Discover weeds, discover muskie. That easy fact is the premise for my summertime guiding technique. It’s extra predictable and dependable than some other sample on Lac Seul.
Encounters and catches involving weeds are so frequent it’s troublesome to pin down one story to inform. I’ve caught a number of muskies out of the identical weedbed on the identical day so many instances that it’s not shocking when it occurs.
We boated three one afternoon, back-to-back-to-back, with out transferring the boat. All three fish had been sharing the identical patch of weeds adjoining to a big sandbar.
We’ve sight-fished muskie cruising by means of weeds just below the floor, stumbled onto a brand new weedbed and raised or caught a muskie proper away, and caught fish off the identical weedy saddle yearly — a lot of them. The listing goes on and on.
Watching an enormous muskie explode out of a weedbed — with mouth open, gills flared — burns that picture into your mind. It’s precisely what led my buddies and I to provide them the nickname “cabbage dragons.”
Weeds + construction combo
The most effective weedbeds are those straight adjoining to no less than one different kind of construction. A reef with weeds, that’s a spot. A weedy saddle between two islands, that’s a spot. A sandbar with weeds, that’s a spot. A weedy underwater level, you higher imagine that’s a spot.
Years in the past, a pal and I had been doing a little pre-season scouting on a brand new space of the lake. We noticed a reef that was breaking the floor and made our means nearer to mark it on the GPS. We seen on the sonar a big soft-bottom flat that prolonged off the east facet of the reef and each knew if the flat featured weeds we’d simply discovered a brand new spot. Returning in July revealed a sizeable weedbed adjoining to the reef. To at the present time, that spot stays one in all my all-time favorite and most dependable spots on the complete lake.
Smaller could be higher
I’ll take high quality over amount when speaking about weeds. A few of my least favorite weedbeds are the lengthy stretches down a piece of straight shoreline. Sure, there are many weeds, however they’re primarily featureless. Boring.
I go to spots the place the weedbed isn’t any greater than a parking house, but it surely’s adjoining to a cool function, like a reef or an underwater bar. That mixture makes the small weedbed extra interesting than a bigger, featureless one.
Choose it aside
When it comes down to truly fishing weeds, working the deep fringe of a weedbed with a crank-bait or swimbait is a stable strategy. Work baits down with lengthy casts parallel to the weed edge.
Getting weeds caught to your bait is inevitable, and that i’ve by no means as soon as seen a muskie hit a bat that’s trailing weeds.
Muskie bury themselves in weedbeds and masking extra than simply the perimeters is essential.
Selecting baits depends upon the quantity of water between the tops of the weeds and the floor. One other issue is the thickness of the weedbed. Getting weeds caught to your bait is inevitable, and I’ve by no means as soon as seen a muskie hit a bait that’s trailing weeds.
My go-to baits are bucktails, spinnerbaits, top-waters, and dive-and-rise baits, like a Suick. Many areas on Lac Seul function thick weeds that develop to the floor, making them a problem to fish successfully. Burning bucktails over weeds is a basic strategy that works wherever muskies and weeds exist. Shifting my lengthy 9’, 6” rod from left to proper helps steer baits. Within the thickest weeds, a spinnerbait with tandem single hooks is the closest factor to weedless I’ve discovered.
Working the weeds
Working topwater baits over weeds isn’t only a tactic reserved for sundown. It may be as efficient mid-day as within the night. Prop-style baits, like Topraiders and Psycho Sisters are easy to retrieve and steer round weed tops. Stroll-the-dog baits have proved to be very efficient later in the summertime, whereas creepers and flaptails get the nod when a sluggish presentation is required.
If there’s room above the weeds or the weedbed isn’t too thick, a Suick is incredible. Making contact with the weeds by pulling the lure ahead and down is usually a massive set off. Strikes normally happen when the bait backs off and slowly rises on the pause.
A giant a part of efficiently fishing weeds is knowing the format of the spot and sustaining correct boat place and management. I exploit a weed icon to mark the skin fringe of the weedbed on my GPS. Aspect imaging is one other useful instrument for finding weeds that may’t be seen from above. Relying in your electronics can also be key for fishing throughout low gentle and underneath the quilt of darkness. Muskies are infamous for patrolling shallow weeds throughout nighttime. Work baits even slower at evening for extra success.
Ben Beattie is a full time fishing information and outside author, residing in Sioux Lookout. His passions are massive pike and muskie, lake trout and walleye. He’s additionally an avid hunter. Attain Ben at: mail@oodmag.com
Initially printed within the August 2021 subject of Ontario OUT of DOORS journal.
