Do you think you pattern fish?

[Marc Thorpe]

I have a good question.Its a serious qestion.Think about it!
Jlong,Jsmith,Ballistic,give us your insights.
Do you think you pattern fish or do you pattern your presentations?

marc

[jlong]

Marc, this is a great question. Kind of like the chicken or the egg debate (ha ha).

Personally, I think we do both. No this isn't a cop out, it is simply recognition that there is never a single answer when it comes to muskies.

We can certainly pattern muskies in their location. On any given day you may have a concentration of fish in many different locations such as open water, deep breaklines, slop, etc. Perhaps what we pattern more often is what types of structures or locations are NOT holding fish... and if certain areas are void of fish it must increase the density of fish on some other type of structure. You can't catch what isn't there, regardless of presentation.

Once you are confident in location, then you can try to establish if the reason you haven't scored is due to your presentation. I suppose this may be considered a form of patterning the aggressiveness of the fish. Patterning your presentation can come down to two perspectives. For aggressive fish you want the most EFFICIENT presentation. The faster you can get your bait in front of a fish, the more you will catch. For reluctant fish, we begin to pattern specifically what color, depth, speed, sound, dare I say smell, or any other type of stimulus needed to trigger a strike response.

On any given day there are multiple location patterns to be found... and along with that comes different presentations. The two go hand in hand. As fisherman, we must remain confident that we have picked both correctly. When in doubt, focus on location.

Simply put, can we pattern fish.... YES! That is the glory of fishing the huge canadien shield lakes. Once you've found a location and presentation combination that is working.... you can pretty much seek out other similar situations and COUNT on them to work. The good 'ol RUN&GUN.

Some days there are lots of patterns to choose from and others there are very few. I think we all know which days we want to be on the water! I will never admit that there are days when there are NO patterns to be found... its just that you haven't found it yet.

jlong

[Sackett]

Location patterns are the more important of the two, always will be. Given the time of year, there are about 6 lakes nearby of all different configurations(structure, forage, depth, etc). And I feel fairly comfortable in being able to guess the more productive one, or two, based on time of year, because the better fish holding spots for that certain lake are in their peak mode. Some lakes are deep water oriented, some are shallow. Meaning, a lake like Cass has more spots in deeper, or near deep water, whereas Bemidji has a higher percentage of shallower spots. Cass vs Bemidji, nothing similar between the two. In fact, Cass is always a wild card, it's not like anything. But between Bemidji and Plantagenet, you can pick out some similarities. So it's a matter of finding out where those good spots are, that's the hard part, then determining baits.
I certainly believe presentation will make a big difference, but I really base mine on the depth I'm targeting. I could be perfectly happy all year in the Bemidji and Cass Lakes area with these baits.
Lillytail
Hawg Wobbler
Topper Stopper
8" and 10" Jake
Jtd Depthraider

Later
Dan

[ToddM]

I definitely pattern my presentation to what I see an my electronics. A one fish day is a great day where I mostly fish so it's pretty hard to pattern the fish unless you are fishing every day. There have been periods where they are in the same locations for extended periods so your presentation is right from the start.

[Marc Thorpe]

Jason,good reply.My perception is you are patterning your presentation to the location or structural element.

My perception of patterning fish is,all fish for the most part are tuned in to a particular presentation on all structures.No matter if its rock or weeds.

Ex,a perch bite.When perch get on the move on most lakes.Fish key in on perch patterned baits.No matter where you are.I think these seasonal forage movements are keyed in on by muskies year after year.Like clock work it happens every year.Does not matter wich bait you throw.As long as the contrast colors resemble what they are foraging on.Yes its a forage pattern.But genarly speaking the main population is keying in on this abundance.I suspect its a genaral pattern for that period of the season.

Bumping structure or suicide runs at structure is patterns to your presentation according to the location you are fishing or the fishes mood.Not realy a general pattern.
marc

[jlong]

Marc,
As I'm sure you already know.... patterning location is the most important. The problem is two fold. Some days certain structures simply do not have fish on them.... so no matter what presentation you select, you aren't gonna score. You can't catch what isn't there.

