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Posts: 1000
| For those of you who had better-than-normal seasons, what would you say you did differently this year?
What I did differently:
-started fishing from the back of the boat. Even though I'm fishing washed water, I found that my eights were much more productive and it forced me to experiment more
-fly fishing. once the fish stopped responding to conventional stuff, i tried out my fly rod. turned "negative" fish into september fish. |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Worked to much, didn't fish much at all. |
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Posts: 815
Location: Waukee, IA | I fished one lake about 90% of the time. Prior to this year I had only spent a few hours on it with no success but this year it gave up a bunch of fish. It was fun really picking a new lake apart and having new-found success |
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Posts: 431
| My year turned around when I started fishing open water and using my electronics to find bait. It was intimidating out there, miles from shore trying to find fish. It works though and will be my new mid-summer norm. |
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Posts: 1023
| I got a new boat...fell in love with fishing again. Got out more, tried jigging and was hooked!
Then I went to Green Bay, caught a big fish, now I've got an accepted offer near there so I can get on that body of water even more. I'm very excited for the future! |
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Posts: 1405
Location: Detroit River | This year I didn't buy any new musky lures, though I don't think that made this a better year than last year. I did use the 'Death Pause" a little more when jigging Bondy baits & it seemed to have helped more on some days. |
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Posts: 57
Location: LENA IL | I used the wind like I was eye fishing and it paid off. I know everyone does that to a point but when it got rough I didn't look for calm water I just kept at it even if it cost me a few cast due to a fast drift. It beat me up but the results we worth the extra work. |
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Posts: 386
| The extended warm period mid summer forced me to abandon my home water and fish lakes where I experienced positive reinforcement for my efforts. The bad part is now that temps are back down its brutal when I can only manage a short trip on the local lake. I still suck on my "home" lake. Now to convince the wife my sudden change in careers that makes us move has nothing to do with Muskie fishing... |
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Posts: 270
Location: SE WISCONSIN | I actually did not Muskie fish once this year but I learned a lot about a local lake and figured out the smallmouth bite. |
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Posts: 2275
Location: Chisholm, MN | I wouldn't say it was better than normal, but better than last year. I've controlled the boat from the back for a very long time, but this year I learned to like it. I tried a lot of different baits and it really paid off. I scored 2 over 50 from the back and I believe it was because of my bait selection and presentation that the guy in front couldn't do with the baits they threw. Not that their choice was wrong, they caught fish too. I was just happy to have confidence from the back of the boat. |
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Posts: 426
| Stayed with has worked in the past not with what should work now. |
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Posts: 1425
Location: St. Lawrence River | Whatever it was I did, I need to not do it next year and do something different. |
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Posts: 617
Location: Clintonville, WI | I listened to two overall less skilled anglers than me.
I take an annual muskie trip with 3-5 long time friends. We go to the same river on generally the same October weekend every year. It is a trip with results very skewed to success on suckers. We've all done well over the years, but two of the guys have had materially more success than I and experienced more sucker scenarios.
These two guys fish once a year and this trip is it. They have caught far fewer fish overall and are much less skilled.....except for with suckers. This fall when fishing with them, I picked their brains and LISTENED to them. Conditions were not optimal this year but one of two fish caught was mine and it was a decent one. I put into practice some of the things they talked about and I definitely saw the benefits, I will be applying their "stuff" going forward. |
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Posts: 983
| BigMo - 11/25/2016 10:59 AM
I listened to two overall less skilled anglers than me.
I take an annual muskie trip with 3-5 long time friends. We go to the same river on generally the same October weekend every year. It is a trip with results very skewed to success on suckers. We've all done well over the years, but two of the guys have had materially more success than I and experienced more sucker scenarios.
These two guys fish once a year and this trip is it. They have caught far fewer fish overall and are much less skilled.....except for with suckers. This fall when fishing with them, I picked their brains and LISTENED to them. Conditions were not optimal this year but one of two fish caught was mine and it was a decent one. I put into practice some of the things they talked about and I definitely saw the benefits, I will be applying their "stuff" going forward.
care to expand on some of their tips? would love to hear |
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Posts: 617
Location: Clintonville, WI | Well for starters, they have/had no "muskie paradigms" getting in the way of their thinking and they simplify everything. And keep in mind with the points below, a significant % of our sucker pick ups historically are aggressive and the fish run for a bit.
