Here is my first fishing report of 2014… I would have liked to get a few smallie reports up here this spring but I’ve had one crazy stretch of life here the past month or so with trips to the northwoods, daughters in fastpitch, t-ball, and soccer… and now musky season is finally upon us! After sitting out opening weekend due to a U-10 Fastpitch tourney, I started with a busy guiding schedule on Monday which resulted in some good times and some frustrating times as well…
The first week of fishing has included a few nasty days with wind, rain, and cool temps. It almost felt like we were constantly fishing under either cold conditions or post frontal conditions. The only frontal day that had any heat and energy to it was wednesday and that was a fish-less day for my boat! This weather has made the bucktail and topwater bite a bit slow. We caught two fish on bucktails last week but most of our follows and strikes have come on slower moving baits like shallow bulldawgs or glide baits.
The fish have also been very boat shy and lazy when following lures. They will often times come cruising in well behind the bait without turning on the bait when we enter the figure 8 manuever. This has been frustrating at times because some days we will move fish on just about every spot we fish and after a while, it starts to feel impossible to get a strike. We’ve mixed up lure’s, speed, and just about every other presentation variable without much luck. My theory is that with a steady warming trend, we will soon be able to use speed to trigger these lethargic fish. So hopefully Mother Nature decides to act like it’s June for a couple weeks here…
I don’t really have a ton to say about the fishing patterns from this past week because there wasn’t really any pattern. Fish came from a number of different locations and decided to eat different baits pretty much every time.
So, on a different note… I’d like to brag about my new musky machine. Over the off season I teamed up with Skeeter Boat Center in Ramsey, MN and got into the MX 1825. This boat has been an absolute treat to fish out of so far. Whether it was ripping across Chequemegon Bay in rough water or working precise weed lines in gusting wind this boat has impressed me at every turn… I’ll post some more pictures in the Muskie/Pike forum to show the custom Just Encase box I had made to provide max casting space for clients and storage for all my junk!
If you’re interested in booking a day to chase muskies, let me know… I have a few days remaining in June and some prime dates in August, Sept, and Oct. Good Luck out there!