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Posts: 227
Location: New Brighton, MN | Now that the water has warmed up, the lakes where I fish have bloomed up, weeds are peaking, and the water is pretty green.
I have had luck locating fish in the spring and fall, but July and August seem to be the months where I strike out pretty consistently.
How do your search techniques differ in the warmer months? Do you fish deeper? different kinds of structure? Focus on current? Look for bait pods?
Any advice to help me rid myself of this mid-summer slump?
Thanks,
Willis |
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Posts: 314
Location: Bristol, IN | Fish deep open water where the balls of baitfish are locatated. |
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Posts: 227
Location: New Brighton, MN | At what speed do you go when you search for the baitfish? Do you troll when searching? |
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Posts: 8834
| Suppose there's no big balls of bait fish over deep open water, do 'ya just go home then?
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Location: WI | Willis - Why don't you spend sometime figuring out that 'open water' bite, then call me and I'll come fish it with ya!! LOL! |
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Posts: 314
Location: Bristol, IN | I just drift in the wind. If I have a lot of gas , I go faster. When I find the baitfish I mark an "X" on the water and throw everything I have in my tackle boxes around the "X". It really works. I just saved you countless of hours and money with this trade secret.
Edited by MuskyTaleMike 7/16/2008 7:35 PM
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | If you have good deep weeds like cabbage or milfoil that ends somewhere around 10-14' fish the base of them, especially if you have a good strong wind blowing into them. Also check out the deeper water humps topping out no shallower than 15', and work your baits near bottom.
I'd also tell you to go deep for suspended fish, but your lake make up will really dictate that. If it's a an option there have been plenty of posts on here in the past that talk about fishing suspended. I personally don't do the find the baitfish balls and fish them like structure deal. |
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Posts: 227
Location: New Brighton, MN | I've spent some time searching for bait balls, but they seem to only show up when i'm not looking for them. I'll give it a good chance this summer.
I probably need to pay more attention to the wind, and find some deep weedlines too.
I appreciate the info, thanks
Grant - i'll let you know when I master that open water bite  |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Willis when you see the baitfish balls (while you're not looking for them) do they always seem to be in the same general areas? If so those are good spots to start doing your suspended thing at. Certain areas of lakes always seem to hold baitfish, and even though you don;'t mark them the muskies will still be there. Hence the reason for not having to mark baitfish to catch muskies. During prime conditions where baitfish are running high you won't even mark the baitfish. They'll usually spook from the boat before your locator will pick them up.
Also just because you mark baitfish lets say 20' down doen't mean that is where the muskies are at. For example. Last week we marked a lot of bait 15-20' down over open water. Except for one day if we would have fished that depth (and we did a bit) we would have blanked. However knowing that baitfish will also ride high without marking them we ran baits high (max. 4' down) and had our best luck. Usually when the baitfish are high like ciscos we see them flipping on the surface. However this year I have barely seen any cisocs flipping. Don't know why. They must be running high though as I am marking very little in the way of big cisco schools deep like I usually do. So either the ciscos have all died in the lakes I fish, or they are running high and fleeing from the boat before I mark them. I suspect the later is the case.
Edited by CiscoKid 7/17/2008 12:12 PM
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Posts: 227
Location: New Brighton, MN | Would you suggest staying more than a few hundred yards from any type of structure when fishing suspended?
Edited by Willis 7/17/2008 4:12 PM
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| Haven't been out like I was last summer, due to all the crap I hear about stressing fish in the summer on some of our lakes up here, but out on mine while screwing around just drifting aimlessly we've raised 3 big big girls...Decided to conform and buy the walleye colored Mag Bulldawg pounder...got about 7 casts out of it before SNAP hahaha...she's layin in 52 feet of water right now unless it got swallowed on the way down! hope not...but yeah, I've been starting to fish oddball places and have been starting to have a lot of faith in that technique...the lake I fish a majority of the time where our cabin is, is heavily populated in the summer and most of the "good" spots are covered by others while I'm out and the rest of the lake has water ski'ers, tubers, and jet ski's doin circles around each other...so that's how I got into the whole "drift aimlessly" mindframe...still waiting to get one to snap...all 3 fish came out of 40ft+ depths. Plus, while fishing the bay where I got my PB 2 years back, people were dragging their kids behind a pontoon at full bore, right over the weed bed not even 50 feet away from us! I decided I shared the info with them and their kids, about how I will never swim in that bay again after some of the fish I saw..it worked pretty good 
I've been so wrapped up in Ice fishing, and spring fishing this past year that I really forgot how much these #*^@ weeds are in the way! |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | I suggest incorporating some deep structure into your suspended fishing. I always make drifts over the basin, and also make sure I drift near or over deep structures when available. Some days everything is located in the abyss, and others you need to be around some structure but not right on it.
