Fall warm front muskies

[AKRISONER]

11 hours ago, BillM said:

Dan, at least the scenery is nice  

Compared to the crap I was fishing walleyes in on Sunday and Monday, these days ain’t too bad for a boat ride lol

[BillM]

I have a new/old float reel that's jealous of all the muskie fishing I've been doing.  Haven't even thought about a steelhead this fall.   

[MiroTheSlav]

I recently bought a place on Pigeon, been hitting the lake hard, friend got 1 in boat, couple lost, few follows but been getting stumped last 2 weeks.  Only I 5 lb walleye to show for my efforts, hitting Pigeon again tomorrow with some new Medussas

[Rizzo]

keep at it! Don't get discouraged. As the water gets below 50 (which it is) the bite can be pretty tough. Pigeon is a great lake but when it comes to musky, being skunked is always something that can happen, even on a great lake.

[lew]

18 minutes ago, Rizzo said:

when it comes to musky, being skunked is always something that can happen,

Ain't that the truth  LOL

[Loonietoon]

3 hours ago, lew said:

Ain't that the truth  LOL

SPOKEN BY THE MASTER

[BillM]

Wrong species, but the rod going off was nice.   42in on the tape.   Ate a 13in Grandma in fire tiger down 18 over 36.

]

Edited November 14, 2020 by BillM

[lew]

Purty fish Bill, really bright colours.

[LostAnotherOne]

Nice one Bill.  Keep up the hard work

[Rizzo]

nice pike! And no offence to pike...but man am I disappointed when the rod goes off and I bring in a pike. Then again, I have never caught a 42 inch pike...maybe I would be ok with that!

[Moosebunk]

Few years back we had a full week during the third week of November when temps hit highs as high of 21C for several of those days.  it was calm, SW breeze if anything and mostly bluebird.  For 6 days straight I took a skunking running late season patterns on the St. Lawrence.  On the 7th day Brenda joined me and she caught a small fish from the weeds.  About a week later, guide John Anderson on the Ottawa posts that he'd putting clients on plenty of fish... all casting... all in real shallow, like less than 3-4fow if I recall.  So you've got two choices... grind the fall pattern or, think like "spring."  And when you think like spring you think muskies (baitfish and other fish too) are drawn to the warming, shoreline waters.  In fall I'd think it takes some substantial warmth, such as really high heat and sun or, long periods of it like a heatwave pattern, but after the first initial days of it, the skis may just settle in and begin feeding shallow.

Fall is the toughest time to fish, but the rewards are great not just with the catch, but in trying to figure it out too. 

[JoshS]

1 hour ago, Moosebunk said:

Few years back we had a full week during the third week of November when temps hit highs as high of 21C for several of those days.  it was calm, SW breeze if anything and mostly bluebird.  For 6 days straight I took a skunking running late season patterns on the St. Lawrence.  On the 7th day Brenda joined me and she caught a small fish from the weeds.  About a week later, guide John Anderson on the Ottawa posts that he'd putting clients on plenty of fish... all casting... all in real shallow, like less than 3-4fow if I recall.  So you've got two choices... grind the fall pattern or, think like "spring."  And when you think like spring you think muskies (baitfish and other fish too) are drawn to the warming, shoreline waters.  In fall I'd think it takes some substantial warmth, such as really high heat and sun or, long periods of it like a heatwave pattern, but after the first initial days of it, the skis may just settle in and begin feeding shallow.

Fall is the toughest time to fish, but the rewards are great not just with the catch, but in trying to figure it out too. 

 

I think I remember that.. something about working real shallow and inside weed edges late year. Something to explore for sure

 

[mepps]

I had a similar experience with November musky a few years ago in November. Beautiful sunny day with t-shirt weather by noon. I had a couple of follows and one muskie caught on top water - all in 3-5 feet of water. I trolled deeper water for several hours with no sign of life!

I got one last week just after that really hot day (+24 here in Mississauga), fishing LCS with a warm wind and +12 for most of the day. I didn't see any other people get a fish from shore that day (at least not in the area I fished) and they only difference there was that they were letting their baits drop to the bottom after the cast, and I was reeling right away, keeping my bait up higher.

 

[BillM]

After seeing all the insane bait balls I have been for the past few weeks, it's hard to even think about going into 3ft of water.   Back at it Thurs/Fri and probably Sat (with the top up, calls for rain).   I'm waiting for that big heavy to make an appearance.  

[mepps]

Good luck Bill! I'm heading out tonight after work and doing the shore musky nightshift on LSC!

