As we slip into December, most musky anglers have long ago winterized their boats, cleaned their reels and hung up their rods. While the allure of deer hunting and holiday festivities are more than enough to divert the attention of the musky amasses, a handle full of winter warriors knows that the last few days of open water can yield dramatic musky results.
Before we take a look at the tactics of late-season musky fishing, I would mention that anglers need to be prepared for the bitter cold conditions. While warm clothes and safety equipment are obvious things, one must have prepared before braving the last days before ice-up. One must also take extra precautions with their reels, lures and outboard motors.
Keeping reels completely ice-free is a losing battle in sub-freezing conditions. However, ice and its subsequent damage can be avoided by using lubricants such as WD-40. Spraying down the moving parts of your reel with lubrication will prevent the build-up of water and, subsequently, ice. A fun piece of trivia is that the “WD” in WD-40 stands for Water Displacement.
Any lures that you fish with during frigid conditions need to be thoroughly dried after usage. When water freezes, creating ice, its volume expands, possibly leading to lure damage. The plastic lips inserted on some lures, such as Jakes, can become loose if remnant water is left to freeze on the lure. Any lure with inset weights, such as Titans and Krakens, should be dried, as damage can be caused by ice expansion under insert weights. Lures with epoxy finishes can be damaged with just the slightest bit of water intrusion, causing finish cracks. While freezing damage to lures is rare, I recommend taking the time to dry lures off after usage to avoid even the slightest possibility.
While it might seem obvious, remember to drain your outboard engine after usage during extreme temperatures, some issues can arise from ice while on the water. If, for instance, your game plan is to fish live bait while drifting or using your trolling motor, one should periodically start their outboard to prevent damage. I can assure you that plenty of outboard engine blocks have been destroyed by anglers who neglected to run their engine often enough during extreme fishing conditions.
While all the above is more than enough to keep most musky anglers planted on the couch with a cup of coffee, some of us are just the right mix of crazy and stupid enough to embrace the extra struggles that come with late-season musky fishing. The old adage “if it was easy, everyone would be doing it” seems rather applicable to the last few days of open water.
While the extreme conditions and cold-water temperatures complicate the process of angling, they do carry a benefit from a pattering standpoint. As ice creeps into the edges of lakes, the falling temperatures reduce locations that actively feeding muskies will use. In most circumstances, muskies will be found in a higher density in a smaller area as a result of bait fish congregating on deep structures and/or over open water. With higher forage density leading to the concentration of predators, anglers during this time frame can focus on small areas while expecting to present to numerous muskies using both structure and open water. One should note that even with a high concentration of muskies in these areas, bite windows pre-ice-up are often very short, but if you have located a high density of baitfish and subsequently muskies, multiple muskies can be caught during these short but intense feeding windows.
To maximize your pre-ice-up success, I recommend that each day on the water start with a complete scan of open water in search of areas with the highest bait fish density. After an electronics sweep of suspect areas, one can easily compare their findings and subsequently focus their angling efforts in the highest-density locations.
Simply put, casting in during the last days of muskie season is a fool’s errand. While it can be done, more time is often spent chipping ice out of rod eyelets and reels than presenting lures. For maximum coverage and ease of use on the water, trolling is a far easier process. While ice is still a concern, it is far more manageable while trolling.
Large presentations and late season seem to go hand in hand. Lures like 13” Grandmas, 12” Supernatural Mattlocks, and Headlocks seem to fit the bill for late-season trolling. If you are a caster at heart and are far from content sitting still and watching rod tips, jerk trolling large crankbaits and dive-and-rise lures like Suicks and Titans is a great way to stay engaged and keep the blood flowing on the coldest of cold days.
While large lures seemingly reign supreme during the late season, mid-sized trolling lures such as the Spanky Baits Grandma M9 should be on your radar as a downsized option. If you have “got a rip” but didn’t hook up or have thoroughly covered an area with large trolling options, often downsizing to lures with similar action and profile can help convert muskies that are not quite ready to commit to bigger offerings. Personally, I like to set a spread of trolling lures that range from 9” to 14” inches during this time frame. However, keep in mind that some areas and bodies of water limit the number of trolling lines that can be used.
Converting follows into strikes during Summer and Fall trolling is a game of well-timed jukes and turns, but ice-cold water usually requires a bit more subtlety. As water temperatures fall, I become far more reliant on throttling my engine back to create “float ups” before quickly re-engaging it. I will periodically slow to create this “float up” after passing through bait fish or over key structural elements.
While pre-ice-up isn’t for everyone, it is something that every musky angler should try at least once. Nothing will break the engine's drone and the misery of the bitter cold than the screaming of a trolling reel followed by a monster musky in your net.
Stay warm out there
