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Posts: 396
Location: Northern Illinois | I had an interesting strike over the weekend. The water temp was about 57-58 degrees and the lake was turning over with green soup in the shallows. I had been working mostly bucktails and cranks fairly slowly with no results. I switched to a 9 inch Wiley jerk bait (kinda like a suick but slightly thicker, round and no metal tail). Anyway, I was watching the lure pretty closely to make sure I had the right dive an rise action and make it look realistic. I was working it pretty slow. It was about 15 feet from the boat when a maybe high 30's muskie came up from under and the side at maybe a 45 degree angle (0 being the back of the lure) rolled his body and opened his mouth about as wide as it could get and tried to tee-bone the lure. Unfortunately, it was right when my next downward jerk was occurring and the lure passed right between his jaws. The interesting thing for me though was how slow he was moving and that he rolled his body to get his jaws in perfect alignment with the angle that the lure was pointing down in the water. Makes me think that when they are a little more sluggish in the fall, and the prey is large, that they need a little more setup time, or be in the right position when the it passes, to get that type of angle on the it as opposed to being able to inhale a smaller prey at any possible angle. I can also see now that presenting a large lure in a way that shows them that side, and does some of the setup portion for them, can be really helpful. Probably something that the more experienced guys already know, but it was interesting for me to actually see... |
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Posts: 20281
Location: oswego, il | I would say its the mood of the fish. I have seen them very aggressive in late fall and nip the tail of a suspended crankbait that sat in their face for 30 seconds and just about everywhere in between. |
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Posts: 8866
| We've had them just cruise in for a look, roll on baits, swipe at them, and just plain crush baits at this time of year. Seems like fall is the time for hours of nothing followed by very brief and very aggressive feeding windows. |
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Posts: 415
| I would have to think its probably just the mood of that fish also. I've seen them at times react every bit as aggressively as in warmer water. You have to realize that even though the water is cooler they still need to react pretty darn quick to catch most prey. |
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