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Posts: 294
| So as the season starts to get shorter and the amount of fishable days slimming I have a question for everyone. As I write this we are in the middle of a nasty little cold front. I have half a day to fish tomorrow and am curious of everyone's thoughts on fishing in the middle of cold fronts. Does it pay to go? If it pays what are some strategies you guys use to attack these situations? Any help would be greatly appreciated. |
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Posts: 2097
| http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=99... |
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Posts: 294
| I did read that Cave Run and it wasn't quite what I was after. I guess I took that as more of what to do in the cold weather. I have fished pre and post front but not too often right in the middle of one. I planned on the sucker route already, but would also like to cast. Kind of curious of baits and what type of structure to attack first.
Edited by tr7 10/3/2014 6:50 PM
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Posts: 255
| For what it's worth...
if I had time to go I would. I'd try a bulldawg, weighted suick, and a crane bait. the wind would likely determine my areas because it sounds like boat control will be fun. far as cold front wisdom, I don't know. If it goes bad, you blame it on the cold front. Time on the water is better than wondering about it. It'll be the fish that prove if it was worth it, not my opinion anyway. |
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Posts: 294
| I like your thinking. I've had some time to sit down and did some googling and read some articles about it and they all pretty much concur with what you just said. I'm going to give it a shot and hopefully put a pig in the boat! |
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Posts: 670
Location: Otsego, MN | Burn a small bucktail or use something erratic. Get a reaction strike. |
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Posts: 1279
| For me, prior to, and during fronts-mostly good. After fronts-mostly, not as good. |
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Posts: 365
| ------ 9" weighted Suick --- Magic --- jimjimjim |
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Posts: 255
| curious how this turned out. better than my day: drove two hours to Winona for outdoor wedding, meal in a tent, back after midnight with three kids 8 and under. If you caught no fish, better than my day. |
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Posts: 670
Location: Otsego, MN | Fished a bass tournament today on tonka, upper 40's stole a 3lber from us and a pike got wacked by a different big girl. So try quick strikes with 3lb bass! |
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Posts: 1828
| I fished through the crap on Saturday for about 6 hours. For some reason from 3 to 4:30 pm, some fish went nuts. We caught two muskies, one nice pike, one big pike, lost one musky, one other musky missed the bait twice, and another one went through the 8 for about 2 full minutes before the wind blew me into the weeds. That one actually "tried" to eat about 5 times, but it was just nipping and intentionally missing. Two other fish followed slightly-less aggressively.
The two muskies caught were boatside. One on double 10 blades, one on a 10" jake. Actually all the musky action was on those baits. The fish were located in the same areas as usual for this lake - weed edges. In the first couple hours we pushed shallow and then worked deep, back and forth, trying to find fish, until they finally lit up.
It was cold, raining and sleeting off and on, and very windy. This was a small lake, because I couldn't have fished effectively on anything bigger. We had whitecaps at times on this lake that's no more than 1/4 mile in the direction the wind was blowing. Water temp 53 - 54, water was very clear. |
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Posts: 134
| Cold fronts in fall don't scare me away as they do during summer.... in fact its quite the opposite. Was out yesterday and water temps dropped almost 2 degrees from am to pm and managed two in bag.
Biggest thing is to locate the fish on system you are on, obviously. Previously, I figured cold weather meant movement towards the depths but they go shallow before they go deep. I had water temps as high as 60.0 on saturday and was dropping progressing into evening. So i started probing the shallow areas and had a follow. 6ft weed flat in warmest water on lake. Left and fished some similar areas with no luck. Went back on following fish with different bait and got bit. Unfortunately she shook the hook before i could get her to bag.
Lure selection is typically steady action that can be moved slow, eveybody has a bait they can make dance, just got to do it slowly. I prefer medium to large baits.
Don't know if you don't go.... Slow down, fish best spots thoroughly and move on. Good luck and tight lines |
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Posts: 1828
| MuskyMike51 - 10/6/2014 10:16 AM
Lure selection is typically steady action that can be moved slow, eveybody has a bait they can make dance, just got to do it slowly. I prefer medium to large baits.
Don't know if you don't go.... Slow down, fish best spots thoroughly and move on. Good luck and tight lines
Just for whatever it's worth - on Saturday our follows and catches were with big baits going fast. Fast, erratic with a big jake, and fast (for me) with a cowgirl. And the boatside manners of these fish were as hot as I've had all year.
But who knows, maybe we would have caught even more if we were working baits slower. |
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Posts: 294
| Jaultman, I wasn't able to fish the afternoon, but did see the best time of day per the Musky Hunter app was exactly the time you described. The second best time was supposed to be from 9:30-10:30 and that is when we had action. Had a dandy follow but not eat and caught some pike. Then it stopped as soon as it turned on. Funny thing was the speed. We also were tossing a 10 along with a large Suick. As soon as both of us sped up our retrieves is when the fish were caught/seen. It was flipping miserable out, but still better than sitting on the couch! |
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Fishing During A Cold Front