Twilight Muskies
by Steve Wickens
"Reprinted with permission from PIKE & MUSKIE Magazine, copyright 1999"

As a musky guide, one of the things that I have discovered that turns fish off faster than a cold front is heavy boat traffic. During the summer of 1999, we’ve been blessed with long periods of very hot humid weather in Southern Ontario. Good for the tourist industry, but tough for fishing, when everyone wants to be out on the water trying to cool off. 

You know the kind of day...where personal watercraft are buzzing around like flies. Where water skiiers are everywhere. Where speed boats are screaming around the lake with reckless abandon. Where larger cruisers are motoring up and down the channel in single file one after the other. Fishing for muskies under these conditions is as tough as it gets. It is possible to collect a fish or two during the day, if you find some structural elements away from the boating action, but more often than not, they are smaller sized fish. A better and more efficient approach, is to fish the water at a time when there is no boat traffic.

Dawn and dusk are times when feeding activity peaks during the summer and into fall. There are several reasons for this. You have a rising or setting sun, and conversely, a setting or rising moon. You have minimal boat traffic. You have very heavy baitfish activity caused by insect hatches, or by plankton. In the late summer and into the fall, as night temperatures drop, the water surface heats quicker due to the warmer presence of the sun’s rays. This begins a chain reaction of feeding activity by progressively larger predators, that ends with some very active muskies feeding in close proximity to this surface action. Not only is baitfish activity at its heaviest within an hour of the dark side of sunrise and sunset, and two hours on the lighter side, but this baitfish activity tends to occur very high in the water column...often right on the surface. With this much food close by, many muskies will also be feeding in these areas. These fish are aggressive feeding fish, very catchable fish, and will hammer virtually any bait that happens along. Yet surprisingly, I rarely see many muskie anglers fishing either sunrise or sunset.

The trick is to find deep weed edges that quickly become shallow edges. This is the area that will most often hold fish; however, baitfish will sometimes be present along sandbars, mud flats, or even suspended over open water. In the early summer, insect hatches make sandbars and mud flats key drawing areas for walleye. 

So, having a keen eye for surface activity is often the key to finding fish in the twilight hours. A set of binoculars can help you identify these areas quickly from a distance. Any signs of erratic baitfish activity...minnows or smaller fish madly scrambling to get away from an unseen predator, should be given priority attention.

When you find areas of surface activity, you want to thoroughly work these areas with baits that have a high hook-up ratio. While surface baits and jerk baits will certainly produce fish, you’ll lose a lot more fish than you’ll land. For casters, stick with bucktails; either spinnerbaits or inline models will allow you to get hooks into a high percentage of the fish that strike. Another good alternative is spoons. Likewise, spoons will also give you a very high hook-up ratio. Spoons have one edge over bucktails for this kind of fishing because their heavy weight allows much longer casts than can be obtained with bucktails, which have a high wind resistance.

For trollers, again you want to use baits that also have a high hook-up ratio. The minnow bait family made up of Jakes, Grannies, Cisco Kids, DepthRaiders, and Bang-O-B’s are all good choices. Their narrow body design will give you much higher hook-ups than fatter bodied baits like a Believer or Swim Whiz. Similarly, heavy plastic baits are superior to wooden baits, as it is much harder for muskies to sink their teeth into these baits; you’ll end up with more hook-ups with plastic baits! Larger spinnerbaits and spoons will also take their share of big fish. Long setbacks are not necessary; 25 to 40 feet of line is more than enough to keep precise control of your baits and yet keep spookier fish away from the boat. (Note: many of the baits noted here tend to run in the upper 10 feet of the water column.) It is also important to keep speed in moderation at this time. You don’t need to crank the throttle up to ridiculous speeds to get action. Obviously, lure action must dictate to some degree what is appropriate; however, in general, I’ve found that speeds from 4 to 6 mph are most productive.

What is critical is being able to attract the attention of muskies feeding in the area. This means that casters MUST make sure that their bucktails are in forward motion before they hit the water. As the blade contacts the water, it will immediately begin spinning, and will release a trail of air bubbles. Often spoons and bucktails put into motion before they contact the water, will hit the water with a loud smack. This is a great triggering mechanism, as musky have one of the most highly tuned senses of vibration of all freshwater fishes when it comes to picking up noise, due to their massive lateral line area.

For trollers, it is important to change speed and direction as much as possible. Some baits have such a distinct action, such as spoons, that this is not that critical. For minnow baits, I highly recommend that you occasionally pump the rod, or give the line a sharp tug periodically. This will drastically increase your catch rate. As you move through schools of baitfish on the surface, you will start breaking up and spooking up the schools. Therefore it is wise to always start on the outside of the schools, and work around the schools before you go plowing through them. By going around in circles, you keep your bait constantly changing direction.

I have made it a habit for the past 3 seasons to be out on my local lake most fishing days about one hour before sunrise. During the early summer, this can mean 4:30am! Yet, I can count the number of other anglers I see before 7:00am (for any species) on one hand. Only once so far this season I have seen another muskie angler on the water before 7am. About 35% of my musky tally for the 1998 and 1999 seasons (so far) have come in the one hour before sunrise to two hours after window. And, many of my largest fish have come in this same time frame.

There are some other benefits to fishing at this time. Catching fish tends to draw much less attention from other anglers than at other times of the day. You won’t find yourself crowded while fishing most structures. And because the temperature tends to be cooler at this time, fish tend to be easier to release as they tend to be less stressed by warm temperatures and bright sunny conditions. And quite frankly, with the hot conditions we’ve had this summer, it’s nice to be able to spend a couple of hours casting a lure without breaking into a sweat, and going into meltdown!

If that isn’t enough to convince you, consider that the tranquility and peace that exists at this time in the morning, is something that has to be experienced. Loons, owls, coyotes, and a variety of other birds and animals are all commonly heard at this hour. Watching beavers and muskrats frolicking in the water, or the occasional raccoon wandering the shoreline are also common sites. No phones, no televisions, no computers...and lots of muskies. What more could an angler ask for?

Steve Wickens is a muskie guide in the famed Kawarthas lakes area of Ontario. He is well on his way to boating 100 muskies this year alone. He can be reached at Strike Zone Muskie Charters 905-985-0455 or you can visit his site at www3.sympatico.ca/strike.zone

"Originally printed in PIKE & MUSKIE Magazine at www.pikeandmuskie.com "