FALL MUSKY FISHING

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We can't wait for the musky season to start in the spring, and we certainly enjoy our summer musky fishing, but fall musky fishing is the favorite of most trophy hunters, it is without a doubt the best time of the year to catch a really big fish, and a great time for numbers of fish also. It's not that fishing is bad at other times, it's just that fishing is best in the fall. The Vilas County Musky marathon records over decades bear this fact out well. In 2006 we had the biggest fish in Wisconsin in many years caught on the last day of the season - a massive 51# beauty.

There are a lot of reasons for the great fall fishing, not the least of which is that the falling water temps of the fall stimulate feeding activity by musky. This happens all fall, but increases in intensity as the fall goes on. what this means for the fall musky fisherman is that those dreaded cold fronts no longer hurt the musky fishing, but actually help it. Another fact of fall fishing is that the fish are just bigger in the fall. They all have been feeding all year, and growth has been good in the summer. They are starting to build up body fat for the winter, so they weigh more than in the summer. They also tend, in the fall, to feed more during the daytime and less at night. Along with the daytime feeding they will be up on edges or in the weeds much more often.

We do change out approach to these fish in the fall. Recognizing that the water is cooling, and that

the fish are cold blooded, tells us to slow down our and to make the baits we use bigger than we use in the summer. This pattern will also intensify as the fall goes on and the water temps decline. As we move from September into October or November, get bigger baits and slow down even more as it gets colder. Here's a synopsis of how to fish the fall: In September, the fish start to move from deeper water (summer suspension) up on to weed flats and into weeds. They are quite active when they're up at this time. You can still fish for them in this pattern with bucktails, surface baits and jerk baits. This is a great pattern, and fun to fish, as you'll I see and catch a lot of fish daily. Even though the shallow weeds are dying, you'll find fish all over the depth range in the weeds. In this writers' opinion, clear lakes are better at this time, because the fish seem bigger on these lakes. In addition, this pattern is more pronounced on these clear lakes.

In October, things really start to change. The water temps will drop down through the 50's and into the 40's. The weeds die off much more, and the whole food chain starts to move a little deeper and away from the dead weeds. We'll slow our bait retrieves down significantly, and make use of live suckers with guicksets much more. We also use much bigger baits, and pretty much stop using the baits like bucktails that require fast retrieyes.

This is time for the serious fishermen. Fish are fat, and driven to get fatter by the cold water. They'll hit just about any baitfish imitation put in front of them, in November, it's time for the maniacs. These are the guys who don't mind really cold weather. They use the largest suckers, and the biggest sucker imitation baits they can find. At this time of the year the fish are alI over the place. The row trollers find them over deep water, and the duck hunters often tell me of big fish that are rolling around in their decoys in shallower water, we've completed turnover, and the oxygen content in the water is evenly distributed. You can get these fish literally everywhere in the lake, but most big fish anglers will nsh the weed edges into deep water. You'll also get some experienced anglers vertically jigging for deep water fish around schools of Cisco.

Then, the season ends right after (most years) the Cisco spawn. This is a great opportunity to find some big fish hanging out in the areas right off the Cisco spawning shallow flats.

You can just feel the intensity increase throughout the fall for the anglers seeking that one trophy of a lifetime just maybe, maybe, that'll be me with the 50# fish this year. Maybe.

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