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Muskie

1K views 35 replies 18 participants last post by  Air Boat 
#1 ·
Well guys been a while since I have seen a nice big active muskie charge at my lure. Now we all know a majority of these fish go deeper, but I was just wonder we're you think they journey. Just curious to see what everybody's opinion is. Personally I don't think they run to canada, I can see alot of the anchor bay fish relaxing near the Middle Channel and even heading up the St. Clair River. But Curious lets se what everybody thinks.
 
#2 ·
They go were the food is.
 
#4 ·
Oh Canada........................
 
#6 ·
QUOTE(Chefnutz @ Jul 13 2009, 01:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>QUOTE(makowish @ Jul 13 2009, 01:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Oh Canada........................

You stole my response!!!!


U2Slo
 
#11 ·
I don't believe they all just go to Canada. They need to have a steady food source. Water temperatures they like. I would say some stick around and some move around. I wish there was a tacking study with tags that can be tracked 24/7 for a year or 2. It would be great data to see what they really do. Until then we are going to have to guess.
 
#13 ·
There is A LOT less traffic on the CAN side....take that into consideration, for starters. I would also assume that during the summer months, we get a lot more south winds, keeping the conditions stable a lot more on the South shore then the North shore, which would also keep water temps a tad cooler then the US side?.....just guesses though.

A study would be great.
 
#14 ·
QUOTE(Large Mouth Peks @ Jul 13 2009, 02:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>There is A LOT less traffic on the CAN side....take that into consideration, for starters. I would also assume that during the summer months, we get a lot more south winds, keeping the conditions stable a lot more on the South shore then the North shore, which would also keep water temps a tad cooler then the US side?.....just guesses though.

A study would be great.
I was all for the boat traffic thought as well.
 
#15 ·
QUOTE(Large Mouth Peks @ Jul 13 2009, 02:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>There is A LOT less traffic on the CAN side....take that into consideration, for starters. I would also assume that during the summer months, we get a lot more south winds, keeping the conditions stable a lot more on the South shore then the North shore, which would also keep water temps a tad cooler then the US side?.....just guesses though.

A study would be great.

personally i think predators see boat traffic as easy feeding oppurtunities, baitfish getting blasted/disoriented by propwash and becoming easy meals. ive taken alot of fish between clinton river and huron pointe with weekend boat traffic going crazy. but as far as other points i agree canadian side is deeper water with more rivers dumping into the lake.
 
#16 ·
QUOTE(troller11 @ Jul 13 2009, 04:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>QUOTE(Large Mouth Peks @ Jul 13 2009, 02:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>There is A LOT less traffic on the CAN side....take that into consideration, for starters. I would also assume that during the summer months, we get a lot more south winds, keeping the conditions stable a lot more on the South shore then the North shore, which would also keep water temps a tad cooler then the US side?.....just guesses though.

A study would be great.

personally i think predators see boat traffic as easy feeding oppurtunities, baitfish getting blasted/disoriented by propwash and becoming easy meals. ive taken alot of fish between clinton river and huron pointe with weekend boat traffic going crazy. but as far as other points i agree canadian side is deeper water with more rivers dumping into the lake.


I was talking to my Dentist about a month ago and he was telling me about his best day out Muskie fishing. He said that there was a sailboat race going on, so him and his buddies trolled in and out and all in between them. They landed 20+ fish I beleive. Said the Muskies went nuts feeding on all the baitfish getting stirred up. If its true or not, i dunno? But it sounds very possible and cool.
 
