No time like the present. In my experience, the past month to six weeks has been the best time period for River and tail-race muskellunge fishing that occurs on an annual basis. I assume that the formerly closed period is also good, although I have never tried it.
They are certainly active (on the move) along lake shores and high up in the water column (within one to four ft of the surface) in open water based on years of netting experience. This behavior occurs without a doubt in the last week of March and first few weeks of April. Minor indentations along lake shores, which one certainly would not refer to as coves, are prime areas as well as points at entry areas to actual coves. There is a lot of movement across these points.
I suspect that the cruising high up in the water column within a foot of the surface at times is related to early spring water temps (near surface water temps) being the warmest. While I would expect that coves on the east and southeast sides of lakes would be best because of prevailing winds pushing what little surface warm water exists in lakes at this time into those coves, I have never seen that pattern develop for Muskies as I have for a number of other species (hint, hint) only before the main lake temps become equal to cove temps.
