Muskie Opening Weekend Report 6/2/10

The muskies were definitely on the move this weekend as we once again had great weather and warming water temps. On the larger deep lakes surface temps were in the 67-70 degree range and on smaller lakes I found the surface temps ranging from 72 to over 80 degrees!!! Fishing shallow weeds in depths of 3 to 14 feet produced great action as we caught lots of fish in the 30-40 inch range as well as many good sized northern pike. Small crankbaits like the 6 inch Jake and small bucktails like the 700 series Buchertail worked well and enabled us to cover water quickly. When the shallow weed bite shut off we turned to the deep water suspended bite to keep us on the active fish. Working bull dawgs, deep diving cranks, suspending cranks, and weighted spinners all produced. Keep in mind that fishing suspended requires true dedication because you will probably not get as many “follows” as you would normally see when fishing shallow but when you do see a fish out deep, they will usually be in your net after a nice fight because they often strike with absolute ferocity!

The walleye bite has remained very consistent and again, the key has been fishing in and around the weeds at the same depth as mentioned earlier. A 1/16 oz jig (1/8 oz if windy) tipped with a large fathead minnow or leech has been working very well when worked slowly along the contour of the weed edge and onto the bottom. Casting weed flats with crankbaits has also been effective but more so when the wind has been blowing in the area consistently. We have also been catching good size perch when the walleye bite slows down. And as is always the case this time of year, the northern pike have been hitting consistently. The best lures have been either a small spinner or a suspending switch bait.

Good luck and fish hard!

Chas Martin
www.muskymastery.com