METRO MUSKY HUNTS - MINNEAPOLIS MUSKIES

Fishing has been hot on my lakes here in the Minneapolis metro area. Water temps are abnormally warm for this time of year, but the fish don't seem to mind, they are still following their typical fall transition patterns. Lots of fish are up shallow right now, and big ones are starting to show themselves with a little more regularity now as they seek out these shallow structures and flats where the bait fish are roaming. This past weekend was a full guide schedule and we were able to get a couple of first ever muskies in the boat, which is my favorite thing about guiding! All my guests fished hard and kept hteir head in the game, and made it count when the opportunities came. It's been a fantastic bucktail and topwater bite, as expected for this time of season. The fish pictured came on a topwater on the very first cast of the morning, tough to beat that!

Over the last week there has been a significant amount of muskies using shallow locations including green cabbage, red cabbage, milfoil and a sand/gravel mix. These fish have been chasing a variety of baits but mainly some sort of fast moving blade bait, like bucktails and spinnerbaits. With the increase in musky activity, there has also been an increase in fishing pressure. When these muskies see a lot of fishing pressure, they tend to stick tight to their preffered weed beds and home locations and only chase when they are really ready to feed. This last week was a struggle to find following fish, it's difficult because we want to gather intel by seeing fish. We want intel on where they are located, cover they are using, and baits they are chasing. That's part of the fun in musky fishing, is having interaction with them and figuring out how to out-smart them, but when they won't budge, it can get frustrating. On the bright side though, if you keep fishing known musky locations, you WIll catch fish. All week we were getting bites, we just weren't getting the follows we were hoping for to help lead us in the right direction. The fish pictured above, was one of three muskies caught in that morning session, and not one single follow! We are entering a very consistent, fish producing time of the season, arguablly one of the most predictable times of the season, and without a doubt a time all of us musky fisherman look forward to every year.

I spent this last week targeting very shallow water, typically in 2 to 4 foot sand flats with small, scattered broad-leaf cabbage patches. Some of these cabbage beds are as small as a 20' x 20', and they are holding multiple fish. How I approach these flats is, move in a zig-zag pattern across the flat with my trolling motor, and as I found these isolated patches of cabbage, I would map them out on GPS so when I come back, I know exactly where the best locations are.  With this recent cooler weather, the water temperature has dropped significantly and there are a number of muskies starting to move into the shallows, and it's only going to get better as we get closer to September. I had 2 different baits in the water at all times, one being a tail rotating topwater, like a Lake X Fat Bastard or a Joe Bucher Outdoors Topraider. The second was a double 8 bucktail, like a Spanky Baits Fireball. When I'm throwing a topwater, I use a Tackle Industries 9'6" MH or XH rod, the 9'6" makes boatside maneuvers a bit easier when trying to keep the bait moving on the surface. With bucktails, I'm throwing those on a Tackle Industries 10' XH, the extra length allows you to make very large and smooth boatside maneuver so your blades don't stall on the turns, which is extremely important, especially in shallow water. Typically, I prefer a overcast day with a slight breeze, that seems to be the best for active muskies in skinny water. Sunny days will still hold fish in the shallows, but they seem to be more boat shy due to visibility.

Tackle Industries Musky Rods 

It's that time of year when the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler. We just went through peak water temps and things are starting to cool down, which means, SHALLOW WATER MUSKIES. Fish will be moving into shallow areas where they are easy to access, and they are willing to bite. And depending on how long the hot water period lasted, some of these fish haven't been pressured for up to 4 or 5 weeks, so they can sometimes be pretty easy to fool. This is my favorite time of year, without a doubt. This 50 inch fish was 1 of 3 caught on this cold front day, they pushed up onto shallow flats just like they were supposed to and they were actively chasing topwater baits. What I look for is a shallow shoreline flat near structure and deeper water, a lot of times the flat close to an inside turn can be a key location. The fish will be in heavy cover, but I like to look for areas that are sandy with less cover, and find smaller weed patches and weed points that the fish can relate to. When muskies are up on shallow flats like this, I prefer cloudy days over sunny days, especially if it is calm. My choice for topwater baits is a Lake X Fat B or Cannon ball Jr. These baits move a ton of water and they are a huge profile, making it an easy target when a musky decides to explode on it. My prefered rod for topwater is a 9' 6" XH telescoping Tackle Industries rod. The 9' 6" is long enough to make big boatside maneuvers, yet it's not too long to where it will jamb you up next to the boat. When it comes to boatside maneuvers, there is no room for error, so make it count.