Category Archives: How To Fish

What Is Swimbait Bassing?

Swimbait Bassing

By Frank Sargeant
from The Fishing Wire

There’s not much that better imitates a shad than a swimbait; many of them are nearly an exact imitation of the favorite food of bass in most of North America in shape, and their swimming tail closely resembles the movement of a free-swimming shad. Add to this that the soft plastic body feels edible, and the single hook is much less likely to catch weeds than the trebles of crankbaits and lipless lures and you get an idea why the swimbait is a favorite nearly everywhere in bass country.

Use swimbaits for bass

Big swimbaits often fool big fish, winter or summer, throughout shad country.

They can be particularly effective in early winter in the South and Southwest, where early freezes knock back the thickest weed stands, leaving tall but scattered springs of cover that’s prime country for swimbaiting.

Bass particularly like to prowl the scattered weed stands at the edge of deeper water; these are areas where shad congregate in winter, and anglers who motor these edges and watch their sonar will eventually find spots where there are lots of shad either on the edge or nearby. These are ideal areas to try swimbaits.

Swimbaits vary widely in size, from little 3/16 ounce models barely three inches long to big 8-inchers that would just about choke a striped bass. The best for all-around bassing are typically 4 to 6 inches long, in silver, white or steel gray colors.

Varying the weight of the jig head or the swimbait hook (some have sliding weights that pinch on the shaft) makes all the difference on the depth at which the lure runs and the speed at which you’ll want to fish it. With a light head, a big bait can only get deep if you fish it slowly, and many days in winter that’s exactly what the fish want.

Swimbaits come in a variety of colors

Molded swimbaits like these from Bimini Bay/Tsunami are more durable than those that are designed to be fished on a bare jig head.

At other times, though, the fish may be more active and you’ll do better with a slightly heavier head, allowing you to fish the bait faster and still get it down to where the fish are. At times, the best speed is dead slow, literally crawling it along bottom.

One of the nice things about these baits is that you can fish the same lure at a wide variety of depths, from just below the surface to right along the bottom, just by varying the retrieve speed.

Good swimbaits will tell you when you’re in the sweet spot for cranking speed–many of them actually cause the rod to throb as the tail wobbles back and forth. It’s a much less pronounced feel than you get with a crankbait, but it’s clearly there when you get the speed right.

Bass typically just swim up and inhale the swimbait–you’ll feel a strong bump, and that tells you it’s time to set the hook. Unlike with crankbaits, there’s less danger of pulling the hooks free with a quick hookset of the large, single hook.

The Shadalicious from Strike King can be fished over a tube jig head, making the lead invisible.

Shadalicious from Strike King

While swimbaits often work best in scattered grass at this time of year, they can also be great open-water baits when anglers find bass suspended near shad schools over the main channel. This action often occurs near the upstream tips of shell bars, and blind casting in these areas with heavier swimbait heads sometimes connects, but the best bet is to ease along watching the sonar until you spot large schools of bait, then fish those areas hard.

In open water, the retrieve that works may be a bit more aggressive–a series of pull-and-drop actions can sometimes turn the fish on when they ignore a steady retrieve.

Storm, Strike King, YUM, Tsunami and many other companies make good swimbaits–buy a variety of colors and sizes, along with a good assortment of jig head weights, and you’ve got just about everything needed for successful winter angling through the month of December in much of largemouth bass country south of Mason-Dixon.

Can I Catch Fish At Night While Ice Fishing?

Scott Glorvigen’s “Happy Hours” for Ice Fishing Are At Night
from The Fishing Wire

Quick-trip tactics for after-work walleyes and crappies

When ice fans dream of upcoming escapades, many optimistically envision epic getaways spanning a weekend or more. Unfortunately, extended adventures can be tough to pull off, given the time constraints of daily life. Indeed, just carving out a full day on the ice can at times be a challenge.

Good news is, opportunities abound for enjoying quick trips offering great fishing for a variety of species. And some of the finest occur shortly after darkness falls.

“My favorites are early evening trips for walleyes or crappies,” says longtime guide, decorated tournament champion and avowed night owl Scott Glorvigen. “With a little planning, it’s easy to get away after work for a couple of hours and enjoy solid action, with a shot at trophy fish.”

Gearing Up

Pre-trip scouting and packing allows you to zip out to evening hotspots on a moment’s notice.

