While our area boasts several good muskie lakes, rivers provide excellent, often overlooked, opportunities.

Rather than taking a number to cast a community-spot weedbed or squeezing in the merry-go-round of trollers, consider these two river patterns.

Larger rivers often feature areas with large weedbeds. Though the level of weeds fluctuates from year to year, most seasons see at least some of growth in water celery (eelgrass) and milfoil varieties.As with any angling situation, the key to finding productive weedbeds is in locating ones in conjunction with good muskie habitat.Muskies tend to take up the largest, deepest holes in a given river stretch. The more character an area has, the better the chance it will hold muskies.Find a deeper, slow spot with rocks, wood and the presence of a feeder stream, and there's a pretty good chance it will hold muskies. Fringe the spot with stands of weeds, and it's nearly a sure bet muskies will use the weeds at certain times.One of my favorite areas on the lower Allegheny has a widening of the river, which slows the current. A good-sized creek joins the river there, and a few islands are found nearby.In one spot, shallow humps extend well across the river, coming to within a couple feet of the surface in spots. By mid- summer the weeds are often to the surface on these humps, as well as the shallow flats that extend off the islands. The weededges are easy to see, making perfect targets to launch a muskie-sized spinnerbait toward.Using a Widowmaker bucktail spinnerbait, I cast up past the edge of the weeds, working the bait back over the edge. Most muskies hang along the edge of the milfoil, so when the hit occurs, it's usually soon after the bait splashes down. The spinnerbait is the ideal lure for working this cover.

On shallow rivers like the middle portion of the Allegheny River, summertime muskies often don't venture far from the deep holes, locally called eddies, where they spend the cold weather months.While they may also frequent shallow shoals that tend to be rich with suckers and carp, it still pays to fish the slow, deeper water. This is especially true on bright, post-frontal days.When the water is clear, as it has been the past several weeks, fishing muskie holes isn't rocket science. It's simply a matter of putting on a good lure and then pounding the water with it.One of the best lures I've found for this is the Crane Bait.Starting at the head of the hole, which is often at a gravel bar created by a merging stream, I work my way down the hole, fancasting a 206 Crane or a similar minnow-shaped bait.Be alert for logs, brushpiles, ledges and undercut banks — places likely to hold a muskie. The lure can be fished in a straight retrieve, but tends to be more productive when lightly twitched or jerked in jerkbait manner.In areas with lighter weedgrowth, or where weeds haven't reached the surface, the minnowbait is a top choice as well.During the summer months, pay particular attention to the tailout portion of the hole, that transition area where the slow pool gives way to the faster run below. Feeding fish often hold in this spot.Muskies are much too valuable to be caught only once. Catch and release is a standard practice among muskie anglers.Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.