1. I focus on 6-7 spots for the weekend and fish them over and over. They fish 3-4 over and over.
2. They don't use any rubber band or nostril clip rigs. They just use the two body hooks and make sure they are completely hooked through the meat of the sucker. a) they believe it keeps the suckers lively longer b) they are willing to lose a few suckers ($$$) for the sake of simplified rigging in the cold c) less hardware to tip off the muskies
3) quick set to them was different than quick set to me. I would drop everything after a pick-up and made sure I kept up with the fish. My concern has been that the muskie will get wise to the rig and let go. Once I got to hook set range, even on a moving fish, I'd set in the correct direction as much as I could. They use the muskie running as time to get the gear ready for landing the fish, etc. (their way to force patience). When the fish slows way down or stops, then they motor over to it and set the hook as close to a 2:00 position as they can. Their thought is that a muskie running with the sucker is a) committed b) a running muskie isn't an eating muskie. They'll take the risk of that fish letting go for the trade off of c) giving the muskie time to get the sucker positioned for eating d) a 2:00 hook set is almost always good at that point. Their clock is generally 60 seconds and still quick set; mine was less than 30 seconds and rushed.
4) They keep their suckers waaay further from the boat than I was used to. Given #3 above, that makes sense to them.
Some of it may seem a little risky, but they use their own risk/reward logic. Kind of like Cady's logic of why hooks don't need to be sharpened......it's logical to him (some may have to search that reference on the site).
Edited by BigMo 11/25/2016 3:09 PM
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Posts: 27
| Fished less at night, caught fewer fish. Probably not a coincidence. |
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Posts: 574
| Golfed way more.. only fished when weather or other factors seemed prefrect.. didnt catch near as many as usual, but much higher size average than most years.. |
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Posts: 200
Location: Twin Cities | Didn't buy any muskie equipment besides suckers and had my best year
Edited by pistolpete314 11/28/2016 7:53 AM
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Posts: 132
| -Time on the water was limited this year, so I fished 'peak' windows and had a much better fish caught/hour rate.
-Fished shallower than I am used to.
-Started throwing topwaters again.
-Spent most of my time on a new body of water that doesn't get near the pressure. |
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Posts: 731
| Fishing the high pressured smaller lakes of NW. Wis, I thought outside of the box. I would always check my map for the traditional musky areas and fish those areas before the masses would arrive. But every time I would arrive, a boat was always there. The fellas on board were all standing which signaled, yep, they were musky fishing. What to do? I started to focus on areas that were good for other species such as walleyes, and crappies, and although I was not successful, it gave me an option. I considered two positive factors, one the area was not fished by other musky anglers and the second is muskies do prey on those species. I'll keep an open mind and try this again next season. Kdawg |
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Posts: 397
| Fished way more and caught way less fish!! |
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Posts: 156
Location: Alexandria, MN | Paid more attention to moon phases - regardless of what the weather was doing. . Also focused on pods of bait which appeared higher in the water column. In addition, I was fortunate enough to fish quality waters at prime times. |
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Posts: 1425
Location: St. Lawrence River | bigred2198 - 11/29/2016 9:06 PM
Fished way more and caught way less fish!!
Me too....
Fished less at night the bugs seemed so #*^@ bad tho.. |
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Posts: 1087
Location: Hayward, WI | I didn't take musky fishing as serious as I have in the past. I took my 10 year old with me most of the time and fished areas that I thought he had a better chance of catching something (bass, pike). It helped keep him interested and fishing longer. I ended up catching a few nice muskies that he did a great job netting and taking pictures, and he had fun getting some action. |
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Posts: 410
Location: Wakefield, MI | Bought a kayak and chased bass around more. Caught my first 20" in quite a few years, lost a real nice one. Went out for smallies as well, caught quite a few but nothing big. Also found out that I've apparently been missing out the past few years with senko worms.
Only caught a couple of muskies this year. Spent more time in the slop with frogs mid summer and it paid off. |
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Posts: 44
Location: Ohio | I actually targeted muskies this year and ended up with my first one. Having been able to fish 3 times in the fall this year on a very highly pressured lake. I feel like each time I go out I learn more and more. And it's neat to become familiar with all of the different muskie lures. |
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