Stick to your guns by Cory Allen
Stick to your Guns:
Musky fishing has been for the most part turned into a strafing run. A carpet Bombing. Precision and meticulousness has fallen to the wayside through a motif of burning...and all too often crashing because of it. "Covering water" doesn't necessarily mean covering a two dimensional expanse of water. 90 percent of the fish, as they say, are in 10 percent of the water. So, that being said, once you isolate the ten percent, why waste time performing the same routine over the same layer of water?
The real art of musky fishing comes in knowing the nature of the animal, what it utilizes as habitat and how it moved about its board, and carefully dissecting this ecosystem with different variations of depth, speed, size, action, and color. No matter where you fish, the Muskies are always either shallow, deep, or somewhere in between, and in accordance to that, either active, neutral, or inactive. These levels change periodically and almost constantly in an increase and decrease of "frequency" daily, and to be successful, you must synchronize with this aspect of nature imposed upon this particular animal, the muskellunge. No structure situation I've ever personally encountered can be covered in under an hour to any comprehensive degree. Take your time. Most musky anglers I fish with both fish an area far too quickly, and their presentations themselves usually lean far too heavily on the rapid side of the spectrum. Hastiness will not only leave your coverage sloppy, but cost you some of the greatest fish of your life, and lead to misnomers of information to use in the future. This is the single most evident reason why anglers have a tendency to get pigeon-holed into a handful of tactics on given bodies of water. Don't fear to cycle through drastic variations of depth speed and size control on the same structure situation. The evidence of being almost tedious in covering a structure was most evident when two clients of mine landed a 52"x25" musky on Melton Hill reservoir after we had staked out an area I know to be an almost year round musky habitat and covered it for at least 60 minutes over a 60 yard stretch with everything from a 12" crank to a 3" bass jig. Richard and Travis Storch were rewarded in entertaining my adamancy on our last pass with the fish of many people's lifetimes on a TRO Ice Cold Perch Shallow Invader retrieved moderately slowly over a channel break. If we had played hop scotch from spot to spot on a "milk run", we might have been on plane when this fish or another of equal size became just active enough to move up to the break and trigger. Have faith in your arsenal of knowledge and your ability to implement the right tool at the right time.
-Cory Allen
To learn more about Cory Allen click HERE
The new season begins now
Musky anglers across the midwest are starting to embrace the warm weather and many of them living in states with no closed season are starting to hit the water. Musky Show season has just come to an end and we can't thank you all enough for coming out to visit us. We truly appreciate the support. We've been working hard to get inventory updated and all new products added. Some of the new things we added just recently would be the Single 8 from Dirty Hookers Tackle, Raptor Baits 10" Rapta Boo, New Grey TRO Hoodies, 6" twitch baits from Slammer Tackle, new Triple Bladed tails from Musky Frenzy, and CPR Baitz 4025's. We hope to have some of the sought after baits we had at shows in stock soon. We are expecting new Musky Innovations Pro Dawgs any day now also. This season we want to keep you updated with our newsletter. Use this link to sign up. We plan to have a few guides chime in with some tips to help you make 2016 your best year on the water yet. Keep checking back here for updates as well. Best of luck this spring, JeffGearing up for 2016
Most of us are just about getting ready to put the boat in storage and put the tackle on the shelf until it's time to pull it out when mother nature breaks her icy spell. Well you don't have to wait 4 months to think and talk about musky fishing. We will be at the Sears Centre in Chicago for Muskie Expo Chicago January 8th through the 10th. We have a full 2 booths and we'd like to see you stop in and talk musky fishing with us. Between now and the show in January we will be giving sneak peeks at new colors that we will be adding for 2016. We truly appreciate your support this past musky season and we look forward to bigger things next year. Below is a preview of 2 of the new Bull Dawg colors we will have available for the first time at the show. I hope everyone had an amazing fishing season and to the anglers still out chasing these crazy fish we wish you the Best of Luck on the Water.
Orange Shad (above)
Fire Shiner (above)
Pre Turnover Muskies
The arrival of autumn sees with it a definite impending switch in musky location and behavior. As leaves first hint at changing color here in the Northwoods and the nights find a nip in the air, water temperatures dip below 70 degrees and the pre-turnover period begins. This time of year offers the musky angler the potential for dynamic outings as large numbers of fish frequent the shallows up until turnover, and are often feeding aggressively. Whether weeds, wood or rock, shallow cover, in as often as only a few feet of water, should garner the bulk of the esox hunter’s focus.
