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Sight Fishing the Shallows for Muskies!
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Sight Fishing the Shallows for Muskies:

A deadly method for early season to boat more fish!

By Tom Dietz

It was the spring of 1995, and I was fishing the musky opener in Vilas County, Wisconsin. The ice came off of the lakes exceptionally that year and water temperatures were way behind schedule. The weather that particular weekend was typical of late May in northern Wisconsin. Very cool mornings coupled with temperatures climbing into the upper seventies late in the afternoon hours. I launched my boat on opening day with a lot of anticipation, since we had a long cold winter that seemed to drag on forever. I fished my normal spots, such as newly emerging weed beds, points, and inside turn areas close to areas that muskies were known to congregate early in the year. I proceeded to cast smaller twitch lures, bucktails and jerkbaits. I managed a few more sluggish follows but had no takers, and I got off the water at noon for lunch. When I returned to the lake a few hours later, the sun had reached its warmest part of the day. Launching my boat again, I spotted a nice forty inch plus musky cruising in about three feet of water well inside the weed edge. Idling out towards deeper water I actually spotted two more of these “cruisers”. These muskies were definitely more active in nature and on the prowl. I immediately backed off the outboard and dropped my trolling motor, grabbing my rod with a perch colored Baby Shallowraider that was rigged and ready. Spotting another musky ahead of the boat, I made a cast past the fish and began a “twitch-pause, twitch-pause” retrieve. The upper thirty inch musky spun on a dime and followed the lure right to the boat, S-curving and popping its jaws aggressively. The fish proceeded to ignore my figure eight attempt in the shallow clear water and continued on right under my boat. I would have bet money it was going to bite, but apparently the presentation wasn’t quite right.

I was encouraged by this particular follow, even though it did not strike because it was obviously a more active fish. Sticking to shallow water, I had two more similar aggressive followers I could not coax into striking. I threw “throw back” lures such as bucktails and jerkbaits to these same followers to no avail. Now, somewhat frustrated, I sat down a second to analyze what was happening. The shallow fish I had seen were very active. That made sense to me since the sun was at its highest point in the sky and it was quite warm on this late spring day. These fish were taking advantage of a classic “solar window” where their metabolism was cranked up by the increased water temperatures and they were cruising around in search of prey. The toughest thing to figure out was why they would not to commit to the selection of lures and colors I threw in their direction. On that fateful day in 1995 I had a brainstorm that would positively affect my early season success from that day forward. For whatever reason, I grabbed a Jack’s Jigs 9/16 ounce black swimmer jig head out of my tackle box and rigged it up with a black paddle tail grub. I tied this offering to my line with a flexible seven strand ninety pound leader. I sharpened the jig head razor sharp and decided to give this approach a try. Donning my polarized glasses, I cruised through the shallow sand flats in search of another opportunity at a musky. I spotted a real nice musky up ahead, and positioned myself to cast past her while leading the musky at the same time. I let the jig free fall to the bottom, and began a “reel, reel, pause, reel, reel, and pause” retrieve towards the approaching musky. As the jig swam past her nose, she suddenly changed direction faster than any musky I had ever seen! It was like something flipped a switch inside of her. She immediately got behind my jig offering and my pulse was racing with anticipation while watching the scene unfold. All of a sudden I saw a flash of white and a puff of sand as she literally inhaled my lure and I set the hook hard! The rod and braided line did its job, and forty-four and one half inches of solar charged musky launched out of the shallows like a missile. After a hard fight, she was netted for a few pictures prior to release. Curious to try this again, I proceeded to use this same technique the rest of the weekend and I put four more fish into my boat over the next day and a half. The smallest of these fish was thirty nine inches and I am positive that if I had stayed with the same technique I had started the weekend with, I would not have boated even half of these same fish. The look and action of the jig scurrying across the bottom was simply too much for these muskies to resist.

Solar Windows

Solar windows are common in both spring and fall, when water temperatures are relatively cool. The sun warms the shallow water, which in turn stimulates the food chain. The muskies react to the abundance of forage drawn into this warmer water and they become quite aggressive since the warm water positively affects their metabolism. These windows are particularly effective when you have a period of stable weather for several days in a row. The sun will reach its zenith in the afternoon hours and I have always had my best success pitching jigs during this time frame. You will also see the greatest number of active muskies coinciding with the warmest water of the day. Calm water is a huge advantage here too, since it has a tendency to warm up faster and your visibility is much better to spot these shallow fish. I have caught fish in windy conditions utilizing this technique but it is important to note that under calm conditions you will at least double your catches.