Scout for ice fishing

Organization is one of the keys to Glorvigen’s getaways. “Having everything you need ready and waiting makes it infinitely easier to hit the ice on short notice,” he says. “On the flip side, if it takes you three hours to wrangle gear, your window of opportunity will close before you ever leave home.”

To hasten your departure and boost on-ice efficiency, Glorvigen advises paring packing lists down to bare necessities. “Keep it simple,” he advises. “You’re not going to be running around, figuring it all out like you would during a day-long trip. Night bites are all about hitting high-percentage spots with one or two top techniques.”

Typically, Glorvigen’s bug-out gear includes a small tackle bag stoked with a handful of key lures, components and tools; a minnow bucket for transporting either shiners for walleyes or small fatheads for crappies; two headlamps; an auger; and Lowrance sonar and GPS electronics.

A lantern is also critical equipment. “I’ve used gas and propane models for years, but last winter I started using Zippo’s battery-powered, LED Rugged Lantern and really like not having to worry about fuel or kicking the light over and burning down the house,” he says.

When chasing either walleyes or crappies, he packs just four rods. Two are rigged for jigging, and two are set up for bobbering or dead-sticking live bait. “For walleyes, I bring a pair of jigging spoon rods, which allow me to experiment with a few different spoon sizes and colors,” he explains. “Bobber rods are rigged identically. The second merely serves as backup in case the first gets hopelessly tangled or otherwise fouled up.”

Jigging rods are typically strung with 6-pound-test Northland Bionic Braid, with a foot-long, 6- to 8-pound monofilament leader, capped with a round-nosed snap. Bobber rods sport 6-pound mono mainline, a small swivel, and an 18-inch leader of similar material as the jigging setup. A size 4 single hook-either standard bronze or phosphorescent glow-and small split shot pinched six inches above it round out the rig.

“I like braid for spooning, because you get a better hooksets, especially with bigger fish,” he notes. “Mono works great for letting the walleyes run with live bait.”

Glorvigen favors 1/16- to 1/8-ounce Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Spoons, in phosphorescent shades of red and orange. “If it’s glow, it’s a go,” he quips. Spoons are tipped with a minnow head or tail. “Try them both to see what the fish want on a particular night,” he adds.

Crappies call for a bit lighter rods and line in the 2- to 4-pound class. Lures lean toward the horizontal orientation, and include favorites like the Northland Bro’s Mud Bug and Gill Getter. “I typically fish glow colors exclusively at night, including phosphorescent blue, red and white,” he says. Spikes and waxworms are top tippings. “You can fish glow plastics, but after dark I like the scent of live bait.” As with his walleye endeavors, two of Glorvigen’s four rods are rigged for live bait duties. Often, that entails deadsticking a small jig sweetened with a maggot.

Glorvigen houses his gear in a Frabill SideStep flip-over, which sports dual side entries perfect for two-person nighttime expeditions. “If one angler wants to head outside to check out a few different holes, he or she won’t have to flip up the entire shelter and stumble over gear on their way out.” He notes that a pair of Frabill light bars positioned strategically over the fore and aft sections of the shelter provide ample illumination for fish wrangling, knot tying and other nocturnal tasks.

Night Moves

Early evening is prime time for both walleyes and crappies.

Early evening is good for ice fishing

For both species, active jigging attracts attention and triggers its fair share of strikes, while live bait seals the deal with curious ‘eyes that look but don’t bite.

Overall, jigging cadences are tailored to the mood of the fish, but Glorvigen generally avoids over-the-top antics that may work in daylight but fizzle after sunset. “Night-bite walleyes are focused on baitfish that are hunkered down for the evening, so they respond better to subtle jig strokes than aggressive lifts and snap-fall sequences,” he explains.

Instead, he relies on a series of twitch-twitch-twitch-pause maneuvers, letting the spoon’s rattles call fish in. “It’s almost like rattling antlers for whitetail deer,” he adds. “Rattle, pause. Rattle, pause. Waiting for a buck to move in.”

When set up over a school of crappies, steady jigging slightly above the fish often tempts hungry slabs to break ranks and rise to the occasion. “Keep jigging and slowly raise the bait,” Glorvigen says. “The higher you get the fish to move up in the water column, the more likely it is to bite.”

