Fish-Hawk.Net

Hey there lads,

I've had some successes with the muskies but with the weather the way it has been I'm at a total loss. I've tried trolling spinners off weedlines, slow trolling them by drop-offs, casting humps, trolling cranks, etc etc etc...

I have had a lot of luck in the past but I just can't figure it out thus far. I'm just looking for someone to give me a little nudge in the right direction. I don't need any spots, as I think there are 1000's around us between the Ottawa and the Rideau, I just need to know how my presentations are wrong or if I'm overlooking something.

If you don't want to share any of your secrets, you can PM me.

Thanks for any help you can lend to a Wannabe!

Cheers,

MW

So if you need help with Muskies why was I following you around on the weekend... I do not think you need help with Muskie..you do pretty well already. Sure everyone can do better but if I am not mistaken you have caught 4 so far this year. Well that sure beats my 0

Personnaly only 2 this year, helped boat a third, lost 3 on a new lure with undersized hooks (they have since been replaced), and 2 or 3 on a top water.

I think for the top water I'm 1 for 3, which is about average I suppose, kind of pee pee about the three I lost because of undersized hooks! They were all heart breakers! Saw each fish too!

Good luck out there!

Hey MW,

This is just something I've always found that works for me in the summer.
Try something completely different than what you normally do. For me...Where I fish, my best colours are either Perch or black. It doesn't seem to matter what type of bait I throw as long as they are one of those two colours. Recently I had a hard time getting anything to hit though. I would get the odd follow or even a light bump but the fish seemed to be uninterested. This week I got digging through one of my tackle boxes and found a Chartreuse Suick that I had bought the first year I took up musky fishing. Honestly, the bait had NEVER been in the water. The only time it ever got wet was when it rained on it. Anyways, to make a long story short...I snapped it on and started chucking it. Over two evenings, I landed 3 muskies and lost 4 more in just over 3 hours fishing time total. I worked some weed edges, rock piles and deep water with it. All I did was throw it out and rip it back as fast as I could and every 4 or 5 pulls I'd stop the bait dead and let it hover for a few seconds. Every hit I got was on the pause. I had no follows, just super aggressive hits. Every fish I saw was trying to kill the bait!

I'm not saying it's a sure thing but it worked for me this week. The way I look at it is if your struggling to hook up with fish...give it a try. It can't hurt. Hope this helps and let me know if it happens to work for you too.

Sean

Thanks for the tip Sean...I'm even worse than mwannabe...my son caught a nice 44" with me on Father's day but I haven't even seen one since then!!! According to my GPS...I have friggin trolled 51 miles so far and NO MUSKIE !!! I just started this year so my tackle still needs to be built up....I'll go out and get a suick and try some casts!!

Hey MuskieWannabe,

If you ever want to come out to Constance Bay for an evening of ski hunting let me know!! Maybe between the 2 of us we'll have some luck!!

don't forget the wash. 3 fish this year have been 8' off the back of the boat - including a 50. Colours don't make much difference as long as you have some action and can stay around 1' down. Plastic should not be overlooked. As for hooks, always ensure the hook is proud of the lure body, this may mean "T'ing" them - and don't forget to sharpen them too; they are never sharp enough from the manufacturer.

Hope this helps - happy hunting

They don't call this fish "the fish of a thousand casts" for nothing. Sure you will have good days, but ..........you will have a lot more with no hook ups or even seeing a fish. We've had outings in Muskies Canada with 60 fisherman fishing 10 hours straight and only 14 fish landed. When you figure that out, thats 600 hrs of fishing time, about 43 hrs of fishing for each fish and hundres of miles of water covered.
By the sounds of it, you guys are above average and doing pretty darn good. Don't lose confidence in what has worked for you. Pay attention to the conditions, time of day, etc. There are spots that will always hold fish, but there are only certain times of the day or conditions that will get them to trigger. Patience and endurance typifies a muskie fisherman.
Tight lines.

MW, dont lose confidence and start switching from this tactic, to the next, next, next............ect. This will only lead to more frustration. Stick to a couple tried and true approaches that have worked for YOU. Pick two or three spots wher you KNOW the muskies SHOULD be. Cover every inch.
Find food and the muskies are there you just have to be there at the right time. If you are constanly moving, your not ging to be there.

Just this week I have some how maaged to put 5 in the boat in 2 outings. 3 trolling spinnerbaits 30 to 40 feet back, along weededges. 2 casting topwaters and bucktails at points and humps. Tried and true techniques. That being said on both occasions all the action was within about an hour and half, nothing before, nothing after,

Hope this helps.

With this wacky weather for some reason trolling doesn't seem to work ( client lost a 50 incher 10' from the boat this afternoon that was to be our first trolling all week ) Lots of big fish follows and few bitters every day casting though. Seems like we are having very small feeding windows most days. Pike have been real aggressive and hungry swallowing lures even at 5.5 MPH.

Find the cabbage and cast some spinnerbaits and jerkbaits, avoid topwaters they aren't working ether.

Trophymuskie wrote: avoid topwaters they aren't working ether.

Funny how this works, Jamie and raised some nice fish on topwater this year, boated our first on his 4th cast, didn't even have my lure on my line yet and I lost one a few minutes later with a rookie mistake.

We even had one go after his topwater at the boat and it was so agressive it almost dented the boat.

Mr.J. wrote:

Trophymuskie wrote: avoid topwaters they aren't working ether.

Funny how this works, Jamie and raised some nice fish on topwater this year, boated our first on his 4th cast, didn't even have my lure on my line yet and I lost one a few minutes later with a rookie mistake.

We even had one go after his topwater at the boat and it was so agressive it almost dented the boat.

I'm talking this week as in last 5 days not anytime before that. Conditions are tough, to bad we only landed one of the three 50+ we've hooked up as well as losing a couple over 45.

TM Says

With this wacky weather for some reason trolling doesn't seem to work

3 fish trolling spinnerbaits - Tuesday night

TM says

avoid topwaters they aren't working ether

45 incher Sunday night + missed hit. Tuesday night another missed hit

I do however agree with TM on the cabbage. Find the cabbage and you have found fish

Just proof in the pudding, wht works for one may not work for the other. Stick with what has worked for YOU

I'm with Sean (I think it was) time to pull out the suick.
that said last thu we had tonnes of top water action including a 45" in da boot. waitin' fer da pictures to come back.

nothin' on my supertop raider all on a lure I can't remember the name of (my buddy caught 'em) looks like a zara spook just much bigger. gotta walk the dog and then the action was nuts.

good luck. and just remember. all those fish you find followin' ... one day the bite will be on and you can run and gun all dem spots and have a 3 or 5 fish day (has happened to me )

Conditions change on a daily bases so should your approach. Trolled the upper the last couple of days ( had 3 guys who never fished muskies before ) and they released 3 muskies including one over 50. Last Sunday we got 3 on the lower bigger one casting with the other 2 trolling.

I still have yet to see a good topwater bite, seen action last weekend but nothing hooked.

On saturday Placide and I are goingt o hit the Rideau for some toothy critters

Scattered showers and 26 with sunny breaks

What's the strategey for this?

Since I joined MCI I have no skis to show for it