New to musky hunting

[slabz]

Hey guys, typically when September rolls around the boat goes in the garage and stays there until spring because I really enjoy to hunt, but this year I have decided to do a little less bow hunting and a little more musky hunting. I was just looking for some basic tips about lake structure, baits to use, and any other tips being this will be my first fall fishing muskies. Any info is greatly appreciated! Thanks a bunch.

[50inchpig]

IMO you picked a good month, I'm mostly fishing bucktails and topwater on shallow sand this time of the year through turnover, so if I was you I'd grab a topraider and get shallow. It's really that simple, September is the easiest time to catch muskies for me.

What part of the state are you fishing??? If you don't have good shallow sand available you can fish shallow on top of the points and flats where you'd normally fish deeper.

[TruthWalleyes]

Thanks for the tip m50; i'm pretty sure i spotted (On SI) a few nice sized ski's on the croix this weekend...In areas you describe.

[50inchpig]

Wish I could find them out there on the croix consistently. Have put in some time this year but probably will stick with the lakes i know for most of the rest of the season.

[Nick Kuhn]

Fish are just starting to move shallow now. I spotted several this weekend that were taking the easy route over the tops of the weeds. All heading to the flats on the inside edge.

[Jmeyers]

+1 for the shallows, start looking for scattered weed beds in the sand they will more than likley be holding bait fish. Top waters are my go to this time a year so try a few of those, plus if you're just starting out theres nothing cooler than watching a 40"+ muskie demolish a top water!

[Musky Buck]

Hey, also if you're having a 0 in the shallows go work the breaklines still, after 23 years of doing this 90% of my fish are still on the breaklines September or not, the fish don't have a calendar and localized weather and water temps mean a lot, it isn't as if every ski in the lake is heading in shallow, just be flexible and hope you are on a good spot on the spot when the feeding window opens up. Now if you're seeing fish shallow it doesn't mean they're active, but knowing they're there make return trips to them and hope they become active. Just watched a Sept. video of Jimmy Lindner on my favorite lake and he at least on video caught all of them between 15-20 feet knowing exactly where he was casting unless he did a ton of editing. Good luck.

[PackerBacker12]

Caught a 42 incher last weekend on a top raider over a shallow weed bed. Fish hit it surprisly soft with little splash, I didnt think it was a musky at first cause it was swimming at me. Once it seen the boat and me it took off! Fun fight!