Pre-turnover is an excellent time for surface lures, one of my favorite and most productive offerings during early fall. Baits such as Lake X Lures Fat Bastard, Cannonball Jr., and Cannonball are sure bets and should be worked just a tad slower than during the steamy summer months. As a general rule the more surface disturbance due to wind, boat traffic, etc., the larger the lure I choose. Whereas I typically work baits relatively fast during summer, I prefer to retrieve surface lures in autumn just fast enough to get the lure to make a distinct popping sound; this of course varies from bait to bait so experimentation is key to finding the preferred speed for the muskies on a given day. In addition to Lake X Lures, I have also had excellent success on the Sennett Tackle Pacemaker and Rough Runner.
Not to be outdone by their overly buoyant counterparts, bucktails are also effective presentations during the pre-turnover period. Large double-bladed models offer not only greater lift at slower speeds, but produce a distinct big fish calling thump throughout the entire retrieve. I again experiment with size and let the fish show me what they prefer. There are many great choices on the market, with the Mepps Double Blade Musky Marabou (#7 blades), Musky Mahem Jr. Cowgirl (#8 blades), Toothy’s Tackle Tickler (#9 blades) and the Mepps H210 (#10 blades) being amongst my personal favorites. Regardless of which model I am throwing, I always incorporate the use of a plastic trailer to add additional flash and vibration thus ultimately elicit strikes from potentially non-committal ‘skies.
Although often overlooked in early fall for shallow holding fish, jerkbaits and crankbaits are also productive options. Musky Innovations Shallow Invaders and Mag Shallow Invaders will produce fish on a straight retrieve or when worked as a jerkbait as well as the Drifter Tackle Vexer, a lure specifically designed to excel as a twitchbait. A key triggering mechanism, especially with crankbaits, is to make occasional contact with whichever structural element you’re fishing.
Anyone who has been around musky fishing knows the potency of jerkbaits in autumn, and this includes the pre-turnover period. Shallow Mag and Pounder versions of the Musky Innovations Bulldawg produce giant fish each year during this window. Esox Research’s Hell Hound and Squirrely Hell Hound are glide baits that when worked in an erratic manner can produce strikes from fish that might otherwise only follow. The new Dyin’ Dawg has been a terrific producer for my boat all summer and I expect it to continue to do so this fall as well.
The pre-turnover period doesn’t last forever, so grab a few Plano boxes of the aforementioned lures and head out to your local honey hole to explore the shallow bite – there’s a great chance you’ll start your autumn off with a BIG bang! I’ll see you on the water… Joel DeBoer - Wisconsin Angling Adventures
Fish Hunts Guide Service - Post Spawn Musky Report
The musky season started with a bang in Northern Wisconsin for musky guide Steve Genson of Fish Hunts guide service. Several muskies up to 48" were caught in super shallow water. As with every musky season nothing stays the same and last weeks pattern will be no different with the quickly rising water temps that have moved from mid 60's to low 70's within a few days. This upcoming weekend expect the post spawn muskies to be a little lethargic. The bite in recent days has shifted from small glide baits (4" and 6" Phantom) and small twitch baits (5" Custom X mini) to Small spinner baits like the Rabid Squirrel and Baby Girl and some limited top water action. Don't be afraid to speed those little bucktails up to get the reaction strike that might save the day. Weed growth is still slow to develop with the late spring so flats and break lines are still holding fish. Make sure to cover water and keep moving along if you haven't contacted fish as the post spawn fish still haven't established their summer patterns. Hopefully a few of these tips will help you this weekend on the water. Steve still has a few openings for June so if your looking to book a trip in the Hayward WI area or MN please check out www.fishhunts.com for more information. (click either picture for a link to that page). Book mark this blog and check back often for more reports on what's happening on the water. Best of Luck this weekend.
It's about to begin...Opening weekend preview
Here is our first blog from Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota musky guide and Musky Hunter author Steve Genson of Genson's Fish Hunts Guide Service. Expect a shallow water bite if action is what your after. Dark water lakes with some current are expected to be better since the water will be warmer. Muskies are likely to be in spawn mode so reaction bites are your best bet. Focus on small glide baits like Phantoms or Baby Squirkos as well as small twitch baits like the Custom X 5" mini and Baby Shallow Raiders. If your looking to throw a buck tail the Rabid Squirrel or Baby Girl would be good bets also. Fish tight to shore and structure with precise casts. Look for warm water on the graph and fish during the warmest part of the day. Check out his website for more on Steve. http://www.fishhunts.com. We will be making regular updates from Steve so please check back. Best of luck on the water this weekend.Chaos Tackle is here!!!
We just received our first shipment of custom baits from Chaos Tackle. Check out our products section to purchase theses baits. We will also be adding the Assault Stick rods to our lineup very soon. Please email us teamrhinooutdoors@hotmail.com with any questions. 