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| Everyone knows that there are certain "spots" that just always seem to consistently hold muskies. These are the spots that everyone has in there milk run... and you can fish them multiple times a day because a "new" fish may move onto that spot at any time. The classic "revolving door" location.
Typically we try to understand why those spots are productive so we can learn to identify other spots with the same potential and better predict when those spots will be most productive. The question I'd like to discuss is WHERE are those fish when not on "the spot"?
Do you believe muskies are nomads.... just roaming the countryside for an easy meal and they just get "hung up" or make "pit stops" at the revolving door? Do you believe your "spot" is a digestion weedbed and when the fish are not there they are out deep feeding? Are these spots only productive when baitfish are present (the restaruant is open)?
No matter what reason you have for your "spot" being a HOT spot.... where do you think they go when your spot is vacant? If we can figure that out... we just learned another SPOT to fish!!!!!! |
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| Two things come to mind, first they are roaming and have vacated the spot. And, another fish hasn't moved in yet.
On small Wisconsin lakes I suspect the fish isn't too far away, probably in adjecent deeper warer. On larger lakes like Leech they are probably on their way to the next pit stop. During their transit are they catchable? ANOTHER QUESTION IS HOW LONG DO THEY LOITER IN ONE SPOT?
Second, they are still there but not in a feeding/strike mode. Either digesting a large meal or in a negative/neutral mood. Also, do "spots" have more than one fish in residence at the same time?
I think the bait fish link is the strongest correlation with location and presence of Muskies. If the food is absent then so will be the Muskies. But having said that, sometimes there will be bait fish but no Muskies. Then there must be concetrations of bait fish elswhere in the lake that has attracted the Muskies.
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| This is my theory so take it with a grain of salt. I think the "hot" spots are ambush points that large fish have found and use to stak out an easy meal. I think that they vacate these spots towards deeper water, maybe finding a more comfortable oxygen and/or temp. level. On the same token, why have Paul Klein, Joe Bucher, Steve Herbeck and many other Suspended fish catching authors having so much luck? If the muskies are feeding and very catchable out in the open-deeper water, why would they need ambush points? Maybe they resort to these easy ambush points, (less distance to attack, less effort to catch a meal) when water/environments aren't favorable to a muskies maximum metabolizm and they take the "easy street" so to speak.
I really dunno, just babbling my thoughts. Great question that will get answered with a lot more great questions as this thread develops. thx much.
Another thought, If the fish are in fact slipping out to deeper water in a "neutral" mode, are all these suspended open water fish being caught on reaction type strikes, and the strikes they commmit to on the HOT spots is when they are actually feeding and aggressive? |
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| I have a different twist to this that I personal believe.
I think "hot spots" are always going to hold fish. But not always the same amount of fish.
Take Point A on Lake X.
1)Point A has a 42" and a 36" on it all the time. Point A is a good spot and everytime you go there.. you see or catch a fish.
Deep water basin B has a 48", 45" and 33 all with in a few tail kicks from Point A.
When conditions are right.. All the Basin B fish are sharing Point A with the Point A fish. That is when the spot goes from a good spot to a hot spot.
Muskies have everything they want out in open water but will take advantage of easy pickings when wind blows the prey on to the reef. Muskies are lazy and would rather have the food come to them.
There are spots I go to on Pewaukee that if I cast them... I know I will see two or three fish almost anyday, might even catch on too.
But when the weather is right, I will redrift the spots over and over...and boat four to five fish and see 10 more.
But!!! If the water is too warm in the shallows, more fish then normal are in deep water, because they are just following the prey. So that means the 42" that is normally on Spot A, leaves for deep water.
I always start trolling...when I dont see 40" fish anymore in the shallows.
As the season goes on...things change..Spot A might be the best, better or worst spot on the lake...You have to be open minded and adjust to the conditions.
The one constant.....is prey.
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| Jlong, I think the magic word here is " restaurant". I have had this restaurant theory for years now.
The way I see it my hot spots are restaurants and are used the same way we humans do. The fish travel to the restaurant sit down order a meal and wait for it to be served then leaves and go onto doing something else.
So if you find a restaurant you have to be fishing it at lunch time and dinner time as thats when it is it's busyest and therefore your best chances at catching one of them feeding fish. Some of my restaurants are open seasonaly and others are only open for lunch. This is where time on the water pays off to find all of this out.
