Andrew's Adventures

Fall Musky TuneUp

Wed, September 28, 2011

After a two week layover, I was back up north for a much-anticipated long weekend of fishing and a second-round job interview with the local newspaper company. On this trip I was joined by my buddy, Gary Grenda, who is from Tinley Park, IL. I came to know Gary through his grandfather who owns property next to ours up north, and over the past few years we’ve become friends. Gary took his first trip with me in June 2010, and this was the second go-round.

Gary and I scheduled this trip during the end of August as I was making my fall preparations. Gary is new to the world of musky fishing and since he invested a couple hundred dollars in his first two rods and reels and a few dozen different baits, I had a responsibility on my part to put us on fish for the weekend. No ifs, ands, or buts. From Friday through Monday, it was going to happen.

Going into the weekend, our original plan for weeks was to musky fish. However, the week prior, we were both following weather reports very closely. Mr. Meteorologist, the most ridiculed profession there is in my opinion, was calling for consistent days of bright windless sunshine and 60 degree air temperatures. This would mean one thing; terribly bad muskie fishing, but ridiculously good trophy smallmouth fishing. Gary and I were both well-prepared for either scenario, and I was even looking for one last chance at a handful of 4-5-6 pounders for this year. However, luckily when we departed Thursday night the weather changed a complete 360 and our next four days saw overcast, windy, and sometimes rainy conditions with daily highs in the upper 40’s to upper 50’s.

This was awesome for muskies, and awesome for fishing. Party on!

From Friday morning through Monday night, Gary and I exclusively fished for muskies. Over the course of four days, we fished a total of six lakes and one river system. Each venue besides the river we fished was smaller than 300 acres. I elected to have us fish these smaller waters for several reasons:

• At this writing these smaller lakes are now in the fall turnover period. This past weekend they were all in pre-turnover and from my experience lakes that are set to undergo these changes tend to have more active fish. Muskies are strange creatures and they can sense things that are about to happen that not even humans can. Trust me.
• We were seeking action.
• Smaller lakes that are overlooked by larger lakes (my area for instance) tend to have more numbers, little size, and in most cases less pressured fish.
• Smaller lakes ease the learning curve when joined by a rookie who is just learning the game.
• Due to limited time I wasn’t in the mood to explore larger lakes and spend hours figuring out the puzzles.
• Smaller lakes allow us to move around, go lake hopping, and enable us to fish them efficiently and thoroughly even when on limited time. By being mobile and comparing the action and conditions between different lakes of similar size it’s much easier to put the pattern into place, to find active fish, and to rely on the place that has them.

Of the six lakes we fished, water temperatures were consistently reading between 54-59 degrees - the magic mark for turnover is a period of at least three straight days of 56-57 and by the time we finished up on Monday the lakes were already turning over. We moved a total of 17 fish over the course of four days, and of the six lakes and one river we fished, five of the six fish we caught this weekend came from the same 200 acre lake. We kept going back to that same lake each day because it kept producing for us every afternoon and evening, and had active fish unlike everywhere else we fished.

Our best producers for the weekend were medium to large size plastics and rubber baits; Musky Innovations Bulldawgs, Shack Attack Curly Sues, and Shack Attack Suzy Suckers. I’m not much of a heavy plastics angler due to a lack of patience with them and because I enjoy fishing with lighter lures much more. However, for the first time in my life I focused hard on fishing these baits, forcing myself and Gary to stick with the program, and the results paid off. Every fish we caught came on one of these baits, with the majority of them from deeper shoreline areas, open water basins, and windblown mid-lake structures.

Besides plastics, large bucktails and blades raised a number of fish for us but they wouldn’t trigger strikes. Surprisingly, and despite the cool water temperatures, glide baits and jerkbaits did not move a single fish - for reasons that are unknown as they are usually my best producers year-round. Most shockingly of all, suckers did not catch a single fish either. Instead, muskies had more enjoyment eyeballing and playing with the suckers rather than eating them. On a side-note, suckers are running very expensive this year and word from the guides whom I keep in contact with is that sucker prices are expensive everywhere. For four medium size 12 to 14 inch suckers, I spent $25. Thankfully we only went through two all weekend while the two remaining are sitting in a trap tied off to our pier and waiting to be eaten three days from now. If you end up going through a lot of them this fall, expect to take out a small bank loan to help pay for costs.

For the first time all year, I’m glad that I was finally outfished by my boat partner. Gary caught four while I ended up with two and lost three near boatside. Our numbers were the following: 40”, 38”, 36”, 35”, and two little guys that went unmeasured. I was happy that we found some action that kept us busy for four days and I’m happy my fishing buddy caught fish and learned a lot about this obsessive game of ours.

Below are photos and some captions to go along with them:

This is a 38 incher that smashed a Suzy Sucker at boatside in 20+ft of water.

Below is Gary’s 40 incher. His second-ever musky is his largest to date. Caught on a Bulldawg off a deep shoreline drop-off.

Here are a few of the smaller ones, a 30” and 35”. Both were caught on a Bulldawg.

A few release shots.

Here is the final photo-worthy fish of the weekend. A three footer, my 10th of the year, that needed some surgery in order to be released. She engulfed my Curly Sue from the deep end of a sandbar and the rear treble got tangled in her gills. A good photo wasn’t my concern with this one. After the hook was cut she powered off and thanked us for the good release.

Six fish boated, three lost, 17 seen in total with a handful of followers being over 40”.  Not bad for four days. The weather could not have been any more perfect than it was. It’s funny how everyone was complaining about how this front had screwed up the fishing. With so many lakes to fish and choose from, the best way to catch them in adverse conditions is to move around until you find them and are able to establish a pattern. That’s why we caught a few, especially by always going back to the lake that kept producing.

Starting on Saturday I’ll be back with friend, Jacob Saylor, for our annual fall trip of musky mayhem. He badly needs to catch a 50 incher and I need to catch ten to reach my goal of hitting 20 for the year in such limited time. Think we can do it?

Lastly, I’m hoping for a brief warm-up so that I can catch big smallmouth bass for one last time this year and to make the fishing for them worthwhile.

Smaller lakes are turning over right now, and the peak for fall colors is about a week away. In addition, my 25th birthday also happens next week with possibly a third interview to go along with all of that too. What an awesome week I have to look forward to!

Till next time.

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