MUSKY 360 PODCAST Episode 282: Musky Adjustments
Transcript
Speaker 1
For the night, extreme vibration, unexpected strikes. Let's make a motion will be booking schemes. Before the night is.
Speaker 2
All right, folks, welcome to the Muskie 360 podcast. J bird. Can.
Speaker 1
They.
Speaker 3
Steve, practically smell the two stroke smoke across the Northwoods. It is springing and sprung. And what's the Update for all the. The the It's all. There's no ice, right? I've heard the river's super high. What's going up in your going on your neck of the.
Speaker 2
Woods. Yeah. Water. Water.
Speaker 4
Levels coming up, we've been getting some rain, so that's a good thing. And yeah, the ice is gone and. The southern opener starts in a couple of days and our general opener starts a couple days up here. Not musky yet, not till Memorial Day. So yeah, things are looking good, right?
Speaker 2
Crazy that we we.
Speaker 3
In time we made it make it through the long, cold winter.
Speaker 4
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3
And my goodness, you got Minnesota right there. People are just people are sitting right now sharpening hooks in their lives. Room amongst family and friends.
Speaker 4
Yeah, yeah, they really are. Yeah. They had ice out. Yeah. A couple more and a couple weeks ago in central Minnesota, I heard. I talked. So yeah.
Speaker 1
I'm fine.
Speaker 3
Talked to Darcy Cox up there in Canada just for a second today and it's like, you know, you got warrant with. It's breaking up. They're right there. It's it's finally you guys, it's it's.
Speaker 2
The weight is.
Speaker 3
Over and for us Southerners that have been fishing the whole time. So it's oh man, I don't know how you do that. I don't know how you do it.
Speaker 1
Understand.
Speaker 4
Sometimes I don't either.
Speaker 3
Or go nuts. I, you know, you sit there and you're and you're snowed in. Sorry. Whatever. Moving on. I was going to going to go somewhere with that, but let's not any. Anyway, well, what's going on at the shop? Jay, you got fresh. Got fresh fat heads for all the fibs.
Speaker 4
Flatheads. Yeah, a lot of people calling Flatheads. We got flat. Yeah, we got all the minnows, got the worms. We got the the fresh soda and candy bars. Jim got candy bars today too.
Speaker 3
Glad.
Speaker 2
Never got slapped. Now.
Speaker 3
Oh oh, wow.
Speaker 4
We'll be serving ice cold candy.
Speaker 3
Bars. Alex. Well, you know, it's funny. I I say that, guys, because it's funny. It's just this is the time when the store just turns into a tackle shop. There's always the. Yeah, there's always those. It's fun. So, anyway, anything new? I think we're finally past, like, new bait time of the year. Right. You got pretty much. Everything's out here. Obviously. We had the blade out there, which is going crazy. And your little tail for your Magnus junior, it's. Site I'm super excited to hear. From guys on Magnusson in the Magnus Junior tail, you know, once we get kind of past the opener and it becomes serious time, that's exciting. I mean, I'm excited to see.
Speaker 4
Yeah, I got that thing on the water a couple of days ago too. And if I told you it was the time I went out and shot a few, you know, the video.
Speaker 3
Good morning.
Speaker 4
Shorts I do on your demos so.
Speaker 3
Right.
Speaker 2
That thing looked great. What the little guy.
Speaker 3
The which one?
Speaker 4
Yeah. Yeah. The junior tail on the Magnus, so. I'll put that. Out soon looks.
Speaker
Great.
Speaker 3
I don't know. I don't know if you put it in or not, but yeah, that's cool. Ohh man. Well we better get after it here. We got a ton of ton of questions, Jay. People are getting. It only gets worse throughout the year as as people start putting fish in the bone.
Speaker 4
But we've all got the itch around here.
Speaker
Well.
Speaker 3
Well, there's there's saves for that. Like, there's certain people. Yeah. You can get rid of that itch.
Speaker 4
Yes you can. There's an ointment is what you're saying.
Speaker 3
There's yeah, you should probably get that looked at. OK. I would. I would recommend. So anyway, something I was going to hit on here, which is it's it's that season opener thing. For a lot of people and and it is downsized based. If you don't know that if you haven't caught on to this yet, downsize, downsize, downsize. Right, don't come out of the gate swinging. Freaking, you know, a 10 inch mag that's come out swinging double tins and and big baits. But that crossover thing of what we talked about. Would come out Buskey fishing kind of coined the. Term there years back about bass size presentations that are actually going to get you some musky in the net, which is it's a big part of my game. You know, when I'm doing that post spawn and the the early part of my season and when I've done like openers and other places going with downsized. Presentations that are maybe they're not musky Bates, right? And I think the air just kicked on. Sorry for the air down there, but it's it's a thing where there's a lot of presentations that kind of fall into that, that realm that I don't think. People should overlook. You know, we might not carry all of them, but it's it's worth looking at because Jay, you think about something as simple as you know. The Whopper plopper you know which is the bath size? Little top water there that we that we carry, you know, all the way through a lot of different crankbait stuff where there's a ton of options there. But the you know the the the options are limitless, but there's so many different paths there where you know you want to have the high quality and you want to have the. Bill. Jay, what are some of your like? You know, I know you like jigs. Do you ever fish? Sink goes. What are some of your stuff do you like? As far as the downsize, any busky baits that come to mind? I've got my list, but I don't know if there's any bassy musky. Crossover stuff that you.
