“Look at it snow”, my partner Lunker Lou Eich hollered. “Joe, I can barely see the shoreline.” I shook my head in both agreement and amazement. We were no more than a short cast length from the steep rocky bank, and yet we could vaguely make out the exposed rocks and downed trees. Here we were, in the middle of an early November snow storm with icicles forming on our rod guides and water temperature readings in the low 40's, trying to catch a fish without freezing to death. The heavy, wet snow surely had us both thinking more about a warm bowl of chili than a big musky – that was until Lou’s rod suddenly took a dip.
“Joe, I’m snagged in the rocks”, Lou excitedly yelled as he struggled to free the 8 ½ foot trolling rod from the rod holder. “I don’t think so, Lou”, I barked. “Rocks don’t move. You’ve got a good fish on there.” I tactfully began edging the boat out away from the bank into open water to make fighting and landing this fish. Just when I thought we were “home free”, my rod also doubled all the way to the reel seat, and began bouncing violently as line begrudgingly peeled from the reel. “Wow!” I exclaimed, “Look at that strike!”.
Lou and I were both now locked in simultaneous battles with cold water muskies – oblivious to the snow, the icy cold wind, and even the bowl of chili. I reached over and threw the outboard in neutral so Lou and I could freely enjoy battling our fish as we drifted across the open water. Both fish fought long, hard and deep, however Lou’s fish hit first, and therefore became the #1 volunteer for my landing net. As soon as it surfaced, I scooped the beefy 43 incher with my left hand, while still battling my musky with the off-hand. Lou quickly freed his fish from the net mesh, and then secured mine, a slighter smaller fish at 41 inches.
Of course, any day with a pair of 40 inch plus muskies could be considered a successful, but neither Lou nor I were finished yet. In the next few hours five muskies from 34 to 43 inches would fall victim to the deadly system of cold water crankin’. A good day in anyone’s book, but on a cold, snowy November afternoon, it was down right superb.
Admittedly, this wasn’t the first time that a pair of musky anglers had hit on some hot late fall action, but this wasn’t a slouch outing by any means. And, might I add, these muskies did not fall to live suckers, nor any other form of livebait method more commonly accepted during the cold water periods. All of these fish, including three more that we took on the following evening, fell to crankbaits; Artificial lures all the way. Seventeen more muskies would fall to the same method before ice-up that fall.
COLD WATER KILLERS
Odd as this may seem to the unknowing, crankbaits are absolute killers on cold water muskies. In fact, two decades of full-time, six-days-a-week musky hunting during the cold water periods of October and November has proven to me beyond a doubt that crankbaits are more often the superior presentation to all others. In all honesty, I’ve taken hundreds of late fall, cold water muskies on crankbaits in my lifetime. This includes many memorable trophies in excess of 50 inches and 30 pounds. As a bonus, I’ve also stumbled onto some of my biggest lake trout and lunkers walleyes on crankbaits during the coldest water periods. Big “oil cans” (lakers) and lunker walleyes also like musky sized crankers.
Why so many musky still fail to realize the deadly effectiveness of crankbaits in cold water is beyond me, but this continues to be so. Somewhere long ago, someone convinced the angling masses that livebait was the only way to catch fish when the water chilled below 50 degrees. This must-fish-livebait-in-cold-water concept was written about so often, that it eventually became gospel of the fishing world. The livebait/cold water mentality is especially prevalent in the Wisconsin communities, but my fellow Packer fans are not totally alone in this regard. Many anglers across the country loose total confidence in fishing artificial lures of any kind once the water gets cold. Sadly, they are all missing out on some of the best artificial lure fishing of the year.
When I first contemplated various chapters for my book Crankbait Secrets For Big Gamefish, I paged through many of my big fish scrapbooks in order to compile a list of good crankbait tactics. The photos revealed the facts and jogged some of my best memories of lunker catches. One of the most obvious common denominators was the number of big fish with snowy backgrounds, heavy clothing and a crankbait in the fish’s mouth. Cold water and crankbaits was obviously a twin-pack. This has given me an unshakable confidence in crankbaits whenever fishing during the cold water periods, spring or fall.
DEPTH CONTROL IS THE KEY
Of course, this doesn’t mean, for a New York second, that all one has to do to catch cold water fish is drop a crankbait over the side and start trolling. Just as with any other technique in fishing, several other key factors must be considered. For one, you definitely need to have some idea of where the fish are. In the very early spring and again in later fall, this not only means knowing where in a general sense, but more specifically, how deep.. Cold water gamefish generally inhabit deeper waters. This means depth control is a key issue. If fact, I firmly believe that depth control is THE issue with cold water crankin’. No other factor even comes close.
