The mild fall weather that we experienced over the past month looks to be coming to an end as winter seems to be finally tightening its grip this week. For the hard-core anglers who enjoy every last day that they can in the boat, it’s been a great month, especially for the musky anglers.
I’ve been over in Australia for the past few weeks and missed out on the local action myself but my friend Doug Wegner has had a great month chasing muskies. Throughout my trip, Doug has been teasing me with photos and filling me in on some of his best days, which have included double digits numbers of muskies. Awesome stuff.
Scrolling through social media, quite a few of the local anglers that I follow have been posting photos and videos of bass and walleye action that they have been enjoying. While the weather does influence how late we can fish in open water, I think it’s great to see those who have been able to keep their boats available, take advantage of the nice days. After all, it’s a long winter.
Fort Frances angler Javyn Maxton has been especially busy, sharing more photos of his good days on Rainy Lake than anybody. He finally declared it his final day last week but he caught hundreds of fish, mostly smallmouth bass and walleyes throughout November. Many years, that’s not possible because we start to freeze up at the start of the month.
Getting back to Wegner and his musky success, he told me that he had one day where he and a buddy hooked up with over 20 fish, all while not seeing another boat on the water. Talk about a quality day! He is utilizing large soft plastics and fishing them around typically fall locations, neck-down areas with slight current and main lake structure that attracts whitefish and herring to spawn. He will fish until the boat ramps freeze up and is not able to get out there anymore.
Obviously, more safety precautions should be taken late in the season because the conditions are significantly more extreme and there are fewer people on the water to help if you find yourself in a precarious situation. Being careful, dressing appropriately and wearing a life jacket are all important. I think it’s mandatory that you let somebody know where you’re going to spend your day as well. Give them a heads up where you’re fishing, whether that is a specific lake or a part of one of the bigger lakes like Lake of the Woods or Rainy Lake.
Because of the late start to winter, the ice season is likely going to be a bit later than normal to getting going. Good ice depends on the weather, cold weather. The smaller bodies of water will freeze quickly but the bigger lakes always take more time to freeze over to where travel becomes safe.
We all get excited to get out on the ice when conditions allow, just remember that no fish is worth risking your life or the lives of others for. It’s always a good idea to wait until we get a good stretch of proper cold weather before we get too serious about hitting the ice. In next week’s column we’ll get into safe ice conditions and precautions to take throughout the winter season.