Speaker 4
Two things. Yeah, for sure. Half Oz spinner baits. You know decent sized bath spinner baits. Tandem stuff that is deadly. I've got a lot of marches on that.
Speaker 3
Are you talking just like you're running the meal? Like the. I mean, I have. I mean, that's what he said, half Oz or quarter Oz.
Speaker 4
Half oz. I mean, yeah.
Speaker 3
Those are those are little dudes, yeah.
Speaker 4
Yeah, well, right now musky isn't open, so you can, you know, fish, bass. And you know, that's something that early season I've got a lot of lot throughout the season. You know, occasionally if I if I am bass fishing in this section I've got Muskies on that. But Husky jerk Smithwick pro rogues. You know like that. Five like they're five and 1/4 inch something maybe 5 1/2 inch. Suspending minnow bait like that, right, Husky jerk. The 14 size, that's what it is. Those are great early season.
Speaker 3
Anyway, you can't disagree with that. I know a lot of guys like you were talking about like the little. What was the rap? What's what? What is it, Jay? The Rampling you just mentioned, the Husky jerk Husky jerk. Yeah. Beautiful base. Sorry, I just went brain dead there. For a second. Tons of Muskies get caught on that. How are you fishing that guy?
Speaker 4
Like tackle hooks are small and they're. Pretty much considered junk for Muskie, but they stick and the the split rings are equally awful. That is something we actually could have. It's just, I mean. It's a bass bait. It's a bass slash Wali Bates, so it's made to be fished at, you know, 10 to 14 LB. Monofilament. You know light tackle, but that's something you want to use. Real light leader, you know, like a 40 pound, 60 LB tops. Titanium would be good on a light. Theater and, you know, a thin super line. If you have a light musky setup, that's a great bait. We like 1/2 ounce. Yeah. Stop and go. Stop and go Twitch, Twitch, Twitch and, you know, early season that thing works great because it just hangs. It's neutrally buoyant. So it hangs in the strike zone.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Speaker 4
It's very simple. You know, you work at like a A you would, you know, a month later in the season when you're working your Slammers and cranes, you know?
Speaker 3
Yeah, just a.
Speaker 4
Little bit slower pace and lots of pauses.
Speaker 3
Make it easy. I mean that that that is a classic that a lot of guys have caught on to and you know. They even go back to some of the minnow baits of like the the rapper. Like the ball, so like the Husky, not the the jerk bait but like the Husky rapper. That's right. Right. Which was like the F Nines F11F thirteens, which are small, buoyant little balsa wire through crank baits, caught a ton of muskies on them, and it's just kind of something that gets over overlooked.
Speaker 2
Uh-huh.
Speaker 4
Me too.
Speaker 3
Uh, you know, it's not like something. Oh, that's that's a musky bait. But good Lord, do they catch fish? Especially that early time.
Speaker 4
That the only time I could ever think I got a muscle in the first case in the lake came on an F13. Black and sober. Yeah, and I got two more in 20 minutes. So that was that. Was. A fun, unexpected kind of early season deal down South years ago. That was fun, yeah.
Speaker 3
Yeah, it's, it's it's one of those deals where if you, if you're looking for that edge because every I mean everybody's going to go out and you know most people going to be downsizing and I get it. It's like there's that weird that busky time of year, there's a bunch of stuff moves up shallow, it's things are going to be just dirty shallow. Most places, because you actually have. Kind of a standard ice out in that northern zone. It's going to be coming together quick, where you're going to get a bunch of stuff joined up there and that I think that's worth the look of. You know, it's not something I based my whole game plan around, but the first couple weeks here, if if things take a turn that F11 and F13 like you were saying, the Husky jerk.
Speaker
MHM.
Speaker 3
I personally, and I I do a lot of damage with a lot of the deeper running. Bass crankbaits. Right. There's two of them.
Speaker 4
Yeah, you got that little favorite, that one. I don't. I'm not real familiar with it. That old, that old one that's been made in years.
Speaker 3
That's AC Shiner, and those are everyone. I have. One of those are just trash I do throw. A bunch, a bunch, a bunch, a bunch of the howlers which are Livingston lewers howlers. Randy Howe from the. He's like their bass pro guy actually just placed in the top 10 on a thing this week, but it's a deep running crank crank. I mean it's it's really aggressive, but it's that kind of that meatball, you minnow bait. You know, it's not the biggest body and that there's the the deep very end of that and then there's like the deep impact. But I'll tell you, it's something that most people are not looking at is. Post spawn I will troll my brains out. And so often are you picking up fish that are just not seeing any baits at all, because there's always a couple patterns going here and I'm looking here, Jay, you know your your small spinner bait thing that just falls in that busky thing. A bunch of those CS lures. You know, I'm looking here and and I was trying to find kind of a good example. If you got the 3/8 ounce CS lures and the quarter Oz CS lures which are right in that size.
Speaker 4
There's a fish lab spinner bait that I started using last year. I think we did too, but I love the trailer on it. Yeah, good presentation.
