A CURRENT AFFAIR
by Bob Chochola
MUSKIE Magazine (October 2006)
I’ve said it many times before, but here it is again: a great spot is a great spot and will continue to be a great spot year-in and year-out, because it has certain ingredients necessary to hold muskies all the time. The ingredients I’m talking about consist of permanent structures that have been there ever since the Earth cooled (or in the case of the Canadian Shield, ever since the glaciers thawed) and the common constant conditions that interact with these structures all the time making them attractive places for muskies to stop and hang-out on a regular basis.
You can take that advice and simplify success even more when you understand that it holds true no matter what time of year you go fishing, no matter what time of day you like to roll out of bed to hit the water, and no matter what variable conditions Mother Nature throws at you on your trip. Seasonal changes, weather patterns, and moon cycles all have a proactive short term effect on a muskie’s movement. Feeding does tend to revolve around these recurring events, but if your fishing time is limited like mine and you cannot spend two-hundred days a year on the water, then you are at the mercy of the gods. You could face a week in downtown Skunksville if you get hammered by the unexpected and don’t know what to do to make things happen.
Muskies are a native river fish. Without going into the history of the species, I’ll say that to know and understand this will put you onto some of the highest percentage spots on the lake. Growing up fishing The Fox River gives me some insight into the muskie world simply by my familiarity with the nature of the beast. That nature is current.
Current happens one of two ways on any lake: fast water entering the lake via a tributary and/or wind moving lake water through a neck down, saddle area, or narrows. Higher concentrations of nutrients and oxygen attract baitfish and active toothy predators won’t be far behind. I say “active” because I doubt that a big fish will spend the energy it takes to fight current unless she intends to eat something.
Narrows Provide Natural Habitat for Muskies All Season.
A narrows will funnel a lake’s natural flow through a very small place, thus creating current. The stronger the wind blows, the stronger the current flows through the narrows just like a river.
Unlike a river, however, current in the narrows can change direction in a heartbeat with a sudden wind shift. This can happen several times in one day depending upon the weather systems. Reversing the flow through these areas can and will move the fish around and trigger feeding, so pay attention to them.
I can count twelve such narrows on my lake map right now just by following our normal one day “milk run” of spots, which covers approximately one-quarter of the entire lake. They vary in size and configuration. Some connect two large areas of deep water and some simply occupy the space in between an island and mainland. Still others eventually narrow completely and end (neck down), but provide ample structure, current, and casting space before you run out of fertile water.
Pay attention to narrows that have access to deep water and are sometimes deep themselves – look for structure, cover, and the “spot-within-a-spot.” One of our best narrows is deep all the way through. It’s a channel connecting two large bodies of deep water and has a rip-rap shore, a steep drop into the channel, several small weed beds along the shoreline, and rock reefs at either end just beyond the narrows in open water. It is always cookin’.
Narrows provide perfect natural habitat for muskies and any weed bed, rock point, reef, ledge, or drop-off you come in contact with has great potential for success. Heck, drift right down the middle and cast - I know you’ll contact suspended fish.
Saddle Areas are a Benchmark for the Travemuskies. This is true for the traveling Muskie Hunter, as well. When you face big open water and your boat isn’t decked-out with more electronics than the cockpit of a 777, then you have to look for the obvious. Saddle areas, much like the narrows, provide a place where lake water more often than not gets pushed through a small space and that creates what? You got it… Current!
If you are like Pat and me, the budget isn’t exactly built around the purchase of expensive sonar, radar, high-tech fish detectors, underwater cameras, and such. We do it the old fashioned way. Some may say that’s going blind, I’ll reply with a sturdy – look at the pictures on my web site and then tell me that.
Even if you are equipped with all of the bells and whistles, imagine you are heading out on my boat – you have two rods, your two best search-and-destroy lures, a net, two life jackets, a pair of pliers, and one oar. That’s it. Now you look out at the wide open body of water in front of you and wonder where to start.
About one-third of the way across the lake you spot three islands pretty close together. In fact, two of the islands are connected by very shallow boulders, but the “V” that forms on either side of the shallowest point of the rock formation drops into the abyss of the main lake. You have found what’s called a saddle (because from a distance it looks like one) and a great place to find active muskies. Even better, there is a nice patch of cabbage tucked into the “V” on both sides of the saddle that starts in tight, thick, and close to the surface, but eventually tapers-off to the deep edge and finally disappears into deep water.
Spots like this are producers most of the year. It is important to note that we will cover them no matter what season, moon phase, weather pattern, or time of day we are fishing and I can all but guarantee that we will find active muskies doing it. Period!
Wind is the “X” factor. When you have wind pushing a bunch of water through a small area like a narrows or saddle, you will be able to watch the surface and see current flowing through, as well. This in turn will attract muskies. Current can sweep rip-rap shores, or blow through the weeds. It can swirl around an inside turn over a deep hole where many fish will stack-up. Around the wind-in rock point at the opening of the narrows you will see an eddy that can provide an excellent opportunity for a toothy predator to set up shop, particularly if there are weeds present. Look for similar points jetting out through the narrows, as they may also be very productive.
Keep in mind that wind will indeed move muskies into a given location, but it isn’t necessarily the only thing to look for. As you work the area, pay particular attention to the surface movement and find spots that are sheltered by structure, or an eddy, striking distance away from the rush of wind and fast water. A muskie will normally look for the easy meal and although we “fish the wind” it is also true that you want to find places tucked just out of the wind’s direct path, or a counter current (eddy) from where a muskie can efficiently launch an attack.
A few years ago we fished the opener on Dryberry Lake and got hit by some heavy wind gusts. After fighting a 35 mph wind and large waves for a while, Pat suggested that we look for a calm side of an island where we might find a fish doing exactly what we wanted to do – hide.
As luck would have it the due west wind limited our options. We ducked behind a large island that had a very nice weed bed in a bay nestled on the middle of the calm side and a couple of wind-swept rock points to either flank projecting out into deep water. The bed itself was calm and protected though and we began casting.
Pat cast to a big rock sticking out of the water at the back of the bay. His lure hit about six feet in front of the huge boulder. “Nobody home!” he said. I noticed a deep cut in the rock just below the surface and thought it was a good place for a lunker to hide. I told him to throw another cast and this time get closer with his bait.
Pat obliged and hit the rock square in the middle with a crack and his bait fell into the water right in front of the cut. Pat made two cranks of his reel handle and hooked-up. Ten minutes later we had a fat 52-incher in our net that was easily in the 40-pound class.
Find a tucked-away calm pocket or eddy and hit it dead-on to trigger that toothy critter.
Now you know one of the tricks of our trade. Nothing new or “secret” really, but when time is limited you’d better hit the water running and be able to quickly overcome obstacles the climate throws at you. If you are tackling new water you need a logical starting place too. Narrows, saddles, and neck downs are a great way to up your chances of catching muskies no matter what else is happening on the rest of the lake.
Now get out there and catch a hog!
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