fish on a throwback!

A first for me, but probably not for all of you.

Fished on Saturday for a few hours with an hour or so dedicated towards muskie. Raised a nice fish on a swimbait 1:30. Many casts back with the same lure and no luck.

Sunday, spent another 2 hours chasing muskie. Raised a fish in a spot I always thought muskie would be but have never seen one. I love doing that!
Casted back at it the same lure, no luck.

At 1:30 I went back to location where I had the follow on Saturday. Raised a fish (same fish as previous day I'm pretty sure) on a jerk bait. Fish opened its mouth at the boat and just swam away. Quickly, I switched to a bulldawg, trolling motored about 50 feet away and began casting back to the area. Big sweeping pulls with a 2 count pause. BAM! A chunky 38# That was the first fish I have ever been able to catch that followed first and swam away.
Attachment 28998Attachment 28999 (the boat floor was wet btw)

Nice going and cool story! Looks like your fish aren’t starving down your way either.

No, definitely some well fed fish around here. My MI Central Ohio buddies are always envious of the bulk and color patterns of the river fish.

Still looking for a trophy fish from the river. Not sure if they aren't around me, or if I am just not doing it right or just unlucky. A 46" is the only fish I have ever caught above 40" from the river. I have had maybe one or two 45" follows but most fish I see and catch are between 28-38". Hoping to change that.

If there was a 46, there is a 50 using your area at times during the year. It took my boat 15 years to land the first 50”....we have gotten 8 over the past 9.5 years (in PA). You will continue to learn little things about your own water so keep an open mind.....the longer you spend in the right areas, the ‘luckier’ you will get.

I still laugh at myself thinking back about a few of the areas I used to fish. I can’t drive thru them fast enough these days. Haha. There was no one really doing it around here so I had to develop my own strategy which took many years of obsessive fishing, reading and observation........and I still tweak it from time to time.;)

It will happen for you. Keep putting in the smart work.

I am definitely still learning. Its been a really fun process. Do you ever find fish in faster shallow water? 5 feet and less? I have pretty much ignored these areas and left them as my "smallmouth locations".


Sometimes I still struggle in identifying a good location. There is one area in particular that screams perfect in my mind. Outside river bend. GIANT rocks, low gradient, depth to 20ft. Nearly a half mile long. Some of the deepest water in my area. It is very similar to my go to spots. I have hit this area many times and have NEVER seen a fish. No follows, not even a pike. I'm about to give up on it, but it just looks so good. When trying to find articles on river muskie fishing I feel like the Allegheny never fits the the characteristics of the rivers discussed. Any reading material you might recommend?

I agree, reading material for rivers like ours is extremely hard to come by. There was a great article in Musky Hunter several years ago documenting musky behavior in small to medium sized rivers. (The article was mostly about the rivers in WV which is where the study was done.). It was the single most important article relating to ‘my river’ here in this section of the Allegheny.

Yes, they will be in 5 ft. or less water at times and especially late at night/early morning when the temps spike during summer. Be sure to get in and around those big rocks that you mentioned. If the water is clear with less than 3mph current, they could be suspended in that 20ft. area.

Great, I'm on the search for that article.

I have never thought about the suspended fish. Definitely less than 3mph and very clear water.

What is the water temperature in your area?

The jet boat is very basic. No electronics aside from the TM. I use the Franklin gauge for references.Attachment 29030

I guess temp is a a variable that I neglect in the river. Except for during the colder months when I might try and target spots with sun exposure. Is this something you are constantly monitoring?

Yes, I pay close attention to water temps while trying to decide areas to target for all species. Just by looking at the graph you posted, you had a 12 degree drop in just 5 days. That alone could really impact your fishing. Trout may love the drop but the muskies could go lay down for a few days.

The relationship between temperature/dissolved oxygen and the oxygen requirements of the species you are chasing has been important for me over the years. For example, if walleye fishing your area when the temps were 80 and knowing walleye like temps near 60, I would likely be checking areas adjacent to moving water. That is where the highest oxygen levels will be and likely have tons of food around.

When comparing lakes to rivers regarding oxygen levels, things can get a little weird.

My prop boat has some more electronics in it for obvious navigational reasons. I see that many areas in a body of water have very different temps. For the river, because there is so much turnover and water movement do you see a big difference in water temp of one location? I am trying to figure out if a graph is worth putting on the jet boat or if I can just rely on the usgs gauges.

Or just get a temp gauge/probe if you do not want the hassle of installation and price for a graph.

Within these larger, slower moving pools within rivers, some of that water is never forced downriver until the water gets high. This can mean weeks or months sometimes. Most of the current in these big pools are just in the top part of the water column and almost always exclusively very near the main channel of water coming in.

The next time you get high muddy water, pay attention to how the big pools clean up. The area near the channel cleans first then the outside edges slowly clean up via the sediment depositing in areas of reduced current. The stained/muddy stuff absorbs the radiant heat from the sun and will be warmer than the new water coming in by the main channel.

Clean vs. dirty and moving vs. stagnant water all impact temperature which directly impacts dissolved O2.

Interesting, I never thought about stagnant low O2 water in the river. There is a backwater where I normally have a lot of action at. This weekend, I saw no action there at all. The water happened to be very cloudy in there compared to the rest of the river. I believe it gets cloudy from the carp/sucker schools stirring up the bottom. The water had been low for a while. I wonder if the water has been very stagnant in there for a while and the disolved O2 is low.

Could be. Wind direction and back-current intensity can trap the old water there for quite awhile. If you have vegetation growing in those slack stained areas, there could be algae blooms too.