Speaker 3
Yeah, I mean and you can add again with those, you can add a lot. But I mean I think that the I think the trick for a lot of people that that they could put some more fish in the boat is getting up. In the smaller stuff and and downsizing to this degree, you know, especially especially on pressure water, you're just you're just going to be out fishing people 5:00 to 1:00 because they're just, you know. It's one of those things. It's easy to tell Muskie guys to downsize and they do it, and then they revert back to what they know. And I see it every year and that's why I go kind of the busky thing like concentrate on it like you're a bass thing or or approach it from that standpoint where you're you're not reaching for. You know a. A7 inch, shallow rater and oh they might be. Hitting. This leave it alone. It's so hard for guys to do where you go. They've got a bait full of of muskie bait baits and they just want to use them right. It's that self-control thing where well. I just want to try this. I just want to do this now. If you approach it like Jay you were saying. You know, you could take it down like a 55 LB braid, a little titanium leader or a a lightweight leader and a 300 size reel. Or heck, even a 200 size reel and you can tangle with some giants up in the shallows if you're willing to dedicate time to those approaches. My probably my trick that I I'll whip out. Like I said more so than anything is hitting. Hitting some deep stuff, you know everybody goes well. They're all up shallow, most of them, but you can still pick up some deep edge fish as it is. And the further you get from the spawn, the truer that seems to be and I'll just wreck fish with that freaking hower deep. Just just crush them because that thing runs so deep, just size the speed you're able to get it at. That's something to look at and you know the other, the other one that comes to mind, where it's it is a musky bait. But I like it for the same purpose is a little 4 inch deep shed from slammer. And that's actually just a killer. Bats bait anyway, but the four inch body slammer, deep shad. Is it falls in that category where I like that they as a drawing presentation, but also is ripping and and that's one thing and the biggest thing that's going to help.
Speaker
MHM.
Speaker 3
You. In these this scenario coming into the you know, the season opener coming into whatever we're faced with. Adding pauses, adding extended hang time to all your trees, right? It it's going to be the thing it always is. The thing of if there's ever been just a a truism that that year to year to year to year. You know, who knows what our complaints will be this year, about how fishing has been, you know, or what's going to transpire out through the course of year. But I can tell you something that is.
Speaker 4
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3
Undeniable, and it is going to happen. And as you are going to catch more fish, if you slow things down, add a hang time in in this season opener postponed period. Period. You know it. It it just is what it is for a move on. Jay. What? What? What's the vibe? What's your outlook? At least for the northern zone. I mean, southern zone. They're they're definitely. Definitely. Well throughout it I mean. What are what are you thinking? Has it been warmed up enough? You think the fish will be completely postponed by the time it opens up? For what are you guys?
Speaker 4
I I talked to Herbie this morning. He was because he's down in southern Wisconsin for a while, probably till June. And he was saying Fisher still spawning. So you know, if he can get in the boat and start doing some trips in early May.
Speaker 3
Try.
Speaker 4
Once opener hits down there, he's, you know, prepared for it to be a little funky for a while. Those were his words. So I thought maybe the fish were we were talking about that the other day, you know, 3 hours South where I am right here right now, you know that, you know, the swan would be over by this Saturday, but he's saying it's still lingering. In there as it as crazy as it sounds, they've had ice out for like, I don't even know two months or something ridiculous. Yeah. So that's where they at? I guess it's just kind of a slow warm up. You know, I imagine waters are.
Speaker 2
It's good.
Speaker 4
I don't know little. 50s some kind of thing.
Speaker 3
Maybe you know, it's like who knows? I mean that dealing with split mixed up stuff on in, in my neck of the woods everybody is that that's already the first thing out of that with that one's pretty spawn that one post spawn catch catch them however you want. You know, I freaking I've been hammering fish and it's like, catch my bass tackle. Catch him on freaking you know.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Speaker 4
Yeah, you're doing. You're doing something everyday. You know, when I've been, when I've been hearing the report from you. Like, you know what you caught, you know.
Speaker 2
Oh.
Speaker 4
Yeah, that, you know, it's like one day you'll have 4 fish. It's muskie fishing you. Know with. For one day and then the conditions change and you're doing completely different tactic the next day. You know this.
Speaker 3
Well, that's that's the read though. I mean, I don't. Ohh I I had a banner day. You know that.
Speaker 4
You have to. Well, it's it's the whole thing. Yeah, it's the whole thing. It's.
Speaker 2
But and. But.
Speaker 4
Just like, oh, yesterday they were hitting top. Waters, you know.
Speaker 3
Well, and that that's The thing is I had a wicked again had a wicked good day. And the next day, you just can't run the same game plan. That would probably be the lesson there because you know, I go out, put gun, just floors wrecks in the boat as you know, right. So it was like that's a different sized 1, isn't it? That's a. That's a different. Yeah, a little little hog city and.
Speaker 4
Hog city.
Speaker 3
The vote subsequently Jay like minutes later, a 46 hit the net and I was like, yeah, that's cute. But they were like, man, whatever.
Speaker 2
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4
Little guy.
Speaker 3
Ah, look at that cute thing. Let's just shake him loose. But I you know, I I freaking got, you know, the dinosaur in the boat there for the year. If I if that's. If that's the if. That's the biggest of my year. I'm good, but anyway.
Speaker 2
Had that day.
Speaker 3
Obviously, great day on the water came back the next day. Guess what I did? I checked my bait fish. I thought about the weather, thought about what had changed in the last what freaking 11 1/2 hours since I left.
Speaker
MMM.