#17 · (Edited by Moderator)
That is all 100% true facts right there! There are tons of Musky over on the US side, tons...but I think a more subtle environment with sparatic disturbance would be more suitable for a Musky to be comfortable in their environment and more willing to bite when in a neutral mode...that meaning you would get more active and neutral fish to bite....thats my theory on that. A study would be great, maybe Mike will chime in
 
#18 ·
QUOTE(Large Mouth Peks @ Jul 13 2009, 05:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>That is all 100% true facts right there! There are tons of Musky over on the US side, tons...but I think a more subtle environment with sparatic disturbance would be more suitable for a Musky to be comfortable in their environment and more willing to bite when in a neutral mode...that meaning you would get more active and neutral fish to bite....thats my theory on that. A study would be great, maybe Mike will chime in


See I believe that but I think the water stays a little to warm on the american side so we dont catch as many like we do on the canadian side in the middle of the summer. I would love to see a tracking study done. Well another thing my grandpa had a charter in erie again today for walleye 4 man limit after hearning that muskies have been caught there he calls me and to my amazment he says he caught a 40in muskie today and 24in pike today in front of toledo marina. I think some of these detroit river muskies are making there way to Erie we may have another great muskie fishery starting.
 
#19 · (Edited by Moderator)
QUOTE(bassproat19 @ Jul 13 2009, 06:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>QUOTE(Large Mouth Peks @ Jul 13 2009, 05:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>That is all 100% true facts right there! There are tons of Musky over on the US side, tons...but I think a more subtle environment with sparatic disturbance would be more suitable for a Musky to be comfortable in their environment and more willing to bite when in a neutral mode...that meaning you would get more active and neutral fish to bite....thats my theory on that. A study would be great, maybe Mike will chime in


See I believe that but I think the water stays a little to warm on the american side so we dont catch as many like we do on the canadian side in the middle of the summer. I would love to see a tracking study done. Well another thing my grandpa had a charter in erie again today for walleye 4 man limit after hearning that muskies have been caught there he calls me and to my amazment he says he caught a 40in muskie today and 24in pike today in front of toledo marina. I think some of these detroit river muskies are making there way to Erie we may have another great muskie fishery starting.


That is also another part of why they might be more Musky on the CAN side. I agree with that theory as well. There is tons of deep water flats from Puce and east towards Mitchells bay. A lot tuck into shore closer then most areas in the entire lake. It's just more suitable for them I believe. But fish are fish, and they DO go everywhere and anywhere they want. Erie is another story, Musky have been there for a loooooong time, but it just doesn't have the right conditions for them to become concentrated better for us to catch consistantly. LSC is small and warmer, which concentrates them better for us. The East side of Erie has a bunch.
 
#20 ·
QUOTE(Large Mouth Peks @ Jul 13 2009, 02:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>There is A LOT less traffic on the CAN side....take that into consideration, for starters. I would also assume that during the summer months, we get a lot more south winds, keeping the conditions stable a lot more on the South shore then the North shore, which would also keep water temps a tad cooler then the US side?.....just guesses though.

A study would be great.

i was just telling my friend the other day how the wind in the summer always seems to be out of the south, i was curious if i was the only one that noticed that to and come to find out, i guess im not the only one. i wonder why its out of the south so much during the summer.
 
#21 ·
For what its worth, I have a friend that lives on harsens island. He fishes in one of the channels along the drop offs for bigger pike and muskie. He has been doing this for years with pretty good success, on bad days he catches 2-3 and on good ones as many as 10. He says a couple times a year U will hook one and it gets in the current and just peels the line off the reel till it snaps the line. But he says he doesnt even bother going out till about mid july, he says he found over the years that any earlier than that your just washing your lures. So maybe some of the fish move up into the cooler water of the north, middle & south channels for the summer months.
 
#23 · (Edited by Moderator)
QUOTE(SpinnerBait @ Jul 13 2009, 02:15 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Yea. i dont beleive they go to Canada. Has their ever been a trackin study done?

TRACKING STUDIES

Ive never heard of any tracking studies done on St Clair but I do know of a couple that have been done in Wisconsin Minnesota and Ontario etc. The most extensive that I read about a few years ago. A number of mature male and female musky were tagged with transmitters in a very large system where the fish had potential to migrate up to 20-30miles or something like that if needed. The farthest a radio tracked musky traveled was one female that moved 6 miles in late fall from her feeding area to her spawning area to stage for the winter and wait for spring. As soon as the spawning was over she swam straight back to her feeding area and spent the reast of the year in a location of about 1/2 mile of shoreline. The rest of the other females moved 1-3 miles or less. This was in a fishery that had limited quality spawning areas. Just about everywhere on St Clair has prime spawning areas close by as far as habitat for musky goes. The studies showed that during the non spawning season that most of the fish hung out in small areas rotating through weed beds and structure from only a few hundred yards to up to a mile or so. As for fisherman on St Clair claiming that musky from Anchor Bay migrate all the way to the Thames River to eat spawning shad I find extreemly hard to beleive. Do the fish in that general area move there and become much more concentrated and on the feed? SURE!

