came back. Mick had 3 cast in when I watched his bait get engulfed not far out from the boat. Before I could get anything out of my mouth, Mick set the hooks home, and it was fish on! The fish made a few good runs and we had her up at the boat and in the net, a quick photo and it was back to the deep weed edge for this gal. This is the first fish Mick and I have managed to tuck into the net together, not a bad start, and things were just getting rolling. As we got closer to prime time with the moon set in our favor things went nuts. We had fish up to the boat left and right, with some fine fish in the mix. At one point on three cast, I had one fish hooked up and it came up to the top and shook the hooks, leaving both of us staring at a monster boil of water on the surface as the fish swam back down, to the third cast when I landed another 45′ from the same flat we got Mick’s fish on just earlier in the day. There were windows when the fish moved well and after that window passed, it was dead.

Seeing the fish move only at specific times, we made an adjustment to our game plan. That night as we sat around the campfire we decided to go out and just hit it durning the prime time, again moon set. The next day we were able to pick up one more fish during this time, it was a 43, and it cleard the surface three times on us. When we got her to the boat to tuck into the net, Mick was standing next to me at the back of the boat, with net in hand. As he was going for the fish, I lost sight of the fish because Mick was in front of me. Next thing I see it my Dunwright Walleye come flying over Mick’s sholder, and my heart sunk, I just lost that fish. The sweetest words any muskie hunter can hear, SHE’S IN THE BAG!!!! I am not sure how Mick was able to get her, but he did. THANKS Bro! Shortly after boating this fish the sky cleared off and the wind stopped, so did our active fish. We ran some deep trolling passes, over a few cold beers and talked about the fish activity that we just got to share. It was a fantastic two days of fishing and getting to share it with my brother in law was awesome. Seeing the week come to an end today was difficult, the drive home was somber and quiet, as it is at the end of any great trip up north. I find myself fortunate to be able to spend time away with the family making memories, thats what life is all about!

Happy Hunting