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| I am a rookie fishermen when it comes to Muskie and I was looking for advice. I wade the fox river in Illinois and am looking for someone to answer some general questions. What r the best times of year as well as time of day. What river conditions should I look for. What lures to throw and during what time if year. color of lures as well. I am a wader so keep that in mind as well. Thank you in advance for your time. | |
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Posts: 57
Location: Janesville wi | Big rocks,logs,bends,islands,or any other object that breaks up the current and gives the fish slower water to sit in and attack from is what you want to target.
Top water baits are what I throw the most in rivers. | |
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Posts: 119
| february, regular and Mag SuperD's. pull/drop retrieve. and when a monster strikes 2 ft from your face next to the canoe, don't forget to set the hook then shriek, "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" | |
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Posts: 337
Location: Central WI | Dams and spillways are a good place to try. | |
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Posts: 20
Location: Bowling Green, Kentucky | I fish southern ky rivers and creeks quite a bit. I use topwaters and big swimbaits. This year I am going to throw a few glidebaits around trees. You can catch them any month of the year. It took me a bit to catch my first open river fish. To make your chances better, focus first on areas of concentration. Winter- springs and warm inflow
Spring- dams, locks and follow the sucker or red horse spawn. Also crappie spawn. Fish move upstream in small streams in the spring. Any block stacks up the baitfish and the Muskie like it.
Summer- if the water is low and you fish shallow streams then concentrate on areas that hold good numbers of spotted and largemouth bass that are over four feet deep. Bends, holes, downed trees on the low side of fast water will all hold fish. Largemouth like the same kinds of areas. There are always exceptions. If smallmouth like a particular hole then there is something there to attract a predator. Here where I am the water gets hot and smallmouth go two feet deep in the summer to get in fast water. It may not be the same for you.
Fall- fish feeder creeks and follow schooling shad.
HIGH WATER- fish downside of island and in mouths of feeder creeks. No flow at all during high, muddy, water is a good place. Oh, big bass spinner baits with a six inch trailer grub makes a good river lure. Cheap too.
Good luck
BT | |
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| Thanks you guys for the advice I will keep pounding the water. | |
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Posts: 3863
| Come summer swim the attractive (deep holes) sections of the river with a mask, fins and a snorkle. Take your time and really get down there along the deep turns, especially under root wads and timber tangles. Take another breath and check out the center of the deep holes - you'll see fish holding just behind obsticles.
Most people never see what's under the surface. Small rivers are way cool micro-ecosystems. There are isolated deep holes in Ozark rivers that hold gar that are shaped sorta like railroad ties. If you can get to these spots you can sunbathe with giant and ancient fish every sunny morning. | |
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Posts: 41
| wintertime, glider jerks, suspending pull jerks, sinking crankbaits, pulls and pauses worked slow. walleye and small muskie sized banana baits on slow striaght retrieve, or pauses on retrieve. anytime of day you feel like fishing, cloudy or bluebird skies both work. | |
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| don't need much but casting accuracy in a river, and common sense | |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | Treat any disruption of the current flow as structure. | |
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| Very good advice here. Steve really hit it on the head. | |
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Posts: 2091
Location: Stevens Point, WI | I've had very good success in the early season with Topraiders, Pacemakers and smaller bucktails with rubber trailers. Small twitch baits have been really good too, I prefer 6" Shallow Raiders in hot colors here in the stained WI River water. Really work individual pieces of structure (current breaks) from multiple angles. It's not uncommon for a fish to hit on the 6-7th cast sometimes depending on the angle. River fish tend to hit more ambush style than follow, though with the dark water you really need to be super vigilant with your figure eights since you will not see many of the follows that do occur. | |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | Ok there rookie, here's the deal, your fishing for a fish that isn't going to stick around long where your fishing for them. That alone makes predictability difficult. The muskies don't reproduce in that river but are stocked fish up north in the lakes. The majority swim down or up stream when current is at its most, spring & fall.
The most important thing in catching a fish is the "where". Its been said that 90% of the water contains no fish.
