Cast and Reel Muskie Problems!!!
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MuskieWannabe
- Bronze Participant
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 6:57 pm
- Location: Carleton Place
Cast and Reel Muskie Problems!!!
Hey there all...I've just started fishing muskie, have 2 already but have lost a few as well. It's happend once before and again tonite. Casting and reeling in a crankbait tonite a musky came up for the hit and totally missed! Flew out of the water maybe 15 feet from where i was wading in the water! Just totally missed the lure. Is there something I'm doing or not doing? I was twitching the lure back to me, working it pretty well, or so I thought. He just missed the bait! What should or could i be doing to limit those misses and start landing them instead?
I fish for muskies almost exclusively and I can tell you that they sometimes either miss the bait, or simply swat at it as if to scare it off.
You might try either slowing down the retrieve rate or speeding it up. I usually lean toward speed since it is difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve a bait faster that a healthy muskie can catch it if he decides he wants it. In fact, if you see a fish following the bait, you should try increasing the speed of the retrieve because this will usually trigger a strike.
If you have the experience of having one hit the bait near the boat during a figure 8, you will see how they can literally appear, snatch the bait, and turn in less time than it takes to blink your eyes.
Some of the more common lures that I would recommend that you try on your waters:
6 inch shallow Grandma in black back/chrome body, or orange tiger. Cast it, give it three 3 foot sweeps and then retrieve it steadily and go into the figure 8 at the boat. Also a color called Tennessee Shad. *Any musky lure in Tenn Shad is a very good choice.
Monster shad...a variety of colors are effective but fire tiger and green-striped seem to be particularly effective. If I could buy only one bait for musky it would be a fire tiger Monster Shad.
Suick... the standard version, not the "deep" Suick. Black is a killer, along with fire tiger. If had to buy only two Suicks, I'd be sure it was those 2 colors. You need a stiff rod to properly work this jerk bait. Otherwise, you'll tire out pretty quickly. A stiff rod will do all the work for you with this highly effective bait...use it over and near weeds.
Rapala Super Shad...fire tiger, Blue gill. This bait must be trolled at a higher speed. If you cast it, you must rip it back to the boat, with 3 foot sweeps and go into a figure 8. Its a pretty tough bait to cast though, we troll it almost exclusively, rather than trying to cast it.
Tuff Shad...fire tiger, or orange
A bait called a Bert in fire tiger, and orange tiger. Recently my partner and I had a day where if you didn't throw orange tiger colored baits, you might as well have gone home because that's all they wanted. We caught 4, lost 4 and raised 13 or 14 more (follows or the fish missed the bait completely). Buy the "deep" version of the Bert. Its a jerk bait, like the Suick, which means that you sweep it, or jerk it back to the boat.
Magnum Wiggle Warts...if you can find them. Fire tiger, or Chrome, work great. Its a small bait, but sometimes they want smaller baits.
Of course there are hundreds of brands and types of baits that you can buy. The ones that I've listed are the ones that I throw and troll everytime I fish for muskies and I fish for them an awful lot.
Use at least 65 pound test braided line, which will be about 16lb diameter. Now that's not because you'll be catching 65 lb fish...its because that line is tough enough that if you get snagged and you have a quality lure retriever you have an excellent chance of getting your bait unsnagged. Mono tends to nick and break easily, even if your using heavy mono. SpiderWire Stealth works great and is reasonably priced...about $11.00 for 150 yards at our Walmart stores...works as good as anything you can buy.
Of course you should always use a steel leader. But I'd recommend that you buy 100 lb test wire and 100 lb test cross-lock snaps and make your own.
Buy quality reels from the get-go. Abu-Garcia 6500's are a great buy and dollar for dollar they'll last as long as anything else. I also use Shimano Bantam Curado's, the high speed version. Most high speed reels won't hold up very well to musky class baits...it seems to stress them too much and they break, but the Bantam Curado by Shimano are reels that I've used for musky for nearly ten years. I owned two of them for almost 7 years before they needed any overhauling and repairs. Very tough.
