Two Days With One of Wisconsins Most Obsessed Muskie Guides
It's a late afternoon in June, and I'm casting blindly to muskellunge just outside Hayward, Wis.—the Muskie Capital of the World and home to the all-tackle world record. Three. I don't know the name of the lake, and my guide, Scott Kieper, has told me not to ask. It's a small lake—small enough for Kieper to refer to it only as the Pond. With the exception of one kid who is trolling on his own, we're the only one’s fishing. Kieper hopes to keep it that way.
Muskie Fall Fishing Secrets
Few freshwater experiences rival the adrenaline rush you get when a monster muskie shadows your lure to the boat. But this addictive surge of epinephrine can make it hard to focus on the best course of action to convert follows into strikes and, more importantly, get the fish in the boat.
Softbaits For Fishing Big Muskie And Pike
When scissorheads go one-on-one against most anything else, they win. Pike meets perch? Win. Put pike and muskies up against other everyday stuff—mono line, fingers, boat seats, landing nets, and pretty much any traditional softbait in your box—and the result is as predictable as scissors on paper.
Casting For Muskies
Consider musky fishing a moderately deep lake where a mere 500 adult muskies swim and disappear in 5,000 acres of fishable water. That’s one catchable fish per 10 acres of water, or one muskie in just over 9 football fields.
Best Odds of Catching A Muskie
Muskie fishing windows of opportunity open and shut all the time. Major windows relate to seasonal patterns. Each Calendar Period and water temperature range corresponds to general locational and behavioral patterns. Phases of each lunar cycle affect muskie behavior. Each day, moonrise, moon overhead, moonset, and moon-under-foot times can spur a bite.