RFRG 10/30 Fishing Report w/Muskie Matt

[Muskie Matt]

Water temps 10/29 on the lower ER Chain were running 37-42 degrees depending on location. Early morning skim ice present along shore/reeds. Over on Banana lake, a deeper clearer lake, water temp was an overall 47 degrees. I imagine after our couple windy days that plenty of cooling took place on area lakes, probably mixed the water up a little... ya think?

Fish are being caught but expect to put your time in. Thursday we worked all day for a 34-35in fish, Friday we fished two seperate lakes and never saw a fish! Hate those days, eh?

We ran all types of baits from Rad Dogs to Suzi Suckers, including live bait. We ran "northern chubs", I mean "muskie suckers" deep, shallow... with nothing taking them. Our one fish hit plastic, 8-9ft water, weeds. I still expect a much more active bite as we roll into November, still looking for that really good fall feeding window of maybe two weeks where once a day you'll hit pay dirt and maybe even multiple fish during a 60-90 minute "window".

Heading out for a bit of fishin' myself today, anything changes... I'll post it here. Stay warm, safe, and good fishin' to all.

[John Sparbel]

Hey Matt,

the water temps here by the Wausua area have been 45 to 50 degrees as of the last couple times out. I have had some mixed results with some average days and a few of those really good days that you only dream about. I had one day when we got a 43 and a 48 incher on a hlaf day morning trip and lost 3 other fish, one was a hard strike at the boat on a grandma that ripped the hooks out! The 48 was a good 30 pounds for sure. And then last week Friday when it was like 60 degrees out and calm we put 8 leagals and 2 undersized muskies in the boat! biggest was 45 inches and we lost the first 3 muskies and several more through out the day! One unbelievable day... and ALL the fish we encountered that day were in the same several hundred yard area!! We just kept working it back and forth with suckers under bobbers and a jig and sucker combo. Plus they caught 2 big pike up to 38 inches and they went home with 5 keeper walleyes!

Hope to continue this action for a couple more weeks!

~John Sparbel
Hooksetters Guide
Hooksetters Fishing Services

[Pete Stoltman]

Was going to get out for a bit myself today but have the boys over for the day while mommy & daddy come back from their quick visit down to Chi-Town. Surprisingly 3 out of the 4 suckers in my livewell (since Monday) are still kickin' pretty well. Will definitely get out tomorrow but trying to decide if I should row or cast. Kinda leaning towards rowing if the weather is stable.

[Mark Benson]

All right I get to put up a report!!! Left the store at 5:15 and was able to get the boat hooked up to the landing, off the trailer, down the thorofare to Tom!!!

Ran out to the main lake and looked for ciscoes on a couple of the main lake points. Didn't think they were in as close as I thought they would be, but the main lake temps were still 49-50*(Thorofare temp was 43*). I am guessing they are running 30' down in 60' of water even though I really never got to check that depth. One of my Tomahawk buddies was on the point I really wanted to fish, so it was off to the next one, worked that one for a while then off to another one that was getting some wind. Tried staying in 30' of water casting in running deep divers, white tubes and shallow invaders. Fished from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m., no fish seen, but it sure was great to fish again and on Tom!!!

Mark