Rods: Heavier flipping sticks work, but leave your bass class rods home. A musky has a very boney mouth and you have to set the hooks pretty hard...a wimpier rod gives too much. It took me a lot of lost muskies to finally break down and start buying heavier rods. Fenwick makes a few good ones, but there are plenty of other brands too. I will not fish for muskies with a rod shorter than 7 feet. In fact, almost all of mine are 7 1/2 feet long. You get extra leverage on the hook set and they make the figure 8 a lot easier to execute properly.
Do the figure 8 on EVERY cast. Do it 2 or 3 times sometimes. You may be pleasantly surprised on the 3rd rotation of the figure... and when I say surprised, I mean surprised. A hit at the boat is better than any drugs you could ever try.
Bucktails: They usually only work well for us in the fall when the water begins to cool rapidly. But that's on our waters...they may be dynamite on yours. I've had relatively poor luck with them, but when they do work, they work.
In the last 5 or 6 years of muskie fishing, I've been using jerk baits (Suick and Berts) more and more because there's something about the action that seems to trigger a lot of strikes even when the fish are neutral. I'm having great success with them.
Trolling: Try to keep the baits only 10 or 12 feet down under most circumstances. Troll at about 3 mph, and if the water is in the upper 70's or 80's try going 4 mph or a tad faster. Believe me, they like it rather fast. Use quality rod holder and keep your drag a little loose in case you snag up. Troll Monster Shads, Tuff Shads, and Super Shads. Fire tiger is always a good choice, followed by Tennessee Shad, and Chrome.
Lastly, I recommend that you spend your casting time fishing the deeper weeds, meaning weeds that are submerged under 3 or 4 feet or water or more, usually in about 8 to 10 feet of water. The "deep edge" of the weed beds seems to be where muskies love to hang out and if you cast those edges, your success rate will soar. Forget about fishing so close to shore like you might be used to doing when you're bass fishing. Muskies will be in shallow water (5 feet or less), but not nearly as often, and generally they prefer to be near the deep weed edge near deeper water (12, 14, 16 feet or so).
Hope that helps.
Feel free to email me with any questions.
vc1111@comcast.net
You might try either slowing down the retrieve rate or speeding it up. I usually lean toward speed since it is difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve a bait faster that a healthy muskie can catch it if he decides he wants it. In fact, if you see a fish following the bait, you should try increasing the speed of the retrieve because this will usually trigger a strike.
If you have the experience of having one hit the bait near the boat during a figure 8, you will see how they can literally appear, snatch the bait, and turn in less time than it takes to blink your eyes.
Some of the more common lures that I would recommend that you try on your waters:
6 inch shallow Grandma in black back/chrome body, or orange tiger. Cast it, give it three 3 foot sweeps and then retrieve it steadily and go into the figure 8 at the boat. Also a color called Tennessee Shad. *Any musky lure in Tenn Shad is a very good choice.
Monster shad...a variety of colors are effective but fire tiger and green-striped seem to be particularly effective. If I could buy only one bait for musky it would be a fire tiger Monster Shad.
Suick... the standard version, not the "deep" Suick. Black is a killer, along with fire tiger. If had to buy only two Suicks, I'd be sure it was those 2 colors. You need a stiff rod to properly work this jerk bait. Otherwise, you'll tire out pretty quickly. A stiff rod will do all the work for you with this highly effective bait...use it over and near weeds.
Rapala Super Shad...fire tiger, Blue gill. This bait must be trolled at a higher speed. If you cast it, you must rip it back to the boat, with 3 foot sweeps and go into a figure 8. Its a pretty tough bait to cast though, we troll it almost exclusively, rather than trying to cast it.
Tuff Shad...fire tiger, or orange
A bait called a Bert in fire tiger, and orange tiger. Recently my partner and I had a day where if you didn't throw orange tiger colored baits, you might as well have gone home because that's all they wanted. We caught 4, lost 4 and raised 13 or 14 more (follows or the fish missed the bait completely). Buy the "deep" version of the Bert. Its a jerk bait, like the Suick, which means that you sweep it, or jerk it back to the boat.
Magnum Wiggle Warts...if you can find them. Fire tiger, or Chrome, work great. Its a small bait, but sometimes they want smaller baits.
