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| Mike Ponder with a 51.5-inch Dryberry muskie. |
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ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE
by Bob Chochola
MUSKIE Magazine, October 2008
When the Going Gets Tough,
Tough Muskie Hunters Get Going...
The thermometer on the sign in front of the bank in International Falls, Minnesota read minus eight degrees Celsius (about seventeen Fahrenheit) – at high noon. It was just before Halloween and even colder temperatures accompanied by snow and surface ice were expected in a few days, but that didn’t discourage our group of die-hard muskie hunters from making one last trek into the Canadian wilderness in search of a trophy or two.
Every year, just after Labor Day, when the kids have returned to school, it’s pretty common for the rush – a race even - to see who can get their boat winterized and into storage first. Some anglers (especially muskie hunters) are going to argue that point, but generally speaking there is considerably less-and-less pressure the deeper into fall you fish.
You can also bet that there aren’t too many people willing to risk extreme and sometimes dangerous conditions to head north of the border into Canada, where a miscalculation of weather, or catastrophic boat mechanical failure in a remote camp can spell disaster. If you are brave enough, careful enough, and some might say “loopy” enough, a trip of this nature can payoff with some big muskies. It could turn into the trip of a lifetime.
This particular late October adventure took place about four hours north of the border and required a seven mile boat tow from the main road over a rugged pothole and boulder maze that resembled the road into Baghdad after it had been bombed. That just got our crew to the boat launch. It was another fourteen miles by boat and then a two mile hike through thick woods (carrying gas, supplies, and other necessities for a four day trip) just to reach camp.
First on everyone’s mind was the forecast for much colder temps with snow and ice. The fact that the way out of camp four days from now would happen to be the same as the way into camp, only with heavy snow, ice, and raging wind added to the mix, didn’t seem to scare anyone. It was either fight the elements, or stay until spring thaw. Our crew forged ahead.
Finally in camp, the only way to stay warm was a single oil-burning stove that produced the heat equivalent of a lit book of matches. Propane lit the cooking stove and added a little extra warmth before breakfast and dinner, provided everyone huddled close enough on the screened-in porch/kitchen. The challenge: fish, cook, dine, sleep, and commune with nature (so to speak) for four days wearing a snow suit all the time. And speaking of “communing”; at this time of year the indoor plumbing was shut down, so facilities of the outdoor variety were in order – complete with shredded magazines for TP, a splintered wooden seat, and enough sub-zero readings to make Daniel Boone head for the nearest bed and breakfast. Needless to say that first morning sit-down was a bit chilly.
On the water things really got cold. Surface chop created a steady fine mist that turned the deck of the boat into an ice skating rink for the duration. As the trip progressed, so too did the mercury – in a negative direction. Sub-zero (Fahrenheit) temps bottomed-out at night by trip’s end. Frozen line spooling onto equally frozen reels made it necessary to bring several others for back up. Trolling for hours on end in the bitter wind made a weary angler dream fondly of being back at camp sitting on the sheltered out house throne.
It was cold! It was North Pole cold. And it got colder by the minute at a steady beat the whole time. Looking at the bright side of it, Pat Elza said to me, “At least we get lots of rest up here at this time of year. It doesn’t get light until 10am and it’s dark already by 5pm – it’s too cold to do anything else but sleep.”
Noel Vick of Game & Fish Magazine in an article called “Last Chance Muskies” wrote:
“One would assume that ice-fishing entails the most disagreeable, core-chilling conditions in the entire sporting world. After all, it's winter, with all that goes with it: sideways snowstorms, frozen five-gallon buckets called seats, and ice-covered reel spools and rod guides. But ice fishing isn't the worst "weather" you can fish in. Nope, it's the wickedness of late fall, with days spent fighting damp northeasters and whitecaps. Bar none, that's the coldest a man can be. Even winter's harshest effort cannot outdo a frigid and saturated gale on the open water.”
