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Posts: 55
Location: Arena WI | What are the weather conditions and water temps when you decide to fish really shallow and what is your lure choice? |
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| 62 - 72 degrees. It doesn't matter if it's sunny or cloudy depending on the structure your fishing. Topwater, Bucktails would be first two choices. |
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Posts: 793
Location: Ames, Iowa | warm, cloudy, dark, some wind/waves on water, bulrushes- a homemade buzzbait right in the rushes, or rocks- same conditions with a twitched crank like a slammer- something quiet and unobtrusive. Super quiet boat in these cases.
djw |
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Posts: 32
| One of the biggest epiphanies I've had about muskies is how shallow they will go YEAR-ROUND...many timew we hook big pre-spawn fish right against the shoreline in late February, March, and into April...water depths there are often just 12-15 inches.
Part of the issue here is how easy it is to spook a fish lying shallow like this...they are much more aware of you and your presence than you are of them...
What are they doing there? In my opinion, they're sunning themselves. We all know the shallows will warm up/cool off the fastest...and just like we feel the heat of the sun through a pane of glass, so too do they absorb more solar energy because of their darker backs, especially in shallow water over areas with a dark bottom content.
Keep in mind that not all fish 'wake-up' at the same time...while some of the 'early risers' are in (or near) these shallow areas, others are still suspended in the main basin.
And my favorite early season bait??? The SS Shad by Smoker Tackle for its slow-wobblin', just barely able to move imitation of a dying baitfish. Other good choices include Crane minnows (the 207 & 208's are my faves,) Mepps Marabous (the Colorado blades give more lift and thump at lower speeds than their 'standard' French blade--viva la difference!!) spinnerbaits (especially tandem blade (or more) models) and finally, the Rat-L-Trap (or similar) lipless crankbaits, although with these I resist exceeding the 1 ounce models.
Al Nutty
Kinkaid Lake Guide Service
Been Nutty all my life, the insanity is a recent affliction!! |
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Posts: 32930
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I fish the 'slop' and shallows quite a bit all season. Some days you will find muskies in a couple feet of water on a bright afternoon on the rocks.
There's lots of underfished skinny water out there. |
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Posts: 1462
Location: Davenport, IA | I've seen fish in 1' of water from ice out to ice up....I won't leave the water without fishing that shallow water. |
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Posts: 401
| Almost every time I go out. It has been my observation that I do not see as many follows but those fish that are shallow are eating.
Bait? The Krook. Shallow water slow moving topwater inline spinner that stays above weeds and rocks. I am excited to see what others are going to do with this bait this year. I will leave it at that otherwise it looks like I am doing some shameless self promotion.
Keith |
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Posts: 101
Location: Northern Illinois | I scared the hell out of myself on the walleye opener at the Flambeau Flowage once. We were working rocky islands with walleye sized crankbaits when we scared a big muskie that was apparently sunning itself in about 1' of water. The water expoded 5' in front of the boat, right next to the shore. I don't know that I have any prefered pattern for these fish, but I have caught them form the shore out to 3' of water with bucktails & topwaters. An old muskie guide showed me that little trick. A few boats were working the outside edge of a weedline when we pulled up. He said that all that activity on the outside edge may push the fish to the inside edge, and so thats what we worked. We boated 2 muskies within a 1/2 hr, while the guys on the outside caught nothing . |
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| Not 'shallow' in the sense of the word used so far, but early in the season they'll also suspend very high sometimes over water much deeper and can be caught trolling. Last opener 25 feet of line out on the shallow eye of a jntd Believer worked over 41 feet. I think they sometimes roam around from station to station and being high and fast is a good way to travel and connect some days. In May, the same deal works on big pike, sometimes nowhere near shore. |
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