To further boost his odds of success, Glorvigen pinpoints potential hotspots by day, and plots their locations for easy return at night. “Do your homework ahead of time so you’re not hunting for fish after dark,” he says. “For walleyes, look for small shelves and stairsteps along breaklines fish follow from deep water up onto shallow feeding flats. High spots on humps can be good, too.

JIg just over the school of fish

Steady jigging just above a pod of crappies tempts fish to rise for the kill.

Crappies typically roam deep basins, but often congregate along some type of structure, such as a steep wall at the edge of a deep hole. “Any kind of irregular break along that edge, like an inside turn or other collection point, can be particularly productive,” he notes. “Such areas gather and hold schools for longer periods of time, giving you more chances at fish from a stationary position. It’s like setting up in the corner of the corral, instead of along the fence line.”

Glorvigen notes that walleye action often peaks during the two-hour period surrounding sunset. “With crappies, the bite window is less intense but more spread out, and can continue later into the night,” he adds.

Along with offering a fine chance to ice numbers of eating-size ‘eyes and crappies, Glorvigen says early evening is a great time to connect with the walleye of your dreams. “Finding the right spot and hunkering down for a couple hours during prime time puts you in great position to hook a giant,” he says, providing yet another reason to enjoy happy hour on the ice as often as possible this winter.

Video link:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Q8OzRkkRbUI

Check out more of Scott’s night-bite tips.

Fishing West Point Lake with Ken Bearden

After fishing area lakes in two bass clubs for about 40 years, I often think I know them pretty well. But when I go to a lake with a guide who fishes one lake over 200 days every year, and has been doing that for 15 years, it amazes me how they know ever little detail of what is under the water.

Wednesday I fished West Point Lake with Ken Bearden, getting information for a Georgia Outdoor News January article. After some boat problems first thing that morning we got on the water at about ten. We tried several patterns and caught a few fish on one of them by noon so, for the next six hours, we fished that specific pattern from Yellowjacket Creek to the dam.

That morning while waiting on a friend to bring us a boat to borrow for the day to replace Ken’s disabled one, he explained there are three good patterns at West Point in the winter. One is jigging a spoon in deep water. One is swimming a bucktail through standing timber in deep water. And the third, the one we relied on, was fishing a crankbait on rocky points.

Ken told me you could catch large numbers of fish quickly on the first two patterns, but the third was a matter of run and gun, hitting as many points as possible. He didn’t expect to catch more than one or two bass on each spot, and many would not have any fish, but if you hit enough places you could get a good limit.

It worked. Ken landed six largemouth weighing between two and four pounds each and three spots weighing about 2.5 pounds each. The best five weighed about 14 pounds. I would love to have those fish in any tournament.

We also caught several striped bass and hybrids that morning casting an Alabama rig on roadbeds. They fought hard and the biggest weighed just under ten pounds. He said we could fish roadbeds and catch them like that all day right now.

We put ten places on a map, with GPS coordinates and details on how to fish them. That information will be in the magazine article. You can set up a guide trip with Ken by calling 706-884-0494 to get him to show you how well he knows the lake and how he fishes it.

Should I Change Fishing Lures When the Weather Changes?

Changes in Weather Often Mean Changes in Lures

Autumn’s Cooler Temperatures Can Affect How Certain Fish Feed

Although cold fronts and other weather changes in the autumn months are seldom as severe as those occurring later in the winter, they can still change bass behavior very quickly. That’s why Yamaha Pro Marty Robinson always has several rods with completely different types of lures rigged and ready to cast whenever he goes fishing this time of year.

jigs work well after a cold front

Yamaha pro angler Marty Robinson switches to a jig when sustained north winds start to blow, slowing action on buzzbaits and spinnerbaits.

“The cold fronts in the autumn normally don’t change the water temperature that much,” notes Robinson, “but they often change the wind speed and direction, and that seems to be what changes the fish.

“I know from experience that whenever a front changes the wind direction from the south to the north, for example, the fishing is going to slow dramatically.”

One of Robinson’s favorite fall lures, and a favorite of bass fishermen everywhere, is a topwater buzz bait, a noisy lure with a rotating blade that churns and clatters through shallow cover and often attracts big bass. It seems to produce best when the wind is blowing from the south, but a change to a north wind all but eliminates the bite.

Robinson’s solution is to change to a lure he can fish close to the surface but not on top of the water. His favorite choice is a spinnerbait, which he retrieves fast, or “burns,” just below the surface. If the spinnerbait doesn’t produce, he then changes to jigs or soft plastic creature baits and worms.

