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Posts: 909
| Hey Guys, I have been fishing a river that seems to have muskies in almost every stretch. I catch them pretty good from Nov. thru Feb. and even the follows in the cold months are very aggressive. But when the weather breaks and the water warms up, The follows are lazy and the bites seem impossible. It is a small rocky river with shallow rapids leading into long pools of 3 to 10 ft of water. The river is loaded with suckers and carp and most other non game fish. It also has alot of smallies,walleye and trout. Someone told me that in some rivers, muskies are more night feeders. but that just seems a little weird that they only eat at night. I have switched up times on the water like mornings, afternoons, evenings and still only lazy follows. My partner and I have pretty much thrown the whole Rollie & Helens catalogue at them with no warm water takers.....ANY ADVICE WOULD BE GREAT!!! Thanks in advance.
Brian  |
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Posts: 69
Location: janesville | im no expert at river fishing for muskies in fact i've never fished a river for muskies. but heres some ideas. did you try throwing natural color lures like walleye sucker colors etc? if the waters darker try throwing more brighter colored baits like orange/chartruese or green/chartruese. have you tried fishing late into the night like 12am or later because maybe they do feed better at night. those are just some suggestions |
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Posts: 1636
| Brian, in my experiences, river fish are easier to find in the winter. They are almost always in the deepest holes during this time. When it starts warming up and spawning temperaters are met, I too have a hard time getting some fish to eat, but come late may until the water gets to be 78, they are usually putting on the feed bag again.
Right now, I would be throwing 6" Jakes and Grandmas in the deepest areas of the river. They are very easy to use and work well when slowly, straight retrieved. I tend to use crankbaits slower in rivers since the lips can break off if you hit the bottom too hard. If the river does hold trout, try a "rainbow" pattern Grandma. The rivers I fish don't even hold Trout, but I've caught quite a few on that pattern. If you do decide to fish at night, you cant beat a spinnerbait IMO. You can work them extremely slow, still get good vibration, and you wont get hung up very much, if at all. If there are any feeder creeks flowing into the river, you should def. be fishing them, especially if the water is cooler.
Pick a few spots and fish them over and over again. Each time you go out, start at a different spot and move on and so on. River fish seem to always be on the move. Every spot that looks good probably holds a fish one time or another. Fish will be shallow, but I assume there are more shallow areas than deep so fishing the deepest water will narrow down which spots you will spend the most time on.
River fish do eat at night, but in my experiences, they will eat any time of the day, even during the afternoon without a cloud in the sky. One thing to keep an eye on are moon phases. A ton of the fish I catch out of rivers, and even lakes, come around moonrise and moonset. Low light periods are always a good time to be out, of course. I know everything is easier said than done, but you should be able to figure something out if you get out enough. Goodluck!
Edited by Reelwise 6/25/2008 11:43 PM
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Posts: 619
Location: Verona, WI | I fish rivers from shore or wade them a fair amount - maybe 1/4 of the time. The other thing to try that's not mentioned above is speed. If you are seeing fish in an area and getting a lot of follows, speed up your retrieve. My experience is that river fish follow a lot and a fast retrieve can get them to bite. Twice I have had fish brush my leg on a follow they were so interested in getting to the bait.
If the fish are chasing you can't reel fast enough.
Shane
Edited by ShaneW 6/26/2008 9:21 AM
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Posts: 742
Location: Grand Rapids MN | All I fished was rivers for years from shore and I agree with Shane 100%! It was more by accident for me on discovering 'speed' but some areas had so much current I couldn't throw bucktails with a lot of resistance so I stuck with smaller indianas and willows which allowed me to reel them in once they got down stream. But this also caused to me to have to reel in faster to keep it up and out of the rocks and before you know it I was catching more fish.
Great topic btw.... |
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Posts: 294
Location: Bloomer, Wi | I have found that shallow invaders twitched in and around current along with topraiders worked just fast enough to get a good plop outta them work very well. But the key was current get right in the faster moving water, it obvisously needs to have a little depth to it but any thing over 2 1/2 ft has always worked for us. I fish the flambeau and chippewa in some of its more "wild" stretchs. |
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Posts: 8
| When the sweat beads are rolling down your face in the shade that is when the rivers around here become active. We come off the lakes d/t high water temps and go to the flow. Here are a couple we got last weekend
Sorry about the picture size, still learning.
Edited by simpson 6/27/2008 8:33 AM
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 Buckhorn 40.5.jpg (139KB - 113 downloads)
Buckhorn 38.jpg (76KB - 114 downloads)
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Posts: 159
Location: Stevens Point, WI | I've been having the same problem lately on the river i fish. Sometimes they do that, and i'm not sure why. I would agree with the earlier posts, speed can be a trigger, 1 am can be the ticket, but i've learned to make sure i put in time around new moons and good periods like that. On those kinds of systems you will have a window of opportunity, and you can go from two weeks with no fish to one night with 5 in the boat. |
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Posts: 271
Location: davis,IL | Maybe it's because your really just a bluegill fisherman..LOL. Seriously though, it's time to try throwing something different at them and maybe working the current breaks a little different. If your not moving them try smaller/larger lures, different colors, different retrieves. I know this all sounds basic but if you work at throwing that change up, you'll hit on what works at some point. |
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Posts: 159
Location: Stevens Point, WI | Maybe it's just the river i fish, but i have fished the past two weeks with only lazy follows. This morning i got three follows. This evening with a front coming in, setting sun, rising moon, coming up on a new moon, i had 7 muskies on, though not all of them made it in the boat. Not doing much different, just sticking with what i know works and catching them at the right time. |
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Location: New Albany, Ind. | Nice fish Ronnie. Fish the Trinity with you and talked to you at Buckhorn, live in Indiana. I have same problem, in a river to, seems Nov thru Feb they are on fire. Posible to connect with 4-5 fish a trip. Then when water starts to warm up nothing. Havent seen any last 4-5 trips, tried almost everthing except after dark, may try this next or wait until Nov. Ron |
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Posts: 133
Location: WV | speed... flash (such as a chrome rapala) jerked fast... Topwater... this works for me as well as timing. If your on fish, fish peak times and you easily can have a big number day. |
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