“The wind is out of the southwest, Joe”, my partner Mike Novak observed. “We always seem to catch one right in this corner with a southwest wind, if anything is active.” “You’re right, Mike”, I acknowledged as I pitched a short cast to a visible clump of curly leaf cabbage weeds with my jointed ShallowRaider. “They sure like this exact spot when the wind is out of the southwest. Otherwise, we never see fish in this corner.”
You could still see the surface V-path from Mike’s TopRaider that had just passed over this same weed clump moments before when I pulled the rod tip hard to the side driving the crankbait downward until it hit weeds. As soon as I felt the lure collide with the cabbage clump, I stopped pulling and instinctively pointed the rod tip forward creating a small amount of line slack. Then, continuing with a short rod jiggle, the lure backed out from weeds and rising up and out of trouble. After that momentary pause, I initiated a second pull driving the lure forward extra fast hoping to free the bait of any remaining weed clingers, and hopefully excite any fish close by.
Well, “excite” was an understatement in this case. At the end of my 2nd pull, an unexpected bump transmitted through the rod tip, followed by surprising slack line. Right about the time my brain deciphered “strike!”, my arms were setting the hook and a fish was jumping -- trying to shake the hooks. Additional tip bend and overall rod length from my 7 ½ footer (musky rod) definitely came in handy here retaining some line tension on the fish throughout all of these acrobatics. A few grunts and groans from me, along with a few thrashes and splashes from the fish, put the finishing touches on another musky segment for my TV series with a hefty 43 incher. Admittedly, catching a 43 incher from a weed clump is certainly not earth shattering news anymore, but that’s not what this story is all about. The real lesson here is our conversation (Mike Novak and me) moments before strike. “We always seem to catch one right in this corner with a southwest wind . . . “. Folks, you have know idea how many muskies my friends and I have taken from that precise location, when the conditions were “right” for it. And, how we had studied this specific area over the years to such a degree that we were able to actually predict with some degree of certainty almost exactly “where” on that spot the fish was most apt to be according to the conditions.
Some anglers have referred to this in the past as find that “spot on the spot”, and to a certain extent that’s what I’m talking about. But, I’m also suggesting taking it to another level yet. In a nutshell, the plan here is to make a case study out of each individual spot on your favorite waters. Take each and every one of your favorite areas, those spots that have produced muskies time and time again, and examine the details of that spot to a much greater degree. I like to call this “tweakin’ the target”. In essence, it means learning as much as you can about what makes fish use this area, and precisely “where” they like to hang out on this spot according to prevailing conditions at any given time.
Some of you might be wondering why go through all this effort? In my mind, it’s simple. The net result from all of this organizational data compiling on-the-water research is more muskies in the boat! Right off the bat, you will obviously gain a far great knowledge of each and every spot you fish. You will definitely know much more about the topography, bottom content, and minute configurations than ever before. Knowing where the points and turns are in the weeds, where isolated deeper clumps are, and perhaps where a deeper crib or rock finger is are all fringe benefits of this system. You will begin to fish these spots with more than one thing (catching fish) on your mind. You will also be trying to visualize, in much more detail, what’s below you. That also transforms into better boat control and better lure presentation.
One of the most rewarding aspects of this system is better time management. This point can’t be stressed enough. For instance, instead of fishing an entire five acre weed bed each and every time you run by a given area at a cost of one hour or more of your precious fishing time, you might be able to look at the conditions at hand and be able to zero in on a specific point, weed clump, or 25 yard square area instead. This might potentially narrow down your time spent on this spot to less than 15 minutes. And, the time spent here will be all high percentage. In the long run, you should be able to fish twice as many spots on any given outing. The end result will show up in more total scores with fish; more muskies in the boat at the end of your trip.
I am certain that this system works since I’ve made a living doing it, and that many of you are already practicing it to a certain degree. Sit back for a moment and think about your favorite waters, how much you knew about that lake on your first few trips, and how many fish you averaged per day and per week on these earlier outings. Now, think about how much more you know about your lake after a few years of fishing it, and how many more fish you catch per day and week when conditions are right. Since you know the water so much better now, you’re automatically not going to spend as much time fishing dead water.
