Musky fishing Kinkaid 11/06

[Hoffy49]

My son and I are heading down to Kinkaid lake the weekend of November 6th. We live 4-1/2 hours away and have only been there once before. We fished with Chad the last time. Great guy and learned alot about spring fishing. I was hoping to get some suggestions on the best baits, colors, locations and patterns to make our weekend more productive. Any suggestions would definately be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Dan

P.S. Would this be a good time for the Krave Jr and if so what colors?

[Hoffy49]

Any Help???

[Chad Cain]

Hey Dan, there is a muskie tournament on the weekend of Nov 6th and 7th, so you may want to consider a different weekend. Oh, and there is another muskie tournament on the 23rd and 24th of October.

[AFchris]

Dan,

Like Chad stated there will be a rather large tournament on Nov 6/7. I imagine roughly 35-40 boats will be down for the IMTT State Championship. I'd shoot for Halloween weekend if you have some flexability with your schedule.

As for patterns and colors.....its a toss up. We'll see what happens with the water temps due to this warmer fall. I personally like natural colors, although there are some days when bright obnoxious colors seem to outproduce. Take a peek at the water clarity when you get down here and go from there. That time of year I wouldn't be affraid to toss the regular Krave. The fish really seem to be beefing up and are not shy about hitting a 9-10 in. bait. I know Chad did some real work with the 9'' last fall, plenty of days when I'd see him at the ramp when I had only boated or saw one and he had multiples.

Good luck, tight lines.

Chris

[ILBOB]

AFCHRIS - I may be heading down to Kincaid on Sunday. Have the muskies moved shallow yet?

[AFchris]

Hey Bob,

Well hopefully I'll know very soon! Matt and I have spent the last month fishing Shellbyville so we haven't spent too much time on the water. I'm headed out today and Friday. Hopefully I'll have a better idea then. I'll be sure to post a report on Friday night.

Chris

[ILBOB]

Thanks Chris.

[JTH453]

AFCHRIS - I may be heading down to Kincaid on Sunday. Have the muskies moved shallow yet?

They have absolutely moved shallow. Find "good" weeds near deeper water and you will find muskies. Focus on the main lake and you should be fine.

Cheers,

Jeff

[JTH453]

They have absolutely moved shallow. Find "good" weeds near deeper water and you will find muskies. Focus on the main lake and you should be fine.

Cheers,

Jeff

By "main lake" I mean any portion of the lake outside of the Johnson Creek no wake area. The weeds are hard to find in the JC area due to low water and low visibility. Not saying there aren't fish there, it was just hard for me to find good weeds due to my inexperience in the area and water clarity. Due to main lake water clarity, the best color of lure to throw for us was any color as long as it was white...

[Hoffy49]

Thanks for the information,

If the tournament is on the 6th than Friday the 5th should be good. We can fish another lake on Saturday if needed.

Also would it be a problem to launch after the tournament boats and just stay out of the way?

Let me know if in anyway this would conflict with the folks fishing the tournament.

What are the tournament times?

Thanks

Again

Dan

[hawkeye9]

Fished yesterday...saw two early (one was really nice) right at moonrise. Funny thing, Chad motored by right after I missed that hot fish.

Before getting on the water, the day couldn't have been worse. Railroad construction caused a forty-five minute detour to the lake. Then my trolling motor pedal was giving me a fit. Missed sunrise, but made it to a good spot right at moonrise. Hooked up a couple of spinnerbaits. First time since the Spring fishing ski's. Made my first cast to the weededge just making sure spool tension and reel was functioning well. As I was reeling in I was looking back and talking to my wife, reminding her of the importance of the figure-8. Picked my bait up out of the water without paying attention, with no 8. Just then I caught a glimpse in the water. Son of a #$@^! Nice fish too! Glad my wife at least got a great view of her. First cast of the Fall. Muskies 1. Hawkeye 0. Oh, well. At least things can only improve from here.

Probably could have done a bit better. But spent some time trolling and just checking things out a bit for the weeks to come. My wife enjoyed herself which was great. Time for me to get serious though. Moved one other small fish jerking a Krave under the bluebird sky.

BTW, I had asked about the weed growth being down this year (as many of you know I spend most of my time in the North end of the lake). Now I see why no one responded. Weeds look great in the main lake. Emergent weed growth does appear less than most years on the North end. I'm guessing clarity and level flucuations during the spring and early summer are responsible. I have found weeds back there, but not as great as normal. It'll be interesting to see if the hold fish when the water cools.

As far as fishing during the tourney. I don't reccommend it, but you sure can. It's a public lake and there are tons of great spots. But 2700 acres looks small with that many muskie baits getting chucked around, added to that crappie guys and bass guys. I've forgotten about a tourney before and been on the water (but it bums me out to see the 10 or 20 spots I'd like to fish with a boat on them). Whatever you do, be overly courteous (I don't fish tourney's but giving a boat the right to fish the spot there on uninterputed is just the right thing to do in any circumstance.) Friday will be better. But there will still be quite a few guys pre-fishing I bet. I'll fish every Friday from now until the fish slow way down (late December hopefully). Including Friday's before tournaments. I rarely fish weekends, just during the week. I'll work the weekend when everyone else is stirring up the lake.