7/17 Fishing Report/Chiggerfest 09 has begun!

The arrival of October in July has signaled the beginning of "Chigger-fest" 2009, a 12 day festival of fishing, my bad banjo playing, food, fun, and of course the Chiggers! That's right, our friends from Nashville rolled into town yesterday for their annual pilgrimmage to Eagle River. Sid Chigger has promised to teach me the song "Fred the Muskie" and hopefully I'll get a bar or two of that song to "fiddle" with for the next year...

The fishing... yet another cold spell has decended upon us with highs today predicted to be in the lower 50's... nice July, eh? Water temps yesterday were running 67-68 and falling! The bright side is the last time unseasonably cold weather hit the muskies went on a pretty good feeding binge...

Bucktails are still my top producer with surface baits early and late in the day a close second. Noteworthy is the technique used when running these baits. If my guys can throw these baits for two hours with no results and I pick up a rod and make three casts and catch a fish... something's going on. This has happened not just once but numerous times lately. It tells me I'm doing something different, the only thing I can figure is its the speed and/or the consistancy of my casts.

If using one of our many fine area guides... watch him/her closely when they take a cast and try to copy their technique exactly. Learning how to work thick weeds has been key lately, calling for casts that range in distance from long to short but always moving when the bait hits the water and staying just under the surface of the water. Whether fishing a large weedbed or a shoreline weed edge, this has been a tactic that's been working.

Got a day off today but I'm going out to fish this colder weather to experiment with some new baits and I'm just curious to see what this cold spell is going to do to the fish... I'm guessing it's going to be a pretty good bite... not lots of follows but fish that hit...

Get those warm clothes out, do some casting during this cool spell, and I'd bet you'll have some action... good luck and good fishing to everyone.