Musky Seasonality Guide: Where to Find Muskies Year-Round in Any Water: Tennessee Musky Guide

Musky Seasonality Guide: Where to Find Muskies Year-Round in Any Water

The age-old question in musky fishing is, where are the muskies? At times, even seasoned musky anglers find themselves befuddled in the pursuit of these elusive creatures. Are they mid-depth, shallow, or deep? Are they spawning or buried in the mud? To the uninitiated or ill-informed, they could be anywhere, you might not be aware of my concepts regarding multi-level checks and more, so now might be a good time to start from the very beginning as they are covered in my book Next Level Musky Fishing. However, if you’re already versed in these ideas, we can now expound on the where and when of finding muskies based on general seasonality, especially across prime musky waters like Melton Hill Lake, Parksville Lake, and Center Hill Lake (as examples). This, coupled with the three-point bait check, will expedite the process of dialing in on where muskies can be found throughout the year anywhere in the musky habitat range. But let’s start with ice out and the period that takes place in the northern habitat zone.

Ice-Out Pre-Spawn: Muskies Under Ice & First Moves

When the ice starts cracking in the northern musky habitat range, you can nearly hear the rattling of tackle boxes being loaded into Lunds. As winter gives way to the earliest days of spring, muskies still trapped under ice are starting to make moves. For some obtuse reason, the majority of musky anglers are convinced that muskies are completely dormant while confined under the ice, which has been proven not to be the case.

I would contend that a hearty layer of ice creates a near-perfect environment for muskies. Months of perpetual low light or complete darkness under layers of snow and ice paints a rather scary picture for the rest of the food chain. Walleyes, ciscos, and other various baitfish are undoubtedly on high alert as they are confined in a small area with an apex predator highly attuned to movement and vibration. This period under the ice is far removed from the comfortable days of weed beds and hiding in cover. This period under the ice is unarguably filled with constant predation moving up the entire food chain, ending in the jaws of the mighty muskellunge.

During this period, muskies who “put on the feed bag” in the fall, as some like to say, still must maintain their caloric intake and body mass in preparation for the impending spawn. While lower water temperatures lead to a lessening of caloric needs, don’t for an instant think that muskies locked under the ice in your local waters are simply waiting for ice-out to do what they do best: kill.

While muskies under the ice cannot be targeted anywhere in the habitat range, a part of me thinks it is a shame. Taking away all the highly factual and valuable prerequisite thoughts regarding conservation and letting your mind wander to what beasts are lurking beneath the ice of Canadian Shield lakes can drive any musky angler crazy. A forty-pound musky haunting the weed beds of Lac Seul in the summer would be how heavy during the winter and the pre-spawn period? If that doesn’t send shivers of curiosity up your spine, you might be dead. Please don’t misunderstand my statements—muskies should and are left alone during this period—but good lord, those intrusive thoughts of the mega tankers before the spawn are the fish of dreams and nightmares. However, for sanity’s sake, we should move on to ice-out before I buy a shanty and start drilling holes the size of oil drums.

Early Ice-Out Musky Locations & Pre-Spawn Pat

As the ice begins to fade from the surface of inland waterways, the sun’s thermal energy starts to directly transfer to the water itself. The same process that broke down a long winter’s layer of ice begins to influence the shallowest edges and pockets of water the quickest. Areas of waterways best measured in inches warm the fastest during the foreshortened early days of spring. Often, the thermal energy transferred from the sun’s radiation to the water’s surface is lost as evening temperatures drop under the shroud of darkness that is a cool spring night. The process of energy transfer between your local lake and a glowing orb nearly 93 million miles away is a slow one. But keep in mind, microbes—the absolute baseline creatures of the food chain—are taking full advantage of this increase in energy transfer even in the earliest days of spring.

Stoneflies, midges, and a menagerie of small aquatic creatures kick-start the food chain in the extreme edges of waterways just mere days after they are ice-free. This spurs an upward economy of predation as minnows, chubs, and an assortment of smaller fish move in to take advantage of the year’s first open-water feeding opportunities.

Muskies during this pre-spawn time frame make moves shallow to predate. While some female muskies might hang on shallow edges to merely soak up thermal energy, their smaller male counterparts are often very active in the shallows. Areas like the upper peninsula of Michigan, where there is no closed musky season, present a rare opportunity for shallow musky fishing when the ice first starts to dissipate. On numerous occasions, a friend and I have encountered mid-thirty-inch presumptive male muskies taking full advantage of this pre-spawn period post-ice.

This pre-season, pre-spawn period is a micro-pattern in the grand picture of musky seasonality as they begin to get serious about pre-spawn staging shortly thereafter. As sunlight is translated to slightly higher water temperatures, female muskies already heavily laden with eggs stage in mid-depth waters just off the edges of spawning flats in anticipation of the spawn. This pre-spawn staging seems to correlate with the pike spawn in the northern habitat range. Simply put, muskies move in when the ice breaks, do some feeding, and push out to mid-depth water when the pike move in to do their annual mating rituals. It should be noted that at times signals get crossed. Pike and muskies at times crossbreed during this early time frame, which leads to the birth of tiger muskies. However, barring extreme turns in weather conditions, muskies and pike tend to allow a bit of space during this time frame. Whether it be genetic preservation or simply creating space is a question that will remain unanswered, but it is a good rule of thumb that when the pike move in to spawn, muskies will push out toward mid-depth haunts. I would be remiss not to consider the possibility of predation opportunities for muskies during the pike spawn. Adult muskies surely take advantage of pike in a weakened state after completing the spawning process as they make their way back to their deeper haunts. This might influence in some small way muskies’ movements slightly back out during the earliest stages of ice-out.

When the water temperatures are present for pike spawning, it should be noted that walleyes are also generally at the same point in their life cycle. While it is dependent on exact geographical location, walleyes can and do spawn at water temperatures in the low forties. This temperature range can happen rather quickly after ice-out during years that have warm springs. One would be foolish to think that muskies are not taking advantage of this walleye spawning event, especially in productive reservoirs like Melton Hill Lake or Center Hill Lake where walleye runs draw muskies shallow.

If you are able to target muskies during this pre-spawn period, you should consider yourself lucky but also be mindful of negative impacts. While they might be at their heaviest, muskies full of eggs are the genetic future of your fishery. If you are targeting muskies during this period, quick and safe handling should be a top-of-mind consideration. I have on multiple occasions turned pre-spawn muskies out of the net in hopes that minimized handling would have a lessened impact on their reproductive viability. Admittedly, in the past I have hoisted more than my fair share of pre-spawn giants up for a photo. But after seeing the number of eggs they leave in the net and the boat, it has made me reconsider my previous actions.

Musky Spawning Season: Timing, Locations & Best Practices

When the water temperatures start to rise to the mid-to-upper 50s, muskies, through their instinctual call, know where and when it’s time to spawn. They typically proceed to soft-bottomed areas. Muskies are notable broadcast spawners. This means that neither female nor male tend their eggs after the spawn is complete. They have no instinctual attachment to their offspring, who are left to develop alone.

During the spawn, musky behavior has been well documented. Many studies have found that at any pre-determined location, muskies will spread and fertilize eggs for stretches of up to 500 feet. There aren’t any qualifying rules that biologists can understand as far as overall spacing; however, it has been determined that overfertilized eggs (fertilized by more than one male) are unproductive, so their egg spread likely produces greater numbers by adding distance between targets.