“I’ve really caught a lot of fish burning the spinnerbait over submerged cover like stumps, laydowns, rocks, and vegetation,” continues the Yamaha Pro. “The bass still seem to be very active and they strike reactively, but they apparently don’t want to actually break the surface. Sometimes, just a simple presentation change like this is all that’s needed to start the fish biting again.

“Other times, slowing down and fishing specific targets more thoroughly may be what’s needed. This is when I start pitching and flipping a jig or some other bottom-bumping lure, and instead of just making one or two casts to a log or stump, I’ll make five or six and fish much slower and tighter to the cover.”

When fishing really slows, Robinson frequently changes his fishing targets as well as his lures. Instead of concentrating on stumps or laydowns, he looks for thick vegetation, such as milfoil, hydrilla, or other greenery in shallow water.

Weed mats are good targets for jigs

Robinson says he sometimes finds more fish under weed mats than in open water cover as the water cools, but the jig is a good weapon in the mats, as well.

“During the autumn months, vegetation will be the thickest it’s going to be all year,” he explains, “and it will attract both baitfish and bass and hold them well into the winter. In some lakes where the vegetation forms a mat at the surface, you can bring fish up with plastic frogs, but flipping jigs and soft plastics may produce even better results.

“I’ll work along the edge of the matted vegetation, and flip into little holes and to any irregular points, let the jig reach the bottom, and just hop it once or twice. If a bass is there, it will usually strike pretty quickly.”

The Yamaha Pro also pays attention to the late afternoon rain showers that often come with autumn weather changes. Immediately before the rain starts falling, the fishing can be excellent, but once the bass stop biting, it may take as long as 24 hours for them to really become active again.

“Part of this is caused by a changing barometer,” concludes the Yamaha Pro, “but you can fish your way through it. When the barometer is falling, as it usually is as a storm approaches, the bass are nearly always more active and will really hit spinnerbaits and crankbaits, but they stop biting once the barometer starts rising immediately after the front passes. When you know this is happening, you just have to slow down and fish more carefully with more target-specific lures until the barometer settles again.

“That’s why I think it’s important to have a variety of lures rigged and ready to use during the fall months. The bass can change their behavior very quickly, but you can still catch them.”

What Are Some Tricks To Catch Late Season Crappie?

Surefire tricks for late-season crappies

Scott Glorvigan – [email protected]
from The Fishing Wire

For anglers across the Ice Belt, November’s arrival spurs thoughts of the hardwater season ahead. But plenty of fine open-water fishing remains for the faithful who see the season through to the end.

Take crappies, for example. One of the year’s best bites is still firing on all cylinders, and promises stellar slabbin’ right through freeze-up. “It’s undoubtedly worth getting your boat out a few more times to enjoy the late-fall crappie bite,” says veteran guide and noted fishing authority Scott Glorvigen. “The fish are ganged up in predictable places, and ready to hit baits with a vengeance.”

Here’s the deal. As autumn wanes and water temperatures fall into the 40s, crappies abandon withering weedbeds and shift away from near-shore structure. “The fish head for their winter haunts, which are typically deep, mid-lake basin holes,” Glorvigen explains.

Here, large schools of hulking, hump-backed slabs roam the abyss in search of sustenance. Much of the feeding focuses on zooplankton and other pint-sized prey, but crappies eagerly snap up larger meals such as minnows and other baitfish.

Glorvigen leans on cutting-edge electronics such as Lowrance’s Elite-5 CHIRP Gold sonar-chartplotter to pinpoint pods of wayward panfish. “The fish are constantly moving around, which makes sonar a must,” he notes. “Lowrance’s new CHIRP units give you incredible target resolution, so you can verify the fish you’re marking are crappies, and even pick out individual fish within a school.”

A plotter primed with detailed mapping is another key component. “This allows you to identify likely areas and then search them effectively,” he says. “Plus, if you lay down a trail of waypoints while following the fish, you can often predict where they’re headed next. For example, if you know a school of slabs is moving in a counter-clockwise rotation around a deep hole, it’s much easier to follow the herd.”

In search mode, Glorvigen scans potential hotspots, which include depths of 50 feet or more. “Don’t assume there are limits on how deep the fish will go,” he cautions. “Many anglers mentally set a boundary of 25 to 30 feet, but crappies often suspend much deeper.”

