Spawning

[Kong6799]

How much do water temps play a part in the spawning activites?

By the way the river is low! I found was fishing Sunday and found myself actually picking my feet while operating the boat in the shallows as if it would help!

[toothyfishman]

I never tried lifting up my feet, have to keep that in mind!!!
I always catch myself gritting my teeth going through the skinny areas.
I bumped bottom 2 times saturday, no damage.

By the way,the teeth gritting doesn't help either.

[Red Childress]

Water temps and photoperiod are the two variants dictating spawning. Muskies will begin showing up in the shallows in the upper 40's to low 50's with the bulk of the spawn happening at 55 degrees or so.

[lowbidder]

I have a bad habit of accelerating through skinny water more than I need to. I don't get much time to fish around the spawn but my few experiences with unwilling fish make me think I'm not missing much.

[Ivan]

Man...I would freak out if I couldn't fish around the spawn. It's been my favorite time of the year to fish for a long time. The only thing you are missing is the time of the year when muskies are as fat/heavy as they can be. The action may not be as fast as summer, but there are still plenty of fish willing to eat and they are pretty easy to pattern. Get some nice, stable, sunny weather with water temps around 50 degrees...look out!

[lowbidder]

Man...I would freak out if I couldn't fish around the spawn. It's been my favorite time of the year to fish for a long time. The only thing you are missing is the time of the year when muskies are as fat/heavy as they can be. The action may not be as fast as summer, but there are still plenty of fish willing to eat and they are pretty easy to pattern. Get some nice, stable, sunny weather with water temps around 50 degrees...look out!

Adam... it sounds like I need to come fish the same waters as you!
Seriously though, the spawn in the Yough happens to coincide with all of the local sportsman clubs dumping insane numbers of trout into the river in addition to what the PAFBC already puts in. Maybe that's why I'm not doing so well in April/May.

[Ivan]

Oh yeh. I don't have a whole lot of experience with trout fed muskies but the ones I have fished for were pretty tough.