Ken Jackson
10-07-2009, 10:29 AM
Hope you haven’t put the boat away for the year just yet. Things are starting to pop with muskies and the next 4 weeks looks to be exciting.
Current conditions:
We have shallow lakes registering water temps in the 50 to 53 degree range and the deepest lakes are in the 55 to 58 degree range. While many lakes did not stratify this year, some do show remnants of a thermocline and a turnover process has yet to come. Many lakes will not have this turnover this season however, and you may be in good shape from a water clarity standpoint when in previous years it could have been a problem. The magic temp is 54 degrees. If you find that and you have clear water, you should be good to go.
Some muskies have been caught recently in extremely shallow water on slow moving surface baits such as the Hawg Wobbler. Over the weekend, a number of anglers contacted nice fish in shallow cover on this pattern. I don’t look for this to last however, and expect the deep weed edges and rocks to do their normal amount of business.
And yes, the live bait bite is good. Suckers in the 11 to 14 inch size are producing and afternoons have been better than mornings. I look for that to continue as we get windy, cooler weather coming up.
Had five fish in the boat in two outings this week from 35 to 41 inches including a nice tiger. Also saw 9 and lost 4 others. Most fish were on live bait.
I’ll be out quite a bit over the next month and will try to keep you updated on lake condition and what they’re hitting on.
Ken
Current conditions:
We have shallow lakes registering water temps in the 50 to 53 degree range and the deepest lakes are in the 55 to 58 degree range. While many lakes did not stratify this year, some do show remnants of a thermocline and a turnover process has yet to come. Many lakes will not have this turnover this season however, and you may be in good shape from a water clarity standpoint when in previous years it could have been a problem. The magic temp is 54 degrees. If you find that and you have clear water, you should be good to go.
Some muskies have been caught recently in extremely shallow water on slow moving surface baits such as the Hawg Wobbler. Over the weekend, a number of anglers contacted nice fish in shallow cover on this pattern. I don’t look for this to last however, and expect the deep weed edges and rocks to do their normal amount of business.
And yes, the live bait bite is good. Suckers in the 11 to 14 inch size are producing and afternoons have been better than mornings. I look for that to continue as we get windy, cooler weather coming up.
Had five fish in the boat in two outings this week from 35 to 41 inches including a nice tiger. Also saw 9 and lost 4 others. Most fish were on live bait.
I’ll be out quite a bit over the next month and will try to keep you updated on lake condition and what they’re hitting on.
Ken