Open Water Muskies

As an ever-evolving muskie angler I’ve come to realize a couple things about my favorite species. One of my more significant revelations has been that buying into the notion that the muskie is a “fish of 10,000 casts,” a fish so difficult to catch that you will be required to make 9,999 failed attempts before you can expect to hook up with one, makes you less likely to be consistently successful as a muskie angler. As muskie anglers we know that there will be fishless days spent beating the water to a froth with nothing to show for it. That type of personal investment of time and energy is expected when you’re targeting a pinnacle predator. When you’re at the top of the food chain life is a little bit easier than when you’re “what’s for dinner.” So my point about not buying into that “fish of 10,000 casts” line is really fairly simple. If you take that statement to heart you’ve resigned yourself to a lot of unproductive time on the water as you seemingly pay your dues waiting for one sympathetic toothy critter to put you out of your misery when you should be looking to make a drastic change in presentation. As I’ve grown as a muskie angler and found ways to be more successful more often I find I’m turning to trolling as a solution for a tough bite.

Before I go any further I should also admit that I came reluctantly to the trolling party as I, like many, prefer to cast. But fish caught trolling beat getting blanked any day!

I can still remember my first introduction to catching a muskie trolling. Sadly this retelling isn’t a story where I was the one doing the catching. I was worn out from a long fruitless day of casting and was guilty of spending more time “rubber necking” at anglers around me than focusing on putting fish in my own boat. On this day in question I recall a boat trolling well outside of me and clearly far from what I figured was prime fishing holding structure. I sneered to myself thinking “all that fancy equipment and they’re wasting time out there in no man’s land!” I’m sure everyone knows what happened next. That sneer was wiped from my face and replaced with what I’m sure was a comical combination of shock and humiliation as this “lost” boat trolling out over deeper water brought a beautiful fish to net. That would have been bad enough in and of itself but over the next couple hours I kept a close eye on the boat in question. During this time this particular boat repeated the process not one but TWO more times with the rounds of boisterous high 5’s shared between the occupants doing a wonderful job of making me feel like a complete failure as a muskie angler.

That memorable day had another effect as well. The dose of humble pie opened my eyes a bit and convinced me then and there that trolling for muskie was not just something that I was going to learn to do… I was going to completely invest myself in it and figure out what it was that these other anglers were doing to catch fish on a day that I had earned the big goose egg for my efforts. What followed as a result of that day was my evolution from a muskie angler with a singular approach to one that felt comfortable, even confident, using a trolling presentation to target open water muskie.

Based on what I learned in those subsequent years and with the input of two seasoned open water muskie anglers, Pat McSharry and Jake Bohnsack, we’ll attempt to shed some light on what I feel is an underutilized technique and provide a little bit of needed confidence! There are three big pieces to solving open water muskies, finding the right lake, the best areas, and presenting the right baits.

In-Depth Outdoors Prostaff Pat McSharry, a Bemidji native, has built his open water trolling program around a few simple requirements that tell him if a body of water is right for a trolling presentation.

The first requirement for a good trolling lake is the presence of tullibee and or whitefish. When female and male muskies get done spawning they are looking for fatty foods to pack on the pounds and recover. If the lake you’re fishing doesn’t have a good population of fatty forage species that frequent deeper water its much less likely that muskies will be over open water in large numbers. They will instead likely find alternative options for easy meals meaning you will have a lot harder time finding a consistent open water bite.

Pat shared the following with regards to narrowing down a good trolling bite. “The size of the lake and the amount of deep water adjacent to spawning habitat is easily the second most important details to look for in choosing a lake to troll on.” Deep water is a very good thing, and Tulibees need it to survive, but too much open water can leave you wondering where to concentrate your efforts as well as finding a real good consistency of bait. Without a doubt, finding a lake with high tullibee numbers paired with a minimal amount of open water is a deadly combination. Pat added that “Finding the largest concentrations of bait now becomes much easier, and if you can find this near or adjacent to good spawning habitat, you just hit a home run.”

Pat grew up near Bemidji, MN, home to some of the most productive muskie waters in the state that meet the two requirements outline previously. The lakes in his home range are deep, clear and are literally stuffed full of tullibee and whitefish.
But what if you don’t fish lakes that meet these criteria?

Last time I checked, the muskies I fish here in the Metro area of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN, had never even heard of a tullibee, much less filled their bellies with the greasy buggers. I knew the muskies had to be eating something in open water because I had witnessed people catching them out of deeper water. The answer was fairly simple. Large schools of immature bluegills and crappies cruising the expanses of the lake would provide a great forage source for fat muskies. Often times, suspended panfish move in schools that have no rhyme or reason to their movements, instead choosing to slowly cruise around over open water feeding on bug hatches and plankton. OF course in my scenario finding the muskie was as easy as finding those schools of roaming bluegills! Modern electronics, particularly when equipped with side imaging capability, make this task an easy one to accomplish and once the food source was located I could then apply a lot of the info I was getting from up north down to my home waters, just exchanging panfish for tullibees.

