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| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [30 messages per page] Muskie Fishing -> General Discussion -> Anybody throw topwaters out in the abyss? |
jackpotjohnny48 |
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| Kirby Budrow |
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Posts: 2373 Location: Chisholm, MN | |||
| ToddM |
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Posts: 20248 Location: oswego, il | |||
| IAJustin |
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Definitely.. if the bait is high, topwater can be effective over the abyss. I've had good success on lakes with shad. 1) they are generally much smaller lakes and 2) I think shad just spend more time in top 10' of water column than cisco's do.. certainly harder to target pelagic baitfish (casting), in a big lakes but very little pressure doing it on many bodies of water and I've had some success in June in Canada when more traditional patterns are not going as they "should"...caught one several years ago over 100'+ of water messing around cause I could see the cisco's popping the surface..thought I was on to something but 5 more hours of that led to nada  (to be fair was low density water anyway). I always think topwater should be in your arsenal when bait is up in the water column. Edit: WTD is definitely the preferred style for open water topwater for me (as you suggested) Edited by IAJustin 12/31/2020 10:11 AM | |||
| Jerry Newman |
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| ESOX Maniac |
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Posts: 2754 Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | |||
| Angling Oracle |
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| I did my Masters on pelagic fish interactions in an oligotrophic lake (coincidentally the lake contained muskies - Little Vermillion Lake up by Sioux Lookout). Keep in mind that large ciscos prefer cold water and will rarely make forays to the surface (relative to their normal feeding movements). They typically are below the thermocline and will make the occasion foray to the surface during mayfly, fishfly, and chironomid hatches (at which time the entire water column is alive from the bottom to surface). The pelagic zone is active with prey and predators, but for the surface layers this is mostly during low light - muskies being the most warmwater sensitive of the group which includes walleye, SMBs being on the warmer side, pike in the middle and lake trout on the cold side (unlikely to rise above the thermocline). I would suggest that it is a tactic best reserved for dusk to dawn and something to throw in mix if you are experimenting. Of course near structure (ie deep reef or long point) in main basin or adjacent to rock face with slide - as per Pearson's theories, probably upping your percentages. I too love WTD and love seeing the big blondies... See attached table - these are overnight vertical small mesh sets and you can see large ciscos typically below thermocline. Note the whitefish are juvenile plankton feeding whitefish as are the perch which were yoy in large schools. These are not 48hr sets but the totals from 6 sets overnight if I recall correctly. The biggest mesh we were using would not catch the very largest cisco in the system. Edited by Angling Oracle 1/2/2021 3:04 PM Attachments ----------------  cisco.jpg (104KB - 367 downloads) | |||
| Fishysam |
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| ESOX Maniac |
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Posts: 2754 Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | |||
| Angling Oracle |
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ESOX Maniac - 1/3/2021 11:50 AM Angling Oracle, Very interesting data. What was your definition for each layer of the water column in the chart, in meters? I would be very interested in reading your Masters Thesis. Have fun! Al The attachment is the comparison lake showing the habitat delineations (temp scale on bottom). I'm not sure if my thesis is easily accessible online - haven't looked hard, but here is a link to recent paper on a recent redo on it and my thesis is in refs: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315770478_Long-term_Changes... To sort of keep on topic a bit (muskies), prior to doing the research part, we did a distribution study so we essentially stuck nets in all the major water bodies on the English/West English, Chukuni R chain, Canyon lake chain, Lac Seul, Wabigoon, Eagle, Winnipeg Rivers, LOTW, Rainy Lake/river systems. There is some interesting "muskie friendly" off and on-river waters in the mix that are probably only fished by the odd walleye guy (some by no one) - muskie are hard enough to catch when somewhat prevalent, so a hard sell to go and give a whirl on a whim, but you wonder what's possible when you have a large predator like that in a low density situation with naive prey (both aquatic and terrestrial). I understand there was a 57" caught on Maynard recently which speaks to potential. I'm surprised don't see any muskie pics from Umfreville (reservoir) as it looks a lot like Lac Seul muskie water and bit more fishing pressure that probably most of the waters upstream - muskies just not good colonizers and pike are a tough competitor. Edited by Angling Oracle 1/3/2021 2:17 PM Attachments ---------------- temp.jpg (127KB - 373 downloads) | |||
| ESOX Maniac |
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Posts: 2754 Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | |||
| pklingen |
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| phselect |
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