Use Reservoir Drawdowns To Your Advantage

Though the water was high and the rockpile unseen, I knew it was there because I had previously mapped it out when the water level was lower.

- Steve Heiting

A barely-discernable curl in the current indicated the shallowest spot. Waypoints on my GPS showed a safe travel route for my boat around the rocks, and as long as I followed this electronic “bread crumb trail” my boat would be safe and our casts would land where they needed to be.

We had almost completely circled the rockpile when I cast to a notch in the structure that often holds cabbage. When it does it becomes the “spot on the spot.” About three cranks into my retrieve my Mepps Double Musky Flashabou was thumped by an unseen force, and when I set the hooks the musky bulged the surface before bulldogging stubbornly away from the structure. I slowly gained line until the fish was at boatside, but just out of view. I lifted with the heavy action St. Croix rod and my buddy swung the net, and the musky had no choice but to have its picture taken and be released.