Best Time for Winter Muskies ?

[R Findlan]

A lot of my winter fishing is done after work so the last couple of hours of daylight. I feel I've done pretty well during this time period sunny or cloudy, clear or muddy water. I have seen fish turn on with muddy water when the sun comes out. I have also had feeding windows happen around moon rise and moon set. I have noticed as Red said the biggest factor for me has been getting fish just before a storm or cold front moves in. Back to the muddy water topic. I feel that lure selection is very imortant, last year I started using Chatterbaits from Musky Innovations when the water was extremely muddy with great success vs regular crankbatis or jerkbaits. With clear water I have only ever had one musky interested in chatterbaits. Just something I've been thinking about. Does anyone else use Chatterbaits much?

Reed

[Red Childress]

I gave them a whirl 2 years ago with little luck in the river. Jim Bortz has had success with them at nite. If I were to use them in the river, I would use them at nite.

Joe Renosky (the original inventor of the Chatterbait) has a line of baits that my partner has been using and he had a 9 and 7 fish day on them last summer fishing Chautauqua Lake. They are a minnow bait with the Chatter plate design that MI copied from him. They are a great trolling bait as well but will blow out at around 2.5mph due to the amount of drag created with the "chatter-plate".