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| Do you continuously pound areas that you know have fish in them or quickly check them out and move on?
12,000 surface acers of water, half a dozen spots I commonly see fish, but at least 50% of the rest of it shoud be good also.
Say a 2 acer bay off the main channel. It could take hours to thoroughly cover it, especially if you're by yourself, or do you just hit a couple prime spots, and move on if you don't get any action? These half a dozen spots hold decent fish, low to high 40"ers. |
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| Hit the hot spots if the conditions are right first then work back from there. Some areas hold fish in secondary locations and simply you have to root them out. |
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| Terry,
As Jason said; hit the areas you see fish, then move out from the direct target area following the structure edges, weedlines, and current breaks. Reeds are a magnet, and weeds from the reeds to the breakline make for a muskie or two.
Look for areas that have these attributes, and a bend in the river/point/reef/whatever creating a current break, too. The point where the current is closest and breaks off into the bay, or inlet, or other side of the reef/whatever will hold the fish when things are tough, and the reeds/weeds and shelves when the fish are 'moving'.
My 2 cents worth! Terry is a good walleye stick, converting to muskies. Let's help him out!! Anyone else have some tips here? River guys?? |
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| I fish a river like that where there are many many good looking areas but only 5 or 6 are good producers for me. I used to keep pounding the other areas trying to pry a fish out of places they just were not, only because they looked so good they made my skin crawl. I now hit my prime areas over and over throughout the day till I get some fish moving, then(only then) I might check another good looking area that I haven't caught a fish in for just a few casts. What I mean is, once the fish get active, don't just leave the hot spot, but once in awhile have another spot you want to try in mind, and only hit the spot on the spot(even if you've never caught anything there before). The spot on the spot will be the area that resembles the structure/depth/weed type etc. that hold the fish in your normal go to spots. Just hit that area of the spot and if it does not produce keep gunning ojn to the next hotspot or trial area.
Just my $1.00-$.98 |
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| Thanks for the info. I know the river from one end to the other and there's not a bit of it that doesn't look like prime muskie water. I've been concentrating on the bays where I've commonly seen muskies in the lower harbor area. By seen, I mean when they eat my walleye lures! I've only got maybe 50 hours in the last 3 weeks looking for muskies and all I've had so far is 4 hits from decent fish, but no hookups and several really small fish.
The harder they are to find, the harder I'll try.
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| Sounds like you're on the right track. throughout the year, there are definately some 40-50 hour stretches that 4 hits from decent fish are as good as it gets(for me anyways). Keep pluggin'!!!! |
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| Minnetonka gives people fits for this reason. Basically, the whole lake looks good because it's a clear water millfoil lake meaning there are weed edges in every bay. What I've come to realise after 3 years of fishing the lake is that a good looking weed edge does not mean it's a good spot to fish. The muskies in Tonka hold to structure that I would expect to find fish on even if the lake had no weeds at all. Very steep breaklines off points, islands, channels, and inside turns in the back of the bays. I've only found one good muskie spot on the lake that dosent fit into one of those catagories.
I like to build up enough good spots so that I can fish productive water for the entire day. If I raise a fish on a spot I'll usually fish over it again with a different presentation once I've finished the drift and then come back to that spot later in the day. On a lake the size of Minnetonka if I fish a spot a couple of times and don't see anything I probably won't fish taht spot again. There are too many other spots that are good.
Brian |
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| When i go out i just hit the ones that the fishing reports say or the ones i know that has been productive before. |
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