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Posts: 1764
Location: Ogden, Ut | Well, the obvious answers always seems to be to 'go find another water' or 'fish a river' but when those options aren't available (there's only 1 water that has muskies that I can get a boat on this time of the year) what course of action do you take?
Common sense leads me to believe that in a time of some stress, fish just hunker down and wait it out. That would probably be the best option for me too, but I want to fish. I've been trolling and casting, moving baits slow, fast and in-between. I've been fishing structure, open water and following bait fish; fishing big, medium and smaller baits. Nothing seems to work. There's a ton of muskie knowledge frequenting this board - any theories out there? Where can I cut some corners so I don't have to search the whole body of water for some receptive fish? The water is down 26' from full pool, so there's no weed edges and the 'first breaks' are generally 10 or more feet out of the water. The irrigation season is now over and the reservoir is starting to, ever so slowly, come back up a bit. Forage is mainly perch, crappies and carp.
S. |
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Posts: 462
Location: Madison Wi. Chain | Hi Sorno, I would probably look for the most stable water. If you had a significant weed edge I would probably focus on the thickest weeds or the inside edge. In your situation, I might look for incoming streams or springs that provide some current. Good Luck! BG |
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Posts: 32926
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Find the food, and you will find the fish, even in a turnover situation. Getting them to go, on the other hand... |
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Posts: 7086
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | A few strategies, some of which I'll taylor specifically for you!
a. lawn work - get it done now, so after turnover there's less to be done.
b. general honey-do's - see above.
c. brew beer - it can be your personal way to get through the current economic crisis.
d. send Nikki and Andrew another brown Utah DNR beanie hat, I shrunk the last one.
e. sneak onto the neighbors yards and replace McCain banners with Obama ones, and vice versa.
This should be enough for at least a week. |
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Posts: 371
Location: Dixon, IL | I might use sucker with a large slip float, while casting a jerkbait! I would try to fish area where less wind (weedbeds , woods or rocks) and if not work then move to wind to shore that baitfish might be closer to shore.
Fish from 11 am until evening.
Better than stay home to watch tv! |
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Posts: 1286
Location: Stevens Point, Wi. | I don't feel it's a time of sress for the fish, instead it seems more a time of expanding opportunities. Waters and food that were unavailable are now accessable. The fish seem more scattered until the find their new fall haunts.
Besides, with that gorgeous scenery, who cares !  |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | ILmuskie - 10/21/2008 1:16 PM
I might use sucker with a large slip float, while casting a jerkbait! I would try to fish area where less wind (weedbeds , woods or rocks) and if not work then move to wind to shore that baitfish might be closer to shore.
Fish from 11 am until evening.
Better than stay home to watch tv!
Unfortunately the use of suckers/live bait is illegal out west. When I run the DNR, trout will be illegal.  |
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Posts: 654
Location: MPLS, MN | Deep Saddles and/or shallow, very very shallow.. |
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Overcoming turnover