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View Full Version : Muskies don't always play by the rules...



Ranger Rick
11-22-2009, 11:38 AM
Muskies don't always play by the rules as we have been told them. About everywhere you read and including my own experiences, muskies tend to go deep as the fall progresses.
I've had to work the shop the last few days because the staff is all out chasing "bambi' with their shooting irons, but I have been talking to several muskies guys coming in for suckers. By the way most the shops are out of suckers and are not getting more of them because they don't want to get stuck with too many as the muskies season closes midnight on
November 30th. If any of you still want to come up, let us know and I will get suckers for you, but they need to be ordered a head of time.

One of the nice things about owning Guides Choice Pro Shop is being able to compare "muskie war stories" with other anglers on a daily basis. Here at Guides Choice we strive to tell anglers the truth about the bite as we know or hear it. Well yesterday two of the better muskie fisherman I know, Mark Rottier and his son Rob were fishing on Lac Vieux Desert. Water temperature was 38 degrees in the morning and 40 degrees at dusk. Mark fished deep, as I would have thought to do,,,,, he saw nothing all day. Rob and his partner fished shallow, 8 feet deep all day. They tore them up, contacting nine muskies, all were on artificials except one 47 incher hit a sucker. The fish were still in the green weeds.
The hot bait was a new finesse jerk bait made by BAD WATER BAIT CO. The bait is called a "Cabbage Ghost" and has put several big fish in Mark and Rob's boat this year. It has accounted for two 49's and a 50.25 in this area,,,,,not Canada.

There are different sizes and the one that was getting the action yesterday was the 12 inch model.

The other bait that Mark has created is the "BAD WATER WOODIE" a bulky minnow style bait. It has also been putting fish in the boat. I have put photos of each on this post. There are four color patterns at this time. I have only shown two.

So there it is, muskies in shallow water just before the lake freezes as there was ice on the shallow spots on Lac Vieux Desert yesterday. They don't always do the same stuff every year.

One more item of interest for the hard core guys, we are probably going to have open water here in the north for a while with the deeper lakes still in the 44 to 42 degree range. Yes Wisconsin closes but the Michigan Upper Peninsula has got big muskies and alot of open water and is only 1/2 hour away. We will be there still after the "big Girls".

It's not over yet.

"Ranger" Rick