11/19 Musky Hunt

I had some very inexperienced fishermen with me yesterday who wanted to spend the day learning about river fishing and see some nice scenery as well. They also wanted to try to catch a musky in the process. After a few hours, Matt had a fish grab his rubber swimbait and after a few headshakes, she was gone. It was almost an exact repeat of the day before and pretty typical of cold front behavior as both fish were not aggressive during the strike.

Water temps are still falling but are still a little warm for late-November. We only saw 2 other boats all day long. A big reason we are not seeing many boats is the lack of mature bass doing there seasonal migration back into the Warren area. There have been a group of people over the last several years who have been targeting the vulnerable bass and harvesting as many as they possibly can. Well, this is what happens when folks are NOT conservation minded and kill mature females year after year. All I saw yesterday were 6 empty boats laying along the river bank with no one in them because “they” are having difficulties catching bass themselves. It has been hard watching this unfold for the past 5-6 years to say the least. Very sad.

I’ll be fishing 3 days over the holidays and I sure hope the fishing picks up and the weather cooperates.


Good luck and stay tuned!

This group that you mention is a huge reason why my trips to that section of river have drastically decreased. You can still find fish but watching huge stringers of fish leave is more than I could stand. I’ve found other areas to spend my time thankfully but I’ll admit that the fishing years ago was pretty incredible.

It just goes to show how important selective harvesting is to any ecosystem. To watch this unfold has been terribly amazing. I used to have bass guys fish with me every Fall for 20+ years and we killed a total of ZERO bass out the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds we caught. There were many days that 2 or 3 of us would catch and release 100-137 bass in 8 hours (137 was the boat record). As of last Spring, my boat stopped fishing for bass at all. This Fall was the first Fall since 1995 that my boat did not do ANY smallmouth trips. All I do now is shake my head each time I drive by those 6 (unpowered) boats laying along the riverbank.

I’m shocked that there are still fish to catch. I watched what had to be well over 100 smallmouth leave on 3 stringers one day about around 15 years ago. I figure that six boat crew has harvested thousands of fish per year as what I saw was a daily occurrence for a period of time. How the fishery has survived at all is remarkable.

I used to talk about the piles and piles of juvenile bass schools swimming around the river on this forum several years ago. My boat did not see any schools this whole year.

6-2=4


There are only 4 boats left (laying along the shoreline) as of Friday.