Musky Fishing in May Is it worth it? - YOU BET!
by Crash Mullins
Most musky fisherman know by now that spring and fall are the prime seasons for Musky fishing, especially in our neck of the woods. I personally fish Cave Run Lake about 90% of my time, close to 175 to 200 days professionally every year. Being on the water that many days gives me the advantage of knowing the "best" times to be out there and the month of May has always proven to be one of the best. I definitely have to say that it is by far my favorite for the spring season. Last year on May 9th, the new State Scott Flatt of Lexington, KY caught Record Musky. His record fish weighed 44.38 lbs. And was 53" inches long, with a 26" inch girth! A beautiful fish, and we have a graphite replica mount on display here at our store, Crash?s Landing, Inc.
Photo of Steve Heiting-Musky Hunter Magazine
I have seen water temperatures as low as 60 degrees on the first of May and I have also seen the temps as high as 80 degrees by the end of May. One of the things I have learned is that water temps. Between 62 and 72 degrees are hard to beat. Muskies will usually spawn between 53 and 60 degrees which means that normally by the time May rolls around; they are doing what I call the feed back. A feed back means that they are coming off of their spawning and are now feeding their way out of the ?hollers? and coves back out into deeper waters which tends to make them more accessible to the angler.
STARTING POINTS
At the beginning of May I will start looking in the backs of the ?hollers? and creek arms in about 4 feet of water and then I will be casting into 1 foot of water. I?ll slowly work my way back out of the coves, but I?ll be concentrating on the back portion until the water temps get into the 70-degree range. Don?t be afraid to move around the cover a good bit of water. You might have to fish several hollers or coves in one day to make it work. We refer to this method as "runnin' & gunnin' and you have to do this and cover a lot of territory. In fact, there are many days that I will return to the same spot two or three times in one given day, especially if I know it to be a high percentage area, or I have caught muskies there before.
As the water begins to warm up around the middle of May, I will keep following the fish on out into deeper water. By the end of May I'll be crankin' deep out on the points once again when the water temperatures are reaching that 70 to lower 80 degree range, concentrating on the deeper points with a lot of cover.
The weekend of the 23rd, 24th, & 25th, of April, I was at Green River in Campbellsville, KY for the annual CABIN FEVER CHALLENGE. Green River is approximately 1 ½ hours from Lexington, KY and in one of the three Muskie lakes in the state that is stocked with Musky on an annual basis. We fished the 3-day tournament along with 101 other fisherman, all total there were 55 legal Muskie boated, which is great! Most of the fish that I caught were on the same pattern that you should use in May. The lake water levels are extremely low right now, but I still managed to put 8 legals in the boat. Green Rivers? water temps were a little warmer than Cave Run was then but the Cave is warming right on up now.
When I returned to Cave Run Lake on Monday, April 26th, my clients and I hit the water and boated 3 muskies and we had 3 more follows. On Tuesday, the 27th., we had a total of 10 fish to the boat and never got the hooks into any of them! We were working the backs of the holler’s pattern I’ve been describing to you, hopefully you’ll have great success as well.
LURE SELECTION
The lures that I use in May are a little smaller. I will start out with some ½ oz. Spinner baits, twitch baits, and shallow runnin’ crank baits. I’ll also use a lot of topwater lures when the water temps hit in the mid 60?s. As it gets warmer and the fish go deeper I will be cranking deep running lures most of the time, especially when temps are in the high 70’s. Remember keep your lure in the water and we hope to see you out there.
Crash's favorite lure selection for May