North Woods Musky Shop Fishing Report - Late October

As the weather takes a turn for cooler patterns, we always make sure to keep up to the minute on how we are fishing the conditions each day.  Cooler weather means cooler presentations.  This weeks fishing reports are sure to help the North Woods fisherman put a lunker in the net!

Jim Stewart, Owner of Musky Shop, noted the conditions during a trip with Fred, Area Guide, and Christian, owner of Hooked on Musky Baits.  All found the conditions this week to be unseasonably warm and stable with surface temps in the low to mid 60's, calling for a mix of surface baits, bucktails and tubes: Bucher Top Raider, Bitten Tackle Buzzer, Shumway Flasher, & Red October Tubes.  Presentations were difficult to lock down as the fish were not only holding shallow to weed edges but were also somewhat scattered and suspending at deep depths ranging from 1ft to 18ft.  The guys were successful by slowing down their presentations and using natural and bright colors on the tannic or coffee colored waterways, while presenting colors to match the hatch on clear lakes.

Success came for Elmer Jensen on the waters of Lac Vieux dessert, Land O' Lakes during cloudy and overcast conditions.  The water temps were much the same with 63-64 degree temps, but Elmer used his intuition and found success thumping the shallow weed edge with black/brass bucktails, like Musky Mayhem Double Cowgirl  or Hirsch's Ghosttail II.  Using a medium retrieve over the clear/slightly stained water produced a nice 40.75" fish.