Speaker 3
And things were different and I did my 3 point check and I went I better do something different cause this has nothing to do with. And coming off the heels of putting 4 fish over mid 40. Or, you know, 45 and up in the boat in a pretty small window. Doing a tactic, I will tell you all about. It some other time. Because that was a weird 1. Still dialing it in. I'm not holding anything back, but I want a couple more under the belt before I I go. Hey, this is a thing, but. You know, found a pattern. Looked at the scenario as a whole and went. No, this is. Different it's and and and what it what? The knee jerk. What it? What? What? It was been easy to do. Would have been going. Oh, let's do this exact same thing that we did yesterday.
Speaker 4
Let's give it a try, yeah.
Speaker 3
Let's give it a try. It was. It's a different day and and that's what I'm doing right now. And I, you know, as as things warm up and and and water temps progress and the seasonality progresses that's that's the the trick to continued success where you've got to be able to look at it.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 3
From a logical standpoint and go, this is what is taking place right here, right now, not what I want it to be. You know, I had a great guy. He he was in from Utah and and kept fish with this cool guy this week and we were discussing that and he said, you know, he's a podcast listener and kind of one of those things, if sometimes it's the most, you know, simple thing that will be said. But when you're thinking about it, overthinking underthinking. Whatever it might be, you've got to take a step back and go. Am I trying to force my wheel on the situation or is this what the environmental cues and everything else are telling me to do? And and I think that's the hard thing that people struggle with is you have to go. Am I trying to force what I want or is this the scenario? You know, So what? What Jay was saying about banging it up out there? Come back the next day. Go. OK, gonna do something else. And. And. And I think that's the hard part in the spring is like. Especially when you're coming out with musky fever. Right. I just say that to be the voice of reason and your head to go. OK, you got musky fever. You're ready to rock'n'roll? But nothing will satiate your musky fever quite like catching them. You know, so God, you've got to approach it with some logic and reason and and really get a read on the water. What we're going to say, Jay.
Speaker 4
Well, a couple of things. I mean, and that's part of muskie fever too early season especially as it's like we all got hopefully a bunch of new dates. You know over the winter all over the offseason and you're anxious to try them. And a lot of times these presentations are huge, so they might not be appropriate for the time.
Speaker 3
Right. Yeah, put away your new toys, yeah.
Speaker 4
So we're straight. Yeah. You know, so yeah, you downsize and all that. You quickly mention your three. Could you quickly talk about your 3 point paycheck that you do all the water for those that haven't heard?
Speaker 2
For all they wings.
Speaker 3
That well, if they haven't, they have but not pound it back in there, get everybody focused again. You know, like a lot of a lot of, like you said, a lot of these guys you've been, you've been winter dreaming and now it's finally come.
Speaker 4
MHM.
Speaker 3
Alright, let's revisit a cut. Let screw it. Let's revisit some important stuff we're supposed to do, Q, But let's reinvent you said that and there's some other things to revisit and refocus on three-point bait check. You know, I I pounded on in the book. What? I'm what? It is in simplest of terms. As I am keying in on a shallow a mid depth and a deep area. That consistently hold bait fish each and every time that I hit the water, and I'm working on patterning. I checked these three areas because they allow me to identify bait quickly and they consistently hold bait under certain scenarios, right? It is like my gold standard on the water, so if I do a three-point check which is 1 shallow, 1 mid 1D and bait fish. Are concentrated on my mid check. Guess where I'm going to focus at? To start with now, if bait Fisher congregated deep, it's very simplistic. Now the key of that is not you just drive around a fun three things and you go wow, I have three spots and I check them and and they never have bait or they always have bait. There's structural study that needs to be done there, but if you. You know, whatever your home waters are, if there's something you consistently fish multiple bodies of water, I've got tons of bodies of water that fish and do the same thing on them is I will spend the time. To to look for patterns and bait fish and look for areas that kind of suit my needs for that. Because you need to understand this is where bait goes when conditions are poor and then they're deep. Right. It's not the only place to go, but you go. Hey, when it's a really bad cold front, the base of this point always has bait fish on.
Speaker 2
Cool.
Speaker 3
Here's a a bar, a mid depth hump there or whatever. Now the next, like I said, conditions are XY and Z and there's always bait fish on this mid spot conditions are XYZ and there's always bait fish and this shell is a that provides you. A a foundational basis of where to start. Opposed to hey, that looks good over there and you drive your better. There and you cast. Right. So look at it from that lens and and bringing that up sort of Harkins to to freaking the crap I did on the app all year long and got ready for everybody if you're if you're trying to pattern, you're trying to come out season opener, you're trying to get it set up here the freaking muskie. Journal and the app start using it. Right. If you're not patterned, start journaling what is taking place so you don't misremember. Right, that XY and Z you know, here's the conditions for the day. I was out and this happened and I saw back here at least. See you have a solid.
Speaker
Yeah.
Speaker 3
It's something that you can revisit it that's imperative so that you have consistent data collection and and you're you've got it right in your hand. So that is the the basis of of the three-point check. So we we found three places that. Under each, under each, under certain conditions, each of which holds, holds bait fish with consistency that allows us to start from there. The other thing I'll say is this is. Forget. Coming out this coming out fresh. Forget everything you knew about last year's vegetation. Right. And and you'll see guys where they. There's a weed bed over here and they like fish it here after year after year, different or the same, whereas. Man, those edges change. There's so much at play. On where vegetation is and how it it it's composed and how it's comprised subsurface. I've seen years where certain weed bids never come in and and there's weed beds that are deep now, or I've seen that the edge is far different than it was the year previous.
Speaker 4
Or it's a different type of weed? Put together, there you go.
