Pre-Turnover Musky Hunt

DANCE WITH SOME OF THE BIGGEST FISH OF THE YEAR ON THE VERGE OF FALL

- Steve Heiting

Morning fog enveloped the lake as we looked down on it from our cabin’s window. The thermometer on the deck read 40 degrees, less than half of the air temperature of the day before when I’d caught two big muskies in about 15 minutes. Yesterday we’d fished in shorts and T-shirts, but this morning we’d be pulling on all the clothes we’d brought with us.

A cold front had hit like a sledgehammer, but conditions couldn’t have been more perfect.

Before the day was out, my friend Charlie Buhler had boated a monster musky. And the day after that, we raised one of those legendary fish that instantly tells you that you’ll be back to try for it again next year ... same time, same place.

The pre-turnover period is rapidly becoming my favorite time for fishing muskies. No matter how tough I think the season has been to that point, muskies always seem to bite during late summer and early fall. It’s a dream pattern for someone like me who prefers to cast when musky fishing, and many of the biggest fish in the lake are shallow. What’s not to like?

The Backstory

During summer, muskies tend to be spread out throughout a lake system, and literally are shallow, deep and somewhere in between. Many suspend over deep water, and exactly how deep depends on baitfish, water temperature and the thermocline. They can be hard to reach.

But as summer turns to fall, water temperatures begin to cool. You can sense it when overnight temperatures are not as warm or humid as they were just weeks earlier. Fog often greets anglers in the morning and dew is heavy on the grass at the boat landing as well as the window of your truck. Usually you can still fish in shorts and a T-shirt during the day, but mornings and evenings call for jeans and at least a hoodie or maybe even a light jacket.