Thinking about planning my first musky trip to st Claire/Detroit river this fall. I've fished Detroit river for walleyes so I am familiar with location names and have fished st Claire before as well but not for musky. Looking for any information on where to fish in the river/lake and baits/colors to use. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Follow the crowds. Watch the last couple seasons of Musky Hunter and Keyes Outdoors St. Clair shows and you'll be able to pick out those spots pretty easily. There's really a couple places that get pounded that time of year because the big fish are there. Throw pounders and wait for something to hit it.
Where the river meets the lake is a hot spot…launch the boat and look for the crowd and get in line.
Depends on where you're fishing and what boat you're fishing from. If you're in a 16' Lund and want to fish the Sturgeon Hole, don't launch at Harley. In my boat, driven comfortably over decent water, I could make it from Harley or Crocker to the Hole in 25-30 minutes. Faster if I wanted to push it. Most guys launch further south for fishing the Hole and the River. I never launched further south than Crocker myself. But I also prefer the northern 2/3 of the lake.
Lets see…. St Jean's or Alter for the River/SS or Southern part of lake. St. Jeans closes Nov 1st. Your boat could fit in Alter but come fall and wind direction it ends up damn near empty in the channels leading to River. Be careful if you use Alter. I've seen boats stick on sand come late fall. I'm with Jeff and usually launch at Crocker or Harley and make the run down to River in the Fall but my boat can and does handle it fine. I'll never forget the ride down 15 miles or more through thick fog and not lifting until afternoon. Crazy erie feeling! Or wind picking up and having to run all the way back to Harley in pitch black darkness and 4 footers! Good times!!
Anyway, 9 mile is an option now that they allow non residents to launch there but don't know when they lock up for season?? If you got all the time in world and passport you could just run over bridge and launch at Lakeview Marina.
Or if you wanna fish NW part of lake you can launch right in N Channel. It all depends on water clarity, fish movement, winds and where you wanna fish. Fish are being caught all over right now.
Just launched at St jeans today… Got 6 before the 7 footers tomorrow. St. Jeans always closes Nov 1st. I've launched my 620 out of alter in Summer or early season but never could make it work in late fall. My deep keel would get stuck on bottom easily. Ice seen it waterless and inches deep last few years with wind or low water levels. Lake is mud right now and gonna get worse and will be that way for a week or so. Very little clean water or slightly stained water. Lot of lake is 1 foot visibility or way too crystal clear..fish were active today but only is very small spot on spots…
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