Desperate

[Iambjm]

My 78 year old brother-in-law is coming to visit us Oct. 10th and wants to do some musky fishing. I am having a panic attack as I am not into muskies. I am in the Grand Rapids area and only have a 16.5 Lund Rebel with a 25hp Merc motor. I am very leery of going to a bigger lake, especially at that time of the year.

My husband is partially disabled and it is really hard for him to get into our boat, so I am elected to take his brother fishing. His brother is the kind of guy who will want to hit the water at the crack of dawn and stay until we freeze. I do have a small lake I like where I can take him walleye fishing, but somehow I think after eleven days of fishing with him I am going to want to push him overboard.

Is that time of year too late to be hunting muskies? Any lake suggestions? I figure if he gets a nice musky I can convince him to go after some walleye or jumbo perch. I would hire a guide, but my budget is really tight.

I should have mentioned he is from Tennessee and has only gone musky fishing a few times that I know of

[Nick Kuhn]

That's like prime time muskie fishing. Head to Deer, Moose, or Little Moose. Ask about turnover info and avoid any that are in the middle of turnover. That time of year you are looking mostly for any remaining green weeds, rocks, and points. Trolling with large cranks can be effective. Otherwise I like to cast weighted jerkbaits at structure that time of year.

[brad coin]

isnt the Blandin resivoir in that area???? never been there but I think its small water and has had muskies for years

[10,000 Casts]

What Nick said is right on, with a boat of that size and him being 78 and not knowing really where to go, I would troll some larger crankbaits, I've never been on any of those lakes but I would look for some weed edges/humps/stucture and troll around it and it that doesn't work, hit the open water for a few hours.

[propster]

Go to Moose, decent numbers lake and your rig will work unless it's blowing pretty good. Put in on the south access, the other one is really shallow. Cast or troll around the humps and the points. Hard to say where turnover will be, temps have dropped pretty good this last week. This time of year you don't have to hit the lake at dawn, you can have good fishing mid-day. Good luck.