I wrote on last week’s fishing report, that I was little surprised to hear anglers were marking and catching muskies on deeper (16feet) rocks. My reasoning is that muskies are mostly found near shallow weeds (cover) when temperatures are above 50 degrees.  So, with the water temps being in the upper 50s on every lake on the chain, muskies usually are not holding on rock (structure) until those temperatures drop into the upper 40s / lower 50s.

Maybe I’m wrong but for years I always thought if you are targeting fall musky, the first-place anglers should look would be 4 to 8 feet weeds because forage will be in that location. Then when the water temperature starts to drop, follow the food muskies are looking for. Meaning, move to areas where cover meets structure. This transition is when the weeds start to die/thin out, baitfish will shift to deeper parts of shoreline weeds that are still green. Then move to the first dropoffs from vegetation to hard bottom. Shoreline points with gravel/rocks and or mid lake humps topping out at 10 to 20 feet.

So why are muskies being found on structure when the water is still in the upper 50s? Here is my explanation. Again, I could be wrong, but the more I thought about this I believe it all has to do with water temps. Sun, clouds, wind and food all play a part in finding fall muskies. If you think about it, the surface temperatures of the water changes with the weather. If you would lower a temperature sensor or thermometer you could see how the temperature changes in the water column. So, deeper water (even 10 to 16 feet) could supply a consistent temperature where fish are more comfortable.