True suspended fishing can be considered fishing the basin of the lake with no structure around. Some lakes have enough mid lake structure that you may never fish what may be considered truly suspended fish, but rather fish suspended off of structure (confusing I know). In the end it really doesn’t matter to me if I caught one over 50’ of water with no structure around, or 50’ of water that is isolated within a bunch of structure. The main point is the fish is located in deep water, and not up in 10’ of water around weeds.
Mix it up and let the fish tell you where you need to be for the day.
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| esoxaddict - 7/16/2008 5:35 PM
Suppose there's no big balls of bait fish over deep open water, do 'ya just go home then?
yeah exactly! |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | No balls of baitfish, who cares! Do you look for balls of baitfish when you fish your favorite weed bed or other structure? Doubt it. You may find that after fishing through the baitfish are piled up on the break or a particular spot on the structure. No different suspended in my opinion. I can motor over a basin and mark nothing. Then set up a drift and drift over what I just motored over and mark baitfish all over. Drifting will not spook high riding baitfish like motoring over them will, and therefore you can mark them while drifting. Unless you make that drift you may have never marked the baitfish. Hence the reason I personally don’t get hung up on finding the baitfish prior to me fishing suspended. A person could spend a lot of time looking for those phantom baitfish balls only to be disappointed if they don’t find them or if they don’t catch something when they do find them. Baitfish is NOT a sure bet. |
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Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | CiscoKid - 7/17/2008 12:06 PM
Also just because you mark baitfish lets say 20' down doen't mean that is where the muskies are at. For example. Last week we marked a lot of bait 15-20' down over open water. Except for one day if we would have fished that depth (and we did a bit) we would have blanked. However knowing that baitfish will also ride high without marking them we ran baits high (max. 4' down) and had our best luck. Usually when the baitfish are high like ciscos we see them flipping on the surface. However this year I have barely seen any cisocs flipping. Don't know why. They must be running high though as I am marking very little in the way of big cisco schools deep like I usually do. So either the ciscos have all died in the lakes I fish, or they are running high and fleeing from the boat before I mark them. I suspect the later is the case.
Travis- Much of what we learn is through on the water observation. re. flipping cisco's. A little fishing story- while fishing a fly-in lake trout lake for the first time(also muskies & smallies)- circa-1995, I was headed to explore an specific reef and island complex (cloudy- but dead calm day), in getting there I was crossing the main lake basin when I saw a large school of baitfish breaking the surface. I shutdown the motor about 100' away & they sounded like a rapids or small waterfall. I watched them for ~30 seconds and realized what was going on- I started the motor & went around them in the direction they were moving. I stopped the boat & threw a yellow 5 of diamonds spoon into them, a 15lb lake trout grabbed the spoon as it came out of the edge of the baitfish. I now know they were cisco's and they were being chased/attacked by a group of lake trout. In retrospect (at the time I knew very little about muskies) there could have been a very big muskie in there. Now I'd probably go with a muskie lure.
I've used this tactic also fishing walleyes, i.e., both casting and trolling w/yellow birds in Canada. The resort owner is astounded that I'm catching +10lb fish in 60-80 FOW and catching fish them in the first 8' of the water column. In fact I also use the same tactic when the mayfly hatches are occuring-every walleye fisherman I've talked to up there hates the fly hatches, but not me, i.e., I fish the hatch just as if it were a school of baitfish. Again the resort owner is amazed when I show him the photo's and Humminbird saved data where I've caught these fish. The rest of the cabins are catching zero fish, because they are doing the usual thing, i.e. daytime fishing the regular walleye spots with leeches-minnows, etc. but getting skunked because the fish are stuffed with mayfly's from the previous night. Mayfly's hatching in 40-80FOW & again I'm targeting and catching big walleyes in the top 8' of the water column! Guess what I'm the only boat on the lake after sunset. Everyone else is back at their cabin's bitching about the poor fishing!
This year was an exception, i.e., there was another boat on the lake after dark. It was one of the resort guides whom I've gotten to know over the years, he was fishing by himself. I clued him into this deep water cisco/mayfly nite bite pattern ~ 3 years ago. He says it's an amazing pattern, i.e., he can consistantly target & catch big fish throughout the season. He also says the fall cisco night bite is positively insane!
I've used the same tactic out in Rhode Island for striper's and blue's, i.e., fishing the breaking schools of bait fish.....
I'd hope there are still cisco's in your lake. Cisco's are also very fast!!!..... so they probably are spooking from the boat. That's also why I like yellow birds. But my main point is I agree 100%, a lot of times you don't have to fish deep in deep water to catch fish. Well maybe late fall muskies are an exception- right Howie? But then muskies do also go shallow after those spawning cisco's! Hmmmmmmmmm!
Have fun!
Al |
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Posts: 13
| Awesome postings Travis, well written. I will be trying to convert my friend this weekend. I hope we have a day like you and I did last August, but instead the fish eat this time! |
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