This subject of depth control, first coined by the great Buck Perry, should always be the number one goal of the astute cold water cranker. Cold water fish are less apt to move vertically, up or down, to take a lure. This means the lure must travel by the fish at a precise level. Otherwise, success to any great extent is doubtful. Therefore, every effort must be made to determine exactly how deep your target species is. Then, it’s a matter of matching the right tackle with the right crankbait in order to achieve that depth.
Earlier in the cold water period with water temps in the high 50's, I seem to catch the majority of my muskies casting crankbaits over a variety of shallower areas. There’s definitely a major migration inward, away from open water, onto shallow food shelves for a last ditch shallow feed. During the first few weeks of October, weeds on flats, points, and mid lake humps are definitely the hotspots. No lure searches out the last remaining healthy stands of weed growth and pinpoints the location of these shallow musky hideouts quite like a crankbait does. Pumping a floating diver in some perch-like pattern over these weedy patches is sure to draw some attention.
By mid October, water temps steadily decline into the high 40's to low 50's. Hard bottom and more stationary cover such as sunken wood, trees, brush, and man-made fish cribs become better musky targets on some waters; however this depends upon the health of the weed growth. If the water remains clear and the weeds stay healthy and green, it’s almost a sure bet that muskies will still be there in some numbers. No matter what the target, casting crankbaits over these spots is still tough to beat. Generally, as long as the target is shallower than 10 feet, I’ll cast a crankbait over it. Any spot that tops off deeper than this, must also be trolled if the cast doesn’t produce.
Trolling basically doubles your running depth enabling you to run these lures much closer to deeper holding muskies. By the way, contrary to popular belief conventional musky crankbaits do not attain great depths by casting. The length of line out on any given cast simply doesn’t allow it. And, the line tests that most of us use for muskies creates so much drag it severely retards the max. running depth of any crankbait. The combination of a short distance (cast length) and heavy diameter line results in a maximum running depth of less than 8 ½ feet with most lures. These limitations do not exist in the trolling world. You can put out a lot more line, and even weight the lure in order to attain the right depth. That’s why trolling is a great option for the cold water cranker. Getting down where the fish are is important; especially once the water gets colder and the fish move deeper.
Trolling is also superior in terms of dealing with inclement weather. Whenever air temperatures are below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, rod guides begin to freeze shut and reel pawls struggle to work through ice buildup. The colder it gets, especially if there’s some additional wind chill involved, the more of a problem this becomes. Mechanical breakdowns are so common to the cold water caster, that most of these diehards have also become master reel repair artists. My buddy Tom Gelb is one such cat. He carries a box of reel parts on all his late fall trips. He has pawls, gears, springs, anti-reverse dawgs, crank shafts and a host of other no name parts at his immediate disposal. Tom knows that cold, freezing weather is brutally tough on reel parts. He considers it part of the game when fishing cold water with a casting presentation.
This isn’t to say that I discount the effectiveness of casting for cold water gamefish. No way. Heck, I’ve taken lots of big muskies by casting. In fact, I built my reputation as a guide back in the 1970's casting crankbaits. I definitely prefer to catch ‘em casting whenever possible, but it all comes down to doing what works. You need to determine how deep the fish are and then choose the method that is most appropriate. If I can catch ‘em casting, I’ll definitely do it that way. But both the depth of the fish and to a great extent, the air temperature dictate whether I can catch them on the cast.
By the way, where motor trolling is prohibited, which is basically in a few counties in northern Wisconsin, row trolling crankbaits becomes a viable option. The late Bob Ellis proved
this beyond a doubt in the 1960's and ‘70's. I definitely took his lead and did a lot of row trolling afterwards and reaped some very memorable rewards. Several of my friends continue to fish this way every fall with enviable success. It is simply a deadly way to take both numbers and big muskies throughout the fall period.
Water temperature as well as the health of shallow cover dictates how deep big fish are likely to be. That’s why I suggest keeping an eye on both. Water temps, in particular, give me a good starting point as to what to expect. Generally speaking, when I see fall temperatures in the 50's, I’m confident that I can catch fish crankin’. However, when surface temps dip down into the 40's, the majority of the fish start to move deeper, below that magic 12 foot mark. That’s when I consider the trolling option.
