Location: SE Wisconsin | THE CALM AFTER THE STORM
Fishing pressured water is a common topic, and one that I pay particular attention to considering my home waters in Lake Country of SE Wisconsin. Competing with boat traffic from water sports enthusiast, joy riders and the added pressure of other anglers, I have found a pattern that I follow like a stencil from beginning to end of the season.
A hunter prefers to hunt before and after the rain, rather than in it, for a reason. Although these reasons vary, the point is. . .there are reasons. One may claim their reason to be easier tracking of blood, as precipitation will either wash it away or cover it up, while another knows that the game they are after will most likely wait for the calm after the storm before moving again. Think about it, who eats in the rain unless their offered a meal they can’t refuse?
A busy day for boaters and fisherman is a stormy day for the fish. As a serious musky fisherman, one must make decisions from the predator’s perspective. A hunter prefers to hunt when the odds are in his/her favor, suggesting they would much rather be in the woods at a time when the game they are after is most likely to be on the move. Much the same, the assumption can be had that both predator and prey would rather lay dormant while the storm rumbles on. When the weather clears and the security of the calm skies above can be felt, the weeds on the flats will part simultaneously as forage fish stretch their fins, for lack of better words, and take an evening swim. It is then that the hunter will seek his target, for a predator like a musky sees almost all fish as prey, and any prey visible to the muskies eye is quickly closing in on its fate.
For me, the best time to be on the water is the evening. I believe to a fish, this is the real beginning of their day, where the late morning becomes their night. Although it may sound cliché and deafening, my timing to be on the water is key to my success. As a general rule of thumb know by even those who don't fish, early in the morning and later in the evening is an obvious equation to anyone trying to put together a successfull fishing trip. . . But why?
After the meteor splashes of lures and jet streams of turbulence from speeding boats, everything is in disarray for a brief period before homeostasis is restored. In that moment of disarray, forage fish like minnows, shiners, ciscos and panfish may be injured from the speeding boats and unhealthy releases from anglers, such as deep hooked bluegills, crappies or perch. The predator game fish, like musky, may begin to slide up the breaks and onto the flats to ascertain an easy meal, while deep suspended musky may elevate in the water column to feed on schools of baitfish, disoriented from the day’s procession of speeding boats. Why not aim your limited time on the water for the calm before AND after the storm?
Edited by Sam Ubl 2/2/2009 2:47 PM
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