Coldwater Musky Tips – Plus-sized Muskies! – Impressive 'Skie Stats
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Boatside Madness
"Sometimes you can’t buy a bite and then there’s this 🤣🤣🤣"
Pretty sure that's the perfect comment from John Holmgren after he did THIS:
Props to John for keeping the phone conversation rolling the entire time, then casually saying, "Hey, let me call you back in just a second, bud."
You can watch/listen to the FULL video on his Devoted Outdoors page.
Sounds like the fish swung-and-missed while John was jigging a Swimmin' Dawg over the side of the boat just a couple feet below the surface. John saw the swipe, started to figure 8, and the fish came back and smoked it on the first turn.
Here's a quick snap of the extra-hungry eager beaver:
Winter 'skies on St. Clair
When John Hoyer and Spencer Berman hop in the boat together, good things are bound to happen.
No surprise, this new episode of the The Next Bite has some awesome musky catchin' action and some good info to-boot:
A couple tidbits we found interesting:
#1 – Spencer on fall bait movement on LSC:
"Generally speaking, the south end of the lake, which is further away from Lake Huron, tends to cool down much quicker. The shad show up in the shallow water next to any of the major rivers on the south shore first.... typically in October or early November."
"The north side of the lake, which gets water from the St. Clair River and Lake Huron, cools down later. It tends to be anywhere from 5 to 10 degrees warmer than the south side, so that's where we'll tend to end our season once we get into the last few weeks before freeze-up."
#2 – The issue of dirty water:
Water clarity is HUGE – it's the #1 factor on LSC according the Spencer:
"In the summertime, the water is warm, which means it's a lot less dense and it's not going to hold nearly as much sediment in the water. When the water gets gin clear this time of year, it can become very difficult to catch fish. This is when I'm looking for dingier water, normally 2 to 5 feet of clarity is ideal for casting.
"In the fall, the water is more dense and there are more prevailing winds. Often times, most of the lake will be too dirty to fish. You want to look for cleaner water with the same 2 to 5 feet of visibility."
#3 – Spencer's go-to LSC baits:
No surprises if you've read any of Spencer's articles or watched his videos.... he's a BIG fan of chunkin' rubber. Here's the baits they used in the show:
As far as color goes, here's a quick sample:
Great episode, guys!
Musky School Stats
Was talking with Bob from Agency Bay Lodge (one of our supporters) and he shared some super impressive stats from last year's MN Musky School:
- 24 total anglers
- 31 fish were caught
- 3 fish over 50 inches
- 8 new PB's
- 6 anglers caught their first-ever musky
- 43" average length
Lots of cool data, but what REALLY stuck out to me was 6 anglers catching their first musky. Some folks spend years chasin' down their first 'skie, mostly because the learning curve is so difficult.
The cool thing about Leech Lake is there's some big one's in there, too. Three fish over 50 inches is very impressive, but also not super surprising when you put some A+ guides together on a quality fishery.
Reading those stats + dealing with this crappy weather makes me REALLY miss summertime musky chasin'! #soon
Anyway.... Bob mentioned they only have room for three more groups for this year's event (August 6-13), so if you were considering signing up, I'd jump on that sooner than later.
All the info is here on their website.
This Week's Mashup:
Mashup time!
#1 – How cool is this wood-burned 'skie art from @rustic_spruce 😍
#2 – I know the Will Smith slappin’ memes are getting a little old now, but thought this one was toooo perfect. #BeenThere
Every. Single. Time.
#3 – 10/10 would hang this beauty on my wall – great painting from @jayboart.
#4 – A couple week ago, we shared a timelapse of the Muskie Max show in Pennsylvania. Looks like someone set up a similar shot at the Musky Odyssey in Ontario last week, so I figured we'd share here:
QUICK HITTERS:
– Thorne Bros Spring Sale happenin’ NOW (link)
– Musky chatter at the WI Muskie Show w/ Burnin’ Eights (video)
– “1-2 Punch Muskies” w/ Joe Bucher (video)
– Pete Maina on beginner musky baits (video)
– December musky trollin’ on the St. Johns w/ Master Crow (video)
– Ohio kayak musky angling podcast discussion (video)
THIS WEEK'S MONSTER MUSKIES:
Back to the topic of rubber baits, LSC and Spencer Berman. Here's a beauty he caught rippin' one of those hefty Ultra Dawgs last season. 💪
Pretty cool, you can actually see the mud lines in the background.
Ridiculous 55-incher from Brian Klein with a crazy 25 inch girth #sheesh
We had Chad Harmon do a writeup for us a couple weeks back talkin' short-lining cranks – a couple days after the article went live, he popped this beauty trolling in 6 feet of water with a Llungen .50 Cal right behind the boat.
Awesome southern 'skie!
Who says you need a big, fancy boat to catch muskies?? Props to Jade Fogarty on getting it done in the metal dinghy!
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