It’s been a while since my last report and a lot has happened. I’ve been all over the place and really busy. First of all, I took one of my week long trips up north to guide a couple of great clients on some Northern MN waters that I know very well. Fishing was a bit slow, even though we caught 10 fish in 5 1/2 days. The fish were running a bit small with a lot of fish in the 38″ to 42″ range with a couple in the mid 40″ range as well. We were catching these fish by slow rolling Kramer Bros. Tackle’s Windowmaker bucktails. The fish were located on very deep weeds and you had to really get your bait down there… However, on the last day there I was able to trick this monster 54″ musky.
We had actually moved this fish off the edge of a deeper hump earlier in the week. She followed a slow rolled bucktail up to the boat and turned once before she went back to her roost. With time running out in my trip, we decided to fish some water near this spot (we had seen and caught a few other quality fish in the area too). I had my client Ben painting the edges of a small hump with a slow rolled KBT bucktail. I decided to bomb a cast directly on top of this hump in about 5 feet of water. I started the blades on my Kramer Bros. Windowmaker in the KBT classic color right away and I didn’t crank my reel 4 times before this fish hammered the bait. I got great hooks in her and got to watch her battle in some very clear water. Very Cool stuff!!
After I get home from fishing trophy water I am always a little buzzkilled to start fishing around the metro again. That didn’t matter because I had a guide trip scheduled the very next morning when I got back from up north… We got out to the first spot on one of my favorite metro lakes and I got my clients all situated in the front of the boat with a couple of proven baits. I took a couple minutes to make my first cast… and wouldn’t you know it, on my 3rd cast back in the metro I got a 48″+ fish that ate a Kramer Bros. #8 in about 18″ of water! This fish reminded me to always embrace this fisheries we have here in the metro!
So I’ve talked a lot about bucktails and yes, that has been the bite we’ve been on for the majority of the past couple weeks. But we’ve also been catching fish on Bulldawgs and topwater baits. The bulldawgs were very effective when we were coming off that heat wave at the end of August. The musky pictured here with my client Mike was his first on a Bulldawg. If fish aren’t chasing horizontal baits like bucktails and topwaters, show them a vertical presentation like a bulldawg or a jig. Also, in the past few days we’ve had some good action on glide baits. These baits always seem to shine for me at the end of September/ beginning of Oct.
I still have a few openings in October and November so please let me know if you’re interested in some fall musky fishing. This is a great time of year we have right in front of us…