Once a school is spotted, Glorvigen takes an unusual tack for tricking the fish. “One of the hottest tactics for tapping the late-fall bite is hovering swimming jigs such as Rapala Jigging Raps and Northland Puppet Minnows within the school,” he says.

“Horizontal jigs tipped with flavored softbaits such as Berkley PowerBait and Gulp! bodies also work well. “You can use spoons, too, but vertical baits aren’t nearly as effective this time of year.”

While many anglers wield tiny tackle for crappies, Glorvigen favors swimming lures in the 2- to 2¾-inch class, along with 1/8-ounce jigheads. Colors aren’t as key as the bait’s water displacement when fishing deep water, he notes, though he has seen higher catch rates on UV patterns compared to standard color schemes.

Gearing up, Glorvigen spools a light-action Lew’s multi-species spinning rod with 10-pound Northland Bionic Braid mainline. The rod’s quick tip engenders strike detection and solid hooksets, while the superbraid boosts sensitivity, which is a huge asset when fishing deep water. He ties a small swivel on the end of the line, to limit twist, and adds a 12- to 18-inch leader of low-vis 6-pound fluorocarbon.

Unlike traditional snap-fall tactics used for walleyes and other larger predators, Glorvigen applies a slower hand for suspended cool-water crappies. “It’s not a standard jigging presentation where you’re really working the bait,” he says. “This situation calls for deadsticking. When the crappies see the lure’s profile, they think it’s a minnow mixed in with the zooplankton, and boy, do they smack it.”

Thanks to his CHIRP sonar’s target resolution, Glorvigen can watch his jig even as it descends into a crappie wolfpack. “This is really a breakthrough,” he says. “It’s not uncommon to run across massive schools 15 feet thick. With traditional sonar, there’s no seeing into a tight school. Once the bait gets into the fish, it’s off the radar. But with CHIRP, I can tell where my lure is and how fish react to it.”

He cautions that once you find a school, it’s important to keep moving to stay on top of it. By shadowing a deep-running gang of slabs, it’s possible to pluck multiple fish from a single group. “Keep in mind that when you pull crappies out of extreme depths, the fish are likely unreleasable,” he warns. “Plan on keeping what you catch for a late-fall fish fry. And if you get on a school of fish too small to keep, move along until you find larger ones.”

Depending on the individual lake, your latitude, and what kind of weather Mother Nature dishes out in the weeks ahead, you might have a month or more of crappie action before winter draws the curtain on open water. “Good news is, as soon as safe ice arrives, the same areas are still going to produce fish,” Glorvigen adds. Which is all the more reason to hit the water now to unlock the locational secrets of late-fall crappies on your favorite fisheries.

Can I Catch Spotted Bass In Kentucky?

Spotted Bass Time in Kentucky Waters
from The Fishing Wire

Kentucky spot

This is the third installment of a series of articles titled “Fall Fishing Festival” profiling the productive fishing on Kentucky’s lakes, rivers and streams in fall.

FRANKFORT, Ky. – They were not even recognized as a distinctive fish species until 1927. People for many years believed these fish only existed in Kentucky.

In 1956, the Kentucky legislature designated this species the “Kentucky bass” and made them the official state fish. Many anglers, especially in the south-central portion of the United States, still call the spotted bass a Kentucky bass.

They pale in reputation to their black bass cousins, the largemouth and smallmouth bass, but the spunk shown once hooked and their abundance should raise the profile of the overlooked spotted bass. They are also aggressive and readily strike lures.

It isn’t hard to tell when a spotted bass strikes. They shake their heads violently and dive bomb toward the bottom. The larger ones 15 inches and up usually grow a pronounced belly as they mature. Spotted bass use that girth along with a powerful tail against an angler while playing the fish, producing as good a fight as any comparable largemouth bass.

Medium-light spinning rods with reels spooled with 6-pound fluorocarbon line is all you need for catching spotted bass.

Once the fall winds blow, spotted bass begin to school up. They locate along rock bluffs or they suspend over points, submerged humps or channel drops.

“At this time of year, if you catch one spotted bass, keep fishing that same spot,” said Chad Miles, administrative director of the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Foundation and dedicated spotted bass angler. “There might be 40 or 50 of them there. Spotted bass really school up in fall.”

