# Winter Musky



## Mushijobah

Do any of you guys go after musky in the winter time or are the mostly dormant. I want to hit a local creek that comes out of a huge muskie fishery here in central ohio (only one) and want some action. Thanks!


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## blance

I do fish the winter months, but get more northerns than anything. The fish I do catch in the winter months seem to be bigger fish, but I have to keep my speed down. Sloooooow seems to be the key for me. It's not that suprising that I get more pike than anything since the majority of muskies caught in our local river seem to go over peoples fireplace mantles rather than back in the water. We went from having a pretty good musky fishery in our local river to the northerns far outnumbering the muskies. Nothing wrong with catching northerns, but I'd prefer a musky any day of the week and twice on sundays.

Barry


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## Mushijobah

What style and size lure? Deep pools?


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## blance

Mostly crankbaits in/around the 6" size seem to work best for me most times of year. Some guys like larger 8-12" baits, but I just don't have any luck with them personally. My usual choices are baby depth/shallow raiders and grandmas when it comes to crankbaits. I'll usually take a larger grandma or depthraider with me as a just in case. I'll also fish with alot of bucktails; Some with big trailer grubs, some without. Although as the water is getting colder, I'm using those less except as a search bait for the aggressively feeding fish. Most times I'll try matching the hatch of the water I'm fishing, but that's often situation/fish mood dependant. Sucker and Perch patterns seem to work well in in my local river. Although, I have also caught fish on Pink, Purple and Chartruse too. Pink and purple may be effective due to the trout stocking in that area, but that's just a hunch. I'm still looking for that elusive chartruse bait fish.  

In terms of depth and current, again it's kind of just figuring out where the fish want to be. These fish are the largest preditors in most bodys of fresh water so they need the biggest and best of structures to hunt on. Sometimes people don't think of it this way, but current is a form of structure too. Fish will use current breaks to carry food right to them rather than going out hunting for it. Alot of times, I'll find fish holding to structure on current breaks. Most every fish I'vecaught off these structues have been off the "up" current side. Because of this, I tend to beleve that an actively feeding fish will almost always face upstream rather than down. My favorite hole is an long, sweeping outside bend that has a series of three blowdowns at the head all perpendicular to the bank within I'd estimate 100 ft area. These blowdowns extend just out about 20-30 ft just to the current edge. Within the head of the bend there is a 12ft scour hole (some call this the kitchen), but out in the current the water is about 4ft. This is where the majority of my fish come from. Sometimes they'll be "deep" in the scour hole, sometimes they'll be up within 5 ft of the bank while other times they're out riding the current break. My girlfriend caught her first river Northern this year on a Shiner fished on the bottom within 10ft of the bank. Just depends on the time and fish mood. I'll usually cast out past the current break retrieving across and along side of the structure allowing the current to change my baits aprroach angle by varying speed and depth until I start seeing fish taking swipes at my lures then I'll hone in on that bait/color/speed/depth/angle combination until I get a fish on. Sometimes they'll blow up on a bait/color pattern 3 or 4 times then lay off it. At that point I'll switch between baits to a different color (as opposite as possible to the color they were follwing i.e. natural<-> pink, purple,chartuse, etc) and start hitting the spot with it as many times as possible while going back to that hot color/pattern every dozen or so casts until I get a hookup. 

Other guys seem to have luck working the dam outflow structure. Myself I've never done well there, but others do. Some of the largest fish in this stretch of river come from the outflow area. I just don't choose to work on getting better in that area because there is so much fisherman traffic up there. It can get very frustrating, maddening and even irratating there so I feel it's best to just stay away and stick to my nice quite spots downstream and aviod a river rage episode. 

The thing I try to keep in mind is that fish don't hibernate, their metabolism just slows way down. They still have to eat, just not as much or as often during the winter months. It's all about the bigest bang for the engery expended to get it. Give 'em an easy target and they'll hit it if they're hungry, but they won't often chase very far to get it. Winter can be very tough fishing, but it's rewarding as heck when you finally feel that "clunk" and realize that you've got a fish on. Not to mention, alot of times, you've got a entire section of river bank all to yourself and your thoughts.


Barry


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## fishcrazy

Buckeye tom catches alot of stream muskies. Check out the picture with snow on the banks. fishcrazy :B


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## peon

iv known tom to go out and break the ice off the creeks to catch em... been with himw when he catches em in the winter... seems like he goes in the winter more then summer...


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## Mushijobah

Thanks a lot guys.


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