bscrandall
Senior Member
This is the next fish on my bucket list and they stocked them about 2 or 3 years ago in a lake near me. Is live bait my best strategy or would i be better off with spoons or crankbaits?
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Muskie lures
- Thread starter bscrandall
- Start date
Live bait works under float when float goes under wait 5 minutes set hook muskies turn bait several times before they eat. You’ll learn over time or troll spoons or throw 8-12” big jerk baits or plugs
Killinstuff
Senior Member
If they stocked them only 2 or 3 years ago, baits you throw for bass will be fine. Matter of fact a lot of musky are caught by guys fishing for other fish like bass and walleye anyway. I've caught my two biggest Musky, both over 50" during bass tournaments. I don't fish tournaments anymore and river fish in the U.P. mostly these days. I like Mepps musky killers #1, whopper ploppers and spooks #2 and Savage Gear 4 play glide/jerk baits #3. I'm not expecting 50" fish or even 40" fish and toss baits on bass rods. The water is fairly shallow with a good amount of current and the baits I like also get hit by smallmouth.
As for live bait guys up here will drift a sucker behind the boat and cast from front but that's more a fall thing on lakes. I do know a guy that fishes with bait 90% of the time and what he does is hook a 7" or 8" chub through the head killing it and works it like a jerk bait. He catches a lot of fish. Bass whack those big chubs too.
As for live bait guys up here will drift a sucker behind the boat and cast from front but that's more a fall thing on lakes. I do know a guy that fishes with bait 90% of the time and what he does is hook a 7" or 8" chub through the head killing it and works it like a jerk bait. He catches a lot of fish. Bass whack those big chubs too.
Browniez
Senior Member
Fellow beginner here the wife and I recently started chasing them.
We’ve started seeing consistently moving fish and getting eats. We’ve even put a couple fish in the boat. I’m partial to one piece gliders. Big Rattle Traps are known to produce. Buck tails have moved fish for us. Large fluke style plastics worked slow have gotten bit too.
We haven’t caught many but gliders and the big flukes have seemed the best.
Attachments
Don't discount Mepps Giant Killers and Muskie Killers. Or a big live horneyhead on a circle hook.
LittleDrummerBoy
Senior Member
We caught this muskie in Leesville Lake, Ohio trolling a Lee Sisson firetiger deep diving crank bait. We've also caught them trolling a Rapala deep tail dancer and still fishing with bluegill.
Over the years I've learned that it is better to match the lures to the dominant prey species than to select lures based on the target predator species. If one predator species in a lake really likes a lure, odds are it imitates a prey species well in that lake and other predator species will like it also. Then the challenge is getting the lure in front of the species you want to catch.
I caught my biggest 43 ½ inches on a nightcrawler and ultralight pole with no wire leader. ( just luck)
But I have caught many, my go to bait in PA was about an 8” Trout. I had a hold of my biggest but didn’t land it
on about a 10” Smallmouth Bass. Live frogs were a lot of fun , they be swimming along, and the water would bust open.
But I have caught many, my go to bait in PA was about an 8” Trout. I had a hold of my biggest but didn’t land it
on about a 10” Smallmouth Bass. Live frogs were a lot of fun , they be swimming along, and the water would bust open.
Browniez
Senior Member
Oh how wonderful it will be if they move on up.
Browniez
Senior Member
It’s pretty wild messing with a fish for 45 seconds at the side of the boat and it doesn’t spook.
They’re some crazy dang animals.
Philhutch80
Banned
FIFY
I have been cut off by quite a few over the years on normal bass and walleye lures and baits-crankbaits, jerkbaits, live creek chubs, curlytail jigs, jigging spoons, and such. A friend of mine caught one about 46" long once on a tiny Mepps spinner while we were playing around catching little largemouth and bream at Fontana in the back of a creek. He hooked it just right so that it didn't cut his 6-lb mono. It took forever to get it in and landed.
But-if I was going to target them, I'd use something big, and a stout wire leader.
But-if I was going to target them, I'd use something big, and a stout wire leader.
I did get a small Northern that way once,,,,
615groundpounder
Senior Member
LittleDrummerBoy
Senior Member
We used wire leaders the fist year we chased muskie and didn't catch any. The second year we chased muskie, we switched to 80 lb Ande Fluorocarbon leader material (nearly invisible under water) and we started catching them. Muskie are toothy critters, but we never had one bite through the 80 lb fluorocarbon. We've caught alligator gar on it also without a problem. In our experience, only sharks bite through it.
