METRO MUSKY HUNTS - MINNEAPOLIS MUSKIES

The moon phase and moon times can have a major impact on muskies and when they decide to feed. This was the first musky of a 4 bite window, late in the morning. The morning started with catching a musky within the first few casts of the morning, right around 6 AM, a respectable 40 inch fish. We proceeded to fish for 5 more hours without even getting a follow. Talk about a let down when we boated a fish within minutes of starting our day. I knew we had a major at 11:00 AM, a major is when the moon is directly over head or under foot, so we stuck with it, fishing good spost and trying to locate fish to go back on. Just before the major, we moved to a wind blown underwater point. With the wind blowing into the side of the point, in my mind, I knew right where an active fish SHOULD be sitting. On the side of this point is a very small secondary point that I call a "knob", that was my target. A bomb cast with my 10 inch weighted Suick Thrilller landed right on the knob, two hard pulls and this giant 53 inch metro musky unleashed her furious headshakes. She was so big and heavy, she couldn't get her body out of the water when she tried to jump and shake free. After a long boatside battle I was able to slide her into my Clam Musky Net. We proceeded to get four more bites and and landing three more muskies in a 60 minute bite window.

This really shows the power the moon has on muskies feeding opportunities. Does it mean there is a guarentee you will catch muskies at a moon time? No, absolutely not, but it's worth watching when these times are so you can be ready for it. Every month has a full moon and a new moon, and every day has four moon events. The four daily moon events to watch for are moon rise, moon set, moon overhead and moon underfoot. The moon rise/set times are considered a minor, and moon overhead/underfoot are considered a major. What is the difference? A minor lasts for an hour, a half hour before until a half hour after the listed moon time, where as the major is one hour before until one hour after the listed moon time. In my experience, the most consistant moon bites are when the weather has been very consistant, with calm-sunny days. The conditions can make for poor musky fishing, but the majors and minors can be a great help to influence a feeding window, even better if it is in close proximity to a sunrise/sunset. You can do one of two things here, either go back on muskies that followed earlier in that day or the day before. Or if you haven't been out for a few days, go to a high percentage area that historically holds fish, or the most recent spot you had success from following fish or a boated fish.

When it comes to the new moon and full moon, you can anticipate an increase in musky activity a couple of days before and a couple of days after the new moon or full moon. I've historically had better success when the moon is down. That means, on a full moon phase, I've experienced better morning bites at moon set and after. As the new moon approaches, I've experienced a better afternoon/evening bite as the moon sets later in the day. As mentioned earlier, when one of these moon times occurs close to the sunrise/sunset, this can be recipe for success. If you do happen to land yourself a nice musky during any one of these moon feeding windows, get a quick photo and safe release because the window can be very quick and you have to be ready to cash in on the action when the time is right! Look up the moon times for your area and make sure you are on your "A game" when they happen.