Speaker 3
No, don't take it for granted, which is guess what? Go out there and spend the time to figure it out. And from another discussion on the.
Speaker 2
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3
Boat. This week I had a old head on the boat. I mean, this guy's been muskie fishing longer than I've been alive, you know. One of those type 19. And you know, we were just kind of just discussing the topics of that and it was just like. Getting into he was he was pre electronics and we were just kind of discussing you know the stuff nobody wants to do. He's like, yeah, when you didn't have side scanning, you definitely have live in your first day in Camping Canada or you're going to fricking minocqua or Hayward. Your first day on the water was figuring it out. You know, just marking stuff and I think that's lost on a lot of people now, which is. You know, they go out and it's it's. From the second that they stopped the boat to the second, it goes back on the trailer. Then it's an attempt to catch a muskie, which is great. That's the point. But man, it's far easier with a little bit of planning and a little bit of Recon. You know where you know, get out and figure it out. You have to. Nobody can tell you you're not going to go well. The weeds were this, this, this and this last year or the edge was this, this and this. Just make sure that you put your effort a little time and effort in to see what has changed or what is changing. That would be another thing to just pound in folks head. You know when you're coming into this because Lord knows what's happening under the ice, what's what's taking place that's going to change, you know, whether it be the introduction of the freaking crayfish. And now there's not a weed, a single weed in the leg, Jay or the edges. Change that. You know there's new timber. That's something that all. So being noticed, freaking, you know, is there a are there? Is there a new lay down? Are there different lay downs? Did that tree rot just taking the time to identify that we'll we'll pay off huge dividends. You know it's not as exciting as coming through there and losing your mind and casting and blasting, but the more you know.
Speaker 4
So.
Speaker 3
The more fish you catch, and I think that's really true of, like from all my guiding and you know been doing this for so many years where the the win for me off is often it's not. Oh, I know some great area, right. I know the great I know the right spot. No, I understand the composition. Of a of A. Of a some structure and cover. But I also know where the small details are. Alright, I know where there's the slightest change in things, and I'm sure as **** going to make sure a castle lands there. Right. Or I know. How a tree lays in the water? Here's the angle that this is laying in there. Or you know this is that transition from bottom bottom transition where it's it's hard to soft transition. You know, so get back out. You know, I've we've always encouraged people, you know, go do some. What is it? Non sport fishing Jay up north or whatever. Wherever you're at, you know, get out there and and check some things out. Even if you can't musky fish and and and focus on. Not relearning, but reacclimating reacquainting yourself to the new surroundings, even if it's your home water. You know that that's gonna pay dividends. What else, Jay, what else should be pounded in peoples heads before they get back out there? At least for the Wisconsin? Thing.
Speaker 4
You know what you're talking about? The three-point paycheck, you know, practicing on your home water. I got a I got a is really good in terms of. Applying that to new water, you know, once you start taking. Note of that. That system been using that setup every morning or afternoon whenever. You go out.
Speaker 3
Well.
Speaker 4
It'll just make you that much better and that much more aware when you do. You know, take a trip or whatever, you know. Take that Canadian trip in the summer or whatever you're going to be a lot more practiced and tuning in. I like it.
Speaker 2
Well.
Speaker 3
How many Musk you guys do? It's something that just works and it checks a couple boxes. But you said it's something operative and what you said was attuned. How many muskie guys are observing bait on their? Electronics your down scan size. Not many. They're not paying attention often to the baitfish. This forces you to observe what is taking place and you get better with your electronics. Right, every time you just do it, it's the 1st 10 minutes of your trip. Whatever. OK. I'm spending time looking this. I'm observing bait fish. I'm. I'm. Going through that motion, whether you need to or not, you've got a feel for what's taking place. Right. Then what you're saying is transposing that to a new area. I mean, you know, I don't think you're going to be able to launch out and can't go back. I'm here here. I'm going to check these three areas, but you at least have. A far better grasp and a far higher comfort level with what your electronics are telling you. You know for sure where you go. OK, cool, because you don't want to fish below them. I can promise you that. You know, you don't want to fish above or below them too much and. That's gonna help you in the long run there anyway. Goodness ramble, ramble. We better get to some Q&A here. Knock some of these out, knock out the dust. I'm sure I'm waiting to we. We it's like you spend all winter trying to catch up and, you know, hear the hearing any moment. Once people really start making cast out of anger. Here that the inbox is gonna blow up never ending. Dan, Greetings again from Slime Lantern. Steve, can you breakdown the steps, tactics, weather and Moon watch to have a successful trip on the water with a? Week in advance. Do I write down what way the wind is blowing every day for a week? Example fish, the wind blowing side of lake. Embrace the suck. Kiss the musky. OK anyway. What? What? What are you asking? How do you plan ahead? So. Like content, another concept here and and going into whatever, whether it be a trip, you know whether it be the season opener, whatever it is. If you're not there to. Basically, mentally conceptualize what's taking place, talked about it, and it works. You've got to really have. A significant grasp on the cardinal directions of a body of water. Right. So what is the north-south, East, West orientation of a body of water, you know? And. Once you understand how wind is impacting it, you understand water clarity. You understand the forage, you can basically go through what's happening in your head. Now, that sounds, if to the uninitiated, it sounds crazy, but it's like when, when, when on a big body of water in Canada, I'm on my home water here. You know, I don't have to be there to tell you what's going on. Because I've seen it. All right. OK. The winds coming out of the southwest, it's doing this. It's doing that. And I can name 10 places that are positively impacted by that. And I can name another 20 places. That that's not a good thing, you know, which is conceptualizing how. Wind, waves, weather are affecting a body of water without being there because you've seen it done it and conceptualize it. OK so. What? What? I'm going to look at if I'm trying to plan a trip and he's. Looking at all these elements. You know what's the step by step breakdown? I don't. I don't do it step by step personally, because it's, you know, there's not everybody water. I can do this on. But if you if you have a very good grasp again starting with the cardinal directions of what? A body of water is like, you know what the forage base is, you know what the composition of lake. You know, every little, not every little factor, but you know enough about this like that. You can envision what is sustained 15 mile an hour winds from the West look like and how is it impacting that body.