No doubt about that. The weather up north can get pretty nasty in the fall, but that’s what trophy muskie fishing is all about. It is rare to hook up with the largest fish in the system in the summer, when pressure is high and you have to compete with pleasure boaters, jet skis, and hundreds of other fishing vessels. If you’re a night fisherman you might have a shot, but fall is the best time to go after the big ones. Just wait for the kiddies to head back to school and the fogies to put it in dry dock and the (muskie) world is your oyster.
Do you have to go all the way to Canada to have a great fall trip?
No way!
Some of the best muskie hunting can be found south of the Canadian border. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and the list of solid muskie opportunities in the USA seems go on-and-on forever. Chances are good that everyone has a favorite lake close to home and all of these lakes will experience improved fishing as the shadows get longer, the weather cools, and fishing pressure eases. With that “news flash” out in the open, I’ll bet everyone reading has at least one destination close to home in mind.
What is important is that you embrace the coming winter as a time of great potential. Big muskies get that way for a reason – they eat a lot. As winter approaches everything from rapid condition changes to massive schools of migrating food will trigger muskies to kick into gear for one last hurrah. It isn’t unusual then to find groups of muskies wolf-packing in areas chasing schools of baitfish and bulking up for winter. It’s called “strapping on the feed bag” and when you tie-into the pack, hold on for dear life.
Forage is always a key factor in muskie hunting, but maybe never as important as in the fall. When you find schools of ciscoes (tullabee), or whitefish the muskies won’t be far away. These fatty fish migrate every fall between Halloween and Thanksgiving and to be on the water when they make their move is to strike muskie gold.
Good things happen over time… Great things happen all at once!
Our frozen crew set up on a steep rock wall that dropped straight down into very deep water. Points, ledges, small reefs, and tons of ciscoes stacking-up all the way along the structure made this place very well suited for trolling. It was a prime target as were four or five other similar rock walls in the area...
Once set up on a trolling pass it was easy to follow a depth contour from one end to the other in about thirty minutes, then simply turn the boat around and go the other way. That’s all: back-and-fourth until it was time to try another spot, or head in for dinner.
Trolling in the big chill produced a few small scattered fish over the first three days and just when the cold was about to get the better of everyone – jackpot!
Big Bait… Big Fish!
On the last and coldest day, eight consecutive passes of the great wall produced eight monster muskies between 47 and 52 inches long – bellies stuffed fat and to the gills with ciscoes.
Sound advice on the fall troll would be to target big fish with big bait. Team Bobzilla started mixing 14-inch crank baits into the mix last year with solid results. Large baits have always paid big dividends in the fall and the biggest producers so far have been 10-inch and 14-inch Jakes and the large custom Believer baits. There’s no doubt about it these two lures call ‘em home better than the rest and they work very well under any conditions you can imagine.
Much has been said in favor of trolling in late fall. This is a tactic that produces big fish time-and-again, while giving anglers a chance to ride-out bad weather sitting bundled up in the boat. Wind and big waves make casting tough sometimes and frost bite on the fingertips is no picnic either. But don’t abandon casting no matter how late it is in the season – no matter how cold you get.
Reefs and rock points close to deep water are going to hold fish all the time. Casting allows you to work these spots with greater efficiency than trolling. It can’t be stressed enough that trolling indeed allows you to cover more water, but it is also true that casting gets you tight into the cover and lets you probe it efficiently. Fish that are hugging cover may not chase a target swimming twenty feet away, but drop it on their head and they may not be able to resist. Use big diving baits and BANG those lures into the rocks.
Our crew made it out just in the nick of time – breaking surface ice all the way back to the launch. It was a once in a lifetime experience, as are all adventures where big muskies play a starring role. Eight very cold trolling passes produced a life-long memory. How cool is that?
What will YOU remember from this muskie season? Have you done it all? If the answer is “yes” then there’s only one thing left for you to do – get that boat winterized and start planning ahead for next spring. Have a nice winter!
Boat’s been in dry dock for a month already? Hm? Maybe redfish are more your speed?
Keep it in the water one more week. Pack warm clothes and your big trolling baits and give it one more try. Remember to cast. Oh, and if you can get your hands on a sucker, by all means, drag some meat out there.
What’s important is that when fall brings the looming winter and conditions get tough, a tough muskie hunter gets going.
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