Muskies are never easy. We hear all kinds of things about what makes them tough to catch – and one of them is warm water, dog day summer conditions. But actually, in many ways, summer is my favorite time of year for muskies. It’s often feast or famine; there are so many things to try; it can be very high speed; it’s always challenging and fun. And if they’re not bitin’ you can always go swimmin’. Allow me to offer a quick 6-pack of solutions that often work for myself and others. To get to six, we’ll look at presentations that just might be something new to muskies’ eyes.

OPEN WATER:

Fishing the “open water” or basically the middle of the lake (in many cases) for suspended summer muskies can be very effective. Like fishing after dark and fishing in big waves, there is little direct pressure (note a recurring theme here?) on these fish. Muskies will generally be living in the top 1/3 of the water column now (smaller pie to slice).

While these fish can be spread out – and in the case of larger waters there’s a lot of area to search – in many cases they’re not so spread out. Their only structure, really, is their food. Finding roaming, not-hungry esox does no good. Hungry fish will be by food. Open water forage very often groups up; more often than not, in fact. So find the forage fish. This can be done with electronics and your eyes. Often, birds like gulls, loons and cormorants will give away the presence of forage fish. And often groups of forage show up on electronics. Concentrate, if possible, on the edges of bunched up forage, because that’s where predators will concentrate.
Look for food and then fish around it. Trolling is very effective for this and overall, most effective. But predators will bunch up in these areas – the majority of predators may be in a pretty small percentage of space. So, once fish are found, casting can be very effective too. When trolling, it’s a big oversight – to just continue on down the lake after a fish hits. Rather, mark the spot and concentrate in that area for some time, as often there will be several fish to be had.