Muskie Fishing in the South

Some of the best muskie fishing in the country
can be found south of the Mason-Dixon line. Best
of all, much of it takes during the winter months,
when the waters of traditional muskie waters have
turned hard.

The best time to take a muskie, old-time guide Allen Watts used to say, is when the weather is coming on to a fuzz. You know, not quite raining, but not quite not raining either.

A fuzz is one thing, but this was ridiculous. A series of late fall fronts were passing through, each one carrying its own gift of rain. Between the squalls were short periods of calm, when out in the bay we could see big muskie rolling on the surface as they chased gizzard shad.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to launch a boat for actual muskie fishing between the rainstorms. So we had to watch, totally frustrated, as big fish rolled just beyond a long cast from shore. I’m sure a large buzzbait, or a bucktail buzzed along the surface, would have resulted in hits.

We were on Kentucky’s Cave Run Lake, one of many southern lakes and streams that harbor good populations of muskellunge. Some are strictly the result of stocking, others are natural muskie waters.

Despite much publicity, the presence of muskie in the South still comes as a surprise to many fishermen, even veteran muskie chasers, who associate the largest member of the pike family with northern climes and softwood forests. But the fact is, the muskie’s natural range extends into the southern reaches of the Ohio and Tennessee River drainages.

At least seven states in Dixie offer good to excellent muskie fishing: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Most of these states produce fairly impressive catches. Four of the seven have state records in excess of 40 pounds.

Nor are muskie waters in the South particularly limited. Collectively, there are close to 175,000 acres of productive muskie fishing waters in those states, ranging from Alabama’s 500 acres to Tennessee’s nearly 70,000.

Thanks to the reputation of Cave Run Lake, Kentucky is likely the best known southern muskie fishing state. And, while there’s no denying Cave Run’s productivity, local fisherman believe there are better waters, such as Green River Lake, among the 27,000 acres of muskie fishing water found in the Blue Grass State.

Best of all, southern-style muskie fishing is a year ‘round thing. The best of it actually takes place from September through March, a time when many northern waters are iced solid.

Dixieland muskie fishing has much in common with north country fishing, but there are also a lot of differences. In a nutshell, casting, trolling, and live-bait fishing are the three general methods used both in the North and South. But the specifics of bait types and sizes, and the locale of the fish, are different.

Up north, for instance, it is generally accepted that more muskie are hooked incidentally by walleye anglers than by fishermen targeting muskie. In the South, the same situation exists; only there bass are the species sought.

Although Yankee muskie chasers know that walleye anglers get many hook-ups, they never accepted the idea that smaller baits might be a clue to bigger creel counts. In the South, however, there was no tradition of using oversized baits. Indeed, they weren’t even available. So, until the last 15 years or so, Dixiecrat muskie hunters merely used magnum bass baits.

Now that “true” muskie baits are readily available, via mail order and even in tackle shops, southerners have gone the Yankee route. Seems to me, though, that they work harder casting and retrieving those giant baits. And their overall catch rate has gone down. There are, to be sure, many more southern anglers that are musky fishing now versus 20 years ago. But the overall success rate is lower.

End of sermon!

Most southern muskie are caught in impoundments, although river and creek fishing can be even more productive. Because there are few of the vast weed beds typical of, say, Wisconsin’s flowages, southern muskie relate more to wood and rocks, because that’s where they find both cover and food.

If there happens to be both weeds and flooded timber where you’re musky fishing, you’re in muskie heaven.

For spring and fall muskie fishing, find where a creek enters a lake in a large bay with plenty of standing timber. Cast into the open water surrounded by flooded trees. Especially productive are areas where such conditions are found along the original creek bed.

“Normally, you don’t want to be right in the standing timber,” Jimmy Dale taught me, “unless it happens to be away from shore a bit.” Before his untimely death, Jimmy had caught more than 50 keeper-sized muskie, including an incredible 16 on a fly rod.

According to Jimmy, and my own experiences bear this out, only smaller fish are found close to shore. “You want to get out at least 75-80 yards from shore,” he stressed. “That’s where the big fish are.”

If you see fish working, or bait breaking the surface, a large buzzbait or bucktail retrieved noisily across the surface could produce one of the most thrilling strikes of all---a large muskie taken on the surface.

Muskie will often be especially active in these areas just before, or during, a radical weather change. The shifting pressures of a front or series of fronts, seems to turn them on. That’s what happened to Friend Wife and me the day we watched the muskie feeding between squalls.

Underwater humps can also be productive areas. These provide feeding lanes for the muskie, with deep-water sanctuary nearby. The best of all possible situations when muskie fishing is to find such a flooded hill surrounded by flooded timber.

Although the cool months of spring and fall offer good muskie fishing, winter can be the most productive time of all in the South, as the fish tend to be in shallow water back up in the creeks, and more concentrated as the lake levels are dropped down to winter pool. Few southern anglers opt for December and January fishing. But those that do are amply rewarded with the best action of the year.

As the water temperature climbs to 60 degrees, muskie go deep. That’s when trolling comes into its own. Best bets are weed beds and stump fields that follow an original creek bed. Rarely, however, will you find fish right over the creek bed itself. Instead, they’ll be in the weeds and timber alongside. Up on the banks, as it were. And rather than suspending, they’ll be right in the thick stuff, ready to ambush any passing baitfish.

Work the boat in a serpentine pattern, just catching the edge of the creek bed as you make your “S” turns. And stay especially alert at any bend of the creek channel. Muskie love such spots.

Your bait should be down in the thick of it. In fact, if you are not hanging up from time to time the bait isn’t deep enough. Be sure to carry a lure saver of some kind to break them free. Otherwise, be prepared to lose lots of expensive lures.