An orange-bladed black bucktail fooled this muskie on a bright day. Photo by Pete Maina.

Late summer is my favorite time of the year to fish for muskies. They are on the move and it is generally a very high activity period. The “toothers” will still be reacting well to faster-moving presentations and larger lures. But these are muskies, and there are no rules or absolutes when fishing for them.

Being versatile is a great asset when fishing for Esox. When it comes to lure choice, versatility becomes extremely important, especially at this time of year. The main reason for this -- based on my observations from over 30 years of muskie fishing and guiding clients -- is that the fish are familiar with their surroundings, and quite often, our lure presentations.

Essentially what we are dealing with in the late summer is an extended period of muskies being established in certain areas. For some time, they have been in a summer pattern of feeding and “relaxing” zones. Anglers have taken note of this, and their efforts in these zones have gone up. Muskies get used to seeing the same presentations coming from the same angles, and if they had a bad experience recently from a particular lure, odds are the reaction won’t be as positive a second time.

On the other hand, these fish are pea-brained predators, and more often than not, feeding windows are triggered by barometric pressure changes, lunar influence and combinations thereof. Being apex predators, they rule the weedbeds, bars and everything else when conditions are right. A muskie’s heavy feeding window usually doesn’t coincide with other game fish, because everything else in the fishdom is hiding. At times like these, the best lure choice will generally switch back to simple attraction and efficiency rather than a need for something different to entice strikes. Simply put, the right weather trumps all other factors.

With simplicity in mind and theories aside, late summer is a period where the ability to develop a plan every day to find the right lure pattern is your most important task.

This is the time of year to take friends out fishing with you so you all can experiment with a bunch of different lures. The general rule is that larger lures work better in late summer, and possibly even very large baits. Arguably, this is the best time of year for topwater lures, and very large fish can be fooled by them. Spinners -- either in-line bucktails or overhead bass-style lures -- are normally a huge factor and are very efficient. Any lure type can work, keeping in mind that speed or very erratic action could be the key to triggering strikes.

Before I go on, I want to clarify that I am basing what I offer here on three assumptions. First is that you have friends, so can you have multiple anglers in the boat. If you don’t have friends, rent some. The second assumption is that you are not night-fishing, because that is a whole different ball game. And we’re talking casting presentations, not trolling.

Part of prioritizing lures depends on the structural elements available on the body of water you are fishing. There are two factors when it comes to choosing lures, and one is making them “fit” the structure and depth range you are fishing. The other consideration is selecting lures fish will actually strike. I wish that was as simple as it sounds.

Efficiency is a very important factor, but part of prioritizing lures includes educated guessing on what baits the toothers are most likely to bite. It is important to try to categorize lures when considering activity levels. Try to keep it basic, as in “active” and “negative” presentation categories. This doesn’t necessarily separate lure types, but certainly, the approaches change. For steady weather, warming weather, and before and after frontal activity, active baits will likely work best.