Sam Ubl
Published August 6, 2009

Ever fished a flowage system and had trouble making up your mind
whether to fish the lake or river? This is a debate that has the
potential to teeter-tot a fisherman's confidence, and we all know how
much fun that can be. "Confidence is key", a phrase heard by nearly
everyone and repeated by nearly as many. Such a cliche phrase, yet
meaningful, especially in the way of a musky hunter. Understanding our
quarry and the reasons we do what we do while on the hunt can mean the
difference between success and luck, success and defeat or luck against
the odds. Let's look at some of the components that can waiver your
decision one way or the other.



"Scrappers", a name generally applied to the description of a smaller
entity whose aggression can be ferocious and uncanny to one of such
stature, yet I relate this name to river muskies with a little twist of
irony. River fish are hardly small, or at least that's how it's been in
my experience, yet they are scrappers none the less because of their
ferocious behavior. I believe this aggressiveness is simply a condition
relative to survival of the fittest in the nature of their home, much
like the lifestyles of slum life versus suburban living. I'm not saying
that rivers are dirty polluted bodies of water with residents acting
like a dozen convicts locked up in a tiny cell together, I'm simply
implying where resources are scarcer, survival instincts preside action
over thought process.



What makes up the disposition of a river? Forget about the clarity of
the St. Lawrence or St. Claire River just south of Sarnia, Ontario.
When you think of a river, do you think of the muddy waters of the
Mississippi or Wisconsin River, or do you think of the ridiculously
clear waters of the Collins River in Tennessee or the Tygart of West
Virginia, all of which hold sustainable musky populations? Hopefully,
for the sake of making use of this article you can relate to the more
established or rampantly conceived aesthetics of a river; One that has
the Secchi Disk reading of no more than a couple feet and is littered
with snags, stump fields, cut banks and sandbars.



While musky are native river fish, they are still lazy and prefer to
lie in wait for convenient prey, which means less than ample
opportunities. Using their acclimated hunting skills, their ability to
hone in on their prey should be considered a step ahead of their
cousins swimming in the flooded lake down river. Consider the
heartiness of a wolf or coyote and compare to that of a house dog that
ran away and is now left to fend for itself in the wild. I'm not trying
to discount the predator behind lake muskies; I'm simply drawing a
picture to show how different living conditions can mean the difference
of one entity to next.



In my experience, window shoppers have not been a burden to my sales
pitch when I throw for muskies on a river. If they follow, their hungry
and trying to eat, sealing the deal is up to you, although
understandably their can be unavoidable obstacles that can certainly
break the deal, too. While not necessarily clear or small, lakes are
far different in disposition than rivers. A lake, usually consisting of
a basin, is surrounded by a breakline and may contain sunken islands or
weed flats, but these characteristics change little to not at all, and
life within a lake, more often than not, relate to certain niche's.
Migratory patterns of baitfish and other species in lakes can be
predictive and recognizable in timing and location by us humans, so one
would have to assume that fish can too, especially those who depend on
it.



A common misconception is that flowage fish often migrate from the
river to the lake once summer peaks, then back to the river when the
August cools off the overheated river water. Sure, rivers are shallower
than many lakes and of course, cloudy water absorbs more heat from the
sun than that of crystal clear waters like the middle Alleghany River
in Pennsylvania, but moving water has the uncanny ability to distort
this warm up, and so do the thousands of springs within Rivers. If
musky had a hard time living in rivers throughout the summer months,
rest assured musky populations in lakes now-a-days would be slim to
almost eliminated. Remember, rivers offer the best of all living
conditions, all except easy meals. Sometimes I think of lake muskies
like they are sitting in a drive-through line at a fast-food joint,
their only discomfort is having to make a decision what and when they
want to eat. River muskies, however, will unlikely turn down a free
meal. Put them in a ring with other hungry muskies and you have the
epitome of a scrapper.



So you've made up your mind, you're going to spend your time setting
hooks into submerged stumps and take the risk of driving your boat up
onto a black sand bar inches under the surface that came out of nowhere
because these fish should be easier to catch, right? Wrong. While
hungry and aggressive, these fish are by no means easy to catch, they
simply improve the odds of turning a follow into a strike in my humble
opinion. Rivers are huge bodies of water, if not wide, then long, and
the fish can be anywhere. It's up to you to learn the dynamics of a
rivers structure and how fish relate to it, but bare in mind that fish
tend to face upstream, given the current is flowing in the area you are
fishing. I've yet to see an abundance of musky chase down a lure that
came ripping past them from behind. Although difficult, with the right
baits it is possible to cast upstream and bring it down, usually a
creature jig of some sort works well for this. More often than not,
you'll find the most strategic way to fish a river is a parallel. This
allows the current to push the lure slightly down stream on the
retrieve, hopefully past the nose of a hungry resident, as well as ease
of the retrieve at the speed you want it to proceed.



Fishing muskies isn't easy, whether you fish lakes or rivers, but many
have their preference. If you have the luxury of being on water with
the best of both worlds, do what suits you and your style of fishing. I
love fishing rivers, I think hotspots are easier to identify as I'm
more of a visual fisherman then an open water kind of guy. You can
assume where I'll be fishing when I'm faced with decision time, where
will you be?

1742