Collins River Musky | Fall Transition with Dwayne Hickey

Collins River Musky fishing in the section Dwayne Hickey spends most of his time is a fisherman's sanctuary. This is a skinny river with deep holes, high banks, rocks and lots of wood. There are grass beds, rock beds and feeder creeks. It is rare to encounter another boat or angler. The rivers ecosystem is vibrant, teaming with baitfish. The Collins River is one of the best musky fishing stretches of water in the southeast.

Having fished this river several times, I am always astounded at how many musky you can see in the water. The rich biodiversity of the river with all the cover and access to deep water provide for a very healthy musky population. A half a dozen, at a minimum, follows per trip is reasonable. Getting bites is always the trick. This is where you need to be diligent in your approach, methodical in how you work every single bit of water. You never know where the fish will be. There is just so much cover in which to find musky.

Having access to a river rat like Dwayne Hickey is a real treat. Where most musky fishermen go overboard with the volume of lures they bring on a trip, Dwayne brings a handful. He knows the Collins River as well or better than any person alive. He is not recognized as the Godfather of the Collins for his lack of experience. This is a guy you want to learn from. He makes it look simple working bank to bank, slowly drifting down the river.

As we enter the fall season, you begin to see an uptick in the aggressiveness of fish. You have to account for how the changes in light and temperature effect musky behavior. Seasonal variation in the spectral composition triggers a metabolic change in fish. The decreasing amount of light is a sign of things to come. There is less sun and the days get shorter. Musky, as the apex freshwater predator, and there tendencies are closely linked to weather and climate dynamics. How do musky behave with the coming of winter? As a natural occurrence, winter brings with it less forage food. Musky begin to feed more often in their attempt to fatten up in preparation for less food availability.

The fall transition is a great time to fish the Collins River for musky and Dwayne Hickey is the guy who's brain you want to pick about when, where, how, with what and why to fish. In this video, Dwayne will share is simple approach to Collins River musky fishing and his analysis of what is going on in the water.

If there is one thing that will jump out at you about the river, it is the endless natural transition for shallow water weed to deep hole to wood to long deep depressions to shallow water and on and on. There is so much packed into a few miles of river. If you are not constantly thinking and evaluating what you are casting to or on, you can easily miss fish. Dwayne Hickey is going to break it all down for you. If there is one thing he emphasizes it is wood. Work the wood and do it slowly. Pick it apart. These fish have so much food at their disposal, they may not be in a hurry to eat your lure, even with the winter is coming feed bag on.

Dwayne will talk about his assortment of about 6 lures that he uses this time of year and they give him all the coverage he needs to trigger bites. He is a sage, a fishermen that has spent his life learning every nook and cranny of the Collins River. If you are interested in learning more about the makeup of the river and how to fish it, this short In The Spread video shares a heck of a lot in a short time. Dwayne is to the point. He will put you on a course to catching musky on the Collins River on a regular basis, if you follow what he is offering.

Total time: 17:12
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