Eagle River Musky Report

It has been awhile since I have had time to put any information on this forum, so here goes.
The water temperatures in late September got down to 55 to 56 degrees on most lakes which is the bottom of the transition zone, loosely referred to as 'turnover' but that is another discussion. Due to exceptionally long indian summer warm weather, it rebounded back to 57, 58, 59 degrees on some lakes at the beginning of last week making the fishing spotty and unpredictable.
Now the nights are getting much cooler and the days are also considerably cooler with north and northwest winds. The water temperatures are around 50to 52 degrees depending what lake you are on. The muskies are looking at suckers much more aggresively. The smaller suckers measuring 10 to 14 inches are getting most of the action.
On the Eagle River Chain the muskies are using the coontail beds with a few being in the cribs in 12 to 14 feet. All the suckers bites we got this weekend while I was guiding were contacted in 7 feet around coontail with deep water being adjacent to the spot.

As far as artificials go, bucktails are still moving fish but they are not grabbing them. Unbelieveably, surface baits are moving and catching fish quite often at this time.

Our 23rd "Wallhanger" Fall Musky School begins this coming Saturday and it looks the timing could be good with water temps dropping into the 40's along with it being the full moon period.
November looks like it is going to be prime time this year as the water temperatures should be entering the mid forties early in the month.

On another note, I have had a couple of cancellations in November so if any of you want to try fishing with me I could accomodate you this year.

See you in Eagle River!

Ranger Rick