Muskies can participate in the spawn for up to three weeks. Typically, the females’ jobs are complete by week two, while the males stay longer to ensure they fertilize wide swaths of area. The males will then fall away to their late-spring residences as well. When the spawn is finally complete, it goes without saying that muskies are exhausted. This process is long and arduous and takes them much of the spring to recover.

The spawn is the most intense and physically stressful time for muskies. During this time frame, muskies do not eat. Their sole purpose is to reproduce. During this time frame, muskies should be left alone. Due to the stress and their presence in extreme shallow areas, numerous states have a specified musky season. It has been documented through tracking studies that muskies disturbed during the spawning process will not return to the spawning grounds during subsequent years. This fact opens up questions about alternative spawning areas or simply poses that these fish are removed from any real meaningful reproductive endeavors.

While musky anglers and pseudo-scientists have gotten a lot of things wrong about muskies over the years, leaving them alone during the spawn is not one of them. If you are in a state or region with wide-open seasons, the responsibility falls directly on your shoulders.

Post-Spawn Muskies: Explosive Shallow Bites & Giant Opportunities: Find Post-Spawn Musky

The post-spawn period is when most serious musky angling starts for the year and can be an explosive time to tangle with some true giants. As female muskies linger near shallow water, they become accessible for casting presentations for a brief period of time. The concept of small lure presentations has been beaten into the heads of every musky angler during this post-spawn period for eons. As muskies stage and linger in and near spawning flats—think the shallow bays of Parksville Lake or the fertile flats of Center Hill Lake—their diet that once consisted of trophy-class walleye and jumbo perch turns to the easiest forage found in their home waters. Minnows and chubs replace the far more evasive aforementioned baitfish as they pose little flight risk to an adult musky. Large meals are replaced with small morsels—mere snacks to replenish their depleted energy stores during this post-spawn period. Numerous small and opportunistic meals are the cigarette after sex that muskies crave. While a large meal might satisfy their caloric needs, the energy needed to hunt and chase down an adult walleye or perch is simply a bridge too far. Muskies use their sheer size and a few tail whips to pick off the smallest prey item. It should be noted if the opportunity arises for a magnum-sized meal in close proximity that muskies will take full advantage of the situation, but that is a game of horseshoes and hand grenades. On numerous occasions, post-spawn muskies have been dialed in on small rattle lures and tiny twitch baits but still find a standard-sized Bulldawg irresistible if it is placed ever so close to them with a perfect cast.

Best Post-Spawn Lures & Locations (Year-Round Waters)

Post-spawn musky anglers should focus their efforts on shallow flats and musky areas that are in the warmest part of their waters. I would mention that during pre-musky season, pre-spawn reconnaissance is valuable to know exactly where muskies spawn. A good rule of thumb is sub-five feet in the warmest sections of a lake. This means maximum sun exposure in conjunction with shallow flats. A quick way to narrow your scope of search is areas that typically hold substantial weed growth during late spring and early summer are pretty good bellwethers for warm and shallow areas. With a bit of map study and logical deduction based on sun exposure and bottom composition should point you in the right direction, whether on Melton Hill Lake’s protected coves or Center Hill Lake’s upper reaches.

Once you have identified muskies’ spawning areas, one should also learn the connection structural elements that lead to deeper water as the largest muskies will tend to use these slightly deeper zones for the majority of their post-spawn time. The old trope of “I moved a monster and never saw it again” can be alleviated by targeting the connecting elements that transition even the shallowest spawning grounds with the sanctuary provided by deep and stable water.

Targeting post-spawn muskies is at times challenging but can be fast-paced if conditions align. One should keep in mind that your standard musky presentations are generally unproductive and that one should err toward diminutive lures more akin to jumbo bass offerings. The post-spawn classic in the South is the proverbial Rat-L-Trap. Available in both sinking and floating variants, Rat-L-Traps can be thrown out and retrieved in a simple straight-retrieve fashion with substantial results. Seasoned musky anglers, however, will add in rips, pulls, and flutters and even yo-yo techniques to engage with even more post-spawn muskies.

Small crankbaits like the Joe Bucher Baby ShallowRaider, the Crane Baits 206, and Slammer Fatty Minnow also excel in this post-spawn period. All of these lure options can be twitched, ripped, and straight-retrieved over the spawning flats with enough action to get attention but a profile small enough to get an eat. Utilizing a slack-line twitch is a great starting point with small crankbaits during the infancy of musky season. This makes your lure seemingly struggle and slowly rise to the surface like the weakest and most vulnerable baitfish, making it an easy meal for a post-spawn musky who constantly considers the risk and reward of predation.

One should also consider the effectiveness of small dive-and-rise presentations like the Livingston Lures Titan Junior during this post-spawn period. This downsized dive-and-rise has an action that conveys the presence of a weak and injured baitfish but also adds a bit of subtle appeal for conditioned and weary muskies still lurking the shallow post-spawn. The Titan Junior is a deadly post-spawn presentation that is best used with short subtle pulls that send it plunging down in conjunction with moments of pause, allowing it to rise at unpredictable angles on the rise.

Small bucktails like the Buchertail 500 series, Windells, and Mepps Giant Killers should be a staple in your post-spawn musky fishing arsenal. These mini bucktail options run shallow and can be presented in a myriad of ways, from blazing-fast speeds to slow-rolling and everywhere in between.

One should note that even under perfect conditions, proximity is the key with post-spawn muskies. Small lures have small vibrational profiles that do not permeate very far into the water column. Simply put, if a musky can’t see or feel your lure, it will not react, so saturation casting is the key during this time frame. Savvy anglers will make numerous casts that criss-cross across these at times vast spawning flats. It can at times be hard to believe that a musky would react the first, second, or third time that a lure ran near it, but my experience has told me that there are never too many casts made on the shallow flats when muskies are just entering the post-spawn phase of their life cycle.

While casting is king immediately post-spawn, do not overlook the opportunity to troll small lures like Llunge .22 shorts, Livingston Lures Bull Dozers, and five-inch ShallowRaiders. Big muskies tend to drop back the instant that conditions are less than prime, and the ever-so-slightly deeper water adjacent to spawning grounds can lead to some gargantuan catches during this post-spawn period.

Spring Musky Transition: Phase 2 Trolling & Suspended Fish

Most anglers make the jump tactically from post-spawn to a full-tilt assault with tactics best reserved for later in the season once air temps creep into the sixties and seventies with any modicum of regularity. While you might feel excited and nimble riding on a wave of warm air, muskies that mere weeks ago were snacking on the tiniest of baitfish are still on a slow upward trajectory of reasserting their dominance in the water column.

As spring establishes that it is here to stay and muskies continue their uphill climb to recuperation, their tendencies for slightly larger forage items come back into play. While one should keep small blades and Rat-L-Traps on hand for downturns and cold fronts, making the shift to what most would call musky baits is a viable option. Lures like single 600- and 700-sized bucktails, seven-inch-class minnow baits, and regular-sized rubber lures should be on your radar. I personally think that many musky anglers get dialed in on the post-spawn bite quickly; however, they miss the boat when it comes to this transition.

