Muskie Matt
06-08-2010, 07:27 AM
The last week has seen water temps drop from 72-74 to 66-68 degrees! It went from summer back to spring on the ER Chain and as could be expected it affected ALL fishing area wide. In a nutshell action slowed down considerably. The cold front brought our area some much needed rain but the fisherman had to work a bit harder to produce results.
Panfish... They always bite but even perch, crappie, and bluegill went deeper the last few days. Look for them in 7-10 feet of water in the deeper weeds and just off the weedlines tight to bottom. Vertical jigging right over the side of the boat with small jigs tipped with fathead minnows works very well in these cooler conditions. Orange, chartruese, and hot pink are good colors in 1/16 to 1/8 weights.
Walleye... Find the perch and you'll find the walleye, easy as that. Cast or vertical jig the same combinations of jig/minnow mentioned above. Work the edges of weeds in 8-12 feet of water. One other area to search for walleye on the ER Chain would be the deep holes, they're always worth a check in any weather. Use a big, heavy jig, tipped with a fathead minnow, right over the side of your boat in the various 25-30 foot deep holes found on the ER Chain lakes.
Muskies... Previous warm water temps in the low 70's saw fish very active and after larger baits. as water temps came down this past few days action slowed considerably which was expected and a normal reaction for these fish under the conditions. Small baits such as Mepps bucktails and 4-6in minnow baits "twitched" over deeper weeds brought us the most results. Move your boat out over the 10-12 foot depths and cast towards the weed edges letting the bucktail slow down and drop a bit deeper on the retrieve. Twitch your minnow bait in small 1 foot jumps over these same deeper areas.
Typical during cold fronts, we saw the first day or so of cooler water temps very slow in action, gradually as the front moved past, action increased with smaller 28-34in fish being the first to "wake up". Usually a period in the afternoon saw the most muskie action, producing a couple 3-4 fish afternoons, usually in an hours span of time.
The good news to this cooler water spell is that as of this writing things are warming up again, air, water, etc. We can expect the muskies to go on a bit of a feeding spell and move back into shallower weed areas to feed. This should make for a great weekend of fishing in general on the Eagle River Chain and surrounding area lakes. Stick with the usual early season muskie approach, smaller bucktails, minnow baits, and surface baits, worked in and over weeds in the 4-8ft depths.
Make note... this coming Sunday evening on RFRG Outdoors Radio we're having an "Ask the Guides" show! RFRG Radio listener Jeremy Hopland will be visiting from Texas and fielding the questions to the RFRG guides, Muskie Matt, Pete Stoltman, and Mat Hegy. I'm going to invite in a couple other area guides to round out a panel of 4-5 guides to answer questions from Jeremy, callers, and e-mailers. It's going to be a show packed with LOTS of useful information. Be ready with pen and paper this coming Sunday evening, 7pm! Use our website links to listen in live and by all means call us at 715-479-7574 or at least shoot us an e-mail at rfrgradio@gmail.com and ask us YOUR questions on fishing the Vilas/Onieda county area!
Good luck to all on the water this coming week!
Panfish... They always bite but even perch, crappie, and bluegill went deeper the last few days. Look for them in 7-10 feet of water in the deeper weeds and just off the weedlines tight to bottom. Vertical jigging right over the side of the boat with small jigs tipped with fathead minnows works very well in these cooler conditions. Orange, chartruese, and hot pink are good colors in 1/16 to 1/8 weights.
Walleye... Find the perch and you'll find the walleye, easy as that. Cast or vertical jig the same combinations of jig/minnow mentioned above. Work the edges of weeds in 8-12 feet of water. One other area to search for walleye on the ER Chain would be the deep holes, they're always worth a check in any weather. Use a big, heavy jig, tipped with a fathead minnow, right over the side of your boat in the various 25-30 foot deep holes found on the ER Chain lakes.
Muskies... Previous warm water temps in the low 70's saw fish very active and after larger baits. as water temps came down this past few days action slowed considerably which was expected and a normal reaction for these fish under the conditions. Small baits such as Mepps bucktails and 4-6in minnow baits "twitched" over deeper weeds brought us the most results. Move your boat out over the 10-12 foot depths and cast towards the weed edges letting the bucktail slow down and drop a bit deeper on the retrieve. Twitch your minnow bait in small 1 foot jumps over these same deeper areas.
Typical during cold fronts, we saw the first day or so of cooler water temps very slow in action, gradually as the front moved past, action increased with smaller 28-34in fish being the first to "wake up". Usually a period in the afternoon saw the most muskie action, producing a couple 3-4 fish afternoons, usually in an hours span of time.
The good news to this cooler water spell is that as of this writing things are warming up again, air, water, etc. We can expect the muskies to go on a bit of a feeding spell and move back into shallower weed areas to feed. This should make for a great weekend of fishing in general on the Eagle River Chain and surrounding area lakes. Stick with the usual early season muskie approach, smaller bucktails, minnow baits, and surface baits, worked in and over weeds in the 4-8ft depths.
Make note... this coming Sunday evening on RFRG Outdoors Radio we're having an "Ask the Guides" show! RFRG Radio listener Jeremy Hopland will be visiting from Texas and fielding the questions to the RFRG guides, Muskie Matt, Pete Stoltman, and Mat Hegy. I'm going to invite in a couple other area guides to round out a panel of 4-5 guides to answer questions from Jeremy, callers, and e-mailers. It's going to be a show packed with LOTS of useful information. Be ready with pen and paper this coming Sunday evening, 7pm! Use our website links to listen in live and by all means call us at 715-479-7574 or at least shoot us an e-mail at rfrgradio@gmail.com and ask us YOUR questions on fishing the Vilas/Onieda county area!
Good luck to all on the water this coming week!