nerbaits or slightly larger baits pays off huge. Once July rolls around, the best odds for a trophy muskie occur in the Northwest Angle. If fishing is slow during, hot, warm, muggy days, then making an effort to fish at night can be extremely productive. Many of these Lake of the Woods musk­ies have most likely not seen a lure whiz over their heads, putting the advantage in your favor. Target shal­low weed beds, rock bars and points that top off around 11 feet of water with prop style topwaters such as Packmakers, Topraiders and buck­tails with large Colorado blades. On windy nights target one of lake's many reefs with eight to 10 inch min­now baits and larger bucktails. Once fall arrives, this is " trophy time" on Lake of the Woods. In Septem­ber, work any remaining green veg­etation, before water temperatures drop below 60 degrees. Once this occurs, trolling large, deep- diving crankbaits pays off here because muskies will be suspended off the deep edge of a point searching for baitfish in these areas. An addi­tional bonus can be casting 10 inch Jakes and Bull Dawgs to saddle areas where boulders and weed growth are adjacent to deep water. Just make sure whenever you book that special trip here, plan it around the full or new moon phases. 5.) Georgian Bay Nestled in the northeastern cor­ner of Lake Huron is the other musk­ie factory of the Great Lakes. His­torically over the past 40 years, giant muskies surpassing 50 pounds have been seen photographed in maga­zines and mounted in local bars. It's quite common to hear locals talking about when a world record muskie will be caught from here. The an­swer is quite simple: it could quite possibly happen any time. Just re­member, Ken O'Brien's 65 pound Ca­nadian world record came from these very depths. Healthy populations of trophy musk­ies exist here with credit given to successful regulations and a catch- and release ethic. The fishery starts getting hot around early July when water temperatures start to reach their full peak and the main forage starts to suspend off the lake's nu­merous rock reefs. Trolling six to 10 inch crankbaits over depths of 60 to 110 feet of water is the norm. Down­riggers and planer boards will give your trolling spreads some versatility. Throughout mid and late- summer, many Georgian Bay muskies' loca­tions will vary between 20 and 50 feet down in the water column. The key to success is to look for schools of alewives, ciscoes, or any other pelagic baitfish schools on your lo­cator. Here you will a much better idea on where to present your baits; just don't place them below the " bait balls" because muskies will feed up, not down. By late September, water tempera­tures are dropping quickly. Fishing during turnover can be extremely dif­ficult because muskies can be located almost anywhere in the system. To avoid long, fishless hours, it is best

recommended to fish after the turn­over. As water temperatures drop into the 40s, the real big pigs finally start to show signs of life. October and November are the best months to pursue the trophies. A hot, fall tactic that has worked well in the past is to let your crankbaits bounce the bottom as you make a turn. This tactic has accounted for many of Georgian Bay's giant muskies. If you are new to the area, then give guide Jody Mills a call. He offers five day tro­phy hunts at a respectable price. He has guided plenty of past clients to 50- plus inchers. Visit www. mills­muskyguideservice. ca for more information. Jody can also be contacted at ( 705) 375- 1826. How Big and For How Long? At the current moment in time, these five muskie fisheries are perhaps at a level far superior to their coun­terparts. They all have one thing in common: excellent populations of oily, pelagic baitfish combined with an excellent management program to create adequate parameters for world record muskie fishing success. In a sense, everything is out there for these systems to create giant, trophy muskies, but the future will dictate for how long these fisheries can sustain their current rank of ex­cellence. What does the future hold for these muskie waters and others? Clima­tologist researchers expect average global temperatures to increase be­tween 1 and 4 degrees Celsius by the year 2100. With this assumed temperature increase, we can pos­sibly expect a 20 to 25 percent de­crease in total accumulation of the biomass in aquatic systems. In addi­tion, warmer water temperatures will threaten cisco, alewife and other cold water baitfish populations. Generally, these massive fluctuation levels in baitfish species will force giant musk­ies to learn the art of adapting to a new, preferred food source. Could the size of these giant muskies be at a crossroads? As in all aspects of biology, only time will tell. Time does tell this though: ever since the 1960s, now may be the best time more than ever in history to pursue a world record muskie. It's only a matter of time before a muskie of 70- plus pounds will be caught and photographed. Given credit to cli­mate change, evidence has pointed out that muskies of mega- size pro­portions of younger year classes are growing faster and larger. For many muskie hunters, they may not care about the evidence, and that's just fine; they just care about catching big fish. Well then, what are you waiting for? Call in sick to work, wet a line, launch a boat in one of these five waters and prepare for all hell to break loose. The dawning of a new era lies in your hands and the queen of muskies is ready.