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Musky Fly Fishing Update
Uncategorized report for November 22, 2010
The 2010 Musky season is all but over , with a mere 10 days to go and weather conditions not looking favorable, it’s time to set our sights on next season and a much different approach. Fall Muskies are very aggressive, charged up, eating big flies, and almost anything in sight, spring Muskies are very different.
Most of the Pike in northern Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan’s U.P. spawn under the ice, (unless there is a very early ice out like 2010). Northern Pike prefer colder water temperatures than Muskies and remain active all winter, whereas Muskies almost hibernate through the coldest part of the winter.
Once the ice has left the lakes and rivers, Pike will begin stalking the shallow weed flats looking for Perch, Suckers, Minnows and the occasional Bluegill, the larger fish tend to stay nearer the deeper edges where they feel more secure and have a quicker escape route to deep water, but they still are hungry and will take a small fly well at this time of the year. I use the “M&M” theory – that is, everyone has room for one more M&M! The fish are cold and it takes too much energy to digest large foods at this time of the year, so they take in little foods which they can digest rather quickly and easily get some “instant energy from – thus the “M&M” theory.
Early Season sight fly fishing for Pike, is sometimes an exercise in frustration, and sometimes the most fantastic fishing you have ever done. Most of the fish in the Northwoods you will encounter will be less than 42 inches in length and weigh about 5 to 15 pounds – the fish are pretty skinny in the spring! They can be voracious feeders, if the conditions are right, you will have many shots at feeding fish. Typically you will spot 10 to 20 fish in a day with good shots at most of them if you follow a few simple rules:
1. Keep your flies small and moving rather slowly, natural colors work best when the water is still very clear and cold – the fish love Bunnies in the 3 to 5 inch length.
2. Move around slowly, a stealthy approach will get you more results. Most of the fish will be in less than 3 feet of water, (especially on the northeast side of a body of water out of direct wind and current), they will be in ambush positions along any emerging green vegetation or even old dead stuff. Remember, the water is crystal clear, the fish can see you as well as you can see them.
3. Your ability to accurately cast is critical in getting more chances at casting to sighted fish that have not been spooked! Spend some time this winter and improve your casting skills – it is the number one factor in your success and it is one of the most frustrating things your Guide has to deal with. If you can’t cast, don’t blame your Guide if he is getting you on fish! It’s your job to accurately put the fly where it belongs – THE FIRST TIME! If your fly falls off the mark, don’t rip it up and cast it again, retrieve it back at a fishable pace, slow yourself down and make a good, accurate cast – the first cast counts. Sometimes environmental factors (wind) will throw you off, take your time so as not to spook the fish. In cold spring conditions, the fish may not bolt,but it may know you are there and will not strike – no matter what you do. Be stealthy, accurate and patient.
4. In clear water, use a longer leader. Using a longer leader of about 7 to 9 feet in length will give you an advantage in being stealthy, but the flies will be more difficult to turn over and will not be able to be delivered as accurately. If you are dealing with a good amount of wind you will probably have to shorten your leader to about 6 feet or so, this is the time to use your Intermediate Tip Line, the clear portion of the line will allow you to use a shorter leader, (about 4 to 5 feet), without spooking the fish. I prefer the Cortland Ghost Tip 15’ Lines.
You will also be blind casting to likely looking holding water. Cloudy, windier days are best for catching fish, but it is difficult to see them in these darker conditions – a great pair of Polarized Sunglasses will help immensely! You will have to blind cast more, but your hooking percentage will go up – the fish can’t see you as well either! Pike of like sizes tend to travel in loose schools, once you find a few in a certain area or water type, you can target similar areas throughout the body of water you are on and you will probably have a banner day!
Where they’re at: Look to the northeast corner of a body of water to warm up first – this area gets the most sunlight and the shallower water of a weed flat or shoreline when adjacent to deeper water is a great place to begin your hunt – especially if there is an incoming stream or creek in the shallow bay. A word of caution here, if there is a stiff wind blowing into the bay, the water temps will be significantly lower. In this case you are better off finding a bay where the water is calmer and can heat up better. Anyplace where the afternoon sun can warm up the water without much direct wind action will get the most active fish first.
In a river, look to the backwaters and sloughs to contain the best fishing early on. The upper reaches of most flowages will also hold these fish since these places are very near or in their spawning areas.
