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Posts: 483
Location: NE PA | I generally think of muskies as shallow water fish, but also acknowledge that some of these fish are in open water some of the time. Trolling or casting, have you caught any fish over 25 plus foot depths? also if you care to share, what time of year and what technique? thanks guys, |
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Posts: 215
Location: Wisconsin | Well, I don't have an exact depth for you. I have caught several in 30-35' relating to bait fish (including one on a top raider two years ago!)
All casting. I have only tried hitting the deeper areas in summer and fall. |
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Posts: 246
| I've caught them trolling close to bottom in 25-35ft water in the late fall. |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL |
Love your tag line, And doesn't it say a lot about most fishermen's thinking shallow.
There is a large group of fishermen who believe muskies are a shallow fish and sometimes they are. However the mistake some... make is that they are "always" shallow and of course they are not. Actually the muskie and pike have a deep water sanctuary (where he spends the greater part of his life) in depths of 45'-55'. I have caught many in depths shallower than 25' but at least a thousand deeper than that. The deepest was in late fall at 52', a 49" at Eagle lake. Back June my youngest boy and his friend caught 48 muskies in 8 days all deeper than 25'.
The fish below was caught while targeting a school of big walleye. That day 23 fish were landed including a 40" pike, 20" sm bass, many big walleye including a 29" and this 50" muskie at depths again greater than 25'. Deep water IS the home of the fish!
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Posts: 2275
Location: Chisholm, MN | Sure muskies will be deep. I mark big arks down in 50+ feet of water. But it cannot be healthy to catch one that deep. The pressure change is too much and you will cause damage to the fish. Now catching a suspended one over deep water is another story. I've caught muskies suspended over the deepest part of the lake at 70+ feet, but the fish at maybe 10 feet down. I wouldn't target a fish that's more than 20 feet Down for fear of killing it.
Edited by Kirby Budrow 8/12/2014 9:28 PM
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Posts: 483
Location: NE PA | Kirby Budrow - 8/12/2014 10:26 PM
Sure muskies will be deep. I mark big arks down in 50+ feet of water. But it cannot be healthy to catch one that deep. The pressure change is too much and you will cause damage to the fish. Now catching a suspended one over deep water is another story. I've caught muskies suspended over the deepest part of the lake at 70+ feet, but the fish at maybe 10 feet down. I wouldn't target a fish that's more than 20 feet Down for fear of killing it.
when i originally stated ''over 25ft'' i meant anywhere in the water column 25 plus feet. interesting about the fish over 70' of water. trolling? |
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Posts: 607
Location: Bloomington, MN | I always got a kick out of Buck Perry's bass stringer shots. The fish had their eyeballs extended 2"++ inches out of their noggins. They looked completely terrified!!!! |
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Posts: 17
| We also got 1 on Eagle Lake but were trolling for Trout, fish hit at 55', we all thought we had a record Laker! |
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Posts: 238
Location: Illinois | Are you vertical jigging for the fish caught in 40+ feet of water? |
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Posts: 646
Location: In a shack in the woods | Kirby Budrow - 8/12/2014 9:26 PM
Sure muskies will be deep. I mark big arks down in 50+ feet of water. But it cannot be healthy to catch one that deep. The pressure change is too much and you will cause damage to the fish. Now catching a suspended one over deep water is another story. I've caught muskies suspended over the deepest part of the lake at 70+ feet, but the fish at maybe 10 feet down. I wouldn't target a fish that's more than 20 feet Down for fear of killing it.
id say the same thing but I will go down about 25 feet. walleyes and crappies through the ice start losing their swim bladders out their mouths any deeper. I have caught fish over 70' castings pounders. I have a few spots that are always solid tullibee. I fish the break first and if nothing shows itself I go out over the deep water |
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| How deep was the water? or..How deep was the fish? Caught one about 8' down over 112 FOW in the fall on Leech. Not sure if it's on youtube but it was on Keyes Outdoors several years back. Prior to that my buddy caught a fat 44" 8' down(on one of Kirby's secret lakes) over 93 FOW. It was our first attempt open water fishing and we were blown away! |
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Posts: 73
| I catch several fish each year trolling baits 8-16 feet down over water 45-100 feet deep. |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Deepest was out over 80'+.
Deepest hooked was down at 55'. Fish released great.
From my experience hooking and landing a fish that deep has been no more detrimental to the fish than hooking one 5' down over deep water. In fact I have had more occurrences where I caught a fish very high in the water column over deep water that released more slowly and needed to be burped because they flew up so quickly to eat the bait and did not deflate their bladder.
