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| When lookining for a location pattern. Do you think HMMM where are the muskies or hmmmm where arnt the muskies?
It is a reasoning question. Please dont answer "same difference"
MUSKY ILLINI
God, if you want me to eat this donut please give me no sing at all.........................CHOMP! mmmmm DOOOOOOOOOOOOONUT....
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| Before I cast, I'm looking for where they ARE. After I cast I know where they aren't.
Cast.... nope, no muskies there..... Cast.... nope, no muskies there.... Cast.... nope, no muskies there
Classic trial&error...... with lots of errors.
To seriously answer your question.... Before you wet a line I think it is best to consider where the muskies ARE located. Then, as you "test" your theories you are now gathering information that can help you determine where they are not. Until you've "tested the waters", you CANNOT eliminate water... since muskies can be ANYWHERE, any time. |
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| I am talking, before you even drop the boat in the water.
When I decide to fish a system I imediatley decide where I think the muskies are NOT going to be. Then I start my trial and error on spots where I think the might be. For me, it speeds up the process. I know it sounds crazy but in THEORY if you attack the question at both ends you will find the answer faster. However, communism worked in THEORY, so I could be mistaken.
MUSKY ILLINI
"I've got depth of preception in my text ya'll - I get props at my mention cause I vex ya'll" |
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| What famous Musky Fisherman said," they are either in the weeds or on the rocks, if they ain't there then they are suspended."
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| Decoy,
A less famous man once said that there are different kinds of rocks at different depths that relate to different kinds of structures that might have different temps and also there are differnt kinds of weeds that are alive or dead that might hold bait fish at differnt times that relate to differnt rocks at different temps that may or maynot be WIND BLOWN that might also have current of all kinds of sorts and the sun may also play a fator etc and so-on............
MUSKI ILLINI
"I would have agreed with you if you were right!"
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| I always find the finny critters in one of only three places. AND I mean only three places.
They are always, Deep, Shallow or Somewhere in between.
Once you find them...............
Let Em Go...Let Em Grow.....Mike |
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| I had to chuckle at Jason's response...that was good!! I am always thinking about where I feel the fish SHOULD be in the given conditions, and check there first.
But...Even before hitting the water, I defintely consider a few things...local Weather, wind, water and structure...all of these play significant roles in where fish will be, and possibly how active they could be, and to a much lesser extent (due to NOT having the luxury of being on the water every day) when they will be active.
Find those areas that have some wind blowing in, with good structure..no matter what that structure may be, you should contact fish.
I think Dick Pearson probably has one of the best (if not THE best) guide to getting on fish...it's his THINK card. Check it out in his Shield book.
Steve
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| Although this sort of sounds ridiculous let me point out what happens on the LOTWs, Rainy Lake, Lac Seul, Wabigoon, and I suppose many other large Ontario muskie lakes. I'll be the first one to tell you that I don't fully understand why, but this is pretty much the way it is.
On the LOTWs which I am very familar with, there are large areas that don't seem to have any or very few muskies. The Minnesota and Manitoba sides of the lake (about 400,000 acres more or less) has very few or no muskies. This part of the lake is "different" than the Ontario side of the lake. It's mostly a big shallow basin with shore line sand, and from about 15 ft or so on out a soft bottom, with a few midlake reefs or sand bars. There are great shoreline weedbeds with lots of "big" northern pike, also great walleyes, but no muskies. Spawning areas seem to favor northern pike. The Ontario section is totally different, with lots of structure (14,000+ islands and as many spawning bays). In this part of the lake the muskie does well. The question is why is it that muskies don't expand their range just by swimming to the other side of the lake. To go to the Manitoba side of the lake which has large weed beds and quite a bit of structure would only be 10-12 miles. Yet I'll bet the number of muskies caught in Buffalo Bay could be counted on one hand. It shows that at least in some lakes there are areas that it just doesn't pay to fish. I also see this even within what is considered the muskie part of the LOTWs, there are areas even in the islands that don't support large populations of muskies.
Suprisingly other NW Ontario lakes that don't seem to have the big ecological differances that the LOTWs has still has "hot spots" for muskies. Rainy Lake has muskies in Red Gut Bay and the Seine River areas, but a very limited, but perhap growing population in other areas. Wabigoon has a good population of fish, but the connected lake of Donorwic has a limited population. The NE arm of Lac Suel has a very fishible population of very large fish. The rest of the lake may have a fish or two, but no one has put large numbers up. I suspect that most large muskie lakes will have areas that have the right stuff for most of the fishable population, and other areas that just don't have many fish even though they look somewhat simular. This is sometimes very hard to figure out, but seems to be very true.
I suspect there are still opportunities to find very fishable populations in some of the largely unexplored NW Ontario lakes, and maybe still a spot or two that hasn't been fully discovered in some of the existing popular lakes.
Yes, I think that it pays to think about where the muskies aren't as well as where they are, particularily when dealing with the large NW Ontario muskie lakes.
Doug Johnson |
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