You can take this whole concept a lot further, and eliminate a lot more “dead water”, by following my suggestions ahead. Tweakin’ the target is nothing more than eliminating wasted steps. I’m talking about wasted casts, wasted time, and wasted water. While nothing is ever that black and white in the outdoor world, especially when you’re dealing with living creatures as cantankerous as muskies, I am certain that you can up your scores dramatically by making note of more details about the spots you fish and the successes you experience along the way.
This entire process takes time, of course, and there will certainly be those times when you will be either wrong or out-guessing yourself. But there will be far more times when you will be successful. It’s important to know up-front, however, that this doesn’t come overnight. Many on-the-water hours need to be logged on each spot. The key here is to not only log successes, but failures, as well. It’s just as important to know when not to fish a spot, and what conditions don’t trigger movement into these feeding areas. What this eventually does is enable you to “skip” spots when the conditions are right. It also makes it far easier to by-pass large expanses of non-productive ground on any given spot. All of this adds up to better time management. The goal here is to place more casts over spots you are confident actually contain fish.
This is an almost identical approach that a good bow hunter would take in choosing stand sites on any given outing. Most ardent bowhunter hang several stands according to wind direction, time of day, and a host of other factors. The wise hunter checks the conditions before choosing that precise stand for any given time period.
There are two critical components to this system. The first and most important is an easy-to-use log book. I’m not talking here about simply writing down bunch of haphazard notes that are difficult to read and refer back to. You need a neatly laid out chart that’s easy to use and effortless to fill in at the spur of the moment. I’ve developed a multi-log that enables me to quickly record the details of follows, strikes, and catches. From a purely informational side, follows and strikes, by the way, are nearly as valuable as actual catches. After all, the fish was there and you either visually observed it follow your lure in, or actually had it on the end of your line. It’s only because of luck, fate, or whatever that you didn’t get to pose with it for a photo. But, the bottom line is – it is still data. It still answers some questions about “where” and “when”. So, this info becomes invaluable in your log.
Check out an example of my Follow-Strike Chart in order to better understand what I’m talking about, and how to develop your own F-S Chart. Also, take a look at an example of one of my Catch Charts for a comparison. You will notice that in both cases, these charts are easy to fill in, and they provide loads of information to refer to later on. Productive conditions for precise spots are revealed. This really comes in handy later on.
The second critical component in this system is a topo map with grids. I have also included a sample of such a map for your review. What the grid does on any topo map is individualize smaller, more specific spots inside a given area. For example, the inside turn with those cabbage weed clumps I spoke of in my opening story now has a pinpoint grid mark on my map. It even has a letter/number designation. Now, you’re not only talking about catching a fish on “Pete’s Bar”; you’re talking about catching a fish at the B5 grid mark on a southwest wind. This is what I mean by “tweakin’ the target”. You’ve now narrowed it down to a precise spot on the spot.
What really gets exciting is – after you’ve logged a bunch of fish on these charts over a few years – you start to see very obvious common denominators jump out at you. After a dozen fish or so on a specific spot, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that B5 is the place to be when the wind is out of the southwest during the month of August. Hours and hours of time fishing this entire area have revealed those secrets. It’s now up to you to do a better job of managing your time, and fishing these spots more efficiently.
So, before you hit the water this upcoming season, you might want to consider adding this dimension to your trips. Quite honestly, my friends and I have gotten to the point where we really refer to these logs and charts all day long; especially when we’re running into brick walls (tough fishing). It helps us in deciding where to fish next, and how to alter a gameplan whenever a major weather change occurs. Also, it’s fun to review these charts at the end of each day, after a big dinner and a brew. It really puts a final word on the day’s events that just occurred, and provides an easy-to-follow gameplan for the next outing.
Personally, I find it much easier to fall asleep that night after reviewing these logs and setting up tommorrow’s gameplan. Being that I’m such a light sleeper anyway, this final review helps me get to sleep quicker. I’m not thinking so much about where I’m going to go. I’ve already got that info and a good gameplan set. Now, all I need is for Mother Nature to cooperate. That’s always the tough part.
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