Fall Muskie Madness

by Thomas on December 5, 2011

Midwest Iowa Outdoors® & Outside Iowa®

With Thomas Allen

(October 10th, 2011)

86 degrees in October, seriously?  I could complain about it, but gripping about the weather is like banging your head on the sidewalk, it doesn’t do any good.  You know, fall in Iowa wouldn’t be complete without a few Indian Summer days.  The good news is, there is a pending cold front in the extended forecast but the current weather pattern will keep many of us out of our best deer spots for a while yet.

This doesn’t mean you have to cease with the outside play altogether.  This is actually a great time of year to get the boat out for one or two more trips and chase some big toothy critters around.  Fall is big muskellunge time and if you have the bug to hit the water, I suggest hitting one of Iowa’s muskie lakes.  They really put on the feedbag this time of year and can be as easy to catch as they are all year long.  Maybe ‘easy’ is not the right adjective for those fish, but you get my drift.

Typical structure like sunken humps, obvious break lines, weed beds and rock will hold good numbers of fish.  For the first pass through an area start out in the deeper water and work your way in.  The muskies will cruise the edge of the structure looking for baitfish, but they will also be up in the middle of it, both are worth your effort.  If you’re going to fish a spot, fish it right!

Fall muskie fishing is very similar to how you would pursue them during the spring and summer.  Fast moving bucktails and spinners can produce some explosive strikes, but working big twitch baits slowly over the cabbage and weed beds can also be extremely effective.  Big rubber baits like Bulldawgs worked over deeper water and suspended fish in a long pump and fall motion is also a favored fall tactic by muskie nuts.

A great aspect about fall muskie fishing is there are a couple of tactics that are less demanding, but very productive.  I love to see a big muskie follow up to the boat and work the figure-eight, but it is also a lot of fun to kick back and do it the ‘easy way’.  Live bait sucker fishing for the mighty muskie is a popular fall tactic up north, but it is seldom used in Iowa.

You will need an operational livewell and a local bait shop that is able to get sizable suckers; fish in the 12-17 inch range will suffice.  If larger sizes are available, don’t hesitate to use those either.  The rigging is very simple; a quick-strike rig is basically a 24-inch piece of 50-80 pound-test wire with a #3/0 or #4/0 treble hook behind a one to two ounce weight.  (Run a Google search for rigging demonstrations).

Just drop that thing behind the boat with 10-20 feet of line out and very slowly troll the structure edges.  You can also use the wind to slowly push the boat across the structure or you can even sit stationary.  It can be very effective and is a tremendous amount of fun!

Fall trolling can be dynamite as well.  Run crank baits or even a bucktail behind an Off Shore Planer board directly adjacent to the weed lines.  Sometimes the parallel presentation vs. the perpendicular approach will trigger more strikes.  Experiment with different bait options and determine what the fish want, that’s half the fun!

Even after things cool back down and are more fall-like, big muskies will still feed heavily until the ice arrives.  Be careful, however.  Muskie fishing is addictive and the fever that comes with it is very contagious.

Good luck and don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.

Live it Up!

(Thomas resides with his wife and two children in Guthrie Center, Iowa.  He is a professional outdoor writer, photographer, videographer, and outdoor talk radio show host; for more information visit www.outdoorpursuitsradio.com.  If you have questions or comments feel free to email Thomas at tha481@gmail.com)

Tagged as: Fishing, Iowa fishing, Midwest Iowa Outdoors, Muskie Fishing, Musky fishing, Outside Iowa, Thomas Allen

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