Once the water begins to warm up in the middle of May or so, you will see more Muskies, mainly the smaller lakes first. Where seasons allow, you can begin to fish for them as well. They will react almost the same as the Pike did a couple of weeks earlier, use the same tactics for them. On lakes the larger females will probably not come into most of the shallow water very often – they’re just not comfortable there. Look for those larger fish on mid lake bars and deeper flats, the larger shallow bars and flats will have the largest fish and they will be hungry – they will also be very shy. Longer casts of 60 or more feet are a must, this is the most challenging sight fishing you will ever do! A crayfish pattern of about 3 to 4 inches in length is perfect on these rocky outrcroppings all across the northland.
In the late spring, (late May and early June), large female Muskies move up onto sandy beaches in the late afternoons and evenings. I have caught a couple of 20 to 30 pounders with this technique – it’s not easy, but it can be very worthwhile! Beaches with darker sand bottoms and good western exposure are great places to find those spring hogs. Here, wade fishing is best, you may encounter more than one fish in the prime areas, but the big girls are the ones that rule the roost! I have had 30 plus pound fish follow my flies all the way to my rod tip – talk about a rush! Smaller Deceivers and other minnow colored patterns work best – don’t overlook small Double Bunnies in Olive/White or other natural color schemes. These areas will “heat load” during the day and even though the air is cooling down, the water and sand tend to retain their heat for a few hours after peak warming – the fish will feed well into the evening even though the air is cool.
In rivers, shallow flats in the spring are like a magnet. The best ones out of heavy current facing the west are always at a premium, there are just not a lot of them and they attract most of the fish for spawning and feeding after the spawn. Many times when I find one of these places, I’ll get out and wade, if the conditions are right and the bottom is hard enough. If not I will pole the boat slowly while all the time scanning the flat for telltale signs of feeding fish – you know, all of a sudden it looks like someone just threw a bathtub into the river!
Fly sizes are the same here, keep them small and natural colored. I mentioned before about crayfish patterns, they work very well in these areas also, especially when there is a lack of minnow activity on the flat.
Just like in lakes, you should look for prime feeding areas – wherever a small creek enters, or where plants are growing. These areas indicate warmer water and they will attract more baitfish than other places, the baitfish will attract the Muskies.
Keep your offerings small. Don’t start chucking big flies right off the bat, use flies that will run deeper and have a smaller profile, (remember the M&M theory) – the fish are still pretty cold and they can digest smaller foods faster, giving them more energy in a shorter amount of time. I usually start with natural colors until the water temps get into the mid 60′s, then I slowly bring on the brighter stuff. Minnow imitations work best early on, then Perch and finally Bluegills, but the Gills really won’t get going until water temps get into the upper 60′s – we have a long way to go before that happens!
Patterns: I start my season with a Big Green, Bill’s Deceiver, a Bunny Bug, and a Bucktail Bunny, near June I’ll start using an Edgewater Diver and Flute Flies in the 6 to 7 inch range. Many times the fish choose the slow rhythmic movement of the Bunny Bugs over the silhouette of the minnow patterns, especially if they are a bit deeper and less agressive because of colder water. Keep your flash to a minimum and slow your retrieve way down, almost just bumping or jigging the fly across the weeds. Keep your flies no more than 5 to 7 inches long, for best results use a 3/0 or 4/0 hook for most of the Pike/Muskies in our area. A 9 wt. rod is best.
To even the odds, I recommend a couple of 9′ 9wt. fast action Fly Rods one rigged with Floating and the other with a Clear Intermediate Sink Tip line. I usually use 20 # test single strand Titanium wire tippet attached to a 30# test leader butt of about 4 to 7 feet in length (depending on the depth of the water and type of line).
A good quality Reel, (preferably a Large Arbor, Disc Drag design), is a must, the lighter, the better – I mostly use Ross Reels. Backing capacities are not critical, as these fish rarely get into the backing – I have never had one do it and don’t know of anyone who has, (a CLA3 or 4 is perfect). Fifty to One Hundred yards of 20# test Backing will be more than adequate. To keep your system lighter, you can use a “7/8” reel with about 50 to 75 yards of 20# backing, these fish just don’t run away from you, they would rather stay right there and “ duke it out with you!