Speaker
Water.
Speaker 4
MHM.
Speaker 3
You know, is jimmy'z bag getting blown out? But you know, Terries Cove is protected. Or, you know, is there a rock bar? A sandbar that's getting washed with waves? Or is there this, or rather? That blah, blah, blah blah blah. Umm. It is basically just the the mental imagery of. How wind and weather affecting things and you can take that to the next step. You know, the wind is easy because you go, OK, this is the shoreline that would be wind blown or this through that or the other. But the the other element of that would be. Looking at a body of water and you go. OK. I know where it's at seasonally right now. I know where the weed growth is. I know where fish will retreat or how far back they would retreat in a cold front because I have, you know, baseline information or precursory knowledge of what's taking place in that body of water.
Speaker 2
So.
Speaker 3
How? How do you know it's? It's the same thing as like starting a guide trip. Umm. And I'm not trying to sound too far out there, but this is how it goes. In my head and.
Speaker 4
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3
I talked like Herbie or whoever, you know. What are you doing tomorrow? Well, I gotta figure it out. Right. And and and it's the same thing if if I'm going OK. Tomorrow is hell. Let's just do it. I'm trying to work you through it. So I'll tell you. I'm on. What is it? Look at the weather tomorrow. Some sun in the morning increasing clouds during the afternoon. Stray shower thunderstorm is possible. 83 Hot oh Southwest 5 to 10. OK.
Speaker 1
Umm.
Speaker 3
So 5 to 10 SW which is going to blow straight against current tomorrow. Where I fish right?
Speaker 4
Against the what now?
Speaker 3
Against the current. So any water coming downstream. So actually if it's actually blowing and they're always wrong, but it'll be 10 to 15. But things are things you know and I'm just going to try to walk it through, I guess how I do it because I don't have a step by step, but I'm looking at the.
Speaker
OK. Yeah.
Speaker 3
Freaking weather. OK. And so I've had fish staged in. Open water. But adjacent. 22 major structures. OK, that is where I'm at as of today. That has held true for the last couple of days, and they're just about a cast off or two cast off adjacent of major points. Creek mouths are giant changes, right? Big changes and and and. So what am I going to do in my thought process? Because I don't know how to articulate it perfectly, but how do I work through? OK. So today was little to no wind and it was actually it says it's basically a 180 wind shift, right. So yeah, the wind is going to shift 180° on me. OK, that's going to change. Small bait fish and it's actually going to blow against the current. So it's going to be choppy and disrupted.
Speaker
Yeah.
Speaker 3
And right now when I look at that and I'm thinking mentally of how that's gonna hit of the different base. And so I'm looking for warmer water, but that means a lot of the bigger bays are gonna get cooling effect, right. So I am going to look for things that are buffered from a southwest wind. That have major structural features adjacent. Is that too much of a mouthful?
Speaker 4
OK, it's interesting.
Speaker 3
Right. Well, that's it. And in my head, I'm going to. OK. Well, there's that point and that point in that point, which is a pretty we're talking about, I actually it's like reading the water. We talk about the book or simple as that. OK. How do I put it? What's a good analogy here? OK, Jay, you know, if the wind. You've got to be super familiar with something, but it's like OK, if if the wind blows at your house a certain way, you know there'll be leaves in the yard, right? I know that sounds stupid, but OK. If it blows too hard. What what I'm doing and what I think a lot of guys have done for a. Long time they're going to, OK. Before it even happens, this is what will shift. This is how wind will affect things. Now. What is the weather? I have partially cloudy, which means OK for me to find an active fish tomorrow. It will be off of points and some of these major structural drop offs and breaks. Right adjacent in these areas. So I need bait fish. I need these place to be slightly shielded from the wind. Right. As my target sounds. So opposed to running Helen Half Acre on the lake. I know off the top of my head now 5 or 6 places that it should be top tier choices that check parts of that pattern already. That now are going to have less of a negative impact on wind for this scenario because in the spring, what do we want? We want warming. We don't want cooling. Well, I know right now if it's only partially cloudy with a little bit of chop, I can go moderate depth most likely I don't need to go superbly deep because fish will be higher in the water. So. I'm able to work out 85% of the crap before I even step foot on the lake. Now that's again familiarization with the body of water, but you take like, you know, lost. We fished the crap out of that. And Saint Germain. So what does it matter? Right. Let's talk that like. What side is Jay? What side is? The public ramp on lost.
Speaker 4
South End, South end, OK.