This gray area between post-spawn and early summer is a time for serious trolling application in most areas. As waters warm, it takes an extreme amount of thermal energy before it permeates the water column, creating a population of adult muskies that crave the increased metabolism and the healing elements associated with the warmth but have vacated the extreme shallows. In its simplest form, large adult muskies will move out of the skinny water to avoid competition with juveniles. These larger muskies still crave the comforts of warmer water and are often suspended in the upper water column near shallow flats and open basins.

Targeting these post-spawn suspended muskies with trolling tactics is a matter of efficiency in regard to covering water. Presentations like 7” Slammer Minnows, 8” Jakes, and Grandmas excel during this period if weather and water conditions are prime. Downturns in conditions can be addressed by reverting to smaller presentations. Musky crankbaits that are in the five-to-six-inch range are great trolling options during spring cold fronts, but don’t underestimate the value of bass crankbaits for this application. The Livingston Lures Howler, Rapala X-Raps, and a variety of large bass crankbaits perfectly fit the bill as downsized muskie presentations.

Keep in mind that trolling small and mid-sized blades is also highly effective during this time frame. Mepps Giant Killers and single 700-sized bucktails can be trolled using a flat line for shallow applications or in conjunction with added weight or vertical planers to dial in their running depth based on day-to-day conditions.

Spring Musky Patterns: Weather, Recovery & Recon Tips

Each year, the post-spawn time and muskies’ subsequent rebound can be influenced by numerous factors. Snowfall and freezing temperatures in early spring are not off the table for the northern habitat range. Late wintry weather can grind the post-spawn recovery to a screeching halt. In extreme cases, the spawn itself can be disrupted, as displayed by muskies still carrying eggs long into warm-water periods.

The inverse of this is an extreme acceleration of the early spring timeline driven by warm, summer-like weather far earlier than is common. Under these circumstances, muskies and their entire ecosystem go into hyperdrive. These years are marked with early ice-outs, spawning activity completed, and the muskies’ subsequent recovery completed long before the starting gun is fired for musky season in northern states.

With weather patterns and climates changing, knowing what trajectory each spring will bring is consistently inconsistent. While one could buy into whatever the current “musky grumblings” are regarding what kind of spring it is, I would suggest a reliance on in-person, on-the-water observations. Getting on the water and targeting panfish or other species immediately after ice-out not only knocks the dust off of your angling skills but can be the start of your musky patterning for the year.

While targetable species will vary geographically, getting on the water early and targeting what most would consider bait is a valuable endeavor. This grants insight into forage movements and allows for some recon regarding water temperatures and musky movements. While areas with closed musky seasons prohibit targeting them, one can still use their observational skills to gain an understanding of where muskies are in their lifecycle each spring.

I would make the observation that regardless of an early or late spring, most musky anglers find something to complain about. “It’s too hot” or “It’s late ice” or something along those lines spiced up with an expletive seem to be the common fare. I believe the princess-and-the-pea mentality of musky anglers in the early spring and post-spawn period is symptomatic of the tactics and methodologies being outside of their wheelhouse.

Starting your musky season off with small presentations has surpassed being common knowledge and has become dogma at this point. Yet it still at times seems to fall on deaf ears. While I must agree that throwing monster-sized lures feels more like what I would call musky fishing, getting shallow and small in the spring is the most effective game plan. Amassing and becoming proficient with a small arsenal of musky and bass presentations coupled with an understanding of structure and seasonality will put you leaps and bounds ahead of other anglers during this post-spawn and spring period.

Early Summer Muskies: Peak Shallow Action & Weed Bed Bites

The early days of summer are marked with abundant warmth and growth that is both subaquatic and terrestrial. Some years, the mid-to-late days of spring could be considered summer, while other years the warmth’s arrival is as slow as molasses. Regardless, summer’s arrival is usually profound and often abrupt.

At this juncture, muskies have spawned, recuperated, and rebounded, but keep in mind, so have their other aquatic compatriots. Gone are the days of easy meals from post-spawn walleye, pike, and other vulnerable prey. Warmer water temperatures have begun to spike muskies’ metabolism, heightening their caloric needs and placing larger forage squarely on the menu.

With summer comes an abundance of shallow-water cover used by both predator and prey. Weeds and weed beds of varying composition fill the shorelines of many lakes, creating a jungle filled with carnage up and down the food chain. Muskies, being the apex predators, start maximizing their time spent in these shallow zones in the early days of summer due to the sheer volume of prey fish present. This period is marked by shallow walleyes, crappies, and other baitfish all taking refuge in or just on the edge of the littoral zone.

As seasoned musky anglers know, the early summer period can be some of the easiest yet productive fishing of the year. Topwaters and bucktails require just enough angling skill to turn a reel handle to become viable options. With muskies becoming accessible, this starts the peak of musky fishing season and pressure throughout the habitat range. This increase in musky angling activity takes place in states and regions with open season.

While one could pontificate the effects of increased angling pressure in the summer endlessly, it is an issue filled with so many variables regarding its impact on muskies and their feeding habits that any commentary would be painted with too wide of a brush. I would only mention that pressure and its effects can be avoided by focusing on less popular lakes and targeting bodies of water that are off the musky radar and beaten path, such as the underrated gems of Melton Hill Lake or Parksville Lake in Tennessee.

Early Summer Musky Lures, Locations & Tactics

Early summer musky fishing is generally dominated by bucktails. While I previously stated that angling pressure and its effects are a broad target, one would be safe to assume that bucktails constitute the vast majority of presentations muskies are seeing. This isn’t to say that one should avoid bucktails as their effectiveness is unarguable. However, one should be cognizant and realistic about the amount of angling pressure the waters they are targeting are receiving and adjust their game plan and presentations accordingly.

While bucktails are king during this early summer period, other bait classes begin to shine. Swimbaits like the Livingston Lures Magnus and the Musky Innovations Swimming Dawg more than hold their own as muskies are in search of a substantial meal. Titans, Suicks, and Bobbie Baits should also be on your radar as probative tools for dissecting weed beds and other shoreline cover. Depending on the volume of weed growth present, spinnerbaits like Steve’s Meat Grinder and Tailgater can alleviate weed fouling when targeting weedy shorelines.

During this early summer period, most if not all of your musky tackle box can and should be in play. Shallow Bulldawgs ripped over weeds and heftier presentations on the outside edges can be productive. Twitch baits like Slammers, Buchers, Cranes, and the like carry over from your springtime arsenal and should still have a substantial place in your lure rotation.

With the arrival of summer, just about every musky lure available becomes a viable option; when, where, and why to use them is a decision that must be made based on weather and water conditions in the moment. As covered in Next Level Musky Fishing Vol. 1, learning to read the water and strategize the right game plan based on all the clues nature and your electronics are providing will lead your hand to the right tool—the right lure for the job.

From a tactical standpoint, casting during this early summer period is relatively simple. Starting and ending your day on the shallow water is often the key to success. I would note that a keen eye should be paid to the first break and outside edges of cover as climatic changes will push muskies to stage ever so slightly deeper. With this in mind, staying dialed in during the early summer period often is as simple as a shift in boat positioning opposed to concocting an entirely new game plan.

