Fishing Report 10-5-09

Muskie fishing in the Eagle River and Three Lakes area has remained excellent! This is the time to start working hard on your favorite lakes in search of a trophy or great action. Water temps are ranging from 47-57 degrees with the smaller, shallower lakes cooling off quickly. Weed structure is still in good condition on most lakes and is holding the most active fish. Sucker fishing for muskies is a must at this time and the action has been very good! On days when the shallow weed bite is hot, action on the suckers is generally slow and fish are chasing and attacking artificial lures. The opposite is also true where most of your action can happen on the suckers and not on the artificials, but it really varies each day and it becomes very obvious after an hour on the water what the muskies want. I have my best action on the suckers near the hard-soft bottom transition. This transition zone is many times near the primary breakline. One thing to check on your sonar if you haven’t already is to switch the unit off “auto sensitivity” and to a manual mode so you can more clearly see and locate where these areas are. For casting shallow weeds, almost all lures have gotten some action but the standouts seem to be Suick style lures, gliders, deep diving cranks and jig/plastics like the bull dawgs or shark attack lures. As always with muskies and any other predator fish, locate the baitfish you have likely found a good area fish.

Northern pike action has also been good. Fishing weeds with fast retrieve lures such as small spinners and bucktails or even quick-hopping a small glide bait has produced steady results. If the action is slow, try a jig and minnow combo and work the area more slowly.

Good luck and fish hard!

Chas Martin
www.muskymastery.com