Catch spots on topwater

In early to mid fall, these schools of spots often trap a cloud of shad against the surface and rip into them. Large, chrome topwater lures tossed into this melee draw vicious strikes. These same lures fished over points, humps and channel drops can draw spotted bass from a good distance below the lure, especially on our clear water lakes such as Lake Cumberland or Laurel River Lake.

John Williams, southeastern fisheries district program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, reports Lake Cumberland holds a bountiful population of spotted bass with many fish in the 14- to 16-inch range. Spotted bass make up roughly half of the black bass found in the lake.

The main lake points from Harmon Creek down to Wolf Creek Dam hold spotted bass from fall through late spring. A 4-inch black finesse worm rigged on a 3/16-ounce Shakey head and slowly fished down those points is a deadly choice.

A hammered silver jigging spoon fished along the old Cumberland River bluffs in this section of the lake also produces spotted bass. Again, if you catch one spotted bass in fall, keep fishing the same area with the same technique. You might catch a dozen or more.

Large crappie minnows fished on size 1 circle hooks with two split shot lightly clamped on the line about 18 inches above the hook make a powerful choice for the large spotted bass in Laurel River Lake. The water of Laurel River Lake is as clear as the air and live bait works best.

The upper end of the Craigs Creek arm is a spotted bass hotspot on Laurel, as are the main lake points near the dam and in the lower section of Spruce Creek.

The mid-depth reservoirs in southern Kentucky hold excellent populations of larger spotted bass. Barren River Lake and Green River Lake hold some of the largest spotted bass in Kentucky.

The channel drops along the submerged Barren River adjacent to Barren River Lake State Park and the Narrows Access Area make excellent fall spots to try for spotted bass.

In Green River Lake, rock slides and points in the lower sections of the Robinson Creek arm and Green River arm are the best fall places. Green River Lake holds an impressive number of spotted bass longer than 15 inches.

Anglers fishing for largemouth bass in Kentucky Lake often stumble across a football-sized spotted bass. The secondary points in the major bays and creek arms in the middle section of the lake hold some impressive spotted bass in fall.

Smaller profile ¼-ounce football jigs in hues of green, brown and chartreuse attract these fish on Kentucky Lake.

Spotted bass make excellent table fare, by far the best tasting of the black bass species, similar to crappie in taste and texture. There is no minimum size limit on spotted bass statewide, but they still count toward the six fish aggregate black bass daily creel limit.

Hit the water and land some hard fighting and abundant spotted bass this fall. Keeping a few medium-sized spots for the table makes a delicious and nutritious meal.

Author Lee McClellan is a nationally award-winning associate editor for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.

What Are Some Tips for Catching Muskie

Michigan DNR Offers Muskie Tips
from The Fishing Wire

Catch trophy muskie

Catching a big muskie will put a smile on your face.

Lures to catch muskie

Catch a big muskie

Michigan is home to two strains of muskellunge – the Great Lakes muskellunge and the northern muskellunge. Naturally-reproducing populations of northern muskellunge are located primarily in the western Upper Peninsula, but they have been stocked in numerous lakes statewide. Northern strain muskellunge were the primary strain stocked in Michigan until 2011 when the State shifted to raising only Great Lakes strain muskellunge. Still, northern strain fish are occasionally stocked through cooperative arrangements with other states and muskellunge organizations. Photo of boy holding muskie Naturally-reproducing populations of Great Lakes muskellunge exist in the Great Lakes and various connected waters, and they are also stocked into inland lakes and rivers where they do not naturally reproduce Tiger muskellunge, a hybrid between northern pike and muskellunge, were once stocked in Michigan, but no longer are raised in state fish hatcheries. Naturally-produced tiger muskellunge are rarely caught, though they are more prevalent in lakes with high abundance of northern pike.

Michigan’s Great Lakes muskellunge are most common in Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, which feature world-class fisheries for the large, toothy predators. Lake St. Clair has a fairly large fleet of charter boats that target muskellunge by trolling, and a growing contingent of small boat anglers that cast or jig for them as well. Because the St. Clair system is fed by cold, Great Lakes water, the muskellunge season does not open until the first Saturday of June and runs through Dec. 15. Photo of muskie lures This season is being considered in other locations where muskellunge spawning occurs in May and June. Elsewhere, the fishing seasons mimic walleye seasons.