I have had even more fish released iffy that ate rubber baits caught in less than 15' of water. Food for thought.
Jerry is correct. Deep water IS the Home of fish. |
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Posts: 1198
Location: Walker, MN | It was eye opening when I got 6 follows casting to bait balls over 80-100 f.o.w. one fall day...even more so when I first landed one. I have hooked fish trolling 25'-30' deep but don't go deeper than that. I'm sure you could catch plenty trolling with downriggers down 30'-60' but the mortality would be high I'm guessing. |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | CiscoKid - 8/13/2014 6:54 AM
Deepest hooked was down at 55'. Fish released great.
Can you please create another thread explaining how to burp a fish? A video would be great. |
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Location: MN | 5 feet down in 45 feet of water around cisco's. One of the fish I got out deep took forever to release and the water was cool. Maybe it needed a burp. I'd also be interested to see how that is done and how you know when you need to do it. |
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Location: Chisholm, MN | lennyg3 - 8/12/2014 10:31 PM
Kirby Budrow - 8/12/2014 10:26 PM
Sure muskies will be deep. I mark big arks down in 50+ feet of water. But it cannot be healthy to catch one that deep. The pressure change is too much and you will cause damage to the fish. Now catching a suspended one over deep water is another story. I've caught muskies suspended over the deepest part of the lake at 70+ feet, but the fish at maybe 10 feet down. I wouldn't target a fish that's more than 20 feet Down for fear of killing it.
when i originally stated ''over 25ft'' i meant anywhere in the water column 25 plus feet. interesting about the fish over 70' of water. trolling?
Yup, I'll troll over any depth. Open water trolling is a pretty popular pattern all year here in MN. I never run my baits more than 10 feet down, but.....I am NOT a trolling expert. I have been doing better with it lately but I can't give you a lot of advice on it. Only that it works.
To the ones who want to pull fish from great depths...When I pull crappies or walleyes up from 25 feet or more, they are usually very stressed and have a hard time releasing. Why would it be different for muskies? Why risk it?
Fizzing or burping is a whole other issue. I don't really feel like putting the stress on the fish so i will just avoid catching them deep. That's not to say that it won't work though. I just haven't tried it.
I also believe that a fish can have swim bladder issues even in shallow water. I don't know why, but it happens.
Edited by Kirby Budrow 8/13/2014 4:04 PM
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Kirby Budrow - 8/13/2014 3:36 PM
To the ones who want to pull fish from great depths...When I pull crappies or walleyes up from 25 feet or more, they are usually very stressed and have a hard time releasing. Why would it be different for muskies? Why risk it?
Fizzing or burping is a whole other issue. I don't really feel like putting the stress on the fish so i will just avoid catching them deep. That's not to say that it won't work though. I just haven't tried it.
I also believe that a fish can have swim bladder issues even in shallow water. I don't know why, but it happens.
It comes down to a few things one of which is how you fight the fish. Don't horse them. The second being, as mentioned in the link from project Noble Beast, muskies have their swim bladder and esophagus attached like trout and salmon. Other fish do not. This allows them to release air on their own or aided. Only way for other fish to be relieved of the air pressure in the bladder is to fizz them. Not the case with muskies, trout and salmon. In fact like Sean points out DO NOT FIZZ muskies.
You don't have to believe me, or believe it is safe. Your call. I am going off of my own experience and some others, and not speculation. Like I eluded to in my first post if you fish with rubber baits you have probably had issues releasing muskies at some point. If not you are lucky. Most people I know who have caught fish on rubber end up with one now and again that have been hooked badly, and releases were iffy. I have had ZERO problems releasing fish caught deep (in the water column mind you and not just over deep water). Not to say it won't happen, but I personally feel it is more safe for the fish than it is to target them with rubber. |
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Location: Chisholm, MN | CiscoKid - 8/13/2014 4:17 PM
Kirby Budrow - 8/13/2014 3:36 PM
To the ones who want to pull fish from great depths...When I pull crappies or walleyes up from 25 feet or more, they are usually very stressed and have a hard time releasing. Why would it be different for muskies? Why risk it?
Fizzing or burping is a whole other issue. I don't really feel like putting the stress on the fish so i will just avoid catching them deep. That's not to say that it won't work though. I just haven't tried it.
I also believe that a fish can have swim bladder issues even in shallow water. I don't know why, but it happens.