Of course there are hundreds of brands and types of baits that you can buy. The ones that I've listed are the ones that I throw and troll everytime I fish for muskies and I fish for them an awful lot.
Use at least 65 pound test braided line, which will be about 16lb diameter. Now that's not because you'll be catching 65 lb fish...its because that line is tough enough that if you get snagged and you have a quality lure retriever you have an excellent chance of getting your bait unsnagged. Mono tends to nick and break easily, even if your using heavy mono. SpiderWire Stealth works great and is reasonably priced...about $11.00 for 150 yards at our Walmart stores...works as good as anything you can buy.
Of course you should always use a steel leader. But I'd recommend that you buy 100 lb test wire and 100 lb test cross-lock snaps and make your own.
Buy quality reels from the get-go. Abu-Garcia 6500's are a great buy and dollar for dollar they'll last as long as anything else. I also use Shimano Bantam Curado's, the high speed version. Most high speed reels won't hold up very well to musky class baits...it seems to stress them too much and they break, but the Bantam Curado by Shimano are reels that I've used for musky for nearly ten years. I owned two of them for almost 7 years before they needed any overhauling and repairs. Very tough.
Rods: Heavier flipping sticks work, but leave your bass class rods home. A musky has a very boney mouth and you have to set the hooks pretty hard...a wimpier rod gives too much. It took me a lot of lost muskies to finally break down and start buying heavier rods. Fenwick makes a few good ones, but there are plenty of other brands too. I will not fish for muskies with a rod shorter than 7 feet. In fact, almost all of mine are 7 1/2 feet long. You get extra leverage on the hook set and they make the figure 8 a lot easier to execute properly.
Do the figure 8 on EVERY cast. Do it 2 or 3 times sometimes. You may be pleasantly surprised on the 3rd rotation of the figure... and when I say surprised, I mean surprised. A hit at the boat is better than any drugs you could ever try.
Bucktails: They usually only work well for us in the fall when the water begins to cool rapidly. But that's on our waters...they may be dynamite on yours. I've had relatively poor luck with them, but when they do work, they work.
In the last 5 or 6 years of muskie fishing, I've been using jerk baits (Suick and Berts) more and more because there's something about the action that seems to trigger a lot of strikes even when the fish are neutral. I'm having great success with them.
Trolling: Try to keep the baits only 10 or 12 feet down under most circumstances. Troll at about 3 mph, and if the water is in the upper 70's or 80's try going 4 mph or a tad faster. Believe me, they like it rather fast. Use quality rod holder and keep your drag a little loose in case you snag up. Troll Monster Shads, Tuff Shads, and Super Shads. Fire tiger is always a good choice, followed by Tennessee Shad, and Chrome.
Lastly, I recommend that you spend your casting time fishing the deeper weeds, meaning weeds that are submerged under 3 or 4 feet or water or more, usually in about 8 to 10 feet of water. The "deep edge" of the weed beds seems to be where muskies love to hang out and if you cast those edges, your success rate will soar. Forget about fishing so close to shore like you might be used to doing when you're bass fishing. Muskies will be in shallow water (5 feet or less), but not nearly as often, and generally they prefer to be near the deep weed edge near deeper water (12, 14, 16 feet or so).
Hope that helps.
Feel free to email me with any questions.
vc1111@comcast.net
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Guest
MW.. I have been fishing muskie now for close to 10 years and they are very umpredictable. When you are casting anythign can happen and when you are not paying 100 percent attention it usually does. Stay focused, always figure 8 or do and L turn at boat side and keep your bait in the water. We all lose fish, I have only caught 2 this year but have lost 5 and have had several follows. Its all part of the game. Keep chucking baits!
I'll echo crazyhook statement of anything can happen...
When you lose concentration for a second....that's when it happens...ALWAYS!...
When you have a fish blow up like that...a different type of follow up bait may do the trick for ya...tiger tube...bulldawg...or a quick-strike rigged sucker should do the trick!
RJ
When you lose concentration for a second....that's when it happens...ALWAYS!...
When you have a fish blow up like that...a different type of follow up bait may do the trick for ya...tiger tube...bulldawg...or a quick-strike rigged sucker should do the trick!
RJ