Inside weededges

[mroyten]

Alright, so I've read and heard about the productivity of the inside weededges but haven't fished them much. Are there inside weededges that are superior to others? What other elements are key to finding a good inside weededge? Sand on the inside? Relative to deep water? The larger the weedbed, the better its inside weededge is?

And also, when do you guys come inside and fish these edges?

[AWH]

That's a tough question to answer and one you'll get a ton of different answers to. Each lake is different and even seemingly identical spots on the same lake can be different. With so many variables, like anything in fishing, experimenting is the name of the game.

I tend to like the shallows (shallow water in general, not just inside weededges) that have access to deep water near by. But I've also found them in shallow where I never would have expected them. An example of that would be a huge featureless sandy area. No real access to deep water and nothing obvious that I saw that would bring the fish in there. But they were there.

Fish can be in shallow and on the inside weedline at any time. But when the water is cooling in the fall (pre-turnover) there's a predictable migration in there from bigger fish following baitifsh into the shallows. This is my favorite time to fish the inside weedline.

The best advice I can offer is to check out the shallows when you aren't contacting fish in your normal milk run of spots. Run up shallow, put the trolling motor on a pretty high speed and scout things out. Put on a bait that you can fish fast while looking around for signs of bait and/or muskies up in the shallows. If you come up on a spot that looks promising, slow down and concentrate a little harder on those spots. You'll soon get more confidence and know locations on the lakes you fish that are good potential shallow spots.

Aaron

[50inchpig]

IMO don't think about just the edge so much as the zone of water between the edge and the shore. This summer we had shallow fish alot but usually in September fish move up inside that edge, like Aaron said, when the water starts to cool stay until after turnover, or after. This normal period was abbreviated by the crazy weather this year but it still happened a bit.

If you cruise the 4 and 5 foot range on your favorite milfoil lake, you'll notice there's spots where there isn't really an edge, weeds go all the way up shallow, but there are other spots where you have a hard fast edge. These are the spots you want. I usually like to run right on the edge, casting ahead of the boat (parallel to the edge) and up on the sand. Surface baits and blades rule. You can also hold your boat right over the foil and cast toward shore, your bait crosses that edge about 10 feet from the boat and can be a trigger to followers.

Beyond that, there's two variations I look for.

Some of the hard edge areas will have patches of other weeds like cabbage growing up shallower. The happens on Tonka a bit, usually in conjunction with some type of shoreline variation, like a point, but also happens on the north end of mille lacs. Fish magnets.

Next variation is the opposite, spots that are 6-7 feet deep and are more sandy with sparse weeds. There's one spot like this that has given up 15 fish to the boat this year, give or take a few. It's no more than a cast length long by two wide. I caught a fish up shallow on the spot yesterday on the phantom. Nothing notable about the spot except that it's fishable out to about 9 feet where you'd normally have a wall of milfoil.

Only way to find these is to cruise. Mark up your GPS, lots of the hard edges don't run forever, it's more like smaller connected spots. Anytime you have water temps that are a little more mild like this summer, you can find them shallow. Wind can also move them up there on some lakes. I don't worry about deep water so much. Lots of good shallow spots are way up on big flats away from the deep.

We've also had them move shallow on more than one occasion during the night when we have early action on the deep edge and then a few hours with nothing. The good thing about good shallow spots is that they're dependable, consistent, and it never takes you long to find out if they are there or not.

Good shallow spots are like any other spots. You gotta run them multiple times to learn them and they've all got their nuances. Once you figure it out on your lake though you'll have a lot of fun.

[urban cowboy]

The key is to learn the weed line, once you have learned it, then it is up to you as to how you want to fish it. You can start on the inside turn and work your way out and around the front face or vise versa....

You will notice that good muskie anglers don't aimlessly chuck baits at a weed line. Every weed line fishes differently and time on the water is key to developing the most efficient approach.

[TomWehler]

Good info here...lots of angles.

Lil thing to remember helped me long long time......simple thing.

Hunger drives nature.

If no food, no fish...well all fish do swim so always hunting for Food so ya never know what you will find where on any given day.

If it looks fishy, go fish it.

Can up yer odds finding fish any place on lake you fish by knowing what the food they seek dose.

Perch, Sunfish, Chubs, Crawfish, Cisco, Bullheads, Whitefish, crappies...like that.

Seasonal movements, fave structure, feeding habits they have also.

Safe to bet larger fish be around close by at some point, rest'n, hunting, sleeping, eating, farting, repeating.

Sometimes the insdie edge is void of people an full of food....bigger fish also..clear to shoreline so that is place to be.

Other times aint nothing there but a pretty picture..good, but not what were fishen for.

Sposed to be fun..just fish it....rip lips.

Plus I can't remember all that other stuff.

T

[10,000 Casts]

I prefer outside weed edges overall but there are times when I concentrate on inside weed edges.

1. no fish on the outside.

2. Wind is pounding into the shore and has been for a little while.

3. Night fishing on full moon

4. Revisiting Fish from earlier trips

Also I was talking to Hunter on the phone about a Milfoil lake and he mentioned that they like a few spots on the inside edge where it goes from Milfoil to sand instead of milfoil to junk weeds.

[jclund]

I really enjoy fishing the inside weed edges. This is where I catch most of my fish, probably since I fish it the most. As said earlier, not all inside edges are created equal. I always look for thick milfoil and sand transitions. Mix some rocks and the spot gets even better. Adjecent to points and deep water is better, but not always the rule. I have caught 4 different muskies this month on the same spot on the inside weedline. Sometimes they are crusing the sand and sometimes they are right on the edge. You are never sure of what you will find and it changes throught the day. For me, when it is windy, I do better on the calm side of the point.

[urban cowboy]

Its all about learning the weed line. Once you have learned the weed line then the outside and inside go hand and hand.

You will notice that some inside weed lines arent really worth fishing and others are gold. You will also notice that some of the heavly preasured outside edges never see inside preasure.

A good example, on the big V you will see 5,6,7, boats all on the front face (outside edge) of a weed line at one time. No one on the inside turn. This happens all the time. You have to think outside the box if you know what I mean.

Nothing like a well defined inside turn with a sand rock bottom transition at about 6-10 feet of water. With two people in the boat I like to cast both the shore line and the weed break at the same time.