Equipment & Rigging Suggestions

My best rod and reel set up is a St. Croix Legend Tournament Series TM73MHF rod and a Garcia 6600C4 reel rigged with eighty pound Vicious Braid. This quality no stretch line is absolutely critical for quality hook sets, especially if a musky takes your offering a ways out from the boat. My favorite jig/plastic combination is the Jack’s Jigs 9/16 ounce black swimmer head jig with a black paddle tail creature as a trailer. There is something absolutely deadly about this paddle tail action on the bottom! Another excellent weapon for this tactic is the new Cobra jig head by Bait Rigs and a black five to eight inch reaper tail. The best leader I have found for these types of lures is a flexible seven strand leader in ninety pound test. This type of leader allows more natural movement to the jig and is exceptionally strong. Since sight fishing is an intricate piece of this puzzle, I highly recommend a quality pair of polarized sunglasses. I wear Costa Del Mars and they are worth the investment on bright sunny days when looking for fish in the water. It is also imperative to wear a good hat for sunny conditions and utilize a quality sun screen product.

Now let’s fast forward to the year 2008. I made my annual trip to Eagle River, Wisconsin last June to compete in the 2008 Mercury Marine Summer Challenge Professional Muskies Tournament Trail Event. My tournament fishing partner, David Foor, unfortunately lost his father on Tuesday before the event, and thus could not attend. I took my two sons, John and Matthew, to pre-fish the tourney with me and we made this trip a mini-vacation for all of us. We hit the Eagle River Chain on Wednesday and Thursday and pre-fished until four in the afternoon each day, and then fished non-tournament waters in the evenings and all day on Friday. It was a very late spring in the north woods and water temperatures were close to three weeks behind schedule. I knew from my past experiences that the muskies would be in very shallow water in a post spawn pattern. Many of the anglers we saw on the water were casting bucktails and jerkbaits along the deep weed edges or over the weed flats themselves. My boys and I were catching smallmouth bass in the shallows and I saw several muskies lying in super skinny water, basking in the warm afternoon sunshine. This area of the lake had the warmest water by far, as the sand here collected a good deal of solar warmth and the muskies sought this out, along with smaller baitfish and the bass. Luckily I was prepared, and I had my sight fishing box along with us in my boat. Typically this time of year, nobody, and I mean nobody, is musky fishing real shallow, and it can be the easiest method that I personally know of to consistently rack up both good numbers of muskies as well as some real big ones in a short period of time. Well my boys and I certainly hit the jackpot on this particular trip, boating four muskies ranging in size from forty-four inches up to forty-nine inches in length, and we missed several others that were hooked and lost. The biggest highlight for me was netting both of my sons’ largest muskies to date. Matthew (age 12) made a perfect cast with his creature on a fish sitting in the shallows, and scurried his bait along the clean sand bottom, and the hefty musky shot like a missile from three feet away and literally inhaled his offering. Matt made a great hook set, and the musky ran straight away from the boat, then did a lightning quick about face maneuver, and then cut to the left right in front of us on another power run. When Matt’s line became tight again, the power of that musky on a short line literally turned my 618 Ranger ninety degrees in the calm water as it ripped off drag! Matt did a great job, and I soon had his forty-five inch beauty in my Frabill net. He also got a big hug from me after releasing the fish along with a high five! Not to be outdone that day, his older brother John (age 14) tied into another nice musky about an hour later in super shallow water on the same bait. This fish fought very hard, and gave Johnny a tremendous boat side jump prior to being netted. His forty-four incher was his personal best and was also released after pictures and more hugs and high fives. I connected with two other exceptional muskies that trip with this same pattern, boating a dandy forty-eight and a forty-nine inch musky utilizing the same sight fishing technique in less than four feet of water.

The boys and I had a great trip to remember, indeed. Here we were, on a one thousand acre lake, and we were the only ones to my knowledge catching quality muskies with consistency because we applied a pattern that was truly outside the box. As an added bonus that week, I finished in 9^th place in the PMTT event over the weekend, catching a nice musky on the same spot that my son Matt had raised a fish while pre-fishing the Eagle River Chain the previous Thursday. Unfortunately, my sight fishing pattern doesn’t work on the Eagle Chain, or I probably would have placed much higher!

This interesting technique came to me both by accident as well as trial and error. It is extremely effective when muskies are in the shallows. The visual aspect of the strike is what makes this method so fun. Watching a big musky inhale your offering in front of your eyes is awesome! It shows you that it pays off to be innovative at times, and do not be afraid to experiment with new ideas. Get out this year on opening day of musky season and put this pattern to work for you. You will have a great time watching the action unfold, and best of yet, you’ll have the fish all to yourselves!

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