Turnover Tips - Musky Oddities - More Muskies More Places
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Turnover Tips
It's that time of year again. Many lakes that stratify during the summer months are either somewhere in the turnover process or will begin the process soon.
If you want to get dialed in for fall success, there’s no better way than to view our Late Fall Tactics class. Musky legend Steve Herbeck and Josh Borovsky cover everything from turnover to ice-up in this 4-hour course. You might need to watch it more than once to absorb all the golden nuggets shared in this class. 🤯
Here’s a few of Josh’s turnover tips that we plucked from this class...
Turnover occurs when the water above the thermocline becomes cooler and denser than the water below it and the stratified layers start to mix, until the entire lake becomes the same temperature.
When turnover begins is somewhat debatable. Generally most folks talk about it occurring when surface temperatures start to creep into the mid to low 50's. However, depending on the lake’s depth, geographic area, and weather patterns the entire lake can become the same temperature above that range. It’s generally a safer bet to view fall turnover as more of a process than a short term event.
I say this because there are other important things that take place in this time frame as well. One of the bigger ones being that musky summer home ranges also breakdown in this time frame. The muskies tend to be more nomadic roamers until they eventually settle into their winter home ranges.
If you're fishing larger, multi-basin lakes or a chain of lakes, (ie. Vermilion, LOTW, Eagle River chain, Fox River chain, Minnetonka, etc.) I believe the turnover process triggers mass movements and migrations of fish of all species.
This movement and scattering of fish is what can make the fishing somewhat challenging. However, an effective strategy for dealing with the movement of muskies and their forage is to fish the bottlenecks and/or channels between the basins, along with any pinch points within them.
Any fish moving from one basin to another needs to travel through these constricted areas to get where they're going. Focusing on these areas during turnover has led to some outstanding days in my boat when many others have struggled.
I've had success throwing blades, gliders, dive & rise baits, tubes, beavers and rubber this time of year and it’s usually the beginning stages of a good sucker bite on many waters as well.
Hopefully that helps you narrow things down and hook a few more muskies over the coming weeks. 👍
If you’re a Musky Insider PRO member, the Late Fall Tactics class is included with your membership along with the rest of our class library and can be found in the member portal. If you’re not an Insider PRO member, this class is available to be purchased individually and it’s a great way to get a taste of what Insider PRO is all about. If you want in, get your name on the waitlist. We will be giving the first ten people on our waitlist the opportunity to get in this week!
Musky Oddities
There’s been some odd looking ‘skies gettin’ poked across the musky belt lately.
First up, we have this welted up river rat caught by Kuba Otfinowski that looks like it has a bad case of the musky pox.
This bleach-blotched specimen caught by Keegan McIntosh looks like it could have had the musky pox earlier in its life. That’s an interesting paint job to say the least!
Speaking of paint jobs, this tiger caught by Steven Iriam definitely has the “lemon head” thing going on!
Lastly, and possibly the most grotesque and amazing at the same time, we have this 49” zombie of a ‘skie caught by Joe Ostrander Jr.
This fish looks surprisingly healthy other than the big open wound on its side which appears healed around the edges.
We reached out to a fisheries scientist for answers on the causes of these abnormalities. But, being a scientist, he acknowledged that at best his answers would be hypotheses that would require further testing and examination of the fish.
Have you ever encountered any musky oddities while on the water? Send us some photos by responding to this email and you just might see your pic in a future issue.
More Muskies More Places
We came across this photo of a tiger musky caught in Connecticut. You don’t hear much about Connecticut muskies, so we decided to do some research on what bodies of water are managed by the state’s Bureau of Natural Resources (aka DEEP) for muskies.
After reaching out to them, we got an interesting answer . . . They do not stock or manage any bodies of water for musky fishing. So where did this tiger come from?
It turns out, the Lake Lillinonah Authority, a private entity made up of representatives from towns that border the lake, made the decision to fund and stock tiger muskies on their own.
They’re building themselves a nice little tiger fishery over there which has a robust alewife population for the tigers to feed on. We reached out to Charles Read, avid musky angler and Lake Lillinonah Authority board member to get the rundown...
"Lake Lillinonah is 1,547 acres, and has been stocked with an average of 350 yearlings every year since 2017."
"Last year there were zero stocked due to availability. The goal will be around 650-800 this year if we can get them.”
"We have approval from the state to stock a yearling per acre and possibly more. Funding and fish availability have really been our only restrictions."
That’s a very healthy stocking density. 👀 With confirmed fish over 46” and word of a 48” being caught there already, it’s just a matter of time before we see some giants coming out of this lake.
Like everywhere else in the Musky world they’re still fighting some battles though. A group of musky enthusiasts led by Joe Jacobowitz have petitioned to get a tiger musky stamp to fund stocking and also petitioned for pure strain muskies to be stocked and both attempts have been unsuccessful. They’ve been hoping and attempting to start a Muskies Inc. chapter out there. But, it sounds like they’ve run into a few snags on that front as well.
Regardless, it’s pretty dang cool to see a situation where people are given the opportunity to create or improve a musky fishery without it being prevented or interfered with by government agencies.
Can’t help but wonder where fisheries in states like MN might be right now if the DNR would have allowed both public and private organizations to supplement musky stocking back when all of the stocking reductions were happening. We’re hoping the new MN long range musky management plan might allow for more of this.🤞Stay tuned!
This Week's Mashup:
Mashup time!
#1 – Pro Tip: If you want to know what the hot bait is, take a look in a guide’s boat and look for the bait without much paint left on it. Here’s some shots of one of Chad Harmon’s worn out .22 shorts by Llungen Lures that just keeps catching.
#2 – Small river, BIG fish! We’re digging this boatside hoist by Ellis Ward.
#3 – Check out this nine foot musky swimmin’ the sidewalk in Grand Rapids, MN. Local artist Lea Friesen painted the fish to call attention to clean water. It sure captured our attention! 😍
#4 – Our friends at Ezoko just got a fresh batch of Legend Lures Perch Baits in stock with the Jointed models to boot! You might want to grab some before they’re gone! #tistheseason
QUICK HITTERS:
– CRAZY Musky Fishing With Fall Winds!!! (video) w/ Todays Angler
– MUSKY FISHING NORTHERN WISCONSIN!! - Early Fall Muskies up Shallow (video) w/ Angling Anarchy
– Fall Q&A Mashup w/ The MOT Crew (link) w/ Muskies On Tap
– NORTHERN WISCONSIN VILAS COUNTY MUSKIE FISHING - w/BRODY VANCE (video) w/ Smith’s Fishing Outdoors
– Is the PITBULL the BEST NEW MUSKY BAIT of 2024? Bonus, when to plan your summer Canada trip? (video) w/ 54 or bust
This Week's Monster Muskies:
Warren Werbitt hit the PB jackpot with this 54” beast. That smile goes for days.😊 Congrats Warren!
Nolen Ryba has been on quite the big fish run this year and it just keeps rollin’. He got this big bellied 50.25” at moonset trolling a double 12 bladed bucktail he made using the same Angling Revolution square clevis that’s used on “The One.” He trolled up a 49.5” on the same bait a short while later. #bigfishmagnet
Take a good look at this super clean Lower French River Fatty that went 51 big ones! She ate Steve Pisarski’s Musky Mayhem Detonator at the peak of the major near Bears Den Lodge.
How about two firsts with one fish? This 50.5" beauty was Mark Vandermolen's first casting fish and also his first fish over 50 inches. Wonder if he will be casting more in the future? 🤔
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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