|
|
Posts: 86
Location: Illinois | I've been muskie fishing for around two years and have yet to see a follow. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 49
| On an average day of fishing you should have a few follows, depending on the lake. There are days where fish are elusive, but there are also days when they seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Two years is a long time. If you're not getting follows, I would change tactics or change lakes.
Edited by TSMUSKY89 5/29/2018 9:27 PM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 859
Location: MN | Let me ask have you caught fish?
Edited by NathanH 5/29/2018 9:40 PM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 86
Location: Illinois | Yes, i have caught two, and lost one. I am mostly limited to fishing weekends. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 859
Location: MN | I’m just wondering if they arent happening and your not seeing them... I’d say I’ll see fish several times in a few hour period butI too am limited on time and it can be hard to jump in and find a pattern. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 29
| Are you "L" turning or figure 8ing every cast?
First year I was at it I missed a lot of fish and I'm sure didn't even see some because I wasn't..... |
|
| |
|
Posts: 3136
| By chance is it a tiger muskie fisheries you mostly fish. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 3136
| T
Edited by happy hooker 5/30/2018 5:11 AM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 2274
Location: Chisholm, MN | What part of the world are you fishing? On a bad day you usually still see a couple fish here in MN. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 306
| You've probably had them, but just don't recognize them yet. Unless you are on gin clear water, they aren't going to be very distinct. Often it'll just look like a shadow, or discoloration in the water. Maybe you are paying too close attention. Try day dreaming or thinking about something else... that's usually when they show up.
Get a good pair of polarized sunglasses, and make sure to bring the lure past you/do the L turn, at a minimum. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 40
| happy hooker - 5/30/2018 5:05 AM
By chance is it a tiger muskie fisheries you mostly fish.
This was my initial thought, too. Tigers will follow, and once in a while hit on the L, but hardly ever go around on the 8.
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 32784
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Also, always look at the water behind the lure at least 5' as it comes in, not at the lure itself. Once you train yourself to do that, you will see follows no one else in the boat sees, and your catch rate will go up as you will react to the follow properly. |
|
| |
|
| TSMUSKY89 - 5/29/2018 9:25 PM
On an average day of fishing you should have a few follows, depending on the lake. There are days where fish are elusive, but there are also days when they seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Two years is a long time. If you're not getting follows, I would change tactics or change lakes.
do you look for followers or biters ? personally i preefer to look for biters, when ive got too many follow i change lures period |
|
| |
|
Posts: 176
| You've got some real good advice so far. Here are a couple of things I'd add.
If it is stained water you are fishing, or "churned up" water it may be harder to see the follows than in clear water, so they may be there but you aren't seeing them yet.
Make sure to wear Polarized sun glassed, not just regular sunglasses, you will be amazed if you aren't wearing them how much it allows you to see past the glare of the water. I fished with a new Musky fisherman this weekend, (14 year old), who wears glasses and didn't have prescription sunglasses. I noticed when I was talking to him about how his lure was acting in the water etc... that he couldn't see it. I had him slide my sunglasses over his prescription glasses and it made all the difference in the world.
Other tricks I like to use to up my "seeing follows" advantage is to try to bring my lure over a visible weed or a visible rock or sandy spot on the bottom that allows me to see the follow slide over it on the retrieve, vs against the black abyss of a normal bottom structure. It's amazing to me how many times a Musky "appears" that has obviously been following, but now I just picked up with my eyes because of the contrast.
One last thing I do is try to change the direction of my lure when possible, before it gets to boat side on the figure 8, it's much easier to do today with the longer rods and it acts the same way as a figure 8 in catching fish, but that change in direction gets those invisible following Muskies that are gliding behind or too far below to pick up, to now change direction, flick their tail or get different contrast in the light and often become visible again.
I hope this helps.
Nomad.
