MUSKY FISHING IN EAGLE RIVER

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It's easy to summarize the fishing in the Vilas County area of Northern Wisconsin with one word – variety. Go ahead....take a look at a road map of Wisconsin. We're all blue up here, and it translates into some great, consistent musky fishing year ‘round. With small lakes that warm up very quickly in the spring, and large deep lakes that stay open until the last cast on Nov. 30th, we've got good, productive musky waters all year long. Let's take some time and go through an average musky year up here.

In the spring, musky start the spawning process in May, and start it first on the small warmer lakes. It is quite common on these lakes to be dealing with postspawn musky on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, which is the opening day up here. The weeds will be "up" – growing daily and holding baitfish and producing oxygen. These weeds will be a magnet for all predator fish – and our babies are the top of the line predators. They'll be using new weed growth as their kitchens for the last part of May and early June on these warmer shallow lakes. In my guiding experience we have caught as many as six legal musky in one day out of a new weed bed on one of these smaller lakes. Bucktails are best for some reason at this time of year – try the Rizzo Wiz or a #5 Mepps at this time.

This same process repeats itself later in the month of June on the large deeper lakes. The same types of musky cabbage weeds beds will start, and the females recover from spawning and start to feed in later June on these lakes. The big difference on these lakes in that the weeds grow deeper on the big clear lakes, so you'll be fishing 2 to 6' deeper on these lakes.

As the water temps rise, and the weeds grow to the surface on many lakes, we use both bucktails and surface baits in these same weeds. All of our lakes have musky feeding in the weeds at some time of the day or night in the summer. During daytime fishing, we will often fish off the weeds at this time of year also, especially on the clear lakes with good visibility. Suspended musky will travel a long way for a bait, and it often seems that the larger musky are suspending during the daytime on these lakes. Night fishing on the big clear lakes has become very popular, as every fish that hits after dark feels like a 50# fish.

And, like all good stories, we save the best for last. Oh boy! Fall fishing for trophy musky is the holy grail of musky fishing. As the water temperatures decline form their summer highs through the months of September and October, large musky that were far too wary for us will suddenly become much more aggressive to our offerings. One of the great parts of fall fishing for musky is that you can catch these fish in the fall literally ANYWHERE in the lake. They will still use weeds for feeding, but will also be cruising open water for baitfish. They'll be right up in shallow water on some of the smaller dark lakes, cruising the shorelines for shiners. They will all have one common denominator, however – they're hungry! Musky, just like bears, build body fat throughout the fall for a dormant winter. Even in November right before a lake freezes you'll find big, fat musky very actively feeding. They'll even be found along shorelines during the cisco spawn in November. What a way to end the year, with one of the fat trophies from one of our cisco lakes.

The point I've been driving home is that with the tremendous variety of lakes available up here, we can always find active musky during the season, no matter what the weather is. Wind? Try the smaller lakes of the Chain, with their endless nooks and crannies. Rain? Try one of the big clear lakes. Cold? They're all "turned on" by cold in the fall. Hot? Try fishing at night on the big lakes during the summer doldrums for trophies.

Good luck and good fishn'
George

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