Muskies like this one can be caught near the mouths of feeder creeks during the late winter.

The term "up the creek" has a lot of applications and typically is used in combination with some sort of unpleasant situation.

But for the muskie angler, as winter grudgingly gives way to spring, being up a creek just might be the best place to be.

Water temperatures rise quickly during late winter and early spring. Periods of daylight increase dramatically and warming spells rapidly shoot temperatures into the 40s.

The best places for river anglers to be during this period are the mouths of major feeder creeks and rivers. Such spots offer two attractions for muskies.

For one, shallow, quick-to-warm, soft-bottom basins often contain the best available spawning habitat.

Secondly, good muskie rivers tend also to be good walleye rivers. It's likely muskies are attracted to walleyes that run such streams 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.

River mouths can be fished by both boat and shore anglers. In fact, this situation provides one of the best chances for bank anglers to make contact with 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 your 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 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 depth in the stream 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, then go with the current as the boat drifts back to the main river. On the waters I fish, there usually a half-mile stretch of slow, soft- and dark-bottomed area at the extreme end of these creeks and small rivers that can hold muskies at this time of the year.

In Western Pennsylvania, there are many larger flowing waters that feature creek mouth habitat that attracts muskies. Many such places are found where creeks flow into the Allegheny River.

French Creek, particularly the portion that flows through Crawford County, is renowned for producing quality-sized muskies, as well as walleyes and northern pike. Most of these fish are taken near the merger of feeder waters.

And while the Monongahela and Ohio rivers don't get much attention from muskie anglers, both have received substantial stockings of muskies over the years, primarily tiger muskies.

Muskies also are available in these two rivers, especially if you're willing to go the creek to get them.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.