Shallow/Turn/Time of day questions

[cjac]

I'll try to kill three at once here.

Shallow, yes, some fish still will be shallow, dependant on water temp and weeds remaining. I still had 54 degrees on Sat, and moved fish shallow and boated one aggressive fish that came out of shallow water, adjacent to deep.

Turn......boy, it might be during the weekend in the metro, hit or miss by weeks end based on the forecast and each lake is different. Once it turns I do work deeper weed edges as mentioned prior. If you're on the northern lakes, pay attention to the ciscoes.

Time of day: It's all about finding the right windows now, Hanson's post shows they'll still eat at night, that just gets chilly. Daytime, if you get a nice warm day, that can trigger fish as the water warms during the day.

We had a good post about this stuff last year, water temps, turn, topwaters, etc....I'll see if I can find it.

Chris

[Fishing_High]

Hey Cjac how long will you fish the open water all the way till ice up?

[cjac]

It's a cat 'n' mouse game between winterizing and chasing. I recall a weekend late November last year I was kicking myself in the shorts for packing it in!

Only to be rich and have a heated garage..... I'll be pressing the envolope this year for sure! Fun thing about 'ski fishing, good 'til the last drop. Really, good 'til ice up, that's what makes muskies fun, along with late season 'eyes.

Chris

[Fishing_High]

I'm guessing pike can be good into November to? I fish a small chain of lake no ski's but its got good pike and bass action my buddy wanted last weekend to be the last of the year but I've been pushing him to fish into November.

[hanson]

I am no pike expert by any means but we are approaching that late fall/early ice time of year pretty quickly.

Why is that important to remember? Where you find fish now, you'll find fish at early ice, and vice versa. Early ice pike fishing is typically phenomenal!

Pike are going to be up chasing food, the food will be where the green weeds (oxygen & cover) are. Alot of the weeds are starting to lay down now. Look for the ones that are still green, try fishing them, and remember those areas for early ice fishing.

[mtreno]

when to winterize the boat this year is easy - dec. 1 -

another area of interest late season - breaks around known spawning grounds. the deeper water around these areas will hold fish late season.

the questions i have now - where the heck did all my baitfish go...... i think they jumped lakes on me - water temp was 48 and the air was 35 when i got off the lake late last night. and i wonder why there are never any other boats at the access when i am there.....

[Fishing_High]

Thanks for the info, I really want to try getting out couple more times.

[cjac]

The Dec 1 close is in effect for Fall/Winter 2007, correct? Not in the DNR regs handbook though, just want to be sure.

mtreno, no joy on Cry that weekend, just dead batteries, but I added another from my honey hole this past weekend, another nice fat fish.

Chris

[AWH]

The online version of the fishing regulations is supposed to show any updated changes from the original print date.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/rlp/regulations/fishing/fishing2007.pdf

It still shows a closing date of 2/24/08 for the musky season. So whether the December 1st closing date is supposed to happen or not, I can't imagine it can be enforced by anything more than a warning.

Aaron

[cjac]

Hey Aaron,

That's what I noticed too, both in print, which is from some time last year realistically at time of publication, and online, which one would think would be current.

I'll make a call tomorrow to clarify, but I'm assuming the Dec 1 rule is in effect. Answer to follow....as long as I'm at it I'll ask about the 12 inch sucker legality too!

Chris