River Monsters: How to Tangle with Moving-Water Muskies

By Jeff Knapp

My 4-inch tube jig, dressed over a 1/4-ounce insert-style jighead, had barely landed along the sun-drenched bank when I felt a sharp tick. Following the reactive hookset, my medium-action spinning rod doubled over.

In water that barely scratched the 40-degree mark, the fish put up a strong but admittedly lethargic battle. A few minutes later, a 44-inch musky was safely in the bag of the Stowmaster net I keep on board for just such an incidental musky encounter when the primary targets are walleyes and smallmouths.

That experience took place nearly two decades ago. In the time since, I’ve come to learn that such events aren’t necessarily incidental. In rivers that harbor muskies, it’s common to catch them during late winter and early spring, right along with big smallmouth bass and walleyes.

When you think about it, it’s not all that surprising.

With longer days and warming water in the spring, muskies become more active, often moving into nearby shallows to feed. The experience described above occurred on a shallow, soft-bottom flat just above a slack-water hole with depths of 15 to 20 feet. Also, early-spring muskies are known to prefer downsized lures, and I’ve put dozens of late-winter and early-spring river muskies in the boat on baits intended for walleyes and smallmouths.

This isn’t to say muskies can’t be caught on outsize lures now. They can, which provides justification for folks who feel a musky catch isn’t valid unless the fish succumbed to a dedicated musky lure. Let’s examine three tactics that will help you put muskies in the boat (or, in some cases, on the bank) in the early spring.

1. GO VERTICAL WITH SMALL BAITS

As mentioned, muskies spend much of the winter and early spring in areas protected from the main force of a river. This could be a deep hole on an outside river bend; deep slots behind barriers such as islands; in slack-water pools formed below and sometimes above sand, gravel and rock bars, often at the mouths of small feeder streams; and below river dams, particularly if a lock chamber is present.

In my experience fish that hold in the depths of these pools aren’t very active, but still might be catchable if you put some easy-to-eat morsels in front of them. I’ve used a jig-and-minnow to catch 40-inch-plus muskies that bit as lightly as a 12-inch walleye.

Classic muskie lures—crankbaits, glide baits and big rubber baits—typically don’t reach the depths at which these fish are holding. And even if you can get them down that deep, their horizontal movement is more than an inactive muskie is likely to respond to. However, put a smaller vertical presentation in front of a musky and the result can be far better. My most productive examples of this are a classic leadhead jig tipped with a chub or sucker minnow and a half-ounce Silver Buddy blade bait.

Either should be fished in a vertical manner, close to the bottom, while drifting over the deeper holes and pools muskies spend much of their time in when the water is cold. This isn’t the power fishing most musky anglers prefer, but it’s highly effective.

Pair sucker minnows and chubs in the 3- to 5-inch range with leadhead jigs in the 1/4- to 3/8-ounce range. You might wonder about the strength of a leadhead jig meant for walleye fishing, but remember that muskies don’t fight as hard in 40-degree water. Plus, you don’t have to lean on them too hard since they’re in relatively open water. We’ve taken fish well over 30 pounds without straightening a hook.

The same goes for blade baits. Drift them over deeper pools, keeping the lure close to the bottom and giving it short, sharp upward jigs of 6 inches to a foot.

Though most muskies are lip-hooked at this time, I use a short leader of 20-pound-test titanium leader material tied to the mainline with a clinch knot to prevent bite-offs.

2. GO VERTICAL WITH BIG BAITS

Earlier we mentioned that classic musky-sized baits are generally not designed for fishing vertically in deeper water. There are exceptions. These include the Bondy Bait, a lure designed for fishing the deep water of the current-strong Detroit River, and big blade baits like the Shumway Fuzzy Duzzit and larger-sized Steel Shad offerings.

Whereas smaller vertical presentations can be fished on standard medium-power spinning and baitcasting gear, you’ll need to beef things up for musky-sized vertical baits. I fish Bondy Baits on an 8 1/2-foot St. Croix Mojo Musky casting rod with an Abu Garcia Max Toro reel.

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