NumenOn the Water
Date: November 4, 2017
Body of Water: M Lake
Boat: Numenon
With: Alone
Target: Muskellunge
Time: 9:30 AM - 4 PM
Conditions: 38-42 degrees F and intermittent rain with ice pellets. NE winds swinging to SE, about 10 mph, stronger with a couple of rain events. Water was super clear and 51 degrees F.
I thought there was too much weather (i.e., wind) for Lake St. Clair, and I really wanted a muskie to end the season. Given a couple of inland choices, I chose quality over quantity; I went to M Lake. I was not surprised to notice its clear water, but I was startled about the crystal clarity it posed. Conditions just got a little tougher ...
I still had confidence in the low light conditions, though, and I could see with my graph that healthy, green weeds extended down to 23 feet or so. I commenced to slinging Big Rubber. Shadzilla provided a welcome break from the Bull Dawg, but after a couple of hours of nothing, I gave in and reverted to trolling and covering water!
My spread consisted of the perch-colored Giant Shallow Shad Rap and two Bucher deep-diving Depth Raiders; one long and diving 10+ feet, the other short and swimming just below my prop wash. Trolling at 3 - 4 mph, I covered many miles to elicit one strike; a 24-inch pike ate the Shad Rap right near the edge of some tall weeds in 15 feet of water. She was not what I was looking for, but she was infinitely better than a skunk!
I finished with another hour or so of casting likely areas with a twitch bait (a dark sucker-colored Bucher Shallow Raider) and a black and white Pig Shad, but still raised nothing; once again, I ran out of time before I could make it happen.
I thought there was too much weather (i.e., wind) for Lake St. Clair, and I really wanted a muskie to end the season. Given a couple of inland choices, I chose quality over quantity; I went to M Lake. I was not surprised to notice its clear water, but I was startled about the crystal clarity it posed. Conditions just got a little tougher ...
I still had confidence in the low light conditions, though, and I could see with my graph that healthy, green weeds extended down to 23 feet or so. I commenced to slinging Big Rubber. Shadzilla provided a welcome break from the Bull Dawg, but after a couple of hours of nothing, I gave in and reverted to trolling and covering water!
My spread consisted of the perch-colored Giant Shallow Shad Rap and two Bucher deep-diving Depth Raiders; one long and diving 10+ feet, the other short and swimming just below my prop wash. Trolling at 3 - 4 mph, I covered many miles to elicit one strike; a 24-inch pike ate the Shad Rap right near the edge of some tall weeds in 15 feet of water. She was not what I was looking for, but she was infinitely better than a skunk!
 |
| A beautifully colored pike ate my Giant Shad Rap. |
I finished with another hour or so of casting likely areas with a twitch bait (a dark sucker-colored Bucher Shallow Raider) and a black and white Pig Shad, but still raised nothing; once again, I ran out of time before I could make it happen.
What do I have to say about this?
Crappy November weather provided another session on an apparently private lake! Other than a successful duck hunter pulling his kayak as I launched, there was not another soul on the water.
Given holidays, travel schedules and weather, I have perhaps a single trip left in the open water season. The odds of completing a couple of my 2017 Esox Goals are dwindling.
Say what one will about my execution, no one will be able to question my effort to catch a muskie before the season closes. But even though this is a notoriously difficult lake to generate strikes under many circumstances, I am somewhat surprised to have not at least spotted any followers.
Ah, muskies. My fever started here!
Crappy November weather provided another session on an apparently private lake! Other than a successful duck hunter pulling his kayak as I launched, there was not another soul on the water.
Given holidays, travel schedules and weather, I have perhaps a single trip left in the open water season. The odds of completing a couple of my 2017 Esox Goals are dwindling.
Say what one will about my execution, no one will be able to question my effort to catch a muskie before the season closes. But even though this is a notoriously difficult lake to generate strikes under many circumstances, I am somewhat surprised to have not at least spotted any followers.
Ah, muskies. My fever started here!
 |
| Could this be 2017's last fish for Numenon? |
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