By Britt Stoudenmire
As November nears, most outdoorsmen are preparing to hit the woods in search of a frantic whitetail buck looking for love. While it may be primetime for deer, musky hunters also look forward to the cooler air of fall with the same anticipation. As the waters begin to cool, musky will begin to move out of their summer holding pattern and react to the changing conditions by feeding heavily. This makes a perfect opportunity to target them.
Transition
During the summer, musky will move around quite often in search of both food and optimal holding conditions making them hard to pattern. You target a feeding area with no success often because they are not feeding or not there. Then you target a holding area with no reaction or a lazy follow, and again, no results to show for it. Well, that all changes in the fall as water temperatures begin to tumble. While musky can still be scattered and not necessarily fully moved to their wintering holes, they will begin their transition to these areas while stopping along the way to feed. Whether they stop in a shallow feeding area or in a deeper holding area, these fish become available to target in a variety of areas and are hungry.
Tip: One of my favorite locations to target in the fall are shallow depressions in the middle of the river protected by a break, creating broken water over the depression. Musky love these prime ambush spots.
Pre-Front Frenzy
If there was ever a time that seemed to spur a musky feeding frenzy, it is the day before a massive cold front pushes in. Often the conditions are dreary, a little rainy, windy, and it just feel like something is getting ready to happen. It reminds me of guided trip right before the remnants of a hurricane pushed through the Appalachian Mountains, pulling in a massive cold front. We hit the river around 9am and within minutes were hooked up with a musky on a topwater plug. We switched over to crankbaits the rest of the day after that fish and ended up with seven total fish in nine opportunities. We totaled five fish over 40â with largest going over 48â with a head the size of a basketball (see pic). It was an epic day, particularly for the New River in Virginia. What was most amazing was that the followers were eating before the first turn in the figure-eight, often coming straight off the bottom and hitting the plug vertically.
Tip: Time the fronts and make sure to fish the day BEFORE the front actually moves in. The day the front actually moves through can be tough fishing with often drastic drops in barometric pressure that stymie the bite.
Top Lure Choices
A couple of my favorite offerings during the fall include topwaters such as the Bucher Top Raider or Suik Weagle. These are great in open water or on shallow flats with there is a change in depth. Some days they are on it, some days they are not, but when they are, the hits are explosive. I have seen them hit the Suik Weagle with such intensity that it seemed like God dropped a tree down from heaven that hit the water. If they arenât looking at topwater lures, I usually switch to an inline like a Llungen DC-9 or a crankbait like a Pearson Minnow. These are smaller baits, but can cover a lot of water very quickly. When fish are firing on all cylinders, I like to cover as much ground as possible as quickly as possible. When the bite slows, I will typically stick with these same baits but slow my presentation down.
Tip: You donât need three tackle boxes of lures to catch muskies. Some of the best anglers on the New River will carry three or four of the same lures each trip. It is all about having confidence in your presentation and sticking with it.
The author, Britt Stoudenmire, and his wife Leigh, have been outfitting anglers for fifteen years on the New River in Virginia. They offer both guided fishing trips (newriveroutdoorco.com) and waterfront lodging (walkercreekretreat.com). 540-921-7438.