On other days, every structure in the lake might be holding fish. Now what you want to pattern is which structurers are holding the most aggressive fish. Aggressive fish are the easiest to catch. The most agressive fish are actively feeding... so your FORAGE CONNECTION is a good one. The next step, phase II I suppose, is identifying the most productive presentation. Some days is it simply the most efficient lure at covering the type of structure your on.... other days it may be subtle details in presentation required to trigger strikes (see my Instinctive Strikes post).

The above is kind of a summary of my basic approach to fishing. I go through that "patterning" process every time I hit the water.

Annual "patterns" are great because they help reduce the time required to complete my process. When experience tells you that the perch will be over the mud flats at that time of year.... you start there.... thus reducing the amount of time required to establish the LOCATION pattern. This gives you more time to work on solving the presention portion of the puzzle.

Musky fishing is an ever changing PROBLEM SOLVING methodolgy. I think that is why many great musky fisherman are analytical people. Lots of engineers and such are addicted to this sport. The sport of problem solving.

jlong

[kmon]

Both. At the very least you pattern fish by location and once found, you use patterns of presentation to catch them.

[HerbB]

Jason,

I'm an engineer and I resemble those remarks.:)

I'm always trying to pattern the fish. But by that I mean I try to figure out what the fish are actually doing. Where are they at and when? Are they deep, shallow, on structure, or holding in open water? When are they feeding? What is their primary forage at the time? What are the baitfish doing? Those are the questions I'm always trying to answer and I consider the presentation much more secondary.

I find there are many ways to answer some of these questions. Of course, there is ones own knowledge of the lake and your own insights picked up while fishing. I also talk to other fishermen a lot who may not even be fishing for Muskies. Even a group of people fishing for panfish or walleyes may provide some insight. How deep did they catch their fish? Did they catch any other fish like perch or bullheads? I also do things like take a flashlight and look to see what type of baitfish come in off the dock at night.

The biggest problem I face, like many fishermen, is getting the time on the water to cash in on the pattern. That was pretty much my story last summer. Usually knew what the fish were doing, just to busy doing other things.

But its all a lot of fun.

Herb

[jlong]

Hey Herb, I hear you loud and clear. Looks like we have a similar viewpoint. The only thing I'd like to add is that often times muskies are located in MANY different places AT THE SAME TIME. If there is an equal distribution of fish in open water, on the rock piles, in the weeds, or whatever.... we want to find which "group" of fish are the most agressive. In other words, which is the BEST pattern of the day when there is more than one. The BEST pattern is a perfect combination of location and presentation to either put the most fish in the boat or the biggest..... ideally both.

There are many times in camp on LOTW where my buddies and I will all have caught fish on the same day. Some from the slop, some on rocks, others from saddles, etc. Some patterns produced more fish, some produced bigger fish, etc. Its all a matter of what you enjoy to do more, which is most efficient, and which fish were the most aggressive.

jlong

[HerbB]

Jason,

I agree totally. Much of the time the fish are all over the place and its just a matter of finding the aggressive ones and thats a lot of fun. I think the patterns fish move into depends a great deal on the individual lake and whats occurring in the lakes like weed-die offs, wind, run-off, and boat activity. I believe that the smaller the lake, the more pronounced a pattern can become. The bigger lakes seem less prone to developing a single very distinct pattern.

On the lakes I fish a lot in the metro, the fish sometimes get into a very set pattern, or almost a micro-pattern, and if one can't figure it out, one is out of luck. To give you an example, I ran into a problem a couple years ago on one of the metro lakes when the fish went into an unusual pattern in late June and noone could seem to find them. I could have just done the easy thing and fished elsewhere for a few weeks, but I love a challenge and hoped to learn something. It took me a couple outings and talking to several other boats that were fishing for various species, but I finally figured out that the baitfish had moved out deeper and were holding close to the bottom in 12-15 feet of water in the deep weeds. And if one wasn't fishing in that zone with smaller baits like a Baby Depthraider, one was out of luck. Once I had the pattern isolated, we caught Muskies, big Northerns, and some nice Walleyes all in that same zone. But get away from that depth range or use bigger or shallow running lures and absolutely nothing. What caused this? I think it was mostly because the pond weed was starting to die and that the milfoil had been sprayed and the lack of oxygen from the dying weeds forced everything out deeper. That pattern lasted for about three weeks before the fish went back to their more normal patterns.

But I've been stumped several times since when I just couldn't find the fish and had no clue what they were up to, but its still fun trying.:)

Herb