Speaker 3
So. You look at that and you have weeds on one side. You got two, you got 2 reefs. Weed bet on the North End. So it's, you know, and then you got weeds on the on the West. I mean, you look at like like that and you have a major shift and you go bam, OK, if I've got freaking E below, where is it going to end up? Is it a cooling effect of that? Do you see where I'm going with it? Maybe. Maybe I'm too far afield. Maybe I need to rein it in, folks. I apologize, but where? You know, if you have a baseline and you understand, give it XY and Z, you got what is 60. OK, back it up. Back it come with the baseline. Jay, on a perfect day. Right. Perfect weather conditions. It is 65° water with a light ripple on the water. Right. And it is July, where are the Muskies? They're in the wait. All right, perfect. July Day 65 to maybe 70° water. You know of how they'll be staged. So the baseline for me is, is there how much of how much is the current weather scenario a negative impact from them being shallow and active? Right. So the goal is shallow and active. Is the east wind on loss that's blowing towards the merm? Is that? Negative probably right, because the east wind there's a cold wind most of the time. And so you know what's going to shift there. Are they going to drop back? Well, they're not. Probably going to get. Blown further east. You're going further to the West side. If they're already in in perfect condition. So where these fish going to, they're going to drop off to deeper breaks. So what I'm doing is I'm going. What are perfect conditions? What are the best conditions I could possibly have for this day? How many degrees up or down are we off from there? I don't mean degrees of temperature, I mean degrees away from perfection, I guess.
Speaker 4
OK, OK.
Speaker 3
Yeah, you follow me here. Maybe I'm trying to explain something I've never explained, which is how. How I read that if, like, is this a perfect day? Probably not. So it's not a perfect fishing scenario. So how far removed are are we from? Yeah. Right. A cold front that drops 50° and the water temperature plummets might be the most extreme case of that, so we may need to make the biggest adjustments, but you know I'm doing that and then I'm looking at the day-to-day going, what's going to happen. With the wind weather. And the impacts that could start shifting patterns. Right. So that's why I'm looking at, like I said, tomorrow, all that forecaster just said 5 to 10 wind shift. I know how that's going to impact against what water is being moved. I know that's probably going to really RIP away some of those superficial surface temps if that's sustained. And so I'm eliminating water mentally very quickly. While focusing on what are the most likely places that will be productive. And I guess like I said, that's from doing it every day. But the flip side of that coin is going always having that baseline of how far from perfect are we? I don't want to overcompensate, but I definitely don't want to under compensate to stay dialed in. God grief, sorry.
Speaker 4
In your, in your case with your scenario. For tomorrow doing a 180° you know wind shift and.
Speaker
Agreed.
Speaker 4
Warming and clouds rolling in will the bait fish in the by the afternoon be significantly higher than they have been under that scenario?
Speaker 3
Well, that's a different scenario, so. It's spring.
Speaker 2
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3
Right. So guess what, I don't want. I don't want wind. Because it rips super superficial temps away. Because things go up nasty, shallow, and so a blowy windy spring day is not what I want. I want it calm. Ripley. You know the surf. The the the surface. Temps are able to permeate down in the water column and it's really getting things going right. So will it affect bait fish? Yeah, they'll drop back. Like they'll. They'll drop. They'll drop out of like the areas that I'm thinking about that are going to have the wind blowing across them. The majority of the. The the the bait fish that are present there and obviously subsequently the predators are going to drop back out to to out to depth right.
Speaker 4
Have the bluegills and crappies finish spawning in your home water.
Speaker 3
That I've got. I've got Blue Gill spawn going on.
Speaker 4
OK. OK. Gotcha.
Speaker 3
You know, and that. Yeah. And you have different time that we're a mix. We're an odd mix here. But you know it's not going to be, but I'm just trying to give like a a baseline representation of like kind of how I'm look. Going at it and and I guess, I mean we break, we break it, screw it, forget Q&A. Maybe it's like a breaking down a a whole day as long as I'm not rambling too much for it of how I'm looking at it, which is again starting with perfection. Right, so what's perfection? Well. In the spring, it's different than what I mentioned earlier than in the summer. It's OK, it is a warmer, sunnier light. Penetrating things are getting going. There's a lot of energy transference of of solar energy to the shallows. Right. Anything that breaks that up, IE wind clouds can actually be a detriment.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 3
Until the overall temperature levels. Right. Because what you gotta realize in the spring pertinent to right here, right now is the extreme shallows that are most of the spawning areas are far warmer than the first brake line. Like your first major break towards the base. Right. And this is something and I mean it's such a teachable thing or a learning moment when you you take like a Hawk 2 submersible thermometer or you take anything that has a temp reading and you do it at depth in the spring, you know, OK, well, the shallows are 59, but out here at 12 feet deep, it's 41. Right. Those are those are different worlds, so anything that pushed the fish out of that out of that shallow warm zone or breaks up that shallow warm zone sets you back into an entirely different level of activity and entirely different level of engagement.
Speaker 4
For sure.
Speaker 3
That's why I'm looking at each day and just take it with the spring. Screw it. Maybe that makes maybe that makes more. You know, so here's your warm, you know, high puffy Simpsons clouds, light ripple, ripply wind, plenty of sun hitting things, warming things up day. How how far out of alignment to that kind of perfect scenario are we? Right. Did it rain a bunch last night? And guess what? Rain does. Rain takes freaking ground. You know, it takes Creek water, ground water, blah, blah, blah. Internet introduces it into areas. Right. And it often can knock the temperatures down in the spring. As creeks flow in, sometimes it's higher, sometimes that it depends on the Creek, right? But you can't go. Oh, wow, it rained last night and that's great.