If you know of some depressions, deeper water, out side bends, ect hard clean spots near the deepest water in the area these would be good areas to check all year long.
"What lures to throw?" I'd throw a crank bait checking a variety of speeds, sizes, then a slower speed plastic or something. "color?" The fish don't care.
Good luck! | |
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Posts: 338
Location: Maryland | I have been fishing the Potomac River in Md now for 8 years and have had real good success on almost every type of lure except topwaters. I mainly throw 6-7" gliders,shallow invaders,all kinds of bucktails(giant killer sassy shad by mepps is awesome) and 6-7" cranks. Good luck and tight lines... | |
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Posts: 2361
| Well, noted that many posters have not answered ANY of your questions.
Best time of year will probably be August 15 through late October, reason being you will have a lot of warm days and cool nights in that area during that time, starting about mid August most years. Musky temps should be very similar to SM bass activity temps, and will actually stay active into colder water when the bass get kind of flaky.
Best water color is clear to slightly murky, with at least 2 foot visibility, and a river that is anywhere from low to 1 foot high at most. Higher water gets into problems, and probably gets difficult to cover a lot of water in the system you are talking about. Murky water after a rain, that has not risen substantially will be great for your approach on these fish. They are less finicky.
Best time of day will be early and late when you start fishing in mid-August and migrate to mid-day through dusk as the season progresses, first tracking the cooler water of the day, early, and then as you get later in the season, the warmer water of the day. Mid summer June through mid August is probably going to be too warm but remember that a good cold front might spark some activity and perk them up for a couple days with a quick temp change in the river. If the water temps are above 76 they are going to be a little uncomfortable and also, if they bite they are going to be hard to release. Look for temporary changes that drop that water temp., and in that area of the midwest you will probably have a few opportunities through the summer. The nice thing about stream fish is that they tend to be more consistently active in high pressure situations as you go from late summer to fall, and that is also the prettiest and most comfortable time to fish. Relatively few horseflies and deerflies around that time.
Cloudy rainy days on rivers are good and fish will bite on the rise of water but quit if it is a big rain and goes way up. Slow rain and drizzly days without a lot of precipitation will be excellent, and remember in your area the fronts tend to move through so, every 3-7 days you will have a prefrontal opportunity(hopefully).
Early, I would go with fast retrieve lures, bucktails, some medium cranks and whatever else you like, but definitely go bigger as the season progresses, moving to 6" and up jerk baits and cranks as it gets cooler. Surface lures are lots of fun and muskies bite in rivers after dark, but the surface lures seem kind of regional in rivers, might take you a while to check out.
Colors I would use specifically, silver blade bucktails in spring and early summer and then change to brass blades in Sept.
Also, I would use bright colors/flourescent when it is cloudy, rainy, or near dusk, due to the fact that your visual aspect is often going to be from only 3-4 feet above the water surface and the flourescents are going to be a little easier for YOU to see at those times.
Fish are not going to be fighting the current, and they will favor places where they can control and monitor traffic going up and down the river. That will eventually be their dinner table, so they'll like spots where they can keep an eye on it. You might find fish in runs in warmer water, but when it gets cold they will pretty dependably be in a pool that has some deep water in it.
They are catchable even when there is ice on the river, but it is of course a lower return per hour of fishing, so you might look at hitting prime holes only at prime times then.
In the spring it will be very good the week after they spawn but also quite dependent on water conditions and they can be pretty bad at that time of year. The advantage of Mid august fishing is that vegetation has maxed out in the midwest and soils have dried and the watershed can take a rain or two without muddying up too bad, in the spring, and early, there tends to be a lot more runoff, and conditions can be iffy, but that first feed is very aggressive.
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Posts: 119
| I only answered 3 of 6 questions which is 50%, an F, if you're grading.
I'll shoot for a "D", 4/6, and say natural colors like Sucker, Cisco or whitefish.
Sometimes dimwits like me just chuck a bait to a fishy looking spot and see what happens.
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River fishing tactics