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Posts: 50
| Hey guys hows it going my name is Chris im new to the site. How do you guys go about locating fish? What are there seasonal movements if any? What about cold fronts? Thanks any help will be greatly appreciated. |
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| where are you fishing? |
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Posts: 682
Location: Sycamore, IL | Where ever/ when ever you are fishing: first find the bait fish/forage and you are half way there...
Good luck-
Matt |
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Posts: 2385
Location: Chisholm, MN | Typically start casting onto the break line. If there are no fish the go shallow or deep and see if they are there. Wind swept areas are one of the first place to look. |
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Posts: 2361
| MD75 - 5/23/2012 8:20 PM
Where ever/ when ever you are fishing: first find the bait fish/forage and you are half way there...
Good luck-
Matt
Not neccessarily true, and wouldn't really consider this a priority on most waters. |
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Posts: 1168
| You could ask 20 different guys this question and get 20 different answers. Those 20 guys could also give you 20 different answers depending on the body of water. I truly believe that if you simply look at generic wind blown areas or locate pods of bait fish you are not being as efficient as you can be and leave yourself open to missing out on plenty of opportunities that go unchecked.
I'll let the wind of the previous day or two give me a good idea where I can predict fish location. Instead of a needle in a large haystack it trims it down quite a bit. Within that it's looking for other environmental factors and the reasons why they exist in those areas. Simply finding bait fish isn't enough. Why are they there? Migratory patterns? Comfort? Feeding? Within that what else is going on? Is there a temp change? Is there an inflowing stream or more subtle current? Is there a man made factor (boat traffic perhaps) that has driven that food source to that location? A ton of stuff to process so I forget about all of that and simply watch my temp gauge. |
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Posts: 50
| Thanks for all the input guys. I definitely agree with you about asking 20 different guys and receiving 20 different answers. I mainly fish the fox chain of lakes. Lake Marie, Channel, Catherine and Bluff lakes. Boat traffic is extremely high during the weekend during the days. So I figured possibly a hot night bite. Especially with the hot weather we have had. I managed to move 2 fish on 10's this past weekend. Couldn't get them to eat came in very sluggish. Im guessing I need to learn the migratory patterns of musky better and the bait fish as well to understand where they should be with water temp. Ulbian I really like your point about the wind blowing for the past couple days. I also have been thinking that possibly due to the boat traffic maybe I should spend more time in the channels off the main lake. |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL |
Sent from my iPad
Chris this is a great question and thanks for posting it!
Locating fish is by far the most difficult piece of the puzzle in being a consistent successful fishermen!
Being around muskie fishermen for a while and fishermen in general, most want to believe there's a quick and easy answer to all of our catching questions which the answers in most cases involves buying something new such as a new "hot" lure?". This thinking will take you no where! The idea that any lure or any other piece of tackle will have the fish come running we all know is a fantasy, however you don't have to go any farther than your closest tackle warehouse and see this on display.
There are many facts and principals about a fish that must be accepted before ever learning to locate fish on a consistent basis. There are things a fish will do and things he wont. The idea that "anything goes" or "there are no rules" again is living in a dream land. The only thing a successful fisherman can EVER point to in his success is, he was able to put a bait where the fish were, at the time the fish was active enough to strike the bait. Placing a lure or bait at the right depth, moving it at the right speed and doing so at the right time, ='s a catch!
There is no one thing that a fisherman can point to and teach to another how to most effectively locate fish, however Mr. Buck Perry and I highly recommend you begin studying his work ASAP might just point to is, learning to troll " CORRECTLY" would be a wise move. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | spring - warmest water, any green weeds or current flow, secondary structure (distance from spawning areas)
summer - find the deepest water in the system and fish adjacent structure and connections the tie it all together and bait fish in open water. know the weed edges exactly and fish so that you contact the edges. cold fronts ... get into the weeds/slop and rip-twitch for reaction strikes. know rocks ... fish like rocks.
fall - concentrate on bait fish location especially with spawning locations (for bait)
pick water for conditions ... i like to fish dark water and/or rivers on bluebird days and clear on overcast days or at night.
think about everything that's going on from bugs/tadpoles on up the chain and you should be able to contact fish consistently. catching them is up to you.
i tend to play the game in my mind that 80% of the fish live in 20% of the water and eat 10% of the time ... subtracting the body of water to solve the puzzle is why i love to fish. the more species you become proficient in contacting, the better musky fisherman you will become. finally, listen to those who are really good and spend a lot of time on the water ... lots to learn.
the comment on wind previously is something worth storing in your memory bank ...
