In Ontario there are a few well-known Musky fisheries. Among them are; Lake of the Woods, The Kawarthas, The St-Lawrence River, The tweed waterways and the Ottawa River. These spots are known to hold many muskies and so are good places to start. In order to find your secret honey hole the first thing you need to get is a detailed map of the area around the specific waterways. Scan the map quickly for Feeder Rivers and nearby rivers to the major body of water. Once this is done look for smaller creeks feeding into the Feeder Rivers and make a note of where any widening in the river occurs. These are prime areas for musky because there is often plenty of forage for the musky and sometimes a change in current.

Now that you have located your potential spots it is time to scout them out. This may often require a canoe or a johnboat to get into the smaller rivers. Once you reach the spot to be scouted there are a few helpful observations needed to be made to see if the place has potential. The first piece of information you should try to determine is the depth of the water. A fish finder or flasher can be quite helpful here but if not some measured fishing line and a weight can be used. An ideal spot should have an average depth of around ten feet with a few shallower areas as well as a few deeper holes. The second piece of information that should be determined is if there is sufficient oxygen and forage for the fish. A good way to go about this is to look to see if there is evidence of aquatic plants which would indicate oxygen, it can be hard to determine if there is sufficient forage so you will have to make an educated guess by looking at potential food for the baitfish such as frogs, minnows, nymphs etc. If you have these elements then there is a high probability that there will be musky present.

Now you know where the musky are the fun part begins, catching them! From my experiences the river musky don’t seem that much different from their lake cousins.