I should mention rods – get the lightest weight fastest action you can afford – but be careful not to get a “Saltwater” rod that is all butt and not meaty enough in the middle and tip sections. You need to generate lots of line speed at shorter distances (25 to 35 feet). I have St. Croix Legend Elite Saltwater Series rods which are very good, and I have the Muskie Master which is unsurpassed for casting extra large flies long distances with little effort. If you are on a tighter budget, I think the best rod for around $250.00 is the Greys Platinum XD 9′ 9wt. – it’s a 4 pc. rod with good speed and comes with a tube and sock. Another very good choice are the Diamondback Flawless Saltwater Rods, at $295.00 these 4 pc rods come with a Rod/Reel Tube and most importantly an Unconditional Lifetime Warranty! “Salmon” action rods are really too soft – they are made to protect lighter tippets and not made to cast extra large flies long distances – we don’t have any lighter tippets to protect – 20# wire and 30# mono don’t really need any “shock absorbing” softer tip or mid sections to protect them from breaking! Most 8wt. rods don’t have enough backbone to “stick” a Muskie hard enough, we’re trying to hook and fight them, not kill them in the landing process by using a rod too light to handle them.
Leader Design: Water clarity in the spring is fantastic, longer leaders and longer casts will get you into more and larger fish – be sneaky! I usually use a Cortland 444SL Ghost Tip line with a 15′ clear Intermediate sinking front section, this gets my fly down where the fish will be. My leader system consists of a Butt section of 40 pound test Maxima Ultragreen, looped at both ends, to this I add a single strand Titanium Tippet section that I build. At the terminal end I crimp on the fly with a #2 wire crimping sleeve passed through the crimp 3 times, don’t forget to leave a small loop at the hook eye for more fly movement. This type of system allows me to change leader lengths and replace tippets quickly and easily without messing around trying to reconstruct everything in the boat – I usually tie up several tippet sections in advance and put them into my tackle bag for use whenever I need them.
I make my own leaders, I use 40 pound test Maxima Ultragreen for the butt section which may be between 2 and 7 feet long (depending on the water depth and clarity) the shallower the water the longer the leader Butt, put a small Perfection Loop at both ends – one to attach to the fly line and the other to attach the tippet section. I make up tippet sections with about 16 inches of 28 to 30 pound test shock tippet (this is soft, flexible mono with about 20% stretch), this is my “shock absorber”, it allows some stretch in the system so I don’t break off the fish on the strike or a powerful run. I then attach about 16 inches of 20 pound test single strand Titanium wire – I attach the wire to the mono with an Albright type knot: Go to You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6K8DxOXLNA to see the leader construction sequence). This is by far the best leader system I have come up with to date, the wire is so small in diameter the fish don’t see it, and it lasts way longer than anything else out there, also because it is single strand, it doesn’t give off near as much reflection under water making it even more invisible to the fish. The wire isn’t cheap, but it is definitely the best stuff out there, it’s no more expensive than Tyger Wire and it will outlast it by tenfold! Sometimes in the spring, if the water is very clear and I’m fishing over a sandy bottom, I will skip the tippet section and tie some hard mono into the butt section making the leader about 8 to 10 feet long. I do this to minimize the shadow from the leader and to keep the leader as streamlined as possible, but I only do this for extra clear water where I’m fishing very shallow. I am taking a chance with this type of leader, but sometimes you just have to take a chance to get the strike!
Leader length depends on water depth and time of year. In the early spring I use a longer length because of water clarity – I lengthen the mono portion to anywhere from 5 to 8 feet, giving me a total length between 7 and 10 feet with the Titanium Tippet section. Conversely, in the late fall when I’m fishing very large flies on 350 to 400 grain Sink-Tip lines and I want to get them deep very quickly, I go to a very short leader only about 1 or 2 feet plus the Titanium Tippet section which is a maximum of about 3 to 4 feet. Under normal fishing conditions throughout most of the season I use a total leader length of about 6 or 7 feet, this allows the fly to turn over well and still provides enough distance between the line and the fly to not spook the fish.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Bill
We Tie It Fly Shop
P.O.Box 516
5570 County Rd. M
Boulder Junction, WI 54512
715-385-0171
