Herbie- Muskies At The Start Part 1
While Spawning And Doing Thier Thing They Will Be Tough And Should Be Left Alone Anyway At Least Where They Can Sucessfully Spawn. Fortunatly They Are Typically Well Past Spawn By The Time Ontarios Opener Arrives Except Under The Latest Of Springs Followed By A Cold/dark May , Early June And Add Perhaps Deep Lake Trout Type Water.
Look To The Predominate Weedy Structures,weed /rock Combos,points And Shorelines,island Clusters And Slots Near The Mouths And Adjacent Basins For Your First Areas Of Concentrated Action. The Thickest Biggest Patches And Most Complex Areas Can Hold Numbers Of Fish However Muskies During This Time Tend To Be Roamers Constantly Searching For The Prime Holding/feeding Spot As Cover Is Evolving And Emerging.in other words if the spawn is in fact over and there been a bit of time for fish to move out look to the closest summer time spots for the females as they don't tend to hang around spawning areas long.
There Could Be And Most Likely Are Some Fish Still Hanging Around In The Spawning Bays/areas Especially If It Has Been On The Cool Side And You're In A Sunny Warming Trend. these will be mostly males and/But They Will Be Scattered Roamers.it's More For still looking for lost loves,The Sun Bathing,And Also Because About That Time Most Spawning Bays/areas Are Also Areas With Alot Of Walleyes Suckers Perch,etc Gobbling Up Mayfly Larve,flies,and Small Minnows/perch Which Are Typically Starting To Hatch Around Opener.
show girls,fireflys,#8's,flashers,reg size buchertails and harrassers,twitch'n minnow baits and rubber,gliders,and topwaters especially zig zags are top choices.
However What Alot Don't Realize Is That In Some Bodies Of Water Especially Those With A Good Pop Of Pelegic Food Sources Like Lakers,tullibees,whitefish,ciscos,trout There Is A Period Of Recouping In Between Spawns And/or Recouping After That The Bigger Females Retreat To The Closest Deepest Holes Especially If You Have A Cold Front Type Of Early Season. Staging Over 35-70+' Of Water 15-22' Down For Period Of Time Before Coming Back Into The Now Prime Cover.
We Used To Destroy Em Back In Wisc 15-18 Yrs Ago During The Trolling Days In June Especially Under Late Cold Springs But We Could Use 3 Lines And The Basins Avg 800-1500 Acres Where As In A Big Shield Lake It Takes A Lot More Searching Especially With One Line To Find The Areas That Consistantly Hold Fish. A Few Years Back I Boated 2 40# Class Fish Doing This On Eagle But In Recent Years It's Been Tougher To Find Someone Willing To Slug It Out Trolling All Day When Usually There's At Least Some Exciting Topwater/bucktail Casting Going On.
when out here no need to go small ,bigger cranks like gramas,raiders,jakes and bigger spinners like the cowgirls and spankys and spinnerbaits (they will need weight,dipseys,or riggers to get down 15-18')
Greg,brad And Some Of The Others Have also Recently Been Doing This With Some Success During This Time On The Northern Minn Lakes And It Will Work Anywere These Conditions Exist.not A Sure Thing For Most But It Is Something To Consider Especially If No Big Fish Are Showing On Tradtional Structure.