In my OPINION there are 3 kinds of musky movement/patterns in St Clair. You have the fish that take up residence on weed beds with very high concentrations of food and they camp out there all summer. Then theres the fish that roam out in the main open body water lake that are free swimmers and follow bait fish schools and nomadic. And theres the fish in the channels and river that stay down deep in the current and move up and down the drop offs looking for food either camping out in one prime spot or moving up and down hunting. And who knows maybe during a fishes life or over a year transition back and forth between the three.

Now casting all research ive read and any other beliefs aside and just going purely on straight personal observation. There are two small weed beds that I have fished for years and that are on my Musky Casting Maps that produce an incredible amount of musky for their size - average about 200yds by 100yds or so. Ive had customers get up to 20 musky in one week in just one of these weed beds and when comparing photos we have not found one fish that was caught twice. Over all weve never found any evidence we had ever caught a single fish twice out of a whole season. So are these fish just continually moving through and trading places or are they stacked up like coard wood in 6ft of water lol? Who knows! If there ever ends up being an extensive tracking study done on St Clair as unique and special as it is I bet there would be some amazing info!
 
#24 ·
QUOTE(bassproat19 @ Jul 13 2009, 06:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>QUOTE(Large Mouth Peks @ Jul 13 2009, 05:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>That is all 100% true facts right there! There are tons of Musky over on the US side, tons...but I think a more subtle environment with sparatic disturbance would be more suitable for a Musky to be comfortable in their environment and more willing to bite when in a neutral mode...that meaning you would get more active and neutral fish to bite....thats my theory on that. A study would be great, maybe Mike will chime in


See I believe that but I think the water stays a little to warm on the american side so we dont catch as many like we do on the canadian side in the middle of the summer. I would love to see a tracking study done. Well another thing my grandpa had a charter in erie again today for walleye 4 man limit after hearning that muskies have been caught there he calls me and to my amazment he says he caught a 40in muskie today and 24in pike today in front of toledo marina. I think some of these detroit river muskies are making there way to Erie we may have another great muskie fishery starting.


I talked to a guy years ago that worked for the Toledo water department. They found a 40" musky dead in one of the water intake filters.
 
#25 ·
This is based on my own personal experience and understanding of the SCR system in the Marine City area for over 35 years.

It seems that mid - late July and August large Muskie start to show up in numbers in the Marine City area. They stay through the beginning of the fall. There are at least 4 particular spots that I can think of off hand near Marine City that produce large Muskies every year later on in the season. When these fish come in, they all tend to be on the large size and not to often is one reported to be under the legal size limit. They do tend to be active at deeper levels closer to the bottom, so you might want to add caution when bringing these fish up so fast in the deeper water, unless you intend on keeping your fish. Several muskies are actually caught while chugging (which is fishing right off the bottom) in some of those certain areas that attract and hold muskie in the SCR.

So, if your looking for a trophy or that fish of a life time or you just want to try something different, you just might want to consider trying for a later season muskie in the current of the SCR. You probably most likely won't get the numbers that you would fishing LSC, the the size and qaulity are sure to please anyone who plans to target this particular species of fish
 
#26 ·
according to biologists theres basiclly 2 populations. eastern and western. muskies do return to spawning grounds from hatch. most fish follow patterns of baitfish. detroit river fish can relate to current breaks. erie while it has a small population, its just that due to very little weedbeds and structure. occasionly theres a big fish caught in gill nets. on st clair we also must factor water temps and oxeygeon contents. ever factor or think why the bite takes off when winds come in summer. thats a thought ?
 
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