Musky Shop Northwoods Fishing Report: Early September
We hope all of you had a great summer. Fall has arrived and for many fall is a favorite time of year. Cooler air and water temps, lots of beautiful colors, and hopefully lots of Big Muskies and whatever your favorite species of fish is. As the water temps creep down most all species of fish will creep shallow. There will always be a few fish that will stay on the outer edge and around deeper structural elements but for the most part early fall fish will move shallow.
When I say shallow, I would say from the shoreline out to 10'-12' of water. Every year we hear of Big Muskies being caught in less than 3' of water. Now musky's will roam around a bit in shallow water areas so you will have to search a bit to find them but if you can locate them many times even if they are in a negative or neutral mood, they can be caught. Bucktails, surface baits, and especially glide baits are great search baits to locate muskies.
Walk-the-dog style glide baits such as Manta's, Phantom's, and Lynch Um gliders are great for finding skies and if they don't hit your glider, they will usually show themselves. After you've covered some water and seen some muskies you can come back with bucktails, surface baits, soft plastics, and shallow crankbaits. Really many different types of baits will work as anything you can work over shallow structure is good.
One bait that has worked well for me over the years is the Shumway Flasher. The Flasher comes with a little flashabou coming out the back of the bait. Take a pair of scissors and trim the flashabou back a bit. This will up your hooking percentage as sometimes muskies will nip the flashabou if it's too long and won't get hooked. Rad Dog Spinnerbaits and Figure 8 Spinnerbaits have also always been favorites of mine over the years and are very good producers.
Some other good baits that have worked well for me over the years in early to mid-fall are Musky Mayhem Double Cowgirls and Red October Tubes in the shallow and mid sizes.
Poe’s Giant Jackpot has been around for many years but big muskies love walk-the-dog surface baits. I'm not sure why but for years there have always been huge muskies caught on Poe's Giant Jackpots and Suick Weagles this time of year.
Walleye will be shallow and can be caught using live bait such as a jig and minnow, night crawler, or shallow crankbaits. The Rapala Scatter Rap is great in the fall. Panfish are shallow too but will bury themselves in the weeds and structure and can be hard to get out during the fall. If you can get a worm or nightcrawler or minnow down through the weeds or structure you can catch them.
We have a great selection of fresh live bait that is circulating in very cold well water. Redtails, Northern Pike Mix, Walleye Suckers, XL Fatheads, and Crappie minnows. We have a good selection of Musky Suckers already. Musky Suckers will work all year round but it's hard to keep them alive in warmer weather. Early fall a Musky Sucker is always good to have out while you're casting however run your Musky Sucker shallow so that it's not getting tangled in the weeds and causing you to have less productive time on the water.
That's it for this time around, We hope you all have a great fall. Please let us know if we can be of service to you as it would be our pleasure.
Good Fishing and God Bless, Jim Stewart