Muscoot Reservoir 11/16/03

I couldn’t wait to hit Muscoot today, not knowing what to expect after the lousy weather we experienced the last few days. We got to my boat at 6:30 am and the first thing I noticed were ice patches inside the cove. I knew the water temps had to drop in the last couple of days but I was not expecting to see ice. To make matters worse, I turned on the Lowrance and the water temp read 36.8 degrees……..bbbbbbrrrrrrrrrr !!!

Suddenly, the motivation factor was gone but we decided to proceed anyway. As we approached the main lake I noticed the water temp immediately starting to rise until it finally reached 44.2 degrees. Well, it was obvious we had to concentrate on the main lake, so I pointed the boat towards a submerged island which is directly adjacent to the main channel. My buddy threw a jig-n-pig while I opted to slow roll a ¾ oz. spinnerbait nice and s-l-o-w, when all of the sudden....BAM....a 4 ½ pound pickerel….I managed to get him in the boat but my spinnerbait was now useless as it resembled a pretzel. I was not about to complain since that was one of the biggest picks I caught in a long time, not to mention the first fish of the day.

Much to my surprise, we eventually started catching bass and pickerel on crankbaits throughout the day as the water temp peaked at 46.2 degrees. Oddly, plastics did not play a role today as the fish wanted vibrating and thumping lures swimming s-l-o-w-l-y and ticking through the weeds in about 15 feet of water. It actually turned out to be a great day as we boated 13 pickerel (2 fish over 4 pounds) and 21 bass (between 1-1 ½ pounds and one fish just under 4 pounds).


Ronnie