Trolling should be a serious consideration during the early summer as muskies stage in both cover and open water. Trolling lure selection during this time frame is not dissimilar to casting—everything is on the table. Supernatural Headlocks and Mattlocks with their wide walk and wander are deadly over shallow edges and deep weeds. The tight wobble of a Grandma or the ShallowRaider will play depending on conditions and day-to-day activity levels.

At this point in the year, one should start taking serious note of the moon phase and other solar-lunar events such as majors and minors as their impacts can at times be noticeable. While my feelings regarding moon phases are conflicting at times, any slight advantage is always welcomed. I’ve said it before and will say it again: sometimes the moon, majors, and minors are everything, yet at other times they are meaningless. Be observant and aware of moon phase and solar-lunar events during this period, but don’t be a slave to it.

Early Summer Musky Behavior: Pelagic, Night Feeders & More

The early days of summer bring with them extended periods of daylight; this extended photoperiod begins to create larger gaps in musky feeding windows. It is at this juncture I believe muskies start assigning themselves to “different shifts.” The spawn coupled with colder spring temperatures and shorter day lengths tends to congregate muskies and get them all on the same general schedule. But the summer seems to redisperse muskies as they segregate themselves into different groups with divergent feeding schedules.

While some muskies will stay near the shoreline post-spawn and in relatively close proximity to edges for the remainder of the year, others take up different strategies. Some muskies will complete the spawn and recuperation period and return to an entirely pelagic existence by early summer.

Pelagic muskies have been tracked in various studies and rarely move in on cover and structure unless conditions are beyond prime. It seems that the rest of their existence is the pursuit of open-water baitfish in open-basin areas. For many years, I was certain that schooling ciscos and shad had to be present to facilitate a population of pelagic muskies, but with modern electronics and tracking studies, that does not seem to be the case. In fact, examples of muskies spending the vast majority of their life in open water have even been exhibited in river systems.

While no one truly knows what would spur one musky to spend its summers in the shallows and another to be in open water is anyone’s guess. But logic would lead me to believe that lower competition for high-caloric meals would stand to reason. This would also lend some answers as to why some of the largest muskies in a system are found in or near open water. However, it does present us with a conundrum: which came first, the chicken or the egg? Are pelagic muskies bigger and heavier on average because they are pelagic, or are they pelagic because they are bigger and heavier?

Unfortunately, this is a question that will have to go unanswered until a complete life-cycle study is conducted that may illuminate the demarcation line between pelagic and structural-based muskies.

Another tribe of muskies that begins to form during the early summer is a constituency of night feeders. Again, it would be conjecture to try and say why some muskies make the move to primarily feeding under the cover of darkness, but regardless, it starts taking place in the early days of summer. Be it pressure, competition, or forage preference, most bodies of water maintain a population of night feeders.

With limited funding for natural resource agencies coupled with a lack of large-scale musky interest is the causation for the infrequency in the number of musky studies being conducted. It should be noted that the few studies that have taken place are rarely looking to illuminate anything beyond population density or mortality. With that being said, one could argue that muskies have divergent survival strategies for a litany of reasons. This leads me to issue a caveat as the true nature of musky survival strategies and staging is unstudied, and I am speaking from a place of anecdotal fishing experience when categorizing muskies into different factions and groups. Simply put, I don’t know why they do it, but they do.

With musky populations fragmenting in the early summer, it puts even more emphasis on being a well-rounded angler. While casting will always be king, trolling and jigging can and should be a part of your musky game plan as the early days of summer offer up numerous opportunities outside of the standard cast-and-blast to the shoreline.

Peak Summer Muskies: Consistent Bites Across All Waters

As we roll into the heart of summer, muskies are nearing peak metabolism. Water temps are often well into the seventies, even on Canadian Shield lakes. And with so much thermal energy added every day, the subsurface ecosystem that comprises a musky’s world is at a fever pitch. From creatures far too small to see with the naked eye up the food chain all the way to the muskies, things are moving. Weed beds are at their fullest as the long days of summer all spark peak photosynthesis. Baitfish, panfish, and walleyes abound as terrestrial and subaquatic bug hatches seem nearly constant. This, coupled with the fact that most years the weather patterns during peak summer are relatively stable with only an occasional downturn here or there, I would think it would be safe to assume that from a musky’s perspective, life has got to be pretty good during this time frame.

One doesn’t have to do any guesswork to know that this peak summer period is some of the most consistent musky fishing of the year. While we will touch later regarding the juxtaposition of seasonality relative to geographical location, one cannot think of anything less than July and early August in Canada when conceptualizing the prime segment of summer. Experiencing peak summer conditions on the apex waters of the sport should be on every serious musky angler’s bucket list. I would note that this summer peak applies to the entire habitat range but is a moving seasonal target that runs far deeper than what month or day the calendar says.

As a matter of personal opinion, this summer peak is when muskies start getting really interesting as so many factors and moving pieces are in play. While the early summer is generally a shallow endeavor, peak summer muskies start fragmenting into even more diverse groups, creating a greater variety of casting and trolling opportunities. Deep weed edges are now in serious play. Rocks, reefs, bars, and other structural elements all have their time and place. Open-water trolling for suspended and pelagic muskies reaches a boiling point, and one can’t help but dream of the sunset topwater action that summer peak inevitably brings. True, all the things that keep a musky angler’s mind sane through the cold winter months are taking place during this summer peak period.

Summer peak offers diverse opportunities and a myriad of options for those willing to explore a bit more than shoreline weed edges. So, let’s unpack a few prime tactics and thoughts for peak summer muskies.

Top Peak Summer Musky Presentations & Locations

Let’s start by touching again on the prerequisite usefulness of bucktails during this time frame. Barring heavy modification, they are effective and useful in and around shallow cover and structure, drawing in active muskies like a moth to a flame. I have no disdain for bucktails, but I would point out that far too many musky anglers lean on them for the vast majority of their fishing. While they may feel confident wielding some double blades and flashabou, at some point to advance your musky fishing to the next level, one must branch out.

During the peak summertime frame, you can easily catch muskies casting the same shallow littoral zones as spring and early summer. This is in fact what the majority do, but they are missing the proverbial boat. Muskies begin spending less and less time in shallow zones during this period. Yes, muskies of all sizes will move into shallow zones to feed under prime conditions but are often found staging on deeper edges and deeper cover.

Weed beds and vegetative areas that extend out into deeper water become top considerations as muskies will take full advantage of the stability offered from slightly deeper water and the minimized light penetration it provides. This makes deeper-running but still erratic baits a viable option for the vast majority of the day.

Tubes like the Livingston Lures Kraken and the Savage Gear Burbot can be used to coax strikes from muskies staged on and in the deeper sections of weed beds. While angling pressure is at its max during this time frame, anglers willing to probe a bit deeper will find that they are in short supply of company. Mature muskies that prefer cozy accommodations of slightly deeper water are generally under or behind where most musky anglers drive their boat. With most anglers being uncomfortable casting without a visual target, it leaves nearly limitless opportunities for serious casters.

Reefs are yet another untapped gold mine during this time frame. Not only do they hold some gravity with pelagic fish under prime conditions, muskies know that they are solid hunting grounds for walleyes. At first light or as the sun angle changes, walleyes can be found working their way from the bottom to the crests of reefs. Yet again, most anglers do not fish reefs that do not have a visible top as they lack the confidence to throw at a non-visible target. This opens yet another treasure chest for those anglers willing to put in the effort toward good boat control and overall positioning.

