Sunny Afternoon: Many times during the summer, you find yourself fishing between the hours of 11 am and 3 pm in prime afternoon sunshine and boating traffic. On busy water these can be less than prime times. Even though this is summer, your energy and a muskie’s energy is rather high, you’d think fast presentations. Under these circumstances, contrary to some views, this is time to slow down. Focus on heavy cover type spots (heavy weeds, docks, shady rock areas). The key is to work the selected spot with lots of casts. It’s also wise to throw 2 or 3 different lure presentations at the spot. Trollers can also apply this advice by slowing down and thoroughly reworking high percentage break lines etc…
Catching a fish trolling at 5.8 mph with 4 feet of line out off the corner of your boat is one of those things that you just have to see before you can believe it. I didn’t start trolling short lines seriously until the early 90’s. Last year, it became a game of seeing how short I could go. 12 inches of line off the end of the rod to a 12 inch leader was the answer.
If you don’t short line troll, you’re missing out on what is one of the most powerful learned behaviours in modern musky fishing.
It has taken many years and many varied experiences to understand why this technique is so effective for catching big fish in most conditions, and at almost any time of the year. If you don’t short line troll, you’re missing out on what is one of the most powerful learned behaviours in modern musky fishing. Man has taught the muskellunge to feed off of boat motors and boats.
How Muskies Learn About Boats
Consider the learning curve of a musky as it progressively relates to a boat and motor in its’ environment. Increasingly there are more and more boats on the musky waters we love and in many cases there is high boat traffic already. Muskies see a lot of boats and they adjust to them as simply a natural part of their environment. Initially, a boat is something to fear. It’s big, loud, aggressive, and often random in its movements. This is the perception of a baby goliath in her formative years.
The second benchmark in this learning curve is when the musky comes to the realization that a boat and motor never comes to attack it and thus it is not something to fear, merely something to avoid.
The author (left) and a guest with his first ever musky
The third realization of a juvenile musky is that when a boat comes, most other fish scatter. Schools of baitfish break up and every fish’s attention is drawn to the boat. They are now distracted, even separated from the herd and vulnerable to attack. Meals can be had when a boat goes by.
It fears nothing and nothing attacks it.
The fourth and final step in this learning cycle is that a boat represents an opportunity to feed. When a musky reaches 34 to 36 inches in length, or about 6 years in age, it is ready to spawn for the first time. I believe that this is a point in the muskies development where it begins to grow its ego and attitude. It is now the queen or king of its domain. It fears nothing and nothing attacks it. The understanding of its position in the hierarchy of fish is clear; I am the biggest, baddest, fastest creature in the water and I rule it. A passing boat is now an opportunity to hunt.
The first time I perched high on the bow of a boat and searched for muskies was an amazing learning experience. It was on Pigeon Lake at a Can/Am event. Pigeon Lake has a lot of eager muskies and clear water and in the early morning hours, on a glass surface that shadowed beautiful thick weed flats, I began to search. To do this successfully you should have a set of great polarized lenses, your MCI hat, and a hood to dampen as much light as possible around your eyes. You should also talk with your driver and cover the safety issues in the event you fall in.
To my amazement, it did not take long to spot the first of many shiny emerald green beauties. This fish and a number of others turned off the side of the boat and moved out of the way at varying speeds and angles. Some moved quickly, others slowly and only a short distance. After about 20 minutes, I came across the first 4 foot class fish to enter my field of vision. Instead of peeling off into the weeds, this experienced warrior princess slowly descended to the bottom in 8 feet of water. She had seen this routine a thousand times and knew exactly what was going to happen. She rested comfortably as the motor passed directly over her head. I saw this process repeated many times over the next couple of days. Left: the author (left) and a guest with his first ever musky. 6 RELEASE JOURNAL
Jim McGlaughlin’s Just Fishing magazine had a great behavioural article written by a musky addict who has chased fish for a lifetime in Northern Ontario, Minnesota, and Wisconsin among other places, and has done so with a camera mounted underwater and off the side of his boat. One of his stories I remember was how daily he would have muskies come right up to his kicker motor to investigate. By now most of you have heard of a musky attacking an electric motor prop in the water as well. Stories like these tell you that muskies are curious by nature and are clearly not wary of your boat or your presence at least some of the time.
Have you ever trolled a bait off the corner of your boat and kept a vigilant eye on it for a long time? As I guide I have had a number of guests watch a prop wash lure short lined off the side of the boat for hours. I can recall one day where we did not catch a fish for several hours on an afternoon session of trolling but my guest got very excited 6 times over a musky coming right up to the visible bait but not eating it. Feedback like this tells you that you indeed have active fish in the zone you are hunting and you have a presentation problem. Adjust your speed, your lure colour, or your lure until you find what they actually will hit. In this case a colour change made all the difference for us.
Why it Works
Here is the answer to why short line trolling is such an effective technique for catching big muskies. Aside from disturbing the fish the boat comes in contact with and creating a ruckus of bubbles and wake with a big motor, I believe it comes down to the decision time you give a musky to eat your presentation eat it now, yes or no. Reaction strikes work well when you are casting and is evidenced when your lure hits the water and is immediately eaten. You startled the fish and instead of running away like most fish the queen of the water kills what startled her or at least gives it enough of a warning nip to find hooks. You don’t give the fish a chance to hone in on a presentation like it has when you long line. There is no ‘good look’ for the fish and limited chance to follow and inspect the potential meal or to use their keen sense of smell to decide if this is real. Yes or no – right now!
In the 70s and 80s nearly all the muskies I boated trolling were on long lines. It wasn’t until I started fishing Rob Dey and River Rat spinnerbaits in the early 90s that I had regular success on what I considered to be short lines at that time. We’re talking about 15′ to 20′. There were a number of people in Eastern Ontario who were pioneers in the technique and these distances still work great today.
Season opener muskie caught in eight feet of water
This was considered a great early season and summer pattern around here, especially when the temperature climbed to 60 degrees (yup, I’m old and I still use Fahrenheit to talk musky temperatures), which was somewhere around July 1st .
Learning to take advantage of shorter and shorter lines was a natural progression with this trolling technique. I can remember fishing with one partner back in the day who always made sure his line was the shortest distance from the boat, especially when we trolled spinnerbaits. If I let out 15 feet of line he would let out 12 and if I went to 11 he would go to 9. The thought here is that aggressive muskies would hit the first bait they saw and there is definitely some truth to this. A common short line distance now for me is 5 or 6 feet trolled right off the corner of the boat.
The How
Here are some tips for short lining: Ideally this works best for me in shallower water around cover. This is not cut in stone as I have caught fish in open water at 30 or 40 feet on short lines as well but since muskies are by nature sight feeders and an ambush predator they tend to sit in spots with cover where they can burst out at prey wondering into their vantage point. If you know of ‘spots on spots’, or very small areas that often hold a musky this would be a perfect location to short line.
When you see fish while casting an area or you otherwise know there are fish in an area but you cannot seal the deal. Remember, don’t tell the fish how you want to catch them.
Doug’s short lined November monster muskie.
Change your presentation until you find what works when you are sure there are fish there. I have often cast a spot for as long as an hour and then scored on the first pass of the same areas with a short line troll.
Adjusting the tilt of your motor changes the sound, the bubble trail behind you, and the waves your boat sends out in its’ wake. Subtle changes like this can be a key to turning finicky muskies into picture fish.
As noted earlier, watching your baits can give you big feedback on whether the fish are interested in your short line presentations or not and whether you need to tinker with bait size, colour, or speed. Jake Satonica, the creator of both the Jake and the Grandma lures never trolls anywhere without a 13-inch musky coloured bait in the propwash. Personally I tend to short line with very bright colours that wouldn’t be described as ‘natural patterns’. Rod positioning in the rod holder can be a key and offers different lure depth presentation options right close to your boat. Keeping a rod tip high off the side of the boat can let you run your bait just slightly sub surface with makes it easy to see. Putting your rod tip 2 feet under the water can let you run a crank bait or diving bait down 5 feet with a very short line and close to the bottom or heavy cover in shallow water.
Drag setting is critical here. I am a believer in tight drags to get a solid hookset on the take immediately. With short lines however one must account for the weight and strength of a monster fish and ensure it is able to peel 30 feet of line away easily. Too tight of a drag setting can rip a slice in the fishes upper jaw which is bad for both you and the musky.
When your short line goes off you now have a very green fish close to the boat and no doubt you have other lines in the water too. Ensure that there is a path for your short line fish to run straight back from the boat as it will initially do that won’t catch on another line in the water.
To sum up this trolling technique, I would say that if you are not short line trolling then you are truly missing out on a pattern that fools the big girls as much or more than any other way that you could drag a bait. Try it out because seeing is believing and many days the short line pattern will outfish all the other lines off your boat combined.
Know The Difference (KTD) is part of Muskies Canadas educational outreach program – designed to help inform fishermen of the difference between Pike and Muskie. Size limits and season open and close dates vary depending on the species so it is important to be able to distinguish between the two.
Check provincial regulations for size limits and open seasons for your fishing zone: OntarioQuebec
Jock River Fish Habitat Embayment Creation Project
The Jock River is the largest tributary of the Rideau system and is habitat for Muskies. The challenge for rivers and streams in urban areas is that they become built-up, straightened out and the shorelines are degraded through development pressure. Our partner, the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority owns land on the Jock in the Village of Richmond which is used as a conservation area and access to the river. There is a natural ditch on the site which floods in the spring and then dries up when the water levels go back to normal. This is a problem for spawning Muskies in the river.
RVCA together with a group of partners has created a new fish embayment on their site which will greatly enhance spawning and nursery habitat for our favourite fish. The Ottawa chapter, investing and working through our new Muskies Canada Foundation, has put $5000 into this important project. Two other fishing organizations also contributed and we were successful in leveraging that and received a major federal grant under the Recreational Fisheries Conservation Partnership Program.
Digging out the Embayment
This project has created 1000 square meters of new spawning habitat and 100 meters of new re-naturalized shoreline. 102 truckloads of fill were removed to dig out the embayment to the appropriate depth to support year-round use. Trees and stumps were added to create more complex underwater structure, shelter for small fish and fry. The wood is also important for Muskies to spawn effectively. The embayment has been designed and built to help support a diversity of insects and fish which are part of what’s necessary for truly good habitat for young Muskies.
Rolling out the matting to stabilize the new shorelinePlanting native plants and shrubs on the future shorePutting in structure (trees and stumps) to enhance the habitat for small fry
Part of our contribution was in volunteer support. It was very rewarding to go to the site when the work was underway and assist with preparing and replanting the new shoreline(see photos). It was a great feeling after our work to watch the dyke being breached to let the river flow into the new embayment. It was like the feeling you get when you release a Muskie, knowing that you’ve done something good that will support future sustainability for those fish we care so much about.
This fall, we’ve been preparing better breeding sites for our Muskies. The Ottawa Chapter of Muskies Canada has partnered with the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) to create two new breeding and nursery areas. The shovels and dump trucks have been busy re-working the landscape of the Rideau and Jock Rivers. This will offset lost habitat and enhance the shoreline to be better for Muskellunge.
Brewer Park Pond Restoration Project:
Brewer Pond before restoration project
Back in the ‘60s, a swimming pond was created on the shores of the Rideau River in downtown Ottawa. This pond never worked very well for swimming and became an algae pit and fish trap. It would flood in the spring and gradually de-oxygenate over the summer. It had no natural connection with the river.
The federal Fisheries Act required that developers damaging fish habitat in their projects must offset that damage with a “make-good” initiative of equivalent size in the same region. Two developers, Richcraft and Minto are required to install storm water retention ponds in proposed development sites elsewhere in Ottawa, which will affect a creek. Their “ make-good” is to fund this project, which will ultimately cost about $1 million. RVCA is the authority for the Rideau River and administered this “make-good” consideration to allow the Brewer Park Pond to be re-connected with the river. While this seems very logical, it was a complex and challenging project that took almost two decades to make happen.
Ottawa Chapter member Hedrik Wachelka was tireless in his work on this initiative. Slowly, after many years, countless meetings and a few near successes and setbacks, Hedrik was able to see his project get underway this fall.
Once the project is completed, monitoring will be very important to see if the fish will use this new feature. Every spring this is a fast-flowing part of the Rideau River with high water levels. The site constraints required a deep-water connection between river and the new pond, which will be achieved with a big culvert. This approach is very innovative but there are no real precedents to help us know how fish will use this new structure. There is a concern among several of the partners, including Muskies Canada and Carleton that this connection may inhibit Muskies from using the culvert to move in and out.
Culvert that will re-connect the pond to the main river
The Ottawa Chapter, with help from the Becker Foundation, is working with Carleton University to monitor Esox movement in the general area of the project. We need to see if Muskies will use this new wetland feature. The chapter has purchased the tags and has helped with the electrofishing and tagging process, as well as the ongoing monitoring. 20 Pike and 20 Muskies have been tagged and are being monitored. The work on this began last year and will need to be ongoing for the next two years. Due to project delays there may be a need to re-tag fish to ensure that the research can be completed post construction.
Heavy equipment digging out the pond
Heavy equipment has been working to dig out the new pond. This is an enormous task because the old pond was 1.5 meters higher than the mean river level. The excavation work is removing hundreds of truckloads of earth to dig the pond down deep enough to allow a connection that will not only re-connect with the river but that won’t freeze in the winter. The top layer of mud that was rich in aquatic plant seeds is being replaced when the pond is fully excavated to help aquatic vegetation regenerate quickly next spring.
Sub-surface structure (tree stumps and log piles) will enhance this nursery habitat for small fish. To make it work for Muskies, we need to also ensure there is a full range of aquatic insects and other small fish which hatchling Muskies will be able to feed on as they start to grow.
Sub-surface structure used to enhance the habitatBrewer Pond Site Plan
This is an innovative and exciting project. The Ottawa chapter is grateful for the support of partners RVCA, Richcraft, Minto, Carleton U., Ministry of Natural Resources, DFO, City of Ottawa, and the Ottawa South Community Association.