Edited by Nomadmusky 5/30/2018 9:29 AM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 409
Location: Almond, WI | If the water is dark do a full figure 8, don't shortchange it. On some of the waterbodies here I rarely see a follow before the third turn of the 8--combination of dark water and a lazy fish. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 4269
Location: Ashland WI | supertrollr - 5/30/2018 9:08 AM
TSMUSKY89 - 5/29/2018 9:25 PM
On an average day of fishing you should have a few follows, depending on the lake. There are days where fish are elusive, but there are also days when they seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Two years is a long time. If you're not getting follows, I would change tactics or change lakes.
do you look for followers or biters ? personally i preefer to look for biters, when ive got too many follow i change lures period
Oh... I much prefer followers. That way I don't have to get my hands slimy, don't have to worry about hurting the fish, don't have to worry about water temps, don't have to worry about barbed vs. barbless...
You should try it sometime. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | Do you happen to be fishing from shore? |
|
| |
|
Posts: 43
| Funny stuff ledo. Also don't have the extra strain on your arms lifting a fish for a picture or the hassle of having to get out the camera. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 612
| 14ledo81 - 5/30/2018 11:34 AM
Oh... I much prefer followers. That way I don't have to get my hands slimy, don't have to worry about hurting the fish, don't have to worry about water temps, don't have to worry about barbed vs. barbless...
You should try it sometime.
Great stuff. Reminds me of a guy I fished w years ago. On rare occasion we used to fish with suckers. He would take off his bait just cast in the empty hook. Said he didn't what anything to disturb him while he had a cold one.
Edited by NPike 5/30/2018 1:43 PM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 8716
| They're more common than you think. I'm sure there's plenty of fish that turn off before we see them, follow from father behind than we look, come in way underneath, etc. Dark water is probably worse. I've caught a few boatside fish on really dark water that I never saw, and a few others that I saw at the last second. Good advice above - watch what's going on behind and underneath your lure. And be ready for those "late arrivals"... |
|
| |
|
Posts: 86
Location: Illinois | I wear polarized sunglasses, and i figure eight on every single cast. Some of the lakes i fish have dirty water but most of them are clear. I'm fishing in Illinois. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 255
| Trouble for me is... I've got walleye vision. And I can't afford the Multi-opti-pupil-optomy. (Hotshots 1991) Or the flowage is just so stained I can't make out anything deeper than 6".
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 86
Location: Illinois | Also no, i am fishing from a boat. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1168
| The best follows are the ones you don’t see because you aren’t peeed off at yourself for spooking the fish at boat side. Ignorance is bliss. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 8716
| TMuskyFisher - 5/30/2018 2:23 PM
[...] I'm fishing in Illinois.
There's your problem right there... 
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 1220
| There’s google-arama of cheap shots I’d love to toss out here on this one, but I can describe several different scenarios where you never see a follow in pretty good musky conditions for getting bit. Deep, dark, choppy water is a perfect place even if you only have one out of the three. Most of us want to say WTF, but that is do to the overwhelming practice of shallow water shore-beating which is the best place for bait-tired follows. A fish following five or six feet down in twenty feet of choppy water is harder to see than Wayne LaPierre at the Obama family picnic. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 20178
Location: oswego, il | ^this. Muskies know how to stalk. They can and do follow at a depth they cannot be seen. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 86
Location: Illinois | I must just not be seeing them follow then.  |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1636
| I once met a guy who went 19 years without a follow... so, 2 years is not too bad. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | I will say it depends. Fishing a straight retreive bucktail on a clear numbers lake that sees a fair amount of pressure? Probably quite a few follows. Fishing for suspended fish over open water or off deep breaks ripping rubber or cranks? Probably very very few follows. I do a fair amount of fishing over deep water with erratic baits and during rough spells have gone days with not a single follow. That streak will usually be broken by a fish eating the bait and ending up in the net.
If I'm casting weedlines with bucktails fish are more likely to follow.
But don't take my word for it. Even if I catch as many fish as the boat fishing next to me, I swear I get fewer follows. The follows I get ARE quite likely to eat in the 8 though. May be my fishing style or boat position. Or maybe I can interest only the most agressive fish in the system while the neutral followers ingore my shoddy bait choice and presentation. |
|
| |
