Musky Wars - Stable Weather Strategies - Big Fish Pics
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Stable Weather Strategies
Many areas across the musky belt are starting to experience longer spells of stable (and boring) weather.
Without any big changes in temperature, wind, or barometric pressure, it can feel like the dead sea at times. The feeding windows you do get can be short and unpredictable. Musky Insider Pro instructor Josh Borovsky shares some thoughts on how to dial things in.
“When we have stable weather, sometimes I go in with the plan of fishing a couple 18-20 hour days back to back without taking any breaks. But that’s often hard to do when guiding without a hostage situation developing in the boat.” 😂
“The fish often get on a very consistent feeding schedule and going full-on commando mode for a couple days will pinpoint these times and can set you up for many days or weeks of success without having to kill yourself.”
If you haven’t stopped reading yet, Josh does offer some other tips on how to do this for all of us that can’t go on a full 48-hour commando mission . . .
“Another way to accomplish the same thing is to network with anglers, resort guests, or resort owners. Sometimes comparing notes with someone at the gas pump or access can give you insight into when they are biting or at least confirm when they are not.”
“It seems like sun rise/set, moon rise/set and moon overhead/underfoot can often be stronger factors than usual during stable, uneventful weather. So definitely pay attention to those.”
“But, sometimes the fish just seem to stay on a strict schedule and feed at the same weird times every day. It’s usually a fish ecology deal and consistent daily occurrences in the food web are often uninterrupted or unchanged with stable weather. At times, I think fishing pressure or lack thereof can play a role with when these windows occur as well.”
“If a moon time coincides with one of these consistent feeding times, it should be all the better. When this occurs, pay attention to what happens in the following days. The moon time will shift later outside of the consistent times they have been biting.”
“If the bite windows shift with the moon, that’s a good indicator the moon is a critical factor. If the bite stays in the normal window outside of the moon time, start planning your life around it until it dries up!”
“Lastly, if you are fishing outside of those times and it’s consistently dead . . . consider switching basins or lakes during those times. The other option is to target different types of areas during those times (i.e. open water, weeds, rocks, sand, etc.) to see if fish in those areas are on a different schedule.”
One last word on stable weather fishing . . . Sometimes stable weather means several days in row of flat, hot weather. If surface temps reach the upper 70’s or higher, consider a water release or better yet giving them a break.
Rut Daniels is Feelin’ a Little Musky
Rut Daniels might be good at "catchin’ deers", but muskies… not so much.
First, he misses a boatside eat.
“Big ol’ musky. Missed it, he missed it!”
How about a speed boat flyin’ by within casting distance, might as well be a jet ski.
“It’s not whether or not you catch fish, it’s whether or not you have a good time… said a bunch of loooosers.”
And then there’s always the agony of defeat. Maybe we’ve felt this way before (but mostly kept it on the inside).
Musky Wars
The Meat Eater podcast recently did a Musky Wars episode with musky expert and historian Larry Ramsell.
While the episode’s focus was on record muskies, there was also a very interesting discussion on musky mortality and forward facing sonar.
While FFS is a hot (and polarizing) topic right now, Larry shed some new light on the subject by bringing musky mortality into the equation with this eye popping quote from Musky Insider Pro instructor Gord Pyzer . . .
“If we could reduce the handling mortality of muskies by only 4% we would increase the musky population by a staggering 70%.”
But this statistic also begs the question . . . What happens to our musky populations if we increase handling mortality by 4% or more?
And that’s what the main concern is with forward facing sonar. Why?
While all the other advances in fishing tech over the years have increased our odds of boatin’ a ‘skie. None have done so at such an extremely exponential rate as FFS.
Here’s some thoughts from Larry . . .
“It’s making experts out of rookies almost instantly and that’s wrong.”
“It’s gonna kill the musky population if it’s not controlled. It’s too easy to sharpshoot ‘em.”
“You can control it to an extent with size limits and bag limits. But, since the musky world is already 99% catch and release anyway, all we’re doing is going to handle a hell of a lot more fish with a lot of people who don’t know how to handle them.”
“The more newcomers that come to this game and don’t know how to handle the fish, the worse it’s gonna get.”
Larry acknowledged one of his friends helped pioneer sharp shooting and made some good points without finger pointing or calling anyone unethical.
So where do we go from here? Will FFS get regulated or banned? Are required barbless hooks in our future? We plan to send out a survey to our readers soon to get their opinions. So stay tuned!
While opinions may be divided on FFS, almost everyone likely agrees that educating folks on properly handling the fish we all love is key.
Musky Insider reaches nearly 25,000 email subscribers every single week and since we have significant influence in the musky world, we plan to start highlighting more tips on safe fish handling in this newsletter.
For now, we will leave you with this quote from Gord Pyzer about Musky Insider Pro instructor Dick Pearson.
“He keeps his fish in the water at all times and handles them exactly like what they are . . . the proverbial geese that lay the golden eggs.”
This Week's Mashup:
Mashup time!
#1 – Blades have been gettin' the job done day and night across much of the musky belt lately. Kyle Jones scored this 51.75” night prowler on his favorite Llungen Lures blades.
Kyle Jones didn’t give up all the deets on this new PB . . . but we do know that this particular DC-10 Marabou cleans up after dark in a wide variety of water clarities. 😉👇
#2 – This chainsaw art piece created by Chris Wood at the US Open Chainsaw Sculpture Championship is next-level! He put together a cool step by step video of it being created as well.
#3 – We’re diggin’ these colors of Toddy Tickle Warhammers we found on the Ezoko Pike and Musky Shop website.
#4 – Dan Freeman added a little musky chaos to his game of cornhole.
He let his daughter cast with a micro medussa.
Meanwhile Dan’s shootin’ 3’s with a monster dussa.
QUICK HITTERS:
– Backlash Podcast w/ Steve Genson (link)
– Incredible Trophy Musky Fishing w/ Ben Stone (video)
– Trolling Multiple Muskies in NE Wisc w/ Smith Fishing Outdoors (video)
– July Musky Fishing Northern Wisconsin w/ Today’s Angler (video)
– MN Youth Muskie Tournament Trail Results (link)
This Week's Monster Muskies:
Trevor McClelland bagged this dragon headed 52” while fishin' with his dad on Lake Vermilion.
Matt James hoisted up 52.25 inches of Green Bay goodness after hooking into this tanker.
Tom Farrel got this nifty 50” on "The One" while fishing with Lisa Goodier on the Ottawa River.
Scott Thomas caught this beauty on a topwater while fishing with Jamie Pistilli.
Wanna be featured in Musky Insider? Send in your recent trophy musky photos by replying to this email. You might just see your pic in next week's newsletter. 🤙
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