As we slip into December, most musky anglers have long ago winterized their boats, cleaned their reels and hung up their rods. While the allure of deer hunting and holiday festivities are more than enough to divert the attention of the musky amasses, a handle full of winter warriors knows that the last few days of open water can yield dramatic musky results.
Southern Musky Fishing | Cold Water Musky Tactics
Southern winters are for the most part a walk in the park compared to the mid-west. But shortly after the Holiday season nature sent a clear message that the winter of 2024 was not going to be to be trifled with. Admittedly the mere mention of ice and snow in the forecast shuts down the South instantaneously. Fearful mothers hoard eggs and milk with the fragile hope of sustaining their children so that they can repopulate the Earth once the snowpocalypse of two inches melts away. With these southern overreactions in mind, it’s not surprising that many offices, factories and job sites are shut down.
As we venture further into the crisp sunrises and sunsets of fall, one thing comes to my obsessive muskie mind…Trolling. While fall casting can be fantastic, those in the know are already starting to dial in their fall trolling patterns and gearing up for the super bites that happen the further, we edge towards winter’s grasp. I have said it before and will say it yet again, if trolling isn’t a part of your musky game plan you are an incomplete angler. If you fall into the camp of those that don’t troll, put down the casting rod for just a bit as we explore some of the basics of what you need to start dialing in on fall musky trolling.
When my good friend and long time musky hunting partner Mike Richardson and I woke up early on a Sunday morning in late October we knew it was going to be another very cold day on the water! On our muskie hunt the day before the high temperature during the afternoon solar peak had only been 22 degrees and it looked like not much had changed overnight. A thin layer of snow covered the ground and the feeling of winter lay in the air but none the less, we were fired up to hit the frigid waters again to put ourselves in position to score on a trophy musky!
So many of today's Midwestern musky anglers are diehard casters. Some even consider trolling taboo, but that certainly wouldn’t be me. My fishing education background is principally centered around the foundations of Buck Perry, stressing the basic fact that "the fish are either deep, shallow, or somewhere in between".
In musky fishing, October can be the light at the end of the tunnel or the bane of your very existence. For some anglers, a lifetime of knowledge isn’t even enough to guide them through the woes of finding a pattern in October. October can mean so many different things to many different anglers, depending on their relative location to the North or middle of the US as well as the type of waterways they fish. Regardless of where you are located on the map, October is usually a time of transition, so maybe a little information will go a long way to explaining what on earth are Muskies looking for this month.
When it comes to freshwater fishing, the type of boat hull you choose can significantly impact your experience on the water. The hull, essentially the bottom of the boat, interacts with the water in different ways depending on its shape, affecting everything from stability to speed and maneuverability. Let's delve into the common types of small freshwater boat hulls: deep V, modified V, and flat bottom, and explore their best uses in fishing scenarios.