It was just before dark on December 22 when Shane Fox made a cast across Wills Creek, a small feeder stream of the Muskingum River in east-central Ohio. He used a homemade 5.5-inch flat-sided chrome-green cedar jerkbait and started a slow retrieve.
“A slow stop-and-go retrieve is best for winter fishing because fish aren’t really active,” Fox told Wired2fish. “I was working my plug across the stream current using 12-pound-test spinning tackle and I just felt a heavy weight on my line.
“They never really strike, they just sort of grab a lure. I missed the fish that first time. Made another cast, and when I felt the heavy weight again, I hooked it.”
Cold Weather Muskie
Fox says he was lucky because the muskie didn’t jump, and he’d brought a landing net with him that evening.
“The banks of Wills Creek are really steep, and without a net I don’t think I could have caught the muskie,” explained Fox, 47, a warehouse dock employee in Adamsville, Ohio. “I got its head into the net, then muscled it up onto the bank.”
Fox measured the fish at 44.5 inches, and took a selfie of himself and the muskie. Fox estimates it weighed about 20 pounds, the biggest he’s caught from Wills Creek. Then he unhooked and released it immediately back into the stream.
“I don’t keep any of the fish I catch,” Fox said.
Wills Creek is shallow, running about 5 feet deep, and it’s slow moving. There are some deep holes dropping to 14 feet, Fox explained.. It can be fished from a kayak or small boat. But he works the creek from shore, because it’s narrow in its width and easy to cover from shore.
The Catches Keep Coming
About 30 minutes after landing his muskie night was at hand, and Fox changed lures to a Smithwick suspending 5-inch Super Rogue jerkbait in clown color. He fished it slowly with a stop-and-go retrieve, as he had with his muskie plug – but with longer pauses. Fish usually strike just as the lure moves following a pause, he said.
“I made a cast, had that heavy feeling again on the line, and hooked another big one,” Fox said. “For a while I thought it was another muskie. But when I got it near shore I saw it was a heavy saugeye.”
He measured the saugeye at 26 inches in length, with an estimated weight of more than 6 pounds. It was released right after measuring.
Fox has fished that area of Wills Creek and other area tributaries for 30 years and knows the waters well. He said he noticed that there were small bluegills holding near a creek mouth close to where he caught the muskie and saugeye. He believes that’s why the predators were there.
“Find the food, and the muskies and saugeye will be there,” he said. “Fishing is great in winter because almost no one else is out fishing. The colder, the better!”
