10/06/2000
- Article
Fall
Monster Mania
by Norb Wallock
There’s
more than one monster in hiding, waiting to pounce on your and
yours, and do it with slashing teeth, and reckless abandon, if
you’re lucky. There’s
probably no better time to get in touch with monster pike or musky,
of trophy proportions, than right now.
Good
pike and musky water gets hammered, day after day, cast after cast,
and the fish become extremely pressured and conditioned to certain
lures and baits. But
come fall, many anglers seem to find other things to do, and the
level of fishing pressure is greatly reduced.
Now you can get on your favorite spot, without having to take
a number, and actually get a chance to present a lure, or bait, to
fish that haven’t been bothered in days, or maybe even weeks.
Successful anglers know that being on good water, with little
or no pressure, can make for fantastic fishing, and play right into
your hands.
Another
factor that should help motivate you to get that boat out of storage
at least one more time this fall, is a pikes need to feed. While the cooler water temperatures of fall can slow
down a fish’s metabolism, it
doesn’t stop them; Especially
when it comes to pike and musky.
In fact, you can expect them to feed actively right through
ice up.
Finding
the monsters of fall is not all that difficult, but you shouldn’t
expect to find them hanging around the same spots you fished earlier
in the season. Most
of the early to late summer action centers around weeds, weeds, and
more weeds. Weeds can
still be one of the keys, but they better be green, and they better
be near a break into deep water.
By
late summer and into the fall,
weed beds start to lay down and die.
Dead or dying weeds quickly lose there fish attracting
appeal, and can become void of life, as decaying weeds actually
produce a noxious gas. The
first weeds to go seem to be the ones growing from a soft bottom
flat, while the last stands of healthy vegetation can be found near
hard bottom breaks.
Although
green healthy weeds may still hold fish, hard bottom structures like
rocky reefs, bars, underwater points and breaks, become much more
productive, come fall. Some
of the best fall structures, will be in close proximity to good
summer holding areas, and will become more and more consistent as
the summer holding weed beds begin to lay over and die.
As that happens, the action surrounding hard bottom structure
can really heat up, and can be the place to be, late in the season.
Catching
late season monsters isn’t all that different that what was
previously required, in that you
better keep a lure coming and going.
Lure selection should include bigger jerk baits, like the
Suick, Big Jake, and Eddy Bait.
Try to hold the boat a short cast away from the structure you
intend to fish, and cast the bait up on top, and work it back all
the way to the boat. A
mistake anglers will often make, is to give up on the retrieve, only
to see the result of a missed opportunity, close to the boat.
To
help capitalize on short strikers, and fish that follow but won’t
come across, you can maximize your efforts by setting a live trap. The trap is set by combining a cast and retrieve
presentation, with a dead rod, hooked to big honking sucker.
By slowly trolling a live sucker, while at the same time
casting lures to potential fish holding structure, you can more than
double your chances of tying into that fish of a lifetime.
Quite
often, muskies and pike will follow a bait, and follow it right to
the boat. By keeping
the bait in the water, and giving them the classic figure eight, you
can occasionally turn a follow into a real battle. However, most of
the time you can figure eight your tail off, and never get the right
response. By setting a
trap, you can greatly increase your odds of hooking up, and having
some real fun.
The
trap starts by hooking up a monster sucker, the biggest you can
find. A two pound
sucker is a load and a half, but bigger baits can definitely mean
bigger fish. By rigging
the bait with a Quick Strike Musky Rig, however, you can virtually
eliminate the negative effects of using live bait.
Live
bait is often associated with deeply hooked fish, that may or may
not survive after being released. Single hook rigs are at the root
of the problem, as anglers will often wait, before setting the hook,
until they feel a fish has fully taken the bait.
If they set too soon, they’ll miss the fish and come up
empty. The Quick Strike Rig, utilizes a multiple hook harness, that
allows you to set immediately, and keeps the hooks where they
belong, in the mouth and not in the stomach.
The
Quick Strike Rig comes with a steel leader, connected to two
trebles, one of which should be hooked directly under the dorsal
fin, and the other in front of the tail.
This method will allow the bait to swim naturally, and keep
it in top shape.
Instead
of dragging the bait behind the boat, under a bobber, you’ll do
better by keeping it on a straight line.
By keeping the bait close, you’ll have more control, and
you won’t have to
worry about getting your line fowled
up in the motor. It
also gives you the ability to quickly set the hook.
So
if you’re busy casting a bait, how do you know when the live bait
has been hit? Easy, if
you use a reel that has a strike indicator.
A good example is the Abu Garcia 5500, as it has a clicker,
that will sound off as it starts to pay out line.
It also allows you to adjust the amount of force needed to
set off the alarm, which can keep an active bait from getting you
unnecessarily exited.
The
double trouble method is an efficient, highly productive method that
can be the ticket to fish you’ve only dreamed about.
In states like Minnesota, where only one line is allowed, you
may have to make a choice between the lure or the bait.
A better option would be working the fish with an accomplice,
and taking turns casting and holding.
Whatever the case, the time is now, and you may not want to
let this last chance get away.
Norb
Wallock
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