At this point the next logical question is “how do I narrow down my search and eliminate unproductive water?” After all, not all open water is created equal!

Jake Bohnsack from Jake’s Last Cast Guide Service has some specific requirements he looks for when picking trolling water. Jake had the following to offer when asked where he starts his search for open water muskie, “I begin to target open water with reefs and shallow structure adjacent to it. I believe a lot of these muskies will move back and forth, up and down and bait will do the same. If there is a great point on a reef that spills off into 40 feet of water, I will back off anywhere from a cast length to a hundred or two hundred yards off the reef.” Of course not only will muskies head off the reef into deeper water, but a lot of these pinnacle predators will spend the majority of their time in these locations. “Focusing my attentions on open water adjacent to but not on prime structure itself has really upped my catch rate when targeting fish in open water,” he added.

Pat starts his searches off a little differently than Jake but the end result is essentially the same. Pat outlined the subtle variations in his approach by adding, “I’ll head out to these smaller basins, which I mentioned earlier, and begin looking for schools of baitfish. I like to start near shoreline breaks or even mid-lake structure and begin trolling. When I say near breaks or structure I’m talking in the general vicinity. I rarely go shallower than 30 feet of water.” Having electronics with side imaging capability at your disposal will speed up the process of finding roaming schools of baitfish, but having that tool available definitely isn’t mandatory.

The third piece of the puzzle is putting the right bait in front of these fish and presenting it correctly! My go to baits for open water muskie are big blades and big rubber! In my experience, if fish are out over open water a lot of the time they are ready to snack.

The follow up question I often receive is “how can you work double 10s and 13s that deep?” The easy answer is, I don’t! The majority of my suspended muskie fishing is done in the top 15 feet of the water column, with the vast majority of the fish I’ve boated using this type of presentation coming on baits fished in the top 10 feet! Jake offered a simple insight as to why this is the case by adding “muskies are known to travel 10-15 feet vertically in the water column with one or two tail kicks, as a predatory feeder is always eating what’s above them.” He felt strongly that running a bait in the top 10 – 15 feet of the water column was vital, as you will not catch any muskies running baits below them as they’re highly unlikely to see the bait.  If they do see the bait, you’ll rarely get one to respond aggressively towards a bait presented in this manner.

Now when it comes to picking the proper speed, I really rely on extremes when trolling baits for open water muskie. Basically I want to offer something the general population of fish never sees. To me “extreme” means very fast or painstakingly slow. When I’m doing the driving I’m trolling blades either upwards of 4.5 to 6 mph or under 1.5 where the blades are barely spinning.

Over time fish get accustomed to seeing the merry-go-round of anglers hucking double 10 dinner bells, offered at nearly identical rates of retrieval. When all the baits going past their noses begin to look alike, and act alike, it doesn’t take long and eventually the fish just tune those baits out. When you start to see one lazy follow after another chances are it’s time to rock their underwater world by making speed extremes a critical part of your presentation!

The same principle applies to fishing big rubber baits. Either I’ll go really big, over a pound or small rubber presentations. Now when trolling big rubber you’ll find that extremely high speeds don’t work all that well with this type of lure. What I find is that as they tend to run more true at a 3 mph average speed. One other final tweak to the presentation when trolling big rubber that I feel pays off big is that instead of shoving your rod in a rod holder, as with the blades, when fishing big rubber give your bait a sequence of rips and pauses every 50 yards or so in an attempt to trigger any fish that might be following lazily behind.

Now when it comes down to Pat’s preferred trolling presentation, he has a different way of going about business which has also proven to be highly effective as well. His simple recommendations where as follows. “Use planer boards to get your baits away from the boat a little ways and troll at around 3.5-4.5 mph. Speed can vary and any speed changes you make will often trigger strikes. Larger crankbaits, such as a Storm Giant Thunderstick, Grandma’s or Jake will get you down 10-15 feet-of-water, which in most cases is sufficient. I have found often times ciscos will suspend around 20 feet and deeper. I’ll run these cranks just above this depth, as mentioned before, not to pull them under the targeted muskies.”

When I was pondering a way to put a bow on this article and summarize this technique, Jake chimed in with what would be a perfect summary.

“Open water trolling is an easy yet underutilized technique that can be effective at any time, regardless of season. I think the hardest part about open water trolling is finding the confidence to at least try it. Fisherman are creatures of habit, we all have our own little things that give us confidence, sometimes stepping outside of the ‘comfort zone’ can yield not only big results like it did for me but also an opportunity to learn something new.”