Clinton River Spillway Topwater Musky Try October 20 & 29 2023

October 29.  A cold snap and normal muddyish water in the Clinton Spillway Channel and surrounding Lake St. Clair.  First pass down the rip rap shore of the Spillway mouth brought a musky rush to the 5/0 topwater White Dive Danger.  I didn't see the fish itself, just the big splash as it turned away from its attack as the lure came to my rod tip.  After working the rip rap edges of the next bay, I returned back up the the rip rap edge of the Spillway mouth.  A musky, made a fly by, its large body coming out of the water, as it swam through the 5/0 topwater White Banger Dog without eating it.  It was  larger than I estimated from the two previous encounters here.  After repeatedly sweeping the fly back and forth, I felt something on a subsurface sweep, then nothing when I tightened up.  I got a glimpse of its orange tinted fins passing by.  Nothing else the rest of the evening.  I saw 2 guys in a boat and 4 on shore casting big rubber lures for Musky.  No sign of the bass I found here last time.

October 20, Good Musky day, on and off drizzle, some hard rain and mostly complete cloud cover.  Now can be good for Musky as they follow shad moving into river mouth areas.  I saw about 6 shore fishermen and 2 guys in a boat all casting for Musky. The wind was mostly off shore and I spent the afternoon and evening casting Musky topwater mostly toward shore, covering all the good water nearby that was sheltered enough to be calm or slightly riffled.  I spent over half the day using a 5/0 White Dive Banger that can do nice walk the dog actions, surface and sub surface. To make more noise, I was mostly using it in straight popper mode. The water visibility extra muddy from 2 previous days of strong onshore winds and muddy runoff in the Clinton River Cutoff channel.

After covering the first 80 yards of shoreline that is normally good for a few  Large Mouth, a Musky of about 28 inches struck and missed going vertically completely airborne.  I continued fishing the sheltered edges of the next bay and beyound. Then I reworked most of that water heading back.  Back in the cutoff channel I repeatedly reworked the rip rap edges and got 2 bass at sunset using a top water walk the dog retrieve.


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