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Posts: 51
| As a newbie musky fisherman I wanted to ask the question what weeds do you guys consider good musky weeds? I am going to be fishing musky on Lake of the Woods in the summer, if that has any effect on weed selection. I thought that any weeds would give fish cover but was told that there are good weeds and bad weeds. What are your inputs? |
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Posts: 20218
Location: oswego, il | It can be all relative. Healthy weeds are the best. Variety is good also, especially when one kind meets another. For instance if you are fishing coontail and then there is a patch of cabbage, that is a good spot. Now if you have alot of cabbage and it's dying or dead(of all the weeds I have fished cabbage seems to be the least hardy), the coontail or even junkweeds will hold fish. |
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Posts: 2089
| Although I love the "crispy greens" like the curly cabbage, but my personal favorites on LOTW are the brown/golden tobacco cabbage with the little nubs(for you Keith) just above the surface and good ole coontail. So many spots are a combo of the above but the smaller isolated patches are magic. It doesn't take much to harbor a cow. Is it August yet??? Steve |
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Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | I agree with Steve on this one.
On lotw, Tobacco Cabbage is awesome.
Coontail and cabbage are great.
Mix either with rocks, unbelievable.
Spindly junk weeds, not so cool.
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | The coontail and cabbage type of weeds are really nice. They can hold a lot of fish, and they are easy to fish through with spinnerbaits and other semi weedless stuff.
But, don't rule out stringy grass type weeds, especially if they are alive and green. I fish a couple stained lakes where this is the more prevalent weed in some places, and the fish use it. It is a PAIN to fish through with just about any bait, but it will hold fish.
Basically, if there are any weeds, they have the potential to start the food chain going, and muskies might be using them.
curleytail |
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Posts: 227
Location: New Brighton, MN | I fish primarily on a lake that has some pretty significant pondweed blooms that choke out certain areas. Are these considered the spindly, stringy weeds that are "bad"? Should I not fish these areas? Find other weeds?
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Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | Willis,
Those areas will hold fish, some areas in Pelican get taken over by this stuff in July and August. They still hold fish, but are god awful to try to fish. Nearly nothing comes through this stuff.
In these areas I have started using the 10" weagle more often to combat these weeds. I work it very aggresively and it fouls very seldom. I have been able to coax fish out of these weeds but it is painful fishing.
Edited by nwild 3/11/2008 10:36 AM
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I also pay attention to where one type of weeds transitions to another. If there's a break, even just 1', that can be truly great water especially in the 'slop'. |
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Posts: 8781
| Good weeds:
- Cabbage
- Coontail
- Pondweed (until it dies off mid-summer)
- Milfoil (unless its so thick you can't fish it)
Bad weeds:
- bullrushes/pencil reeds if not surrounded by other weeds
- thick mats of milfiol you can't fish over or through
- that stringy crap that gets all over your baits (not sure what its called)
I've always been under the assumption that if its green and provides cover there will be fish in there. It all comes down to how difficult it is to fish -- if you spend all your time pulling it off your lures and wasting casts being fouled up in it, its not good weeds. (Suppose that's just me needing to try something like a weedless jig) I'd bet the payoff is pretty substantial if you're willing to fight through the really thick stuff.
Anybody got any suggestions for how to get down in those areas and get to those fish without going away mad? |
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| esoxaddict:
"Bad weeds:
- bullrushes/pencil reeds if not surrounded by other weeds "
ummmm wrong. |
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Posts: 8781
| Do you care to elaborate on that with your tremendous insight, there dawger??? I've found that unless there's some other type of structure nearby, or a deep drop off or something that those shoreline bullrushes are empty. No baitfish, no muskies, nothing. Almost like they'll only move up in there if they can escape to something nearby?
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| if you fished minnesota waters you would know what I mean.
there are times when they are there... in large numbers. |
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| I agree that they can all be good. But I'll take crummy looking weed on a great spot over the best looking weeds on a poor spot any time. I like Dick Pearson's idea that in some cases weeds are the cherry on the sundae, not the main draw themselves. |
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Posts: 676
Location: Wisconsin | I'll take some deep reed beds or bullrushes in Minnesota or even northern Wisconsin. |
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Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | Addict,
I have also found good fishing off of sand flats with pencil reeds/bullrush behind them. I wouldn't bank my season on these spots, but at times they are awesome. |
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Posts: 305
Location: Illinois | I don't disagree that there are better weeds than others, but I can't say there are any "bad weeds". At certain times a year, maybe for only a week or three, muskies use different kinds of weeds. The reeds on Cass are a perfect example. This years PMTT in Madison found teams fishing the worst looking water I have ever seen, 3 feet of water with patches of crapweed. That is where most of the fish were caught. The are no bad weeds, just bad timing.
