Muskies become active soon after the waters begin to warm in the springtime. And rivers such as those found within our region are one of the best places to target them.

Water temperatures rise quickly in the spring. Periods of daylight increase dramatically; warming spells rapidly shoot temperatures into the 40s. A good pattern at this time is to focus in on the mouths of major feeder creeks and rivers.

Such spots offer two attractions for muskies. For one, the shallow, quick-to-warm soft bottom basins often contain the best available spawning habitat. Even if muskies don’t successfully reproduce, the still attempt to do so.

Secondly, good muskie rivers tend to also be good walleye rivers. It’s likely muskies are attracted to walleyes that run such creeks/rivers during their spawn. Regardless of whether muskies make use of walleyes as food, such places tend to contain a plethora of other forage options. So, head to the river mouths during the late pre-spawn and spawning periods.

Large minnowbaits that provide good action with only moderate speed can be effective for working the areas in and around river mouths. I’ve had good success with the large, saltwater version of Rapala’s X-Rap in this situation. Another good bait for both covering water and a variety of depths is Bait Rigs’ Esox Cobra jig.

Both boat and shore anglers can fish river mouths. In fact, this situation provides one of the best chances for bank anglers to contact river muskies that spend much of their time in the main river proper. Casting locations are often limited, and though it rarely makes much sense to pound the same basic area with repeated casts, in this instance there is a bit of logic to it. Muskies will cruise back and forth through an area. Working over a spot for a half-hour or so increases your chance of putting a bait in front of a fish.

The boat angler can more actively pursue river-mouth fish. I like to position the boat a bit upriver of the mouth and begin a slow drift perpendicular to it. Often there is a defined edge on the bottom, formed by river current scouring away the soft material deposited by the feeder water.

This edge runs parallel to shore. During this drift, casts should land up inside the creek mouth, and come over the scour edge. Though the depth difference is often only a couple of feet, muskies will often relate to it.

If there is ample water/depth up in the creek/river itself – and often there is on navigable rivers – it pays to make a run, there as well. Usually, I will run up the creek at a slow, no-wake speed, and then go with the current as the boat drifts back to the main river. On the waters I fish, there is usually a half-mile or so stretch of slow, soft/dark bottomed area at the extreme end of these creeks and small rivers that can hold muskies at this time of the year.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle