Fish-Hawk.Net

Was out on the Rideau with my brother in law today from 12pm - 4pm, we've been pounding it like crazy and had no luck at all, we've trolled from bridge to bridge, both sides running Believers / Bucktails and NOTHING !!! Can someone give a guy and his brother in law in a tin can 9.9hp with no electronics some guidance - what's working for guys !

If ANY of you would like a "net man" to join you ANYTIME, I would be more than happy to join.

A frustrated muskie angler,

Cogs

I'd gladly help you out Cogs if you were fishing more the G. Bay or Kawarthas area but I have never fished the mighty Ottawa before, hoping to get out there soon. Let me know if you are heading that way and I will do what i can for ya.

Mike

electronics are very important in the fall, you have to know where the bait is to find the fish.

Musky51 is right, this time of the year the feed bag is on. You need electronics to find the bait fish. The Rideau has been a tough fish this year for me anyway although we did manage fish the last 2 times we where out and both hooked casting in the exact same spot about one month apart.


That said I'm about a 50/50 troller, caster and I would conceder the Rideau to be a casting river but thats just my opinion.

I also find that glide baits work well for me I think the Muskie in that area have seen sooooooo many spinner and crank baits that they got smart but I'm prolly wrong and will be corrected

Hi,,

We've had some pretty good success this fall, all our Musky have been caught trolling. In my opinion you definitely need Electronics, not only to locate the bait fish, but also for trolling speed. Not to mention, its nice to mark all your stike and fish spots, and retrace your tracks when they are producing hits and fish.

I would post some pics of our larger fish to date, but still haven't figured out the Pic posting procedure,,

Thanks Bobber for the instructions though..

When i have more time, i'll work through them.

We're going fishing again today, (monday), so hopefully we'll get a real heavy + 50" lunker today... its looking like a good fishing day, and the big ones may be hungry!!!!.

Keep at it though, and good luck.

Jeremy..

You should really try and get a fish finder, I'm sure there are some cheep ones or even better get a used one through classified and I'm sure you can find them at under $100.

You are doing the right thing by trolling and covering a lot of water, fish are on the move and it's best to move as well to have a better chance at coming across more fish.

Now I would stay away from buck tails this time of year as fish are deeper so try crank baits like your believers at different depths and slower speeds.

Now last but not least even though you are fishing the Rideau you should not expect to light them up in a 4 hour outing. These are still the top predators and even though in the summer one should expect a catch ratio of one fish per 4 hours of fishing in the fall it should be a lot more.

Stick to what you are doing and maybe try and fish right through the middle as the Rideau is quite shallow and hold on. Naturally you should also spend more time around those bridges.

another tip, most people let out line and have no idea how deep thier bait is running. knowing where the bait is and where your lure is running is a key factor to getting some muskies in the boat in the fall. Casting bucktails around weeds works well in the summer but in the fall its a different game and the muskies will not go chasing down your bait for a meal with the big pods of bait around. Fish slower then you would in the summer and find where the bait is and you will find the muskies

Hey, I think I might have seen you guys out there. It was pretty slow for us as well. From what I can tell, it seems that the fish are still hanging out in the weeds, which you wouldn't think at this time of the year, but every one that I've come across have either been in the weeds, or very very close to the edge of a weed line.

I think the next time I head out, I might try pitching some large plastics into weed edges, similar to what we'd do for large bass. I don't know, it might work. I'll give a whirl to see if I can't scare some up....and try some of the other things too.

I also find that large inline spinners cut very well through the weeds at this time of year, so a lot of casting and ripping might scare some out too. Check out Mikey's Tackle Box. He's created some interesting inline spinners that I've used quite frequently this year. I've been succesful for Pike, but have yet to have a musky hit them. All in due time I'm sure.

Check him out if you don't have any.

cheers