Truly nothing is off the table tactically during summer peak. While shallow and mid-depth casting is highly effective, the trolling bite can be phenomenal. Depending on weather conditions, trolling might outproduce casting on any given day. While most anglers rightfully are content to cast during this peak period, covering water—especially open water during low-light periods—can yield monstrous results.

Twelve-inch Headlocks, fifteen-inch Jakes, and just about any other larger-than-life trolling lure can get the done. During this peak summer period, I tend to lean toward bigger is better as the opportunities for large fish are definitely on the table. It goes without saying, but weather and the conditions at hand should dictate your trolling lure selection; I tend to always err on the side of shock and awe during this time frame.

Peak Summer Musky Tips: Patterns, Pressure & Efficiency

I would say that more than a healthy percentage of the written word regarding muskies is about or alludes to this peak time frame. Big lures, high speeds, and hot figure eights are all part of the peak summer musky experience. I would venture to guess this period is what most anglers consider to be the best. While I am admittedly partial to this time frame, I can’t pick a favorite per se, but I would confess that this is some of the most action-packed time to be on the water.

My advice during this time frame is to do it all and to do it all proficiently. In the grand scheme of things, this activity peak only lasts a few weeks per year regardless of where you are. Plan to be on the water and plan to be on the boat as long as you can. When the summer peak is gone, the easy days are usually over, and things get a bit more laborsome. Utilize every minute and every hour in the most efficient ways possible. Split your majors between casting and trolling until a pattern emerges and replicate it until results diminish.

Possibly my favorite factor of this peak summertime period is that once you are dialed in, your presentation style and type generally translates to any kind of structure, cover, or depth that muskies are using. This is the time of year to find a pattern and exploit it to put peak summer muskies in your net consistently.

Late Summer Muskies: Dog Days Adjustments & Deep Structure

Kaboom, and it feels like the party’s over, and just like that we slip into the dog days of summer. Late summer brings some of the hottest days of the year. In some regions, this is accompanied by massive algae blooms and a lack of rainfall or a meaningful weather cycle.

While muskies are still predating, their staging and habits start to change slowly or dramatically based upon the intensity of the given year. Shallow-water bites are fewer and farther between as most muskies have followed walleyes and other baitfish down to somewhat deeper sections. This shift is symptomatic of water temperatures increasing at deeper depths.

The canary in the coal mine for this late summer shift is often water temperature transducer readings in the mid-to-upper seventies not only at the transom but also at the trolling motor. A lack of temperature discrepancy between these two readings shows that the summer’s warmth has permeated deeply into the water column.

This period of the musky’s lifecycle is where many anglers are completely out of their comfort zone. Presentations for consistent success require a bit more elbow grease and a deeper structural understanding to be presented appropriately, but trust me, the muskies are still hungry and ready to strike.

Before moving forward, I would be remiss not to mention the negative impacts of hot water and musky mortality. If you encounter water temperatures in the eighties, it might be wise to switch bodies of water or target species—or not, I’m not your mom.

Late Summer Musky Lures & Tactics for Hot Water

While late summer might feel like they have a front-row seat on the struggle bus for most musky anglers, those willing to adjust can find consistent success. During this time frame, efforts are best focused on deeper structure and extreme outside edges. It should be mentioned anytime there is a substantial cooldown, fish can and often do revert to shallow-water staging, but this is judged on a year-to-year basis.

I find myself wanting to refer to this time frame and the “dog” days of summer as for many years Magnum Bulldawgs dominated this time frame as a top presentation on my boat. While new lures like tubes and other deeper-running baits are currently available, for quite a few years the timeless Bulldawg was the only game in town. I often thought that the “jerk” bait should refer to the attitude of late summer muskies throughout the habitat range. While they are still highly active and feeding, they require a bit more finesse than one would initially expect.

The overarching theme of late summer muskies tends to be deep presentations that provide a big target with maximum thump vibration. Yes, big blades and magnum crankbaits all have a seat at the table during this time frame, but hour for hour on the water, big jerkbaits seem to excel. To the same token, large swimbaits like the Livingston Lures Magnus worked at depth will engage with muskies that are now staged on deeper and outside edges for the majority of the day.

During this time frame, one should not pack up their blades and topwaters or other shallow presentations but should be aware of the potential and high likelihood of deeper staging. Yet again, a deeper understanding of a body of water’s structural elements and the ability to identify deep weed edges and other cover via your electronics becomes paramount to consistent success.

A profound understanding of your lures’ running depths while trolling during this time frame can be the difference between success and failure. The ability to make consistent contact with hard structures like reefs and points while coaxing bottom-tight muskies into striking is a skill one should be comfortable with. The line between a snag and a perfect glancing blow to a reef top is a razor’s edge at four miles an hour.

Trolling presentations like the Smity Deep and Big Fork Reef Digger are ready and able to do the dirty work of grinding out bites over otherworldly rocks and deep cover. In the same vein of deeper trolling applications, the classic eight-inch Depth-Raider and the Cisco Kid are more than viable options for structurally tight muskies.

While the sun provides a brutal celestial beating on the water, anyone willing to float on it during the dog days of summer, there are still serious angling opportunities. During this time period, I like to turn my attention to the wee hours of the morning, the waning hours of the evening, and some serious time dedicated to the after-hours muskies shrouded by the cover of darkness. Not only will your dermatologist thank you, but these night-shift muskies at times will slide into slightly more accessible zones for casting application based on weather and water shifts.

Summer Musky Fishing in Any Region: Key Takeaways

Summer and musky fishing are like Wisconsin supper clubs and dinner rolls, Chuck Berry and hookers, or as some might simply say peanut butter and jelly—they just jive. Summer is unarguably the height of musky season for most anglers and rightfully so. Shallow and hot are usually red flags for me personally, but it seems to be just the ticket for some of the easiest musky action of the year.

While anyone could have a modicum of musky fishing success by endlessly throwing bucktails at weed beds and shallow structures, a higher level of consistency and success are up for the taking to those willing to break away from the pack. Keeping an ever-weary eye out for the harbingers sounding the ringing bells warning of changes in patterning that most miss. Keep your mind ahead of the patterns, always looking and thinking forward, and you will stay on the bite during the mighty musky summers we all look forward to.

Early Fall Muskies: Shallow Return & Aggressive Feeding

Early fall brings not only relief from the summer’s intense heat for humans, it also is the break needed to draw baitfish and subsequently muskies back into shallow habitat zones. As days shorten, the cover of night is able to extricate the summer’s heat like a slathering of aloe vera to a sunburn. While some years are slower than others, a return to the shallows is an inevitability for muskies as the littoral zone becomes more and more hospitable each and every day. As smaller fish slide into the shallow to yet again take advantage of edge feeding opportunities, muskies shortly thereafter follow suit. At this point, muskies are reacting in their staging. While they are content at their summer haunts at mid-to-deep locations, the movement of baitfish will pull them in.

This movement is in stark contrast to the spring when muskies are shallow for spawning reasons and feeding is a distant secondary concern. Under the circumstances of fall, musky actions are in direct response to the migration of their food sources. While it should be noted that some muskies will continue their pelagic means of predation, many will make this shallow transition.