Speaker 1
Yes, yes.
Speaker 3
You've got to look at that each individual a buddy. What are but going OK? What factors are at play here? Right. Are we? Do we have a nice warm? Let's say we have a nice warm sunny day. In the spring. But it rained like a mortal hell three days ago. Well, guess what? There's going to be a much bunch of silty, cold water entering in, and it's going to push everything out of the shell. Right. What effects are taking place and how do we compensate? That's just understanding and have a. Having an understanding of how the the the, the whole system, how everything interplays. Right. So you know, is it the spring day or like you I was saying earlier like the summer day, here's the perfect, you know, overcast, drizzly day in July, right? Wow, bring it on. You know, that's a super high activity level day with. Fish, you know, in a subsequent Musk, he's higher in the water column and aggressive. You know what?
Speaker
No.
Speaker 4
It's kind of like a polar opposite, you know, 360° water. Yeah, that's exactly what you're talking.
Speaker 3
About right, and that's why I'm trying now ramp, but I'm trying to get it. There's so many things to like articulate but like. These are two entirely other things, and it's water. Water. Water temperature dictates simple backing up.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3
The ambient water temp, the water temp that muskies are in dictates their caloric needs and their activity levels, right? So the deeper the colder, the slower. Right, you need to have consistency that draws bait fish into the shallows. Now everybody has spawn, spawn, spawn, spawn spawn. That's great. But what gravitates Muskie shallow, what draws and holds them in the shallows? Aside from the act of spawning, is the prevalence of bait fish. Right. That's what I'm looking for, and that's why I'm paying so much attention. These small changes going that entire food chain, it whiplashes up and down the food chain dramatically. Right where we've got to have. Little fry for the sunfish to eat. I mean, you gotta have this and you gotta have that and you gotta have this before the muskies are there. When we're looking from a pattern standpoint of just purely based on forage availability and. That's that's a matter of stability and and and you know how that's interplaying because it's not that Muskies go. I want to be shallow and warm. I want to be cold and deep. I want to be this and that. They want to have access to easy meals. And the reason it's not so simple is going, you know, 1 + 1. Equals two in a patterning thing for Muskies is there's so many variables and not so much how the Muskies react, but how the bait, fish and the entire food chain reacts throughout the entire process. You know that that's the kicker there. But I mean didn't that make sense, Jay, I just lost my mind. I'm trying to explain how to plan a day. I didn't know that was where I was going with it, but it's like, you know, this is the kind of the way my brains working, you know, he asked that one question here. I'm down the rabbit hole, which is. That's that's. The the daily. Exercise of how is this going to change things?
Speaker 4
Is anything the tree spawn the pre spawn and the spawn are truly. Irregular times for a muskie. So. Outside, you know that two week period or whatever, maybe 3 weeks. Outside of that.
Speaker 3
Well, I mean pre spawn. Yeah. And the act of spawning. Yeah, they're not the true there's like pre spawn fishing period and there's like stage 2 spawn. 1. And the fish that are like staging outside of spawning areas once there's a certain time where they're they're shut down too. They're just there, right? It's like the boys are lined up on one side and the girls are lined up on the other side and everybody's kind. Of waiting for. The music start. Yeah. Those fish are not doing musky ish things. You know, and then throughout the spawn period itself and you get into the act thereof. Yeah, you can subtract 3 weeks of the year, so you got 49 weeks where they act like Muskies.
Speaker 4
That's what I was trying to elaborate on. You think about Wisconsin, you think about and this is probably a good thing. It's probably a positive thing, but every single species that is targeted. They're ideally targeted when they're spawning or mating in Wisconsin. You know turkeys right here. Yeah, bluegills, you know, definitely. Definitely. Walleye, Gophers. You know, chipmunks, everything.
Speaker 3
Bedding, bedding, bedding, large. It said though, is there a Gopher spawn?
Speaker 4
Well, they mate Steve, and believe me, it's a, it's an electric time of the year. You want to be there when it happens.
Speaker 2
Do you have? Is there? You can't get. Got him.
Speaker 4
Well, no, but mostly hey, and that's part, that's part of the beauty. Of the sport, probably. Yeah, you know, the way I look at it is that we're trying to protect him. It's the one good thing that.
Speaker 3
Well, they think, thank God they're not eating. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4
A. A good thing that the DNR in Wisconsin is doing. Yeah. Is it just like, no, we really don't want to have an open season when they're spawning. They're too easy to damage at that point, so that's great. That's great. But but it is the one thing I can think of that is that is protected in the upper Midwest probably from that very scenario, so.
Speaker 3
And they're not.
Speaker 4
You know most animals are. You know, you look at deer just like, I mean, they're on their minds during the rut. It's a great time to hunt. Them, but they're not themselves. You know, it's almost taking advantage of them. It's kind of cool.
Speaker 3
Well, that's The thing is you don't have to worry about Muskies eating during that period. I can promise you that they're just doing, but you know, God freaking rabbit hole ball, rabbit hole. Sorry, that's cool. Hopefully I didn't confuse too many people there. We'll just get to the Q&A next week. After that freaking nutty, nutty right. But like I said, it's it's hard to articulate. You know how how? You're putting that together and where the brain goes. But anyway, we're going to circle back on Sunday. Jaybird.
Speaker 4
Sweet.
Speaker 1
Thanks guys. Night.