In last week’s column I wrote about the great opportunities to be had in the fall for anglers looking to catch crappies. This week, we’re talking about the other species that really seems to show up late in the season, the mighty musky, the apex predator in our region.
My experiences with musky fishing have been all over the map, with more tough days than good ones, something I think most anglers out there can relate to. I can remember one year in the Kenora Bass International, we ran to the south end on Lake of the Woods to an area we had found nice bass in practice. We hooked up with nine muskies on our best bass spots. I hooked more muskies than bass that day, in tournament competition!
At that time, I had been hosting a TV show called “Fishing with Gussy” and we had tried unsuccessfully several times to shoot a musky show. Every time we tried, we would always have a fish or two follow-up but we never boated one. After that tournament I decided I was going to go back down to the same area a couple of days later to try and film a TV show. I figured it would be easy to catch a couple of muskies. Of course, we casted for twelve hours straight and failed to catch a musky.
On the other side of the coin, sometimes it’s just good to be lucky. I was guiding years ago for Crow Rock Lodge and they had a bus group of musky anglers in camp for the week. They were mostly musky anglers and they had a board at the camp that they were recording all of the catches on. I took a pair of musky anglers out the first day and they caught a couple of smaller ones and had a big one follow up.
The next day, I had a lady and her husband in the boat with me. They weren’t interested in casting big baits all day and just wanted to catch walleyes. Around mid-morning, as the lady was reeling in a small walleye, her line got heavy and a 49” musky appeared at the surface with the walleye in its mouth like a cookie. I quickly netted the big fish; a photo was taken and it was released. At the end of the trip, that was the biggest musky on the board!
I don’t do as much musky fishing now as I did when I was younger and guiding at the camps but I do like to get out for them at least a couple of days each fall. Last week, my wife Shelby and I got in the boat with Doug Wegner and Jessie Baker for a day of musky fishing. They do it a lot more than we do and it was impressive watching them do their thing. We caught three muskies, several nice pike and had follows from a few other muskies. We were casting large soft plastics around main lake reefs and points and had a fun day.
For me, mixing it up and fishing for different species is always fun and I think it helps to make me a more well-rounded angler. Fishing with different people is another way to learn new tips and tricks that can be applied to all species.
If you still have access to a boat to get out on the water, musky fishing will remain good until just before freeze up on these same main lake structures. The presence of bait around these spots, evident on your electronics units, is the best way to know if you’re fishing a good area or not.
Anglers travel from all over the world to experience the World-class musky fishing we have across the Sunset Country Region, it’s one of the truly unique fishing opportunities that we offer. If you’re unsure of the best baits to use or where to fish, asking the folks at the local fishing shop is a good place to start or you can search Sunset Country musky fishing online and find plenty of good information.