Now you say where are those fish when not in the restaurant ( also known as the spot on the spot ) well I say they are in the Mall next door and might be interested in a snack or on the highway driving to the restaurant.
Again I have restaurants that hold fish in the mall ( flat or shallow water next to the spot on the spot ) and some that only hold fish when they are there to eat as a restaurant on the highway. The roming fish stop by for a meal then proceed to travel on and those same restaurants are the ones I find that are seasonal.
My 2 best spots that have accounted for 1/4 of my 50+ muskies are 2 different restaurants, one is a highway restaurant that is open seasonaly and at a certain time of day that I wouldn't bother to fish but a certain time of year and the other wich is a Dennys open 24 hours a day all year long. [:bigsmile:] Now these two spots are miles apart but have a lot in common, now if I can only find a few more that productive. [:sun:]
Hope I didn't confuse any and all here. LOL |
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| I sometimes wonder about the forage interaction on good spots. I have a few good spots that are hard to connect with any reasonable expectation of musky/baitfish interaction. In fact it is difficult to understand why they would be there, thinking in terms of a feeding spot. I am not sure all good spots are neccessarily top of the line feeding spots for the fish. Some spots I think offer other stuff. |
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| I am with "firstsixfeet" on this one. Most of the time I can't correlate my catches with baitfish, its just the darn spot that made the difference. I believe when the fish start moving, certain area's have a tendency to attract and hold fish. |
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| Here's what I think, and a lot of it has to do with the "Home Range" thing that was talked about a little under the tracking post. It is fairly well established that muskies estabalish "Home Ranges". This is a area that they swim around in and do the things necessary to survive. Each and every muskie could have a different "Home Range", but many overlap. The key to catching and locating muskies on a frequent basis is to find areas that are part of the "Home Range" for as many fish as possible. This is what makes a good "revolving door". It's a spot that many fish have included as part of their "Home Range". At times there are several fish there at the same time, and because many fish use this area there is a good chance that at least one fish has entered the area.
I also feel that the immediate presence of forage is "not" necessary for an area to have muskies. But what I do think is that at least at one time or the other this area has forage fish, but they also come and go simular to the muskies.
What I think is happening is that the fish are doing the same thing as we are and they are also "fishing". Their "Home Range" has areas that at times has forage that they are successful in catching (or else they would die or change their home range), and what they are doing is swimming around (fishing) in their area looking for food. They really don't have any idea that an area has forage in it until they go there, so an area could be void of forage, and still have muskies. The key is that this area have forage, or access to forage at one time or the other. The more often that there is forage available the more probable the spot would be one that several fish would include in its "Home Range". When there is forage available the fish will feed, but they don't really know when they will be successful. Here's another thing that I suspect and that's if there is a number of large fish in an area for a while all the forage fish will "get out of dodge", or become lunch. This makes it look like there isn't forage there, but the forage just left, and the muskies remain, or just entered the area, and will remain in the area, at least for a while.
I also suspect that there are areas that just plain stop fish when moving around, (things like a big boulder, a big log, a spline that comes off at a right angle, etc.). These are not necessary feeding spots, but just something that fish use from time to time and stay for a while just because they like it there, and it's located in their home range. If lots of fish are including this as part of their home range there will be fish there on a frequent basis. Remember that the fish are not stationary objects, and are moving a lot.
If you could somehow draw all the "Home Ranges" of all the muskies in a lake on graph paper, and then look for spots where a lot of the lines meet and overlap you would find that these are the revolving door areas. The same graph would also reveal other revolving doors, some of these would be out over open water, and would be top open water trolling or casting areas. I think all the fish are catchable regardless where they are if it's been some time since they ate last.
These overlapping spots are the areas that I look for. It's too bad that muskies don't leave tracks!
Sorry for the long post, and it's not even Happy Hour!
Doug Johnson |
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| DougJ, great post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I really wish muskies left tracks too. I think that is why so many hunters enjoy the sport of musky fishing. Its like hunting... but even MORE difficult.
.... and Doug, in theory a tracking study could produce that "graph paper" plot of travel routes for ya! I wonder if we could put a GPS into those transmitters?!
It would be interesting to see the difference in "home range" behavior between a fish living in the massive LOTW versus a fish living in a small 200 acre lake in northern Wisconsin. One lap for a LOTW fish might be 50 laps for a Wisconsin fish........ |
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| Let's blow the dust off this one! DougJ made some great points last winter. I'd like to hear more this winter.
jlong |
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