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Posts: 354
| I have been doing a lot of the usual winter reading. I have been reading the new "Diary of a Musky Guide" by Rizzo. I'm curious to see if any of you out there are fishing very deep late in the fall. He talks a lot about fishing 40-65 feet in depth.
I guess I'm curious to see who else has fished 40 feet or deeper and had some success with it. I know that you could use a countdown crank, sucker, blade bait like a fuzzy d. etc. Also do you find it to be harmful to the fish, pulling them from these depths? I would imagine this would be a cold water temp tactic? Are we talking low 40's and below? Let's hear from some of you very deep late fall fisherman? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Bill C. |
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Posts: 7039
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | I dont have the patience for the fuzzy, though I should learn it, I know.....however my top tactics take almost as much patience: cast a dawg or slow glider, count it down to the bottom (or as long as you can stand) and then slow glide/slow pull it back as slow as humanly possible. When you think you're going slow, go slower. They will eat.
Planning on applying the same with the Big Joes from Live Action Lures (recently purchased by Craig Eversoll) and with fast sinking cranks (Sharks, Depthraiders) before the water starts warming. |
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Posts: 1080
| There is some potential harm that can be done to the fish pulling a fish from water deeper than 30 feet or so. They are under such pressure at those depths that if they're not brought up slow enough...the tend to bloat, possibly even their stomachs and/or air bladder can push through their mouths. Some know how to "fizz" or "bleed" or "burp" the fish before releasing it...otherwise...it'll die on you if you try to release a fish brought up from those depths too fast and don't know how to treat the fish to correct for it's condition.
If you're able to bring the fish up slow enough to allow the fish to adjust to the change in the depths.....you might be okay.
Some extreme care should be taken fishing those depths though. |
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| Don't fish for muskies deeper than 30 feet or so because it could cause swim bladder damage. Fuzzy Duzzits worked deep are a great way to jig for muskies suspended around bait fish pods. It is also effective to crank or troll big baits that dig down to 25 to 30 feet. Muskies can easily come up 10 or 15 feet with one kick of the tail, so need need to bounce bottom deeper than say 35 feet. There are no scientific studies that prove this point with muskies, but there are for other specifies of fish and muskies should be handled carefully at anytime, especially from depths deeper than 25 feet.
I troll water 35 to 100 feet deep in the Fall, but I am looking for fish suspended in the top third of the water column.
Edited by muskyboy 2/13/2006 10:32 PM
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Posts: 4266
| Just because you are fishing deep water doesn't mean that you have to fish deep.
Case in point- I used to fish a very deep Vilas county lake during the fall months. It slopes so fast that you could hit the bank with a lure when the boat was in 50' of water with regularity. The only gliders available at the time were Teddies and Eddie Baits, along with Suicks and Bobbie Baits, and I was throwing the biggest one that I had, when a big fish came straight up and tried to eat it when it was half way back to the boat. I guesstimate the lure was 3 feet down in about 30' of water. She missed, or I did, but I saw her come straight up and hump over like a whale heading back to the deep. Later that day we boated a mid-forty inch fish out of 40 feet of water on a Bobbie Bait that I weighted to stay down. Still, it was only about 5 feet down.
As we headed down the bank in 50-60 feet of water, there was an explosion like a shotgun blast on the water behind us in 70-80 feet of water. We turned and saw fish scattering all over the surface, and both of us turned and fired out in that direction. I thought that my lure had fouled, but when I reeled it in, I found that I had impaled a 12" Brown Trout with the hooks. We saw and heard sveral more explosions that day, and lost another big fish in 80 feet of water on a big Eddie Bait.
I've never even considered water to be too deep after that.
Look up at something 30' above your head some time. If you hadn't eaten in a while and there was a pizza up there, you would find a way to get it. Since a muskie can cover 30' in mere seconds without expending much energy, thay won't hesitate to attack something 30-40 feet over their heads. Those are also optimum ambush conditions for them. Since the baitfish can't look down, coming from below in deep water is perfect for feeding.
Just because you're in deep water, you don't have to run deep running lures. I'd be more concerned with the level of the food and not the level of the muskies.
Beav |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | As Beav mentioned just because you are in deep water don't think you have to go deep. However, let the forage tell you what to do. In general I am fishing 25-40' down in the fall. Countdown Depth Raiders, Bulldawgs, Live Action Big Joes, and other countdown cranks is what I use. Also, suckers fished very near bottom is what gets hit quite a bit. I haven't had one problem bringing fish up from those depths, and in fact have had more problems with fish that have hit cranks 5' down over 60' of water. Sometimes those fish come up too fast for their own good when they hit a bait.
When do I fish the upper column in the fall? In a case that Beav menioned. If you see breaking baitfish, or see them high on the graph keep your presentations high. Certain fish species will be high in late fall due to spawning and cooler temps (i.e. trout, whitefish, ciscos). |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | I have, and have had clients catch fish as deep as 45 feet deep.
No problems here.
No swim blatter problem, no ill effects, nothing.
You also have to remember when you hook them that deep you are also fighting them up horizonally, so the fight takes for ever.
A lose drag, and you'll be fine.
No problems what so ever, and I am not talking just about 1-2 fish here, but probably close to 45-50. |
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Posts: 354
| This is why this is the best site on the net. Great thoughts from very good fishermen. My biggest fall fish came in about 20' of water and hit a DR. I had barely started to crank it down so it was much like you described Beav. I have read about Bob Ellis and many other anglers thoughts about needing to stay above the fish. I'm just wondering when things get very very late (in the fall) and temps are very low if I shouldn't be hitting some very deep water. I guess the baitfish and their location could tell me where to be too. Thanks again for the tips and anyone else please chime in. |
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Posts: 389
Location: Presque Isle Wisconsin | I fish deep water ciscoe based lakes on a daily basis and the best key to success has been the depth the baitfish are working as Travis stated above.I also agree with him on seeing more stressed out fish that have rocketed up from depth to hit a lure running at five ft. or so than a fish that was hooked at 20 to 25 ft. and worked up on a bait to the boat. Very high water temps will add stress however and should be taken into consideration every time you fish in those conditions .Normally in Northern Wisconsin at any rate ,high water temps of 78 degrees or more usually are short in duration.Incooler water conditions I have never encountered a problem. The argument of whether its more productive to fish to shallower running baits over deep water or go deeper with your lures if the baitfish are down there has been going on for years and will probably never be settled and both are productive ways to fish.Its my feeling and experience that I catch bigger muskies fishing my lures deeper and at the depth bait fish are at-period.I probably dont catch more muskies than a person fishing higher in the water column ,but my average size fish is probably larger.Its my feeling that the super tankers dont really want to work very hard for there food and I just prefer to put something right in front of them when possible.Both methods work,but Ill do what I do and let others fish their way. |
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