In some regions, muskies will tuck far shallower than expected in the early fall. Of note are Minnesota muskies that on many bodies of water will stage in mere inches, often at times using only a handful of reeds as a means of concealment to predate on bluegills and other shallow-water fish during the early fall. This same extremely shallow-water staging happens more often than one would think in other parts of the habitat range. Muskies in the deep south and some Midwest muskies in tannic water can be found in the earliest days of fall in the now-hospitable waters found in the shallowest zones.

This early fall period is a return to shallow-water presentations such as blades and topwaters and a viable means to a musky end. Muskies found in the shallows during early fall, as previously stated, are there for predation. While some have spun yarns about muskies sunning in these zones, which might hold some water, their reactions to lures seem to be far more aggressive than casts made to muskies that just happen to be there during other time periods.

While not all muskies will push into the extreme shallows, the move back in is pronounced regardless of where they are in the habitat range during this early fall transition. Weed beds and shallow cover that was highly productive in the early segment of summer revert right back to just that when surface temperatures begin to arch downward.

As with all things musky, weather changes can often cause sudden reversions in behavior. A random warm spell in the early fall should be an indication to circle back to the tactics that were productive in the dog days of summer. The flip side of this equation is that an unexpected cold snap can often turn things quickly, creating a shallow-water feeding frenzy during the early days of fall.

Any climatic activity that moves the mercury up or down during this early fall time frame should be addressed immediately with adjustments in your presentations and target zones. Being able to make instant transitions with a high level of confidence from deep edges and structural elements back to the cast-blast nature of ultra-shallow fishing is a key component to consistent results during this early fall period.

Early Fall Musky Lures, Locations & Trolling Strategies

Not dissimilar to the early days of summer, most lure classes and presentation styles are on the table early fall. Bucktails, topwaters, crankbaits, dive-and-rise, and big rubber lures are constant staples during this time frame. However, their effectiveness is a day-to-day equation fundamentally based on the weather and water conditions at hand. One should not be reliant on one bait class or presentation style in the early fall—or for that matter any other time of the year. A focus should yet again be paid to gaining a level of proficiency with each and every bait class available to modern-day musky anglers.

The early fall period is often one of the most volatile periods of the musky season from a climatic standpoint. Some years are filled with wind strong enough to rip leaves that have yet to begin turning the lightest shade of orange prematurely from their parent branches. While other years are a whimper, giving way to the winter without putting up anything resembling a fight.

From my purview on the planet, I have identified that our climate and weather patterns are changing—whether it be man-made causation or shifts in the earth’s axial rotation in relation to the sun is a question for people far smarter than I. I would say for clarification purposes that I’m a musky guide, not a politician or climate researcher, so go bark up someone else’s tree if that thought chaps your ass. But as someone who keeps extremely detailed records detailing day-to-day weather data, I find that I must admit that it is nearly impossible to find anything that constitutes weather consistency on a year-to-year basis over the last decade. This seems to hold especially true for our transitional periods of spring and fall, but I digress.

Regardless of what causes the current volatility during the fall period, a savvy musky angler needs to have a heightened sense of situational awareness and adjust quickly and accordingly to maximize their productivity on the water. Fast climatic changes demand quick responses for us to stay ahead of musky patterns rather than chasing them.

While the need for constant adjustments is always a moving target, midsized presentations should be the baseline of your musky lure selections during this early time frame. While downsized presentations might feel comfortable and easier in the shallowest sections of waterways, targeting prime locations with bigger presentations is often a key component of triggering strikes during this transitional time frame.

As previously mentioned, spring muskies in these same shallow zones have a far more opportunistic slant to their demeanor due to pre- and post-spawn activities. Simply put, “I’m here and I’m hungry” seems to encapsulate the indiscriminate nature of post-spawn muskies. Conversely, muskies using these shallow zones in the fall are here merely to predate. This brings up the equation of caloric risk versus reward: is a musky in the fall staging shallow more adept to follow and subsequently strike a large presentation or expend calories multiple times for the same net caloric value? I think the obvious answer is muskies in the early fall are looking for one large meal in the shallows before they move back into the comfort of the first major break to digest and reap their high-yield, low-risk rewards.

With this concept in the forefront of your mind, one should focus on adjusting their casting and retrieval styles to accommodate large presentations in shallow areas. Higher rod angles at the beginning of retrieves with large blades and crankbaits is often more than enough to cope with smaller target areas. Opting for shallow versions of magnum rubber presentations allows for the extended hang time needed to trigger strikes in the early fall period. Taking full advantage of the weighting adjustability of lures like the Livingston Lures Titan, Kraken, and Magnus easily allows anglers to quickly tweak their retrieval speeds and subsequent depths.

While this early fall period is often notoriously shallow on the edges of most waterways, suspended muskies will also move shallower but are often suspended over deeper water. This opens the door to some rather interesting trolling opportunities.

Shallow lures like bucktails and even topwaters can be trolled during the early fall over mid-depth edges and even shallow basins. Side-to-side glide baits like the Livingston Lures Viper and the Savage Gear Shine Glide can be used to cover vast amounts of water. Neo-classics like the Smoker Shad SS and other wake baits can produce thunderous strikes that are visible to anyone watching behind the boat.

One of my favorite tactics during this time frame is using twelve-inch Supernatural Headlocks with their lip pin moved to the shallowest setting with a mere ten feet of line out behind the boat. While the wobble and wander of a shallow trolling bait seems universally hypnotic to my clients, I encourage them to keep an eye on the lure behind the boat. This is mostly imparted to the fact that I love seeing the look of utter shock on their faces when a trophy-class musky crushes this jumbo trolling lure just mere feet from where they are standing.

While not all early fall trolling bites are shallow in nature, it is truly one of the best times to cover water on a short line as muskies that are staged in open water at depth are most likely to make aggressive vertical movements during periods of peak activity. Successful early fall trolling boils down to covering water while keeping a keen eye affixed on the climatic context clues that will dial you in on the minutia that must be considered for consistent trolling success during the early fall period.

Early Fall Musky Patterns: Weather Volatility & Quick Shifts

The early fall period seems like a significant rebound in musky activity when compared to the dog days of summer. While this statement holds some water, it again highlights the fact that musky success is often a matter of accessibility rather than a matter of muskies as a collective willingness to feed. At no point do muskies become more or less perceptive of the unnatural nature of our presentations. The increases in bites and subsequent catches seem to be an exponent in the overall musky equation based on accessibility and proximity.

Undeniably, muskies become far more accessible in regard to casting and trolling during the early fall as they make shallow moves in pursuit of forage. Creating a game plan that is equally balanced with both shallow saturation casting with large presentations in conjunction with precision trolling becomes a nearly unbeatable strategy during this early fall period. Elongated feed windows can be found during low-light periods, but attention should be paid to mid-day scenarios in which weather patterns allow a lot of heightened warming of the extreme shallow areas and littoral zones during this period.

Regardless of your place in the musky habitat range, the first break in the grasp of summer’s heat and the introduction of fall—even in the meekest manner—can be a game changer to musky accessibility and subsequently angling action. While we should always have our minds faced forward toward the next pattern in hope of not being behind the musky curve, the first transition toward early fall is often abrupt and at times unexpected. With this in mind, staying rigged and ready for the dog days yet extremely flexible regarding target areas and tactics during the dying days of summer will allow you to be prepared for the impending “flip of the switch” that those first cool nights are attempting to usher in.