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Location: Lake Tomahawk, WI | Here's a little clip from last fall.
Some weeds for sure hold more fish than others.
http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=37... |
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Posts: 51
| Thanks everyone for the help! Very informative, keep it coming. |
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Posts: 1185
Location: Wishin I Was Fishin' | I hate the slimmy green stuff that is like algea, that is the worst to get off baits....stringy weeds are bad too. especially wrapped around a Tally Wacker Tail. |
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| Cabbage is good.
Edited by SVT 3/12/2008 10:53 PM
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | I definetely disagree with the bullrush opinion. Bullrush has been great to me, I will literally stop the boat sometimes and hit one little section even if it only takes me a minute. Bullrush has different effects on different lakes, but some Canadian shield lakes have a great bullrush bite.
I look for Bullrush that is near creek inlets, on islands, smaller patches getting creamed by wind, bullrush near or in sandy bottoms, and also rush that juts out and acts in the same manner as a rock/land point would. A few lakes I know of have a downright deadly topwater bite in the late evening. Again, not all lakes have it, but some do. I found a lot of fish my first time out on LOTW by doing this for example...
Edited by Musky Brian 3/12/2008 11:51 PM
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| Georgian Bay, Lake Nipissing, French Rivers, Moon River all have produced fish for us in the reeds. Many guys I know who fish the Kawarthas in E Ontario fish nothing BUT reeds all season. I can't speak much for the NW ONT chunk of Shield, but you're certainly right about the Central part of Ontario's Shield being reed-friendly, Brian. They will grow through broken rock and hard sand as deep as six feet in places. There are some sick patches around Sandy Island where the French drains Lake Nipissing. You could spend a week's worth of evenings in there. |
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Posts: 332
Location: Michigan | Dacron + Dip - 3/13/2008 9:25 AM
Georgian Bay, Lake Nipissing, French Rivers, Moon River all have produced fish for us in the reeds. Many guys I know who fish the Kawarthas in E Ontario fish nothing BUT reeds all season. I can't speak much for the NW ONT chunk of Shield, but you're certainly right about the Central part of Ontario's Shield being reed-friendly, Brian. They will grow through broken rock and hard sand as deep as six feet in places. There are some sick patches around Sandy Island where the French drains Lake Nipissing. You could spend a week's worth of evenings in there.
I know those "sick patches" well, particularly in September.
Edited by Slimeball 3/13/2008 8:39 AM
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | Green broadleaf cabbage and coontail seem to work the best for me up in N Wis. grass and that crappy spagetti weed seems to suck. Milfoil is excellent cover for Musky. Pewaukee is loaded with it, but guys keep pulling whoppers out of it every year. I never caught two legals in two casts up in Vilas. |
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| I bet you do Roger, we will hopefully run into you out there one of these times. You're right, Sept just seems good for so many ways and spots to fish. We've been fishing the Lower a lot more than the Upper the last couple years, I think you fish that section also. |
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Posts: 332
Location: Michigan | JPB,
Roger is my father  , when you have a chance contact me at [email protected] |
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| No such thing as "bad" weeds. They will all hold fish at various times. Cabbage is especially popular because it a) holds fish frequently; and, b) is relatively easy to fish through. Think about it and you'll realize that some of the so-called "junk weeds" might have a bad reputation simply because they're difficult to fish effectively. If you aren't fishing effectively you will rarely catch fish; therefore, those areas get a bad reputation. Learn to fish them effectively and you'll open doors to new location possibilities and maybe you'll catch fish when everyone says they're not biting... |
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Posts: 227
Location: New Brighton, MN | I have a question... How do you locate a deep weed bed, and then, how do you know that the weeds are dead or alive, coontail or cabbage? For me, it's what I can see, either thru the water, or on the sonar... or what I pull up snagged on my hooks. The video posted above is referring to New weed growth deep down. Is this simply determied by sonar?
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Posts: 1462
Location: Davenport, IA | Everytime I think there is such thing as bad weeds, I catch a fish that proves my theory wrong. But, If I find fish on a certain type of weeds on one day, it is likely other fish will be in similar areas. Generally, my favorite is the curly leaf pond weeds. I prefer to have it isolated too. Huge weedbeds always hold fish, but you have to work harder to find them. |
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Good Weeds vs. Bad Weeds