Wausau area fishing report 10.18.11 It seems like only yesterday that football season was just beginning,
and in the seeming blink of an eye, we find ourselves mid-October. The king of freshwater has been busy of late as the warm weather definitely scattered the muskies for a short period of time. While there was a solid shallow bite during the heat wave, the fish have quickly been sliding back to deeper water and more traditional autumn haunts.
Where present, deep weed edges, breaklines, and current breaks with proximity to deeper water are all holding fish. From looking at the forecast, the impending cold weather will mean shallower rocky areas should soon start becoming musky magnets in the early morning and evening, as they hold and release heat from the sun. Jerkbaits such as phantom Softails and Bulldawgs have been solid musky producers lately, while casting and twitching large minnow baits such as 9 Tyrant Shallow Czars has also been effective. Not to be overlooked quite yet, double-ten style bucktails are also still moving and catching nice muskies for us. Working these style lures such as the Mepps H210 in silver/black or gold/brown on a slow-medium retrieve has been the bes tbet; be sure and figure-eight as plenty of strikes are still occurring boat side.
It has been an excellent autumn overall for utilizing live bait for
musky fishing. Suckers rigged on quick-strike rigs such as Fuzzys
Clip N Go, and either placed below slip bobbers or suspended over the
side of the boat while casting, have been catching muskies for us on a steady basis. The great thing about quick-strike rigs is that using
them when live bait fishing for muskies exponentially increases the
chance of successfully releasing a fish to fight another day, and also
helps ensure a higher hooking percentage. Fuzzys Clip N Go is
attached through the sucker’s nasal passage, but does not require the use of rubber bands such as on similar rigs its quick, easy, and
effective.
Residents of the local walleye population have been greedily consuming live bait with a marble-eye staple, the jig, the weapon of choice indecent days. A Mister Twister multi-colored jig head in lime/chartre use or orange/chartreuse and tipped with a large or extra-large fatheadminnow has been our most consistent producer of walleyes recently. Deep water, a relative term depending on where you’re fishing locally, has been key to locating daytime walleyes. Hard-bottomed humps and fingers, and deep holes and pools are some of the main locations holding good numbers of fish. Don’t be surprised to catch a mixed bag of small mouth bass, crappies, and channel catfish in many of the same locations as the walleyes.
While the bulk of the attention by autumn anglers is generally directed towards walleye and muskies, crappies remain available for those still looking to score on papermouths. Despite the recent Indian summer conditions, crappies remain concentrated in good numbers, and continue suspending in schools over deeper holes and out off of sharp breaks.
This is a time of year when good Humminbird electronics can be worth their weight in gold as identifying areas holding fish prior to wetting a line can save hours of fruitless time. Crappies typically school in vertical columns; as such, look for this when watching your locator.
Once crappies have been located, we been using slip-bobbers and
dead-sticks rigged with small to medium fathead minnows tipped on
chartreuse or white Mister Twister Lightnin Bugs in 1/16 or 1/8 ounce sizes (depending on the depth and current conditions) as they have been working very well.
Wisconsin Angling Adventures
http://www.wisconsinanglingadventures.com 715-297-7573
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