Line choice is another factor to consider during the cold water period. Braided cloth lines are nearly always a bad idea in cold weather situations. Braided line freezes quickly to the reel spool. Musky hunters commonly prefer various low stretch braided lines, but they’ll have to give ‘em up if they want to seriously attempt frigid crankin’. Line freeze up is a serious problem with braided lines. Any nylon monofilament style of line is desired whenever air temps inch below the freezing mark. Personally, I’m a big fan of extra tough, saltwater grade monofilament lines such as Stren’s Hi Impact and their new DuraTuff mono for cold water crankin’. They have additional abrasion resistance durability built-in. Superior abrasion resistance is a major plus when jagged ice edges rub on your line all day long.
SPEED IS MISUNDERSTOOD
Speed control, another term coined by Buck Perry, must always be considered no matter what the season, but it has some special significance in cold water crankin’ applications. In my opinion, speed control is the most misunderstood part of cold water crankbait fishing. Many anglers have the mistaken impression that the only speed that works when the water is real cold is – slow. In fact, most anglers think of cold and slow as synonymous. As obviously simple and clean cut as this sounds, it’s simply not true. I won’t dispute that ultra slow retrieve speeds with certain lures can be deadly at certain times, especially with spinnerbaits and jigs, but slow speeds are rarely necessary with crankbaits. I’ve had surprising success with fast lure speeds in cold water. Admittedly, I stumbled onto the oddity of fast crankin’ speeds and cold water fish quite by accident.
This all actually started when I was trolling one windy cold November afternoon a number of years back while fishing for muskies. I remember that the wind was blowing at nearly a gale force, and the waves were huge rollers. Big waves were crashing so hard across one of my favorite points that it was almost impossible to troll across it without taking on water. Originally, I made every effort to troll against the wind in order to maintain some boat control as well as keep the lure speed down. Being disappointed with the lack of success on my first trolling pass, I quickly turned 180 degrees, and made another shot across it going down wind. However, the big rollers and gusty wind pushed my boat at nearly three times the desired speed. I cussed my lack of speed control, as I struggled to hold the boat off the rocky shore. My rod tip vibrated like it was going to rattle right out of the rod holder. Traveling at this high rate of speed, I never considered that a fish would hit it in this low 40 degree water. Boy, was I amazed when the rod doubled with a bone jarring strike.
It took me nearly ten minutes to land that musky due to both the fish size and the howling winds. Nearly 46 inches long and at least 25 pounds told me that speed control in cold water doesn’t necessarily mean “go slow”. I should also point out that this incident was the beginning, but no means the end. I caught two more muskies and a couple of lake trout that day, and all of them came on the downwind trolling pass over that same point. The water temperature was 41 degrees.
Since that day, I’ve never hesitated to “crank it up” whenever things seem slow. I’ve also talked to a number of other experienced cold water crankers about this cold water/speed phenomena. I was surprised to find some similar success stories. Eastern musky hunters, in particular, are big fans of fast trolling in cold water. They purposely troll fast, and don’t believe in ever trolling slow. Noted New York musky maniac Mark Magrahn is one of the most successful at this tactic. Rarely does Mark troll slow no matter what the water temp. As many of you already know, Mark catches a lot of really big muskies each and every fall.
Now, don’t get the mistaken impression that I am advocating that you should always troll fast in cold water with crankbaits. There are definitely many times when a slow “crawl” speed catches more fish in cold water. So much depends upon the species being fished, and the style of lure being used. Generally speaking, muskies seem to like speed in cold water. Walleyes appear to always want it a bit slower. Bass can go either way. However, again it depends upon the bait. High vibrating, big lipped crankbaits seem to trigger gamefish with both fast and slow retrieves, but minnow baits appear to work better with a slow speed.
Muskies love crankbaits in the cold water. They also love ‘em in warm water. However, cold water muskies, those in truly cold frigid water temperatures of less than 50 degrees, want a crankbait that travels close to them. They’ll chase a lure, alright, sometimes right to the boat. But you’ll catch a lot more muskies if you pay attention to depth control a lot more closely. Lunker Lou and I took those November muskies at 22 feet. We trolled a number of depths, both shallower and deeper, but all of those fish came at exactly 22 feet. If you remember anything from this article, I hope it’s not only that muskies will indeed hit crankbaits in frigid cold waters, but that depth control is vital to success. Pay attention to how deep the fish are, and get a lure to them. The rest usually takes care of itself.
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