So I was just musing on the likely very cold and high water I will be facing on the opener and have pretty much decided to fish Pike water to avoid harassing spawning or possibly even pre-spawn fish in some of the Northerly lakes (many of which still have remnant ice). How is this affecting anybody else's plans?
This is definately gonna be an interesting first month of the season. If this cold weather continues I'm gonna try to take it easy and not burn myself out or spend too much money fishing the first couple weeks of the season in hopes for a good late may and june. As for where to fish? Its making me consider lakes in the southern part of the state that have the earliest spawn. Might head down to Diane in early may and fish for a couple days.
Im not sure there is a set temperature you should look for, when the fish are done they are done. Muskies typically spawn when the water is low 50s but they dont all spawn at once. Most the fish will be spawning in april-early may but up there on a cold spring year there can easily still be some muskies spawning into june on the lower antrim chain lakes for example. If you get a few weeks in a row where water is at least mid 50s your prolly good to go hunt for some post spawn fish.
Im still going north… at this rate I am curious if the water temps will even get to 40! Either way Ill do some scouting, and learn as much as I can about the system in those water temps. If they are done, Ill fish, if they aren't thinking about starting.. maybe Ill fish, but I more want to see whats going on in an unusually cold spring.
I dont think they will even be close to spawning yet up north as water temps probably wont be close to 50 yet. Temps up there have been mostly in the 20s and 30s the last couple weeks and are just now reaching into the 40s. Unless there is a prolonged warm stretch in the next week and a half where it gets into the 50s and 60s I dont think water temps will be much higher than low 40s by the opener. I could be wrong though…
"mangledfly" said:
Not wanting to fish to spawning muskie, what water temps should I be looking for? When is is safe to start fishing for muskie this year, living in NW MI? I know this is an ethical question and I fall on the leave them alone side of the fence. But would like to be educated. Thank you for any help.
The majority of fish will be spawning right around 55 degrees, the process will take them 5-10 days usually. The forecast looks like barely warming water for up there by opening day which will have pre-spawn conditions on all waters. It wasn't many years ago that smaller LP northern lakes had fish spawning from May 10-20 and the larger waters had fish spawning from May 20 – June 10.
Since many of our lakes are still fully iced over there is a good chance certain waters will not even be open by next weekend (Yes I'm completely serious). I went by Silver Lake in Grawn this morning and there is only a little open water by shore and the ice is still white. You have to consider we had ice-making temps as recently as two days ago. I'm guessing the upper chain will be open due to some current in the channels but I would bet there will be ice for Saturday! It will be very much like the ice-out fishing literally hours after the lake opens. Even Hodenpyle that gets a lot of dark water and current this time of year isn't all the way open yet and no launch 🙁
It'll be interesting for sure
Kevin
"Mayhem" said:
I'm gonna try to take it easy and not burn myself out or spend too much money fishing the first couple weeks of the season in hopes for a good late may and june.
My plan is to do the same. I usually take the Monday after opening weekend off work and then the first couple Fridays. I just cancelled all those vacation days and plan on using them a couple weeks later than usual.
I'll be on one of my favorite local lakes, most likely battling it out with the out-of-state crowd and suffering through the annual opening day skunk, yet I still can't wait. I'm sure it's no secret which lake that is so if any of you are there that day feel free to stop and say hello.
53
42