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Posts: 373
Location: Northern Illinois | I will be staying on a really nice muskie lake in northern Wisconsin at the end on July. The area directly around the resort looks like it is all sand. Sometimes, when on a trip, I like to chill and just cast around the piers in between going out on the boat. Basically, I just like to keep fishing. From my early days of fishing, I know it is possible to catch fish in just plan sand with minimal cover or structure. Any of you have any experience or success in areas that are mainly sand with minimal weeds? |
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Posts: 1973
| Yes, Mille lacs had a well known sand bite but several other mn lakes have good sand bites at times, sand cups on Lotw produce fish too... muskies like sand at times certainly worth checking out, and many times you’ll have cabbage in front of the bare sand .. that being said I don’t fish Wisconsin much but bare sand end of July wouldn’t be where I’d expect to find them, I tend to fish deep anyway more than many
Edited by IAJustin 6/9/2021 10:23 PM
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Posts: 3136
| Theorys have it that if their up on shallow sand laying there they are likely digesting their food and mostly in a negative mood that time of year,,in august or early September after the first cool down they will hunt the shallow sand and be more positive mood. |
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Posts: 373
Location: Northern Illinois | I'm trying to rationalize that it might be good even though I know it's probably not. I would like to understand under what conditions they might be in an area like that though. |
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Posts: 1213
Location: Walker, MN | We find active fish in the shallow sand here in the early mornings, July to October. Weed beds aren't always hospitable that time of day because of lower O2 levels, so we often fish the adjacent sand then. |
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Location: MN | When the cold front hits head to the beach! Sand holds heat well and they like to lay up on it when the water temps drop suddenly. It’s produced some dandy fish in my boat. |
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Posts: 610
Location: Bloomington, MN | The Mille Lacs sand "bite" was dragging Super Shad Raps behind planner boards. Not many had the lure in the mouth. |
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Posts: 373
Location: Northern Illinois | Clark A - 6/10/2021 11:39 PM
The Mille Lacs sand "bite" was dragging Super Shad Raps behind planner boards. Not many had the lure in the mouth.
Meaning they were side hooked? |
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Posts: 1973
| were some snagged..I'm sure ....100's upon 100's had hooks in their mouths ...with the right conditions, generally 2-3 footers..watching those fish come unglued on small burned bucktails and topwater was...simply nuts |
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Posts: 390
| I have caught many of fish on sand. If you can find a sand bar with a steep drop even better. |
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Posts: 2752
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | It's profitable if you own land with the right kind of sand! |
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| Masqui-ninja - 6/10/2021 6:03 AM
We find active fish in the shallow sand here in the early mornings, July to October. Weed beds aren't always hospitable that time of day because of lower O2 levels, so we often fish the adjacent sand then.
This is interesting. Several times while working the early shift as a Clean Boats/Clean Waters volunteer on the chain where I live I have seen musky cruising close to shore on the bare sand by the landing. Kind of cool to look down and see a musky a couple feet away but was curious why they were not in the weeds not far away. |
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Posts: 3797
| My limited experience was to target shallow sand in the very early morning. I suspect the muskies chase baitfish that also go shallow in the middle of the night. I used to shine a Q-beam along the shoreline on my way back to the landing in the wee hours. If the water was flat. You would be amazed at how many big fish, bass and walleye in particular, are feeding right up close to the beach all the way out to the drop off. Sand with sparse weeds is the best for walleye, I used to pick them off fan casting a simple black/silver bass spinnerbait. By daylight the walleye were always gone deep but bass were still cruising. Muskies were often still shallow, just sitting, but one spook and they were gone, too.
The very best time to target shallow sand is during the spring and fall frog migrations. When you see the frogs marching on the road at night head to the lake. Cast a firetiger Johnson Spoon tipped with a white twin twister tail right on shore and bring it back.
Edited by Ranger 6/18/2021 7:02 PM
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Posts: 1213
Location: Walker, MN | North of 8 - 6/18/2021 5:05 PM
Masqui-ninja - 6/10/2021 6:03 AM
We find active fish in the shallow sand here in the early mornings, July to October. Weed beds aren't always hospitable that time of day because of lower O2 levels, so we often fish the adjacent sand then.
This is interesting. Several times while working the early shift as a Clean Boats/Clean Waters volunteer on the chain where I live I have seen musky cruising close to shore on the bare sand by the landing. Kind of cool to look down and see a musky a couple feet away but was curious why they were not in the weeds not far away.
The best part about it IMO is that a topwater are usually the most effective lures.
For the past several years, my goal has been to beach the boat, and cast from the shore. Maybe this is actually the year we do it! |
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Location: Safe Space, MN | For me, sand dictates a lot of the decisions I’ll make throughout the day. On my particular river system there are many sand flats and sharp underwater main river sand points which then drop dramatically into softer bottom with tea stained water. With respect to a few rocky areas, the sand represents the hardest bottom in the system. I have learned over the course of the last decade these transition areas are not only a stage for feeding, but also a suspending point for both neutral and negative fish. While lots of people fish the neckdows and traditional shallow weeds for walleye,crappie, ect.. many overlook the suspended fish early to mid summer that can be hanging off the edge, holding in 25 over 40fow. The key is timing when and why the prey fish are relating to these areas. So typically in my first hour or so in the early season I’ll look for the most active sand point, with the most bait relating to it that also has a well defined hard to soft transition. If weeds mixed in, great, if not I still believe sand in most systems will always attract fish as long as there are transition areas adjacent. |
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Posts: 1220
| Years ago fished Lake Winnibigoshish in Oct. did not see a Muskie all week ( boat is in the shop and we could out of rentals that week) We did catch a ton of Pike in the weeds and all the Muskie sized Pike were caught on sand and on Eddie Baits or Cobb's Crazy Shads. And would not touch any other lure type and it snowed almost every day. |
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