It comes down to a few things one of which is how you fight the fish. Don't horse them. The second being, as mentioned in the link from project Noble Beast, muskies have their swim bladder and esophagus attached like trout and salmon. Other fish do not. This allows them to release air on their own or aided. Only way for other fish to be relieved of the air pressure in the bladder is to fizz them. Not the case with muskies, trout and salmon. In fact like Sean points out DO NOT FIZZ muskies.
You don't have to believe me, or believe it is safe. Your call. I am going off of my own experience and some others, and not speculation. Like I eluded to in my first post if you fish with rubber baits you have probably had issues releasing muskies at some point. If not you are lucky. Most people I know who have caught fish on rubber end up with one now and again that have been hooked badly, and releases were iffy. I have had ZERO problems releasing fish caught deep (in the water column mind you and not just over deep water ). Not to say it won't happen, but I personally feel it is more safe for the fish than it is to target them with rubber.
Sure, I can understand that. But wouldn't you say that trolling a fish up from any depth is horsing them? Did you see the underwater GoPro video recently posted here of the fish caught trolling? It was a cool video, but I certainly wouldn't want to be that fish.
I haven't hurt any fish with rubber, but I haven't caught a huge amount of fish on it. I know that's an issue. I think bucktails after dark are even worse, but I still do it. Half the time the fish just inhale them.
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Kirby let me clarify in saying all of my experience is with casting as I cannot troll. |
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Posts: 29
Location: IGH Minnesota | Deepest for me was at the PMTT championship on LSC last year jigging a Bondy on the bottom. She ate in 40 FOW. Footage should be on Keys Outdoors. Clean release. |
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Posts: 2275
Location: Chisholm, MN | Ok Travis, you got me there  |
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Posts: 134
| No problems here with rubber. |
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Location: Around | Where I fish they are always in the 25-35 foot range for a majority of the year other than to spawn is spring. Without fishing deep you have maybe a few week window to catch them in 5-10 FOW. I have never had an issue with releasing a fish but have always wondered how it effects the fish. I have often wondered how the temp change effects them too? I dont fish for them when water temps get hot but even so the temps are typically 10-15 degrees cooler @ 30' once the lake stratifies.
Accidental walleyes caught over 30' almost always have their bellies in their throat but as someone else mentioned musky can regulate their swim bladders.
I read a report by one of the in-fisherman guys a few months back about them catching bass at depths of 70' on some lake and releasing them. I asked them if they were concerned about the pressure and temp change on the fish but they never acknowledged me.
Have a done a lot of research on the internet about fishing deep but found very little information.
I wish someone could do a study and track these deep water fish after being caught.
Edited by joshm3357 8/14/2014 9:37 AM
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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | I caught a 45 incher in November in 50 feet of water on the bottom jigging a Fuzzy Duzzit among tons of baitfish. I brought it up slowly and it released just fine. Good luck to all. |
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Posts: 682
Location: Sycamore, IL | Trolling- 30 feet deep in 38 feet of water.
Vertical jig- 40-48 feet deep in 70 feet of water.
I catch a lot of my fish deeper than 20 feet...but then again I am usually fishing very clear water. Never had a release issue with a muskie but have had to use a weight/ release type system on some big pike. Pike seem to be more sensitive to the temp. change/ pressure than muskie. |
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Posts: 1405
Location: Detroit River | The deepest that I have caught musky is 35' & they were all in the Detroit River. Biggest was 51 1/2". I've caught pike in 45' down over 75 to 90 fow.
Edited by Zib 8/14/2014 10:54 PM
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | After cold fronts I have caught fish using a Mepps Giant Killer with a willow leaf blade and no hair. I cast it out over the bottom of a drop off, let it sink to the bottom, and slow retrieve it back.
One location in particular is over 30' deep. |
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Posts: 785
| It's not my preferred method but a few fish this year have come on mags or pounders over 25-30 fow. I'd imagine my lures were only 6-8 feet down. In a lot of lakes that develop thermoclines in summer and have suspended bait, being over deep water definitely does not mean the fish themselves will be deep. |
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Posts: 566
Location: Elgin, IL | Deepest AND my personal best (so far.)
Slow drifting in 60-65' ft., casting a Chrome prism Grandma bait. Fish hit on the third turn of the reel handle, so I would guess that the bait was in the top 8' somewhere.
November 19th. Fishing alone. Last shot of the year for me.
Up around Mr. Kopke's neck of the nape. Cool thing was, I made a game plan the night before based on the forage, deep water, and time of year.
I still smile about that day/fish. That's why we go. |
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