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Posts: 3514
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Started thinking about this a bit last night, and was looking at a map of Sabaskong bay, and wondered, when does a saddle between an island and a point, or two islands become too big? I know that size is somewhat relative to the water depths around it, but when would you consider it to be too big?
I became curious when I was checking areas out on the map, and there is a fairly large distance between islands, and the depth between the islands is around 8 - 12 feet, with 20 foot depths surrounding the area. I know it's worth checking out, but when do you consider it not effective water?
Thanks much...
Steve |
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Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | Steve, if it is a big area, look for some features that would be likely to hold fish. i.e. an inside turn, a weed point sticking out of the big point, a pile of boulders etc. Even if the structure is big, it will hold fish, you just want to narrow down the spots on the structure that will hold the fish. Saddles usually funnel fish through the area, and if there is prime structure on the spot, it can hold a fish for some time.
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Location: Illinois-Indiana | A sadlle is too large when you sit on it and you slide under the horse!!!!!!!;)
SORRY I COULDN'T RESIST!!!!!!!!!! |
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Posts: 3514
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Ralph...NICE!!! VERY NICE!! 
O.k...so maybe I need to tweek the question a bit. When would you consider a saddle to act more like a flat? |
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Posts: 5874
| Flats are GOOD! Right Kly?
While I like to hit structure tight on Sab Bay, I don't let a large saddle/flat discourage me. I will spend a little more time, and pick them apart. I'll start on the outside edges, and work my way in. |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | I don't think a saddle, or any other piece of structure, can be too big.
In reality we are always fishing a spot on a spot. We always are disecting
structure, which is part of the discovery process. The size of the body of water or the piece of structure doesn't matter to me because I fish it one cast at a time! |
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Posts: 1430
Location: Eastern Ontario | They can never be to big, as long as they are saddles. Naturaly some are better sutied for trolling as they may be to large to cast and may not have any specific structure to cast too. As long as it is a shelf with deeper water on both sides of it it will at times produce fish and most likely big fish. |
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Posts: 376
Location: In the slop! | VMS, the best producing saddles I fish on LOTW are generaly narrow and shallow, have had "0" success fishing wide or deep saddles. That's not to say you won't find fish there if you are persistant enough, just think the high percentage game-plan is on structure. This realy applies to all structures, not just saddles.
Last year I had good luck fishing these small saddles, many of which it was hard to get the boat through if it was evan possible.
This applies to the dark water section of the lake. As the water gets clearer, the more I would think about fishing those deep-wide saddles, and would fish a lot farther from the structure as well as on it. Have fun exploring those areas, Mike Jensen. |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | Finally a good question, in fact excellent question!
And the answer is: You must check it out. Meaning there are no two structures ever the same and they all must be looked at closely and individually. Saddles can be excellent pieces of structure and the deeper the water around these structures the better,, 20' is not deep enough (for muskie) to me unless it's the deepest water around and or the water color is good (dark).
If you find 2 saddles, 1 with 50' and the other with 20,,, go with the saddle with the 50' and spend your time mapping this spot first. Remember a muskie's sanctuary (home,, where he spends the greatest part of his time) is 45'-55' Think deep! When he becomes active he may move up on the saddle.
Can a saddle be too big? Of course I get a picture of some guy out there trolling or casting blindly on top of a huge flat, Time would be better spent on the edges of the saddle not on the flat until proven other Wise. |
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Posts: 3514
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Sledge, glad someone found the same things I did up there...
I too found that last year, the saddles that produced the best were very shallow and narrow at that. There was only a small corridor between islands, etc. and I could not go through them with the boat. I felt the larger saddles didn't hold anything...especially if there were little to no weeds in them.
On that note, then, Can you put a general distance (length-wise or area-wise) on when a saddle could be too big and you need to fish it more like a flat?
I would also like to hear comments on depth as well. I kind-of have a feeling that for areas like sabaskong/dirty water areas, I should be looking for depths of 4 feet and less. Granted, this is relative to the surrounding water, but in sabaskong, how many places have water depths that are more than 25 feet, relatively close to saddles?
Steve
Edited by VMS 2/6/2004 7:52 AM
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Posts: 2361
| If it is the only large shallow flat in a large basin of deeper water, and 20 feet basin depth would be fine, then I think you have to look at it pretty hard, particularly if it holds weeds.
However, given a choice between a large saddle and many smaller, more definitive "lies" for fish, I would probably feel that I would be more efficient hitting the smaller well defined spots and moving on, than spending a lot of time casting out a large saddle.
The exception to this would be a large saddle with lots of complexity in bottom contour, edges and weeds, and any saddle with additional contours on top of it. If it is large and complex it is probably well worth your time. |
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Posts: 2361
| Oh, and in relation to depth, in dark water 2 feet is plenty deep enough if the contours are right. |
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Posts: 376
Location: In the slop! | VMS, my favorites are generaly 30 yards or less wide. Some of them much less. Depth, usualy not more than six feet. It seems like the fish will set up right by something specific, a big boulder or a little patch of coontail, etc. Some are so specific it's almost scary.
The problem with trying to fish the big deeper saddles is it takes too much time. There is just too much structure in that lake. I realy try to find a good balance between run and gun, and camping out on a spot. Not always easy to do, especialy after your brain has baked in the sun for several hours. |
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Posts: 906
Location: Warroad, Mn | There's probably no really good way to tell if a saddle's too big to hold fish by looking at the map. The only real test is to go and fish it. I generally like big stuff, because the bigger it is the more and bigger fish it will hold. In order to be real good it needs to be "complex". A complex saddle would have weeds at least along the edges, a great saddle would have weeds all the way across, I would guess with the depths that you are talking about this one doesn't. There should be boulders or rubble on the edges, a great saddle would have a reef or hump in in the middle. This is really hard to tell from a map. A good saddle would have the point of both islands extending out a ways, a great saddle would have them extending out futher, and then dropping off rapidly with weeds at the ends. Maps don't show weeds!. These are the things that can make a place a great spot, or one that has a fish on it once in a while, much of this is hard to tell from a map. They are great starting places, but you really need to go and look! No doubt it's worth a look, but there is no way to tell really whats there without really going there. Doug Johnson |
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Posts: 116
Location: winnipeg manitoba | if it is a saddle it will hold fish. wind direction for current is critical. if structure is present so will the muskie. don't over look anything, its usually the weird stuff that really produces because it doesn't get hammered. i have caught several down there in large saddles. some up to a 1/2 mile long. keep the faith and glad to see you doing some homework. the crippler |
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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | How about overhead structure? The dead limb that hangs out from the island but not in the water? Or the low overhanging tree limb with leaves making a dark shadow on the water? It seems impossible to pass up trying to see how close you can cast to these without catching the limb.
Is the overhead structure worth anything? |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | Let's get on the same page here:
Structure is: The bottom of the lake with some unusual features that distinguish it from the surrounding bottom area. |
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