Edited by jonnysled 5/24/2012 7:46 AM
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Posts: 433
Location: Cedarburg, Wisconsin | Cold fronts? Depends on the lake makeup. If the fish have depth available they will head for the bottom, and your locator will look like the dead sea except for an additional bump on the bottom here and there (It's the fish!) Shallower areas with weeds let them bury themselves deep in the thickest stuff. Depending on the degree of the front these things will happen to a greater or lesser extent. I've seen LOTW go from solid fish in a bay to totally "empty" in just one night when a real ripper came through. So if you are faced with a cold front condition, I try to fish much slower and tighter to the bottom or thick cover. For me, running and gunning in a cold front condition is about the biggest waste of time there is. Been there, done that, don't work, never again. |
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Posts: 897
| Some good advice here. One thing I'll add is just because a fish doesn't show itself on a particular spot when you fish it, that does not mean they aren't there. If a spot looks good to you make sure to keep coming back to it, especially if you notice fish on other spots are starting to go. Good luck! |
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Posts: 833
| I'm heading into my 3rd season, this is what I've learned so far. I'm sure it is not complete.
Start marco and work your way down to micro, but understand that one factor can trump the other as you put the puzzle together. Also recognize that unless you are on a pattern or fishing consecutive days, every outting is a new puzzle.
Ulimate Macro is seasonal progression, which is generally guided by water temp. However, many guys will tell you that these are just guidelines and IMO they are right. Also, each system will have it's own twists on the progression. This stuff will give you a very genearl idea of what the fish are up to, so it is a start, but it must be refined further.
Weather is another huge variable. Pay attention to daily trends, seasonal trends and intermediate trends. Examples: Seasonal Trend: Cold Spring, 3-4 week heat wave, etc.
Daily Trend: Wind Switch, incoming storm, blue bird changing to overcast, etc.
Intermediate Trend: 5 days high pressure, then a change (GO FISHING ON THIS DAY!) several days of same wind, etc.
As I’ve gotten my lumps and scars over the past two seasons, I’ve slowly learned to use the above as a starting point to planning how I start an outing. It is worth mentioning that I fish Tonka which has 14,000 acres and has a TON of structure. It would be impossible to fish it all in a day or even a weekend. So I have to make choices on where I think the highest probability locations are going to be. If you are fishing a 500 acre lake you can carpet bomb the whole thing in 8 hours, which makes the decision making process a bit different.
One other thing: Finding fish is a part of the puzzle, but so is triggering them. I fish pressured water so to illustrate the point: I saw fish/ had follows on about 75-80% of my trips (60+ a season), I caught 3. So triggering them is certainly part of the equation. Maybe I just suck too.
One other tidbit: There were plenty of outtings where I would see fish shallow, but would be unable to close the deal. I'd come home and talk to friends and they'd get bit deep. There were trips where both sides of the structure got bit, and others where nobody got bit. Thus, there are no hard and fast rules in Musky Fishing. You just have to jam with it.
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Posts: 50
| Thanks again for the info guys really informative. |
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | I like to keep things simple so I always start with a lake.  Then I look for good structure and start deep and then work shallow until we start seeing fish. I like to keep lure choices simple too. Bucktails, cranks, and spinner baits are great search lures. Throw them at least until you start seeing fish.
Another important thing is to pack a good lunch and enough water/soda/etc. Hard to find fish when you're thinking about food. |
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