8/4/12 evening report

[Tony Scime]

Jon and I planned on night-fishing the west to Black Creek last night. We started out at 7:15pm trolling from un2. While in the shipyards I asked Jon if he had made peace with the musky gods. He replied with some very nasty comments about them.

As we veered farther down river I noticed a darkening of the northern horizon. Flashes of lightening. We decided to stay closer to the shipyards until we could see where the storms were heading. They kept heading towards us. We returned to un2, hoping the storms would bypass us. But the lightening kept closing in, with more and larger bolts. We decided that wisdom will keep us longer than valor, and we exited to the safety of the harbor at 8:30pm.

I told Jon that the musky gods were obviously very unhappy with him, and that he should reconsider his views. This lightening was just a warning.

It is not smart to anger the musky gods.

Or maybe they just didn't want us fishing with 77 degree water temps.

  

[John Pensyl]

we launched at 2am and trolled in the wind until daybreak.  Current was ripping much faster than normal which made upstream trolling nearly impossible and floaters didn't help either.  At daybreak we hit un1 and managed to pick up a couple 36" fish casting.  We landed 2, lost another and I had a couple followers that chased hard through the fig 8 but in the end didn't go.  Fish fought ridiculously hard and swam off fast and furious splashing me as they went.  Water temps were slightly dropping as the wind pushed in some cooler water from the churned up lake.  We were off the water by 8 trying to play it smart for once and leave before the storms hit.

[John Miller]

The musky gods were equally upset with us for fishing the 77 F (dropped to 76 later in night) water.  We shot up to UN1 to wait out the passing of the storm.  It eventually passed NE until we felt safe to venture down to UN3 (too many weeds), UN2 (nice troll but no fish) and down the Chippewa Channel to Black Creek.  Felt good working this area again.  Nice structure, some hooks.  Nada!!! fishing 7pm - 1am.  Trolled up, down across river without a sniff.  :(  Uhg

[John Miller]

It seems that the fish are obviously more active and receptive during daylight.  I have far more hours at night then during day so far this season.  1 fish in the dark and 8 in the light, plus some missed opportunities in the daylight.  Your post suggests the same results for yesterday.  Discouraging. Night time allows me to sacrifice sleep to get out on river, something Im happy to do if I had better results.  Uhg

John Pensyl said:

we launched at 2am and trolled in the wind until daybreak.  Current was ripping much faster than normal which made upstream trolling nearly impossible and floaters didn't help either.  At daybreak we hit un1 and managed to pick up a couple 36" fish casting.  We landed 2, lost another and I had a couple followers that chased hard through the fig 8 but in the end didn't go.  Fish fought ridiculously hard and swam off fast and furious splashing me as they went.  Water temps were slightly dropping as the wind pushed in some cooler water from the churned up lake.  We were off the water by 8 trying to play it smart for once and leave before the storms hit.

[Scott McKee]

7 PM to 1 PM?  That is a haul.

[Scott McKee]

I blame the gobies.  With all of the black potato chips scurrying around the bottom of the River, the muskies just can't help themselves from snacking.  They need to save room for my Niagara Walleye fish fry's.  They remind me of Skinner on a fishing trip.  The kid just can't leave the potato chips alone and never saves any room for steaks and sausages and burgers and lasagna and...

[Scott Kitchen]

Veronica and I went out from 7:30 AM till 10:30 AM this morning.  The floating weeds were so bad in front of Strawberry and Frenchmen's that we went to the railraod bridge drift about 8:00 AM.  Got a 38" that was actually chased to near the surface by another musky.  Once the fish was in the net it looked like the other musky actually bit the 38" fish.  I have never seen that before.  The other musky did not get close enough to the surface to see how large it was, but I would like to think if was larger than 38".

[John Pensyl]

I wouldn't say they are more active during the day. This is actually the 1st time we've trolled at night and not hooked fish. Might have 15 hours night trolling on the boat this year and we've hooked 9 fish and landed 7. Imo GPS and good charts are key. If you are not right on structure you are in no man's land and wasting time. Graph is blank away from structure. Would be much harder without navionics, especially at night. Last night the weeds and very swift current from the heavy sw winds did us in. Every day is different I guess.

[John Pensyl]

Yea Scott we should have stayed over there. In 45 minutes we had 2 fish, 2 follows and another lost fish. Then we decided to trade hot fishing for weeds. Pretty sure you were pulling off as we were drifting up casting the drop edge. All action was in an area smaller than a football field tucked behind the flat/point. Sounds like we shoulda used those 36 inchers we got for bait!

[Scott Kitchen]

John,

Yea we never left that area once we landed that fish, until we left the water.  I have found one of the mental challenges is sticking to "never leave fish to find fish".  Sometimes its hard, but you know there are at least a dozen spots in the river where there must always be a musky and when you land one in one of those spots I force myself to stay, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worst ;-)

[Scott McKee]

I fished the area I had the nice follow last week for about four hours on and off.  Finally Carrie announced, "I've had quite enough of this stretch."