Book Excerpt: How to Catch Muskies in Fall

Composed by: Kip Vieth, Wildwood Float Trips

Excerpted from the brand-new book The Orvis Guide to Muskies on the Fly, by Kip Vieth.

The days start to get much shorter and much shorter. Weeds start to pass away off. Water temperature levels start to fall, and the sun is lower in the horizon. These are all contributing elements that set off a muskie into its fall shift. If you keep a fishing journal, this is a fun time to reference what the muskies have actually carried out in previous years. If you do not keep one, this is an excellent factor to begin. Collecting that information will assist throughout these shift times. Taking a look at your previous experiences on the water can assist you remain in the video game throughout these shifts time.

You might ask, How will I understand when muskies are beginning their shift? The response: The water you fished recently and moved 3 fish is now empty. It is truly that easy. They have actually moved, and it is now that the video game starts. It’s truly type of like hide-and-seek. You understand they can’t be too far. It’s simply a matter of discovering their brand-new haunt. There is just one thing that truly makes muskies move which is the food supply. The cooler water has actually likewise made them more comfy. They remain in a far better state of mind than they were when the water temperature levels were hot. I like to utilize this example: How starving are you when it 90 degrees outside? There is a factor Thanksgiving remains in November, and it’s not to commemorate the harvest. It’s since individuals simply didn’t wish to consume that much food any other time of the year.

If we get a strong cold wave in late summertime, it is frequently a trigger that will charge the muskies up. It resembles somebody turned the air conditioner on and they get some well should have remedy for the heat. This can take place well prior to the fall shift some years. I have actually been out smallmouth fishing when a cold wave hits. It’s frequently in late August, well prior to one would be searching for transitional fish. The muskies appear to be smashing bait all over. The smallmouth fishing stinks, however the muskie bite can be great. It’s as if they have all this suppressed energy from those long warm days. As quickly as it cools, all that energy is launched and they start to go on a craze. Watch on the weather report this time of year. It can settle in a huge method.

As the bait begins to move, the muskies will not be too far behind. A number of the shallow weed beds begin to pass away off as the water temperature levels fall. The baitfish need to discover a more congenial location to call house. Baitfish that called the weed beds house in summertime, like bluegills and perch, will head to much deeper weed lines as the shallow ones pass away off. They are searching for any cover that they can discover. They do not wish to end up being Mr. Muskie’s next meal. Mr. Muskie understands this and will be awaiting an unwary victim. In the fall, all we are attempting to do is obstruct the bait as they make their shifts. Muskie are following schools of bait. If we can beat them to the punch, we stack the chances a bit more in our favor. Expecting the indications and understanding your body of water is vital when it concerns creating a pattern, no matter what season. An excellent source if you have concerns about the baitfish that reside in your house water is your regional DNR biologist. She or he can assist you with a great deal of responses to seasonal motions and possible spawning locations for the various baitfish in your body of water.

Among the very best locations to try to find fish in the fall are pinch points. Another fantastic location to take a look at are dams. This kind of water focuses both fish and bait and can be extremely efficient. They are simple to discover, and for a newbie fly angler these are fantastic areas to start to try to find fish. There remains in many cases much deeper holding water near these locations that a muskie can winter season in and stay fat and delighted. There is likewise typically some type of present associated with these locations. The current can assist the angler find the fish a little much easier. The fish will establish on these present joints and await baitfish to come by for a simple meal.

Some baitfish generate in the fall and start to focus and relocate to their generating locations. On the larger waters here in Minnesota, this is among the very best times to be on the water. If you discover the baitfish’s generating location, you can wager there are a number of big muskies in the location. Northern ciscoes– or as we call them in Minnesota, tullibees– generate in the fall in rocky reefs in shallower water. They’re a bigger baitfish that have a high fat material and make a best meal for a muskie that is stockpiling for the long winter season. Routine ciscoes generate in shallow gravelly bays. This spawning activity occurs later on in the fall, however it is an excellent example of following the food source. In the fall, that is the name of the video game. Muskies are consuming at a quick clip and there needs to be food close by.

A river is truly not that much various from a lake in the fall. We are still playing the video game of follow the bait. The primary bait in my location are suckers. As the water temperature level drops, they need to move likewise. The riffles that the suckers called house in the summertime have actually altered. They were a remarkable food source all summertime, however the cooler water has actually slowed the food supply and is requiring the suckers to desert these once-fruitful riffles for slower and much deeper water. Basically, they are relocating to their wintering holes. This likewise triggers baitfish to focus, much like on a lake.

The cooler water temperature levels have actually likewise negated the requirement for the springs with their greater oxygen material. They’re no longer required to make sure the muskie’s survival. The deep holes and flats surrounding to them are house to the majority of the bait throughout the winter season. As the baitfish move to these holes, the muskies follow. The much deeper water secures all the fish from the harsh winter season that will quickly show up. The muskies like to establish on the present joints and deep wood that are near these wintering holes. Muskies wish to protect as much energy as they can. The slower water and secured ambush areas are the locations to start looking.

The image on the right above is a fine example. The present enters the bank, making a deep run. You can see the rock bar that comes off of the bank pressing the present back out to the middle of the river. This makes a dead area with a present joint beside it. Absolutely nothing states muskie in the fall more than an area like this. There is an adequate quantity of food nearby and a deep, sluggish water trough. This is an area that a muskie can call house all fall and winter season long. To envision a smaller sized variation of this, simply change the rock bar with a tree or some type of logjam and you have the very same result. Deepwater ambush areas near joints are where most of our fish originated from in the fall and early winter season here in the Upper Midwest.

Excerpted from The Orvis Guide to Muskies on the Fly, by Kip Vieth. Kip owns Wildwood Float Trips, in Monticello, Minnesota. Take a look at his exceptional “10 Tips for Catching a Musky on a Fly“