[JoshS]

 

Same experiences here seeing them shallow late year. I just can't remember if that coinciding with a warm front of not. Maybe it did. My logs are spotty or none existent lol

I think it was 2016 that I read up on the late season shallow water bite on the Ottawa. I remember because I tried to apply it in the kawartha's on my last trip that year. We broke ice to get out so must of been early Dec. I asked my friend to take the wheel while cruising out of the shallows so I could stand on the deck and scope for fish cruising shallow spooked by the boat. I ended up seeing a few. We then pulled off the edge and I started working it casting way up top and got one nice one to bite (on one of my longest figure 8's ever)

Last warm spell I was on gbay fishing on the saturday (day 4 of the warm front - Nov 7), we didn't get any bites but did see two fish off shallow structure throughout the day. The water temps only increased 1-2 degrees through the course of that day. One of those fish was pretty hot to go it seemed, we kind of blew our chance unfortunately. But she was shallow.

I think there's a few patterns that go this time of the year.  Gotta try it all. Always nice to get rewarded after noodling over what to do out there. Only thing with musky is the rewards on the big waters aren't plentiful enough!!

[BillM]

41 minutes ago, mepps said:

Good luck Bill! I'm heading out tonight after work and doing the shore musky nightshift on LSC!

Thanks man!  I gotta make it down to LSC and experience that craziness myself   Goodluck out there

[Moosebunk]

2 hours ago, BillM said:

Thanks man!  I gotta make it down to LSC and experience that craziness myself   Goodluck out there

It's not even muskie fishing in the sense of muskie fishing, its glorified pike fishing. lol. Fun nonetheless.

[AKRISONER]

18 hours ago, Moosebunk said:

It's not even muskie fishing in the sense of muskie fishing, its glorified pike fishing. lol. Fun nonetheless.

Bunk I heard you faired pretty well in a tournament out east a couple of weeks ago. Your competition that I think finished 2nd is a bit of a content creator and he posted the leader board and I was like “hey I know who that is” lol

[Moosebunk]

6 minutes ago, AKRISONER said:

Bunk I heard you faired pretty well in a tournament out east a couple of weeks ago. Your competition that I think finished 2nd is a bit of a content creator and he posted the leader board and I was like “hey I know who that is” lol

First Muskie Capital Cup. 35 Anglers. 13 teams. 9 day tournament. Some solid guys fishing, a number of guides and one fella in the tourney even hired a guide.  We did GREAT!  Two guys I fished with are bigger muskie nuts than I am with many more years and skis under their belts but, I think I was brought on board because the tourney is in the fall and that's only when I muskie fish, and do well at nettin' tanks during that time.  Luckily my choices and rod while casting and trolling brought our three biggest fish in the boat, and 3 of the 5 biggest in the tourney.  So yeah, we won the tournament and will have to do it again next year.  

[AKRISONER]

12 minutes ago, Moosebunk said:

First Muskie Capital Cup. 35 Anglers. 13 teams. 9 day tournament. Some solid guys fishing, a number of guides and one fella in the tourney even hired a guide.  We did GREAT!  Two guys I fished with are bigger muskie nuts than I am with many more years and skis under their belts but, I think I was brought on board because the tourney is in the fall and that's only when I muskie fish, and do well at nettin' tanks during that time.  Luckily my choices and rod while casting and trolling brought our three biggest fish in the boat, and 3 of the 5 biggest in the tourney.  So yeah, we won the tournament and will have to do it again next year.  

Congrats! From the numbers I saw posted you guys caught some tanks!

[mepps]

Didn't see a fish on LSC yesterday. It was fairly cold with temperatures below zero when we started fishing after dark. It definitely wasn't fun dealing with iced guides in the darkness, but we continue to fish hard sunrise to sunset. Plenty of guys out on the water and from shore, but I didnt see anyone connect! I've already heard that this morning was great...I guess were were a day early!

A fun day overall, but ended up with a local deciding to put a big dent in the side of my car with their foot...not sure if he didn't like outsiders in "his spot" or they didn't like my little Mazda parking in GM territory! 😠 Pretty unfortunate as my past experiences there meeting other muskie nuts on shore has been so positive and there has always been a great sense of comradery.

[Moosebunk]

Fawkers eh Clive!

Few seasons back my "Chev" over in Degen country took two fists sized dents while out muskie fishing too.  Fishing In"fury"ating.

[BillM]

Well we've got the pike dialed in on Gbay apparently.  18 down over 40ft on a 13 in grandma again.   Had the heater and the top up.