October 2021 Fishing Report

October 2021 Fishing Report

The title is really all you need to know. It’s October in musky country….musky are biting somewhere….so get out there!

In all seriousness though, the fishing has been excellent as of late. Bite windows, especially on the lakes, have been tight but come with fast and furious activity.

RIVERS: Rivers in the southern portion of the state are generally still a little low but that hasn’t been a problem if you adjust tactics accordingly. Over the last couple weeks, we found fish in a variety of classic fall spots - remaining weed lines, deep wood, eddies, and some of the fast water upstream of the deep holes. We are still using pretty active presentations, mainly fished on full intermediate. We have not started to bust out the deep sinking stuff yet, but that’s ok because they are on the move and hunting! Temps on the rivers are right around 60 and should be dropping more with the incoming colder weather.

LAKES: On the lakes that are predominantly weeds, active fish have been found very shallow, typically less than 5 feet of water, and in all sorts of weeds - weed flats, weed edges, and some of the scattered patches that are starting to die off. Expect to find them a bit deeper with the cold front. And also be on the lookout for turnover...we are nearly there in Madison! On lakes that are not predominantly weeds, we have found fish in your classic fall spots - look for major structure like wood or rock that is near deeper water.

FLIES: As for fly selection, we have started to fish bigger flies. Natural colors, pink, dragon tails, and black have been producing!

Hope you are having an awesome October! Feel free to reach out to us at the shop if there is anything we can help with!