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Posts: 125
| For some of us out there we don't have the luxury of having the means to find underwater structure and identifying baitfish. If you have a basic depth finder, or no technology what so ever, what are you looking for to think a "spot" holds muskie? What surroundings or water features should we be looking for?
I fish mainly the same body of water in upper wisconsin and i know the depth contour of the lake, but other than that not much. Lots of times I just roll into a bay, or a point, and position myself in about 14-16 ft of water and start casting to shore.
Any tips? |
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Posts: 305
Location: Illinois | Scout the lake for a few hours without fishing. Go slowly around and visually look for patches of weeds. If you have questions about bottom, throw the anchor and pull her in and see if you bring up weeds, sand, muck, etc. When you find a good spot, mark it with visuals on the shoreline that you will remember. Continue the process until you have a milk run.
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Posts: 1416
Location: oconomowoc, wi | now thats going old skool! |
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Posts: 125
| husky_jerk - 1/30/2015 4:29 PM
Scout the lake for a few hours without fishing. Go slowly around and visually look for patches of weeds. If you have questions about bottom, throw the anchor and pull her in and see if you bring up weeds, sand, muck, etc. When you find a good spot, mark it with visuals on the shoreline that you will remember. Continue the process until you have a milk run.
Good idea with the anchor. When i pull the anchor up its good to be pulling weeds or do i want to be placed outside of them? |
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Posts: 1416
Location: oconomowoc, wi | having a good idea what water temps are is a huge plus as well... could mean a matter of 2 or 3 feet on where the fish are located. |
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Posts: 305
Location: Illinois | Good idea with the anchor. When i pull the anchor up its good to be pulling weeds or do i want to be placed outside of them?
At first you just want to find good patches, so pulling them up is your goal. Once you find the weed beds you're looking for, you really don't want to rip them up any further, so no more anchor scouting. Fishing those weed beds will tell you where the edge is.
Forgot to mention that without electronics you want to be sure of any and all navigation dangers. Most are on maps but some hazards do change and are not marked.
Electronics is more than about catching fish, it's about safety so take it slow. |
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Posts: 353
Location: Western U.P. | "What surroundings or water features should we be looking for?"
Definitely looking for weed beds as suggested above. Water temps in the column may be harder to get if you don't have the tech, but useful if have access to that info.
Being familiar with the depth contour is a great start. Do you have a decent topo map of the lake you're fishing? Try casting above, on, and below sharp drop offs, around and in the weed beds (especially by the irregularities - cuts, points, holes, etc), steep shorelines that indicate a steep drop under water, saddles, sunken islands, points extending out into deeper water, old river bed(s) if there, and around islands. If you can locate a current in the lake going past some kind of structure (islands, points, sunken islands, etc), casting in the area where the current is moving past the structure can be productive. Also, if you see people gathering in certain area(s) of the lake in the morning or evening fishing for panfish or Walleye, chances are these fish are moving into that area to feed. Make a mental note of these areas, the type of bottom structure there (based on your knowledge or a good lake map), and cast there. Muskies can follow these fish in to feed on. These are a few of the basics to look for and try. Good luck. |
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Posts: 455
| Troll around keeping the boat in that fifteen foot area and it will give you a better Idea of where the structure juts out. The fish need to find the bait more than you need to find them. Finding baitfish would be nice and small units are dirt cheap at Wallmart. Still just troll the contour and cast the good looking spots. The fish have no idea what electronics you are using. |
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Posts: 20219
Location: oswego, il | You have your eyes and experience fishing the spots. You also want to make sure you have the right oil mix in your Elgin. |
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Posts: 2894
Location: Yahara River Chain | ToddM - 1/31/2015 10:52 AM
You also want to make sure you have the right oil mix in your Elgin.
Why are you driving a street sweeper? |
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| muskie! nut - 1/31/2015 2:52 PM ToddM - 1/31/2015 10:52 AM You also want to make sure you have the right oil mix in your Elgin. Why are you driving a street sweeper? Oh, the memories. I remember them! 
Edited by Chemi 1/31/2015 3:12 PM
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Posts: 1529
| water color really helps bait loves off water musky luv bait. bye the way no mosquito,s with that elgin eh. they were smokers lol. |
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| Suckers & cooler of beer. |
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Posts: 1036
| Certainly electronics make life easier. But many people caught many fish back "in the day" without the aid of electronics.
Drive around, know your weed edges. Then look for the "spot on the spot", little indentions in the weed edges. Look for weed point, inside turns...etc. Look for boulders next to weeds. Logs next to weeds...etc.
The one thing that helped me cach fish when I was a kid was keeping a journal. Wind direction, speed. Fish seen and fish caught. Patterns emerge. |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | Fish points and inside weed edges.
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Posts: 358
| cast to stuff you can see. there are always fish shallow and always fish in weeds. can catch a lot of fish inside the guys stuck on deep weed lines.
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Posts: 1267
Location: E. Tenn | In the days before GPS, one would note spots with shore features... y'know, "line up the tip of the point with that green cabin, and the the three tallest trees with the outlet".. stuff like that..
.and those old Johnson Seahorse engines would always start with one or two pulls!
Edited by miket55 2/2/2015 4:58 PM
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Posts: 717
Location: Grand Rapids, MI | Everything you need to know about structure right here:
http://buckperry.com/ |
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Posts: 1144
Location: Minnesota. | Shorelines that slowly protrude out into the lake are typically shallow subsurface points/outcroppings. Fish 'em all the way out until you feel you've come to the end. Then fish the deep end out into the lake!
Sharp "cliffs" entering the water usually continue subsurface. Not always tho...check them out.
Any islands? Cast them all around. Do it again only deeper then again on the same boat path only casting out towards open water.
Sounds dumb right? I was doing that this summer and on the second pass over/around my son says "Dad, you ever see any fish out here?" "Nope, keep fishing"... 20 casts later a PB 54'er! She was over deep water. Deep to me is over 20ft.
Lastly I'm not believin' you don't have some sort of depth locator. You have a computer...get a locator...pay close attention to the readings as they "change"!!
I know this sounds like basic info. but if you only have a basic locator -and they work very well for muskie fishing - then you need to pay close attention to bottom changes in depth etc. Mainly depth..
Good question and I don't mean to belittle it in any way.
Jeremy.
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Posts: 791
Location: WI | ^ to me this is great advice. I grew up on a small lake in vilas co. and learned completely by sight fishing. Looking at the shore lines and how they slope into water is nearly perfect for telling depth.
It is amazing to go on the same lake now with down scan imaging and seeing all I missed before. With the used market today though you can buy decent equipment for next to nothing. If I had a 14 ft boat I would literally buy a trolling motor and depth finder before a motor. Call me nuts but many years ago I had motor trouble before a trip to vilas and we went with just a trolling motor and focused on smaller lakes. Managed to squeak out an awesome trip including a 4 fish day. |
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Posts: 3147
| Try the vermilion/minnetonka strategy--it doesn't matter if you have the technology of a navy Persian gulf destroyer or a birchbarkk canoe,,just wait for the guy with this year's ranger model and all the musky stickers on his truck to launch then follow him around pretending "I Was gonna fish here all along" |
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Posts: 153
| You can go to the WI DNR website and looks for lake maps. Depending on the size of the lake the detail is difficult to see, however you can zoom in or increase the size to see the detail. Sometimes the map iareold and not very detailed but it would certainly help. |
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Posts: 125
| This is all great stuff that helps!!!! |
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