Often called “the fish of a thousand casts,” muskellunges are hard to come by; they are slow to mature and take many years to reach the minimum legal size of 42 inches. Legal-sized muskellunge are rarely caught by anglers who are not fishing specifically for them; Man with muskybecause of their large size and sharp teeth, they often break lines. Usually found with shallow weedy lakes and rivers with log jams and fallen timber, muskellunge retreat into deeper water during the heat of the summer. They can be caught by casting or trolling with very large plugs, spoons and spinners — usually behind a wire leader — that are retrieved or trolled at a fast rate or by bait anglers using large suckers. Though primarily fish eaters, muskellunge will take waterfowl or rodents when available.

While muskellunge can be taken by hook and line or spearing, there are special regulations on a number of inland lakes. Lake Hudson in Lenawee County, Thornapple Lake in Barry County, and Big Bear Lake in Otsego County are the state’s brood stock lakes and are closed to spearing.

For details on Michigan muskellunge, visit http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/Muskellunge_-_A_Michigan_Resource_-_May_2012_386501_7.pdf.

Can I Catch Muskie In Kentucky In the Fall?

Kentucky Afield Outdoors: Muskellunge fishing heats up in fall

By Kevin Kelly
from The Fishing Wire

This is the first installment of a series of articles titled “Fall Fishing Festival” profiling the productive fishing on Kentucky’s lakes, rivers and streams in fall.

FRANKFORT, Ky. – The angler’s whoop traveled fast and loud over the water from the back of Buck Creek on Cave Run Lake.

Bringing a trophy muskellunge to the boat after a spirited fight uncorks raw emotions and provides a unique sense of satisfaction. In this instance, the 45-inch torpedo of a fish was a new personal best and the fourth muskellunge the angler had caught on this cool, calm, overcast Friday in mid-September.

The fall muskellunge bite was turning on, and word traveled quickly. A parking lot that held only a handful of boat trailers on Friday was full Saturday.

The shorter days, brisk nights and cooler water temperatures of early fall trigger the start of some of the finest muskellunge fishing of the year. Cave Run, Green River and Buckhorn lakes are the state’s top destinations as they have been proven to produce trophy fish.

Sarah Terry’s state record came from Cave Run Lake in November 2008 and was caught on a silver Double Cowgirl in-line spinner. It measured 54 inches and 47 pounds.

In recent weeks, muskellunge at Cave Run Lake have been caught in the backs of creeks – many of them loaded with weed beds and standing timber – in 8 feet of water or less. Weed beds near submerged channels and across the main lake flats aren’t to be overlooked either.

“They’re looking for one thing: food to get them through the winter,” said Tom Timmermann, northeastern fisheries district program coordinator with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Bass go through a heavy feeding period in the fall, and muskellunge do the same thing.”

Smaller lures such as a 4-inch balsa wood crankbait in silver and black, a ½-ounce dressed in-line spinner or a ¼-ounce skirted buzz bait can be effective in early fall. As the water cools, consider upsizing to rubber and hard-bodied jerkbaits, and single and double-bladed in-line spinners and spinnerbaits.

“Don’t overlook those smaller baits,” Timmermann said. “If you’ve never fished Cave Run before, you can throw some of those larger bass crankbaits, especially in black and white colors, and do pretty well.”

Buckhorn Lake in Leslie and Perry counties is rated good for muskellunge and holds ample numbers of fish in the 36 to 40-inch range.

In early fall, target the back of creeks and shallower areas that have weed beds. The best fishing once the lake level has reached winter pool is on the lower end of the lake by the dam, said Kevin Frey, eastern fisheries district program coordinator with Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.

Crank baits, jerk baits and bucktail spinners are proven producers. Generally, orange and sucker-imitating colors work well in the creeks while silver, purple or chartreuse are go-to colors for the main lake.

“There are several good spawns of shad throughout the year,” Frey said. “There will be a lot of smaller shad, so there could be an opportunity to try some muskie-sized baits and some bass-sized baits.”

Leatherwood Creek, Otter Creek and Meetinghouse Branch are a few of the best spots for fall muskie on Buckhorn Lake. The tailwaters can be excellent for muskellunge as well.

“There’s lots of bank access,” Frey said. “There’s also a small creek that comes into the tailwater. Over the years, that’s been popular with local anglers.”

Fisheries biologists routinely see muskellunge exceeding 45 inches on Green River Lake, which is rated excellent for the species.

