Nothing excites a Musky angler quite like the beginning of a new season!

After attending shows and seminars, purchasing and tinkering with new baits, and researching strategies and locations all while anticipating the best season yet, musky anglers are typically AMPED & ready to go!

I don’t know how many times I’ve returned to the boat landing on opening weekend to hear anglers consoling themselves and each other with the typical excuses…

“I threw everything in my box, but they’re not up for eating just yet”

“Water temps need to come up just a bit more for these fish to turn on”

“I saw fish today but they just aren’t in the mood”

“Boy all that rain this spring really screwed these fish up”

…and the list could go on…

Spring tactics, especially early season, are in a category by themselves. Here are 5 considerations you can make to ensure your Musky season starts off right while avoiding frustration and boat launch excuses!

DOWNSIZE YOUR BAITS

Matching the baitfish size with your presentations in the spring is an easy adjustment to start the year. Simply make sure your box in the boat doesn’t contain the 7-12″ baits that your threw to end the last season. In Southeast, Wisconsin Pewaukee Musky anglers tend to have success early season, but it’s often misrepresented that THE LAKE is the reason for the success.

The truth of the matter is that Pewaukee cohort of Musky anglers is notorious for twitching 4-6″ baits and even throwing bass lures to kick off the season. It’s the bait size matching the smaller forage base that results in spring time action!

RESPOOL WITH LIGHTER LINE

When spooling up prior to the start of the year, consider starting your upcoming season with 50-65# line versus the go-to 80-100# that most anglers employ during the majority of their seasons’ Musky campaign. Is the diameter the only factor that will instantly improve spring Musky results? NO BUT…Smaller line diameter paired with the smaller bait profile we discussed above will enable longer casts. Getting your baits further from the boat especially in the typical spring-time shallows will allow you to cover more water on each cast throughout the day. The smaller diameter line also provides less water resistance which tends to make dive-n-rise style baits, and glide baits excel at the highest level the bait designer intended. More triggering movements can only benefit an angler in the spring!

STAY SHALLOW

Playing the scientific odds and targeting shallow water when it comes to Musky behavior in the spring is about as safe a bet as you can make. Due to the majority of the Musky population in Southeast Wisconsin lakes remaining shallow after they spawn prior the season opening, we typically will commit to fishing 8 feet of water or less.

Historic spawning bays are great areas to start! Even better are the bays on your body of water located on the Northern Half of the lake due to wind protection and exposure to radiant sun energy. Warmer waters are a great location to find recently developing emergent weed growth. It also will have Muskies with higher metabolism keyed in on feeding on the baitfish and panfish that are also attracted to these oxygen rich, warmer waters.

To help us remain disciplined in our boat positioning while targeting these locations and depths we’ll use the HD GPS mapping and Depth Range Shading on our boat’s Garmin Units to highlight 8 feet of water or less with a selected color (in this case green).

It’s invaluable to fish with confidence in areas that you KNOW should hold fish during the early spring season!

SLOW DOWN

As water temps during the onset of the Wisconsin Musky season are typically between 60-65 degrees in the Southern Zone, Musky may be looking to feed after the vigor of the spawn, but they’re often selective. It’s a hard balance for a Musky to hunt for food and ensure they get enough rest to put back on weight during the month of May. For this reason, they’ll typically opt to exert as little energy as possible to consume the easiest, small meal that comes into their zone of striking.

Erratic and slow Jerkbaits (stop-start), Glidebaits (Side-to-side) like 6″ Phantom Soft Tails and SquirKOs, and Dive-and-Rise lures like 6.5″ Bobbie Baits and 7″ Weighted Suick Thrillers are great for working over and around emergent weeds in shallow water. The slow hang time and erratic action of these baits, paired with their ability to navigate growing weeds and a shallow water are your best bet for gaining a Musky response versus a bait that requires a steady retrieve.

SEEK OUT THE SPOT ON THE SPOT

Now that you’re dialed on the smaller class of erractic baits to try, you’ve slowed down your approach to covering high percentage areas containing warm, shallow water on the North shore of your chosen lake, and you’ve dialed in your gear to allow for longer casts and more action out of your baits, it’s time to really up the ante.

The previously mentioned tips might be just enough to get you going in the right direction to start the season, however, if you can develop a milk run of smaller areas to rotate through that specifically contain additional isolated cover, you can really outshine most anglers and outsmart most predators on a given day.

The spot on the spot you’re looking for is most efficiently uncovered by anglers who have Side-Vu capabilities on their sonar. If you can drop waypoints on standout pieces of cover on seemingly similar looking flats, you will have high percentage targets you can recycle through perhaps resulting in multi-fish days!

Examples of cover the Musky use include hard cover like larger rocks, boulders, or pieces of wood or fallen trees on a sand or mud flat. These objects have a tendency to hold a bit more heat, attract baitfish, and serve as an ambush point for Musky to stage. Subtle weed differences on a flat or inside a bay can also concentrate fish and be seen on Side-Vu. You might be cruising along and see emergent weed, sand grass as an example, out to one side for 50 yards or so, and then suddenly that same side provides images of weeds that reach much taller from the bottom which might indicate coontail or milfoil. The edge where this change occurs deserves a waypoint as it can again serve as a bait fish attractant or ambush point.

An efficient use of your time while searching with your electronics can be to do some shortline trolling in shallow water in the spring time. Short line trolling while marking spots-on-the spots using Side-Vu technology is an effective way to find your focus areas for later in the day while casting, OR even catching a fish!

Utilizing smaller baits and downsized line in the spring time in shallow water and fishing in high percentage locations will not only give you confidence to start the season and make you efficient. It will also keep you from making excuses at the end of the day at the ramp! It’s much more fun to show photos of your catch and releases from that day or talk about all the follows you had.

Good luck to you and your start to the new season! Love the Chase!!