# Musky In Deep Water



## crittergitter (Jun 9, 2005)

I was on Alum trolling for 5 hours on Sunday and conditions seemed great. Nice SW breeze, warm sunny day and no crazy barometer stuff. Not the best moon times, but I don't focus solely on the moon times. Anyway, when we got on the water it showed 75 degree surface temps. However, there were no shallow fish to be found. Anytime we got in water shallower than 20 feet we didn't mark any fish(bait inlcluded). Also, there did not seem to be a thermocline set up at all. Fish were as deep as 23, 24, 27 deep in 30 feet of water. Why are all the fish holding so deep if the water is not hot? This seems screwy to me? It made for a tough day of musky fishing, but it was nice to be on the water. Any thoughts on this?


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## BaddFish (Jun 20, 2009)

See my post about Leesville  I'm confused too- I even had Saturday's crazy weather to help me but still nothing.

Generally I found fish 10-12' down in 25-30'.... but no takers.


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## lacdown (Apr 25, 2007)

Hey Kyle! A little OT, but I went to the spillway yesterday and saw a school of of about 30 sucker fish/carp by the bank... after about an hour I'm still pretty close by when I see them start to scatter as a nice muskie came barrelling through the pack to get a large morning snack!!! Some of these fish were over 24 inches long!


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## alfred dawes (Jul 4, 2006)

I seen the samething at Pyma.


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## Weatherby (May 27, 2005)

Kyle,
I think you may have answered your own question. Because there is no thermocline established the fish are free to go anywhere (and as deep) as they want.


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## crittergitter (Jun 9, 2005)

Chris,

I am unable to understand the why. I could appreciate it if the water was hot and devoid of dissolved oxygen levels. However, the surface temp showing 75 was an indicator to me that the DO level should not have been a problem. Maybe that is where I am wrong in making that assumption. I am not in the water trying to breath obviously. lol

Anyway, I was a little leery of pushing deep diving cranks back to 80-100 feet to reach those depths as I was concerned about delayed mortality with catching fish in that manner......ie; fish are deep, long line trolling, extended fight time and stress on the fish. 

Not sure if you saw the link posted on Chapter 41 site about the research project going on now. There is a 2 year study to research the effects of catch and release and delayed mortality in regard to musky fishing. Here is the link for anyone who wants to follow the blog of one of the field analysts.

http://projectnoblebeast.blogspot.com/


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## Weatherby (May 27, 2005)

I don't know why either I just know that EVERYTHING has been difficult to pattern this year.


Yes I've been following the research project for awhile now. Can't wait to start seeing some data.


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## magnus (Mar 10, 2008)

Hey thanks for that link. You can never have enough info about this, getting the fish back in the water safely is the most important part to us, all should take a minute to check it out.


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## ShutUpNFish (Apr 17, 2007)

I don't ask questions of why...mother nature does things we will never understand sometimes. Just do your best to try to get down to the fish when you mark them. If the bait was holding at 27', you can bet that there were muskies right down there with them being the opportunistic feeders that they are. At 27' all you have to do is get your bait down from 18' to 20' and they will come up to hit it.


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## Muskie_Guy (Mar 14, 2007)

In the Fall I catch fish 16 to 20 ft down at Chautauqua in 25 to 30 ft of water. Legend Perchbaits and the Plow work well for this


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## OHMC 1st VP (Apr 18, 2008)

Fished Alum this past Wednesday and marked fish 12-13' of water near the power lines. Only managed to hook up with a LMB up there, but it was a nice hook up since we were doing R&D on some new baits my buddy is working on. That was the 3rd prototype, and it fooled a fish 

Down closer to the dam fish were holding around 15' or so. Picked up a 29" running a shad bait down to 14' in front of the marina. Fished from 8am to 7pm and the only other action we had was snagging a channel cat by the tail.

Between showers, around mid-day, there was a flurry of activity on the bar just South the causeway on the East. Right in front the excavation project there on the bank (anybody know what they are doing there...?). Gulls were diving, big fish were bustin' shad everywhere...all up in shallower water. We switched to 00 AC shiners, and DB III's and short-lined all through it. Even stopped and threw some jerk baits for a few minutes and didn't figure out what was in there.

Just starting to really learn Alum, but fishing with a couple guys that know it well...this time of year, regardless of water temp, the fish just lurk in deep water. About 3 weeks ago, we picked up a 40" across the lake from the marina on exactly the same trolling pattern. The guys that are catching fish out there are all trolling 14-15' down. Just seems to be the nature of the lake.


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