Fall Muskies: Mid-Depth, Open-Water & Turnover Tactics

As fall establishes itself as the dominant season, the mental shift can be made from predominantly shallow offerings to more mid-range and open-water tactics. While some shallow blade and topwater bites will remain present during this transitional time, now more than ever staying ahead of the musky curve and on the bite requires a greater focus on moderately deeper presentations and more structural applications.

One should note that in many parts of the muskies’ habitat range, waterways will go through the process of turnover in the fall. Keep in mind that waters with substantial amounts of movement like rivers and dynamic reservoirs will not undergo the process of turnover. While the turnover period can be challenging for anglers, muskies can still be caught, but one should keep in mind this turnover process is often highly disruptive to the staging of baitfish and subsequently muskies.

In general, the chilly mornings and evenings of fall accompanied by shorter periods of sunlight begin to narrow musky feeding windows. As the duration of these feeding windows gets ever so tighter, it becomes more and more important that we as anglers are focused and mentally dialed in when it matters the most. Whether it be sunrise, sunset, some solar-lunar major, or an approaching front is of little concern as the environmental factors that set up these feeding windows are always a moving target. I say this only to illuminate the fact that fall musky feeding windows are often explosive yet short-lived. If you are dialed in on the current where, when, and why of forage patterning at any given time in the fall, multiple muskie encounters in a matter of minutes shouldn’t be a surprise but expected.

Lake Turnover Explained: How It Affects Musky Locations

The transition from summer to fall can be a confusing time in musky fishing, especially in colder climates where the transition is quite dramatic. When the fall transition is taking place in the air and landscape around you, imagine the same is taking place subsurface. Fall brings cooler water temps, dying vegetation, and a whole host of changes for underwater habitats. This extreme change can be encompassed into our “fall transition.”

During fall transition, on the surface many things are taking place that will change the way you pattern for musky fishing. Blowing in from all directions are strong fronts that rock the daily temperatures, causing them to to bounce wildly in the early days of transition. These fronts are slowly cooling the water surface temperature, and clouds are blocking out the sun, eventually leading to the die-off of our green summer vegetation as water plants let go of their stems and leaves to use their energy to protect their roots for next year’s sprout.

During this fall transitional period, the water of many lakes begins going through “lake turnover.” Lake turnover is the process of a lake’s water turning over from top (epilimnion) to bottom (hypolimnion). During the summer, the epilimnion, or surface layer, is the warmest. It is heated by the sun. The deepest layer, the hypolimnion, is the coldest.

When the surface water starts to cool, it becomes denser, causing it to sink. This dense water forces the water of the hypolimnion to rise, “turning over,” creating a mixing of layers.

As a lake turns over, most if not all fishing patterns are temporarily disrupted. While this can be shocking for smaller baitfish, muskies themselves likely feel little to no effect from this process. Traditionally, muskies are difficult to catch during the turnover process. I would propose this is due to the fact that muskies are nearly unpatternable during the turnover process due to the fact that baitfish are stratified throughout the entire water column. The lack of temperature gradients to concentrate baitfish and other musky forage such as walleye and perch leads to a bit of a “free for all” as muskies and their intended targets can be anywhere.

The blending and mixing of a lake’s bottom and top layers not only creates a mostly uniform temperature from top to bottom, but this process can also reduce water clarity. The turnover effect can lead to murky water as particles of decaying vegetation and silt are spread throughout the entire water column from the blending of layers.

While not all musky anglers will have to contend with turnover, many are confronted with this additional hurdle each fall. I have found that trailering to new bodies of water or focusing on moving water such as rivers and streams has been the path of least resistance during the fall turnover in the northern habitat zone. If the option is available to branch out from your home waters that are currently turning over, I would take it.

Best Fall Musky Presentations: Casting vs. Trolling

Fall musky fishing is a game of duplicity; while some would argue that the shallow-water bite is the best, others would die on the cross of trolling. Tactically, I propose that one should be proficient and confident in both areas. While gaining confidence in either trolling or casting takes time to build, I would point out that everyone started as a novice, and you have to start somewhere.

Fall is the time to break out the big guns for both casting and trolling applications. Magnum crankbaits, oversized bucktails, and behemoth rubber lures can and should be utilized. Muskies’ propensity to seek singular large meals seems at its most heightened in the fall. This trait only intensifies each day that passes as we creep closer to winter.

While some musky action will take place in the remnants of shoreline vegetation, the majority of muskies will be staged on the deeper structural elements and/or suspended. These deeper fish can be targeted while staged on break lines and open water with big rubber presentations and large cranks while trolling.

During the short windows when muskies move into shallow zones, standard presentations such as bucktails and crankbaits can be effective. But keep in mind that bigger is often better during prime fall conditions.

Casters should also consider the effectiveness of dive-and-rise presentations like the Livingston Lures Titan and Suicks during the fall. Worked in and around cover, both of these presentations can be effective, but interesting to note is how well dive-and-rise presentations work in open water devoid of cover during this fall period. Working Titans with aggressive jerks over break lines in conjunction with extended periods of hangtime can coax muskies up and in from a distance.

A similar reaction from muskies can be garnered by using Titans and Suicks for jerk-trolling applications. Long rod sweeps followed by slack line will cause Titans to plunge and rise while your boat’s forward advance picks up the slack generated. This tactic can be used to cover expansive break lines and flats and can yield tremendous results in the fall.

It would be hard to talk about fall musky fishing without the mention of live bait. Suckers and other natural forage are hard for any musky to resist. While live bait is truly a means to an end, do not think that it is a brainless endeavor.

Fall Musky Tips: Structural Focus & Bite Windows

While your lakes might be filled with casual musky anglers in the early days of fall, once things cool off in any meaningful way, their numbers quickly dwindle. Most are content to stuff their face full of brats as they watch football with muskies as a mere afterthought from the summer. This creates serious opportunities in the fall for musky anglers willing to grind while staying focused enough to capitalize on the narrow fall bite windows. When the fall winds are howling and I am cleaning off dead weeds from a Headlock for the millionth time that day, I must admit that stuffing my gut full of cheese and beer sounds pretty good. But there ain’t no rest for the wicked—fall is the time to target trophies and take advantage of the “proverbial musky feed bag.”

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During the fall time frame, having an acute understanding of your target waterways’ structural elements is paramount. Knowing via study and experience where similar areas such as points, break lines, and other structures can allow you to find a pattern and make quick moves to maximize bite windows. Keep an eye out for what structural elements are present in areas that are producing for you in the fall, and you will be able to translate that to other areas and sections of water. Areas with similar depths, compositions, or associated cover should become a mental checklist and the flashing arrow pointing you where to go when fall muskies start making predatory moves.

Winter Muskies: Final Open-Water Giants Before Ice-Up

Long gone are the days of propane space heaters and mittens in the musky boat with the arrival of winter. No, these are the days of spud bars crashing down like Captain Ahab in an attempt to break ice on your way in and out the boat ramp. Frozen hands, frozen toes, and frozen reels seem to be the status quo. Very few musky anglers in the northern habitat zone have much interest in the pain and suffering of early winter fishing, but there are opportunities at some giant muskies as the ice creeps further and further across the surface.

