12/2

[Red Childress]

Another pretty good day chasing Esox on Sunday. Matt landed a nice 39" musky and he missed another fish but we are not sure what flavor she was. Scott missed a fish (or the fish missed Scott) and we think it was a musky and I wrestled with a nice fish (46-48") all the way to boatside and then watched her gator roll as the net was entering the water. Goodbye. They were not as active as Saturday but still a fun day on the river.


Pending next weekend's weather, we may be out once again hunting Esox.


Stay tuned.

[gfishes]

Red, does the water maintain clarity up there during the periods of high water?

[Red Childress]

Yes, for the most part.

Here is an interesting story regarding water clarity and musky fishing:

Back in February of 2004, the river here in Warren was pure mud for a week or two. There was zero visibility and it was -8 degrees when we launched the boat. It was too cold to cast more than a dozen times before everything would freeze solid. To add insult to injury, we had to dodge ice chunks that were floating down the river! The temperature was suppose to top out at a balmy -1 that day so we decided to troll. It ended up being the best 6 hours of musky fishing I had ever had. We netted 7 fish in just under 6 hours that were between 41 and 48.5 inches.

You may be wondering why we only fished 6 hours? Well, the spray from my old jet outboard began freezing the entire transom of my boat into a solid block of ice. It got so big that I could not turn the boat to the left without the engine being stopped by the ice block. Anyway, the moral to the story is this: Just when you think it is too muddy or too cold to catch muskies, think again.



Note: I do not musky fish with air temps below 20-25 or so these days.

[ppalko]

You’ve certainly had a lot of practice this fall with any high water patterns you’ve figured out. Funny how as I get older I get pickier about conditions I’ll tolerate. I’m not sure I’ll even spend a day on the water in the rain anymore. I never tried below zero conditions! I think my coldest was high teens many years ago. We were throwing walleyes on the bottom of the boat instead of a stringer and they’d freeze to the boat.

[gfishes]

I guess thats one benefit to the dam being closer to you. I have never targeted anything other than catfish from the shore when the water is above 7 at Franklin. It currently sits at 9.3... Another weekend off the water for me.