“It certainly still has big fish potential,” said Eric Cummins, southwestern fisheries district program coordinator with Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.

While a lot of the standing timber is gone, Russell Branch is one notable exception. Try the slides on main lake bluffs and the edges of flats. Robinson Creek features expansive flats with some isolated brush piles and flooded timber.

The upper reaches of creek arms often will hold muskellunge.

“It’s just a little cooler than the main lake itself,” Cummins said, “and they can find whatever they’re eating.”

Where there are shad, muskellunge probably aren’t far away. Give a shad-imitating crankbait a try. Jerkbaits also produce on Green River Lake.

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife maintains these fisheries and others around the state by stocking them with 13-inch long muskellunge reared at Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery in Morehead.

Cave Run, Buckhorn and Green River lakes received stockings of the sub-adult fish this week. On average, it takes five to six years for a muskellunge to reach 36 inches, the minimum size limit in these impoundments.

Lake level and outflow information for Cave Run, Buckhorn and Green River lakes can be found online via the Louisville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ webpage at www.lrl.usace.army.mil.

Kevin Kelly is a staff writer for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Get the latest from Kevin and the entire Kentucky Afield staff by following them on Twitter: @kyafield.

Should I Fish A Spinnerbait Around Grass In Lake Sinclair In December?

I was taught a lesson about fishing a spinnerbait in grass beds on Lake Sinlair one December. Charles Redding allowed me to fish with him at Sinclair to get information for a Georgia Outdoor News article. We caught nine nice keeper bass on a pattern I would not have fished.

It was in the early 1970’s that I first heard Charles’ name. He pretty much invented spoon jigging at Lanier. Over the years I got to know him as one of the best spinnerbait fishermen in Georgia. He was a member of the South Cobb Bass Club, the club that won 9 Top Six tournaments in a row! He now fishes team tournaments many weekends and usually is in the top fishermen.

Sinclair has lots of grass beds. In the spring, you can cast a spinnerbait into them and expect to catch bass. I do not think of that as a December pattern, but that is what we did. Although the water was dropping and that always makes shallow water fishing less productive, Charles showed me bass can be caught shallow even under unusual conditions.

Water temperature ranged from 58 to 63 degrees in the areas we fish, and we tried grass beds from Nancy Creek all the way up into Rooty Creek. Charles kept the boat close to the grass, making short, quick cast and then moving on. He said he expected to find feeding fish somewhere during the day while fishing like that. His success in tournaments proves him correct.

If you try Sinclair during the winter, Charles says fish hit all winter long on the grass bed pattern. Just don’t give up on it.

Catching Spotted Bass On Lake Lanier In November

Lake Lanier was the site for the November Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament a few years ago. Nine of us fished for eight hours and caught 19 bass weighing 31 pounds,15 ounces. That is a good average size for any lake and it is even better if you know most of the bass we caught were spotted bass. They tend to be smaller and lighter than largemouth.

James Pilgrim, Jr. had a limit of 5 keepers that weighed 9-2 for first. He had one of the prettiest spots I have ever seen, a 4 pound, 4 ounce fish that took big fish honors. Kwong Yu also had a limit and his 7-7 weight was good for second place. David Pilgrim had 4 keepers weighing 6-0 for third.

I caught only two spots but they weighed 5-8 and that was good for fourth place. I caught one on a jig and pig at 8:00 am and the other on the same bait at 2:00 pm. Both were on rocky points. My big one weighing 3-8 was the biggest spotted bass I have ever caught, but it wasn’t quite big enough!

James, David and Kwong said they caught their fish on worms in fairly deep water. They were fishing brush piles 20 to 30 feet deep. I am always amazed how deep the fish hold at Lanier. The shad I saw on my depthfinder were all 35 to 40 feet deep and other fish were holding under them. I caught a couple of little hybrids jigging a spoon in 40 feet of water.

I never fish that deep on other lakes. I guess it is the clear water at Lanier. If you try Lanier anytime soon, plan of fishing deep water. Jigging spoons are a good way to fish that deep.

The pro fishermen found similar conditions at Lake Russell that year. They also caught fish deep. The winner jigged spoons and slow rolled a spinnerbait through standing timber in 30 feet of water. Russell also has very clear water. Remember, the clearer the water, the deeper the bass will usually hold.

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