As the water surface closes in from ice, muskies make their final open-water moves, often lingering in mid-lake open-water sections or cursing the ice edges in search of a meal. Days are short, and feeding windows become even shorter as it feels less like a window and more akin to running into the right fish. With water temps just above freezing, musky metabolisms are slowed, meaning they have minimum caloric needs as their activity levels fall. During the last days of open water and musky season in the north, it is not about getting a bite—it is about getting the bite. This time frame is truly a hardcore hunt for big muskies looking to top off their winter reserves.

Winter Musky Tactics: Slow Trolling, Live Bait & Safety

With freezing temperatures present throughout the majority of this time frame, casting becomes a fight. Line freezes to rod eyelets, the worm gears in musky reels lock up, and things often break in these conditions. With it being generally a struggle to cast, slow trolling and live bait become the most viable options in the last days before lakes freeze up or season is closed.

Very few presentations outside of large rubber baits like Pounder Bulldawgs and Mega Medusas seem to fit the bill for what casting takes place. One could use standard-sized rubber during this time frame, but often bigger is better. The same applies to trolling lures. Supernatural Liplocks, twelve-inch Mattlocks, and oversized Jakes and Grandmas seem to fit the bill in the pursuit of giants during the last few days of the season.

Even with the potential of trolling and some casting bites, I don’t think it is arguable how effective large suckers are during this early wintertime frame. Success often becomes a matter of proper sucker placement and the patience to wait out a singular bite during this freezing-cold time frame.

I would mention that the personal safety risks of being on a boat are heavily multiplied during pre-ice-up and cold-water periods. I recommend having safety equipment out and accessible as well as emergency blankets and a heat source on hand in case of an emergency. Many companies make ice-fishing float suits and survival suits that provide not only warmth but act as life preservers. I highly recommend acquiring one if you are braving the cold and ice of these last days of musky season and open water.

Musky Seasonality Summary: Year-Round Patterns & Adaptability

Musky seasonality is a moving target at best, and I have spent a lifetime attempting to quantify it. I have come to the only logical conclusion that there is not and will never be a complete roadmap to musky success based on water temperatures or the dates on a calendar. Nature is vicious, weather patterns are always changing, and the only thing that one can count on is inconsistency.

Some winters are mild while others are a constant deluge of snow and ice. The same can be said about the veracity of summer as its intensity also fluctuates on a year-to-year basis. With these factors in mind, one must consider the seasonality of muskies as always changing and morphing as they as respond to their environment and what obstacles it sets in their way. As with life in general, nothing is perfect, and new variables are always being added to the equation that is survival. Muskies, however, are highly adaptable and opportunistic as a means of species proliferation. While their changes in life cycle may not be immediate, muskies have found a way to thrive as a species throughout their habitat range far longer than you and I have been alive.

Each year, muskies are faced with different sets of circumstances that will hasten or slow their progress through their life cycle. With each change in photoperiod and water temperature, muskies will make moves in their environment that provide them with the path of least resistance. Tailoring your musky strategy should always consider the overarching constant that muskies are looking to expend the least amount of energy for maximum reward. One must also keep in mind that muskies do not have feelings, and their sole purpose is to reproduce and proliferate their species. Their life trajectory is geared toward spawning and subsequent survival to repeat this process, thus further propagating their genes—nothing more, nothing less.

With all of these factors, one must consider the ebb and flow of nature and make realistic assessments based on climatic and on-the-water cues to know where muskies currently are in their seasonal cycle. While this text provides a basic outline of what is happening, the exact timing and transitions will always change year after year, decade after decade, leaving us as anglers always chasing the next pattern as muskies morph and augment their predatory strategies. Stay observant and stay flexible because what you think or hope muskies are doing often is not the case.

Regional Musky Differences: Northern vs. Southern Waters

The stroll we just took through the general seasonality of musky fishing was unarguably skewed toward the northern habitat zone. This is in part because I want to sell more books, coupled with most southerners simply can’t read. Calm down, calm down—I’m from West Virginia and live in Tennessee, so they don’t get much more Hicksville than me. Put down your pitchforks and light ya a cigarette with your Dale Earnhardt commemorative lighter, take a puff, and get back to center.

While the basics of this seasonal timeline will apply to anglers in the south and other regions, one must consider a few unique factors. Southerners like myself never have to deal with ice or water temperatures anywhere near the thirties, much less ice-up. While that might seem like a pleasure cruise, it can wreak havoc on musky patterns, much less creating a void in the deeper understanding of their seasonal habits. The same could be said for the handful of musky diehards in the northernmost sections of Maine or the western anglers on the very outside edges of the muskies’ habitat range.

For most of my musky career, I tried to absorb as much musky information as humanly possible. With the vast majority of it being written by anglers in the northern habitat zone, I quickly realized that I needed to consider the juxtaposition of seasonality and tactical applications and patterns in regard to where they are and where I am geographically. For example, spring in the Northwoods of Wisconsin starts far later than here in Tennessee. Muskies tend to spawn here as early as March, and this coincides with tree blooms and warming temps that rival a far later date on the calendar to facilitate the same conditions and subsequent musky movements in northern Wisconsin—think early action on Melton Hill Lake versus delayed patterns up north.

As anglers, it is incumbent on us to take seasonality and the theories written and built around it and apply them to the environment that we are targeting muskies in. While southern waters warm up far earlier, hastening the spawn, this same warmth makes it hard to know exactly when spring staging ends and transitions into summer patterns begin. Also, the transition into fall is far less pronounced, creating gray areas in patterning where muskies are torn between staging patterns. While the vast majority of tactics, theories, and proven musky patterns happen throughout the entirety of the habitat range, one must learn to decipher and decode when these events will take place on their home waters, whether that’s the year-round opportunities on Parksville Lake or the turnover quirks on Center Hill Lake.

While the comparison of Tennessee to Wisconsin might seem obvious due to its extreme separation, one should also consider the differences in seasonality that take place between northern and southern Wisconsin that are just mere hours apart. Muskies in the southern half of Wisconsin complete their spawning process earlier and subsequently recuperate faster to the degree that the Wisconsin musky season opener is split between northern and southern zones. While this split is only a matter of weeks, it speaks volumes regarding the geographical juxtaposition and its subsequent effects on what we perceive as musky seasonality.

Final Tips: How to Find Muskies Anywhere, Any Season

While much has been said and written about muskies and their seasonality, the job of deciphering when to apply tactics and presentations falls squarely in your lap as an angler. Observant time on the water and measured contemplation of what is realistically taking place on your home waters is the key to gaining a deeper understanding of muskies and their seasonal habits and movements. Each year you pursue muskies will differ from one to the next in varying degrees. I have yet to see two years of musky fishing that were even remotely the same regarding seasonality when going by the dates on a calendar. This forces us to take far more into consideration than merely the passage of time. While there will be similarities that you can and should latch onto year to year, often spotting the differences and mentally breaking down their probable effects on muskies’ seasonal staging will have a far greater impact on your musky fishing success.

Steven Paul Musky and Pike Expert

Tennessee Musky Fishing