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Posts: 98
| So, my first musky encounter of 2017 was friday with a 50 incher eating a smallmouth from shore. then just tonight i threw my musky lures around a pool in the river i fish for about 3 hours, not one follow bite or sign of musky. 5 mins later i threw on a live frog and hooked up with a giant rockbass about 2 lbs. within 5 seconds of having the rockbass run another mid 40 grabbed it. I cant seem to figure out why this is so consistantly happening any tips on lures etc? excluding live bait
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Welcome to musky fishing. Leave the logic at the door.
TB |
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Posts: 841
Location: Southwest PA | tcbetka - 6/4/2017 9:28 PM
Welcome to musky fishing. Leave the logic at the door.
TB
X2! |
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Posts: 20211
Location: oswego, il | Sometimes predators respond to a struggling fish on the end a line. Keyed in on the vulnerability. I can recall an instance once fishing this pond for bass, could not catch one, switched to bluegill and every single one we hooked was ate by a bass almost immediately. |
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Posts: 98
| the weird thing is i havent seen muskies until the past 3 days and both that i saw went after a hooked fish immediatly
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Posts: 8772
| Fish = food
Lures = not food
That's #1.
#2 is what those fish did to cause that muskie to come up and take a whack at them. Think about a fish on the end of your line. It doesn't just swim, it doesn't just sit there. It's going nuts. Muskies are hard wired to eat, just like a cat is hard wired to pounce on stuff. But they never pounce on stuff that's just sitting there. But if it's flapping around, zooming around the floor, flying through the air? *WHACK!*
In your particular situation, I'd be throwing something that suspends, like a DDD, and literally just twitch and rip the hell out of it. There are certain actions of a lure (a fish) that other predators just can't help but respond to. Bucktails, topwater, soft plastics, WHATEVER.... if it's just swimming by most of the time they're going to let it do just that, because they live in an environment where everything is either sitting there or just swimming by. But the one fish that is darting around? Food.
Long winded post here, I know...
When I was a kid, I spend a ton of time playing with fish. Game fish rarely eat anything that's not doing anything. I used to catch buckets of crayfish, and then toss them off the end of the pier and watch what happened. Funny thing... Many of them would just freeze and sink to the bottom. They made it. Every so often you'd get one that started freaking out and scooting off like they do. Many of them never made it to the bottom.
Think about sucker fishing. How many times have you seen a muskie just sitting there inches away from a sucker, 15-20 minutes at a time? Put down a fresh lively sucker. *WHAM!"
Think about lindy rigs/walleye fishing... You can feel your bait. If it's doing nothing, you may catch a few fish. But as soon as you feel that bait starting to panick, you know you're about to catch a fish.
Saltwater fishing with pinfish or any other live bait... When your bait starts getting lethargic, you toss it and get a fresh one.
Smallmouth with a jig/leech.... When the leech starts getting all f'ed up, you toss it and get a fresh one.
It's a conditioned response to fleeing prey. The fish that just sits there gets ignored. The one that looks like it's on crack gets eaten every time.
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Posts: 98
| thanks! very informative he wouldnt hit bucktails or topwater so i guess im going to have to buy a ddd or shallow raider |
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Posts: 735
Location: Apparently where the Muskie aren't | I've been at it for a while, still can't figure them out. Is it a heavily fished body of water? That bluegill or bass or other small fish on your line could cause the same effect as that little old lady who goes to the pond with bread and all of a sudden the ducks and geese from the next county show up.
Those muskie could realize the availability of a easy meal and god knows they won't pass that up. |
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Posts: 98
| it is fished alot where the musky grabbed the smallmouth, but in the pool at the river nobody ever fishes |
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Posts: 1209
| I agree with tod m and esox addict and would add size, if yo didn't try a pounder maybe you should have? |
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Posts: 1425
Location: St. Lawrence River | Nuclear.smelt - 6/4/2017 11:18 PM
thanks! very informative he wouldnt hit bucktails or topwater so i guess im going to have to buy a ddd or shallow raider
Go lifelike? Savage gear line thru trout, shadzilla jr, even a storm kickin minnow... make it look like its struggling. |
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Posts: 20211
Location: oswego, il | I really think it has to do with the fishes mood and what they are keying in on. Fish are a product of their environment. Behavior and vulnerability play key factors. Prey fish act much differently than do predators. Predators understand vulnerability. It is key to survival. Sometimes it seems predators are super clued into it like in those situations.
Just watch a squirrel in your yard. Its ready to crap its pants at any moment. Always clued into its surroundings wondering when it will become a meal. I have had coyotes come pretty close to me not a care in the world. |
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Posts: 66
| No more than I know about it, I would try a side to side glide bait and really make it move erratically and fast. Manta could be good, Phantom, Hell Hound, etc.
Dave |
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Posts: 119
| As stated before: there is no substitute for the real thing - ESPECIALLY the struggling real thing. But one thing that I've encountered in river/creek fishing is that educated fish are more likely to watch various artificial presentations pass by their face a thousand times but when a few suckers or little smallies start playing in the danger zone that same fish will come a-hellin' up from his/her haunts and T-bone whatever it is. So I'm not sure how often your holes or bends get fished in your river but fishing pressure may have something to do with it. Another thing I've learned is that when people come to fish our creek from out of town they usually end up catching one. I think the reason has nothing to do with how much better fishermen those dudes are from the locals guys - I think it has to do with that they have different lures and different colors than the local guys and it stirs a fish's imagination. Just food for thought ! |
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Posts: 1084
Location: Aurora | Good stuff above and think about it.. After 40+ they pretty much know where all the good restaurants are and what the food usually looks like, smells like, acts like & swims like at each buffet.
Steve won't agree with the above but.. meh.
~shrug~ |
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Posts: 841
Location: Southwest PA | Sometimes I swear the perch fishermen catch more muskie than the muskie fishermen in a couple of my holes... somehow, they always need the muskie fishermen's help landing though hehehe |
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Posts: 833
| Timing is everything...
I fish pressured water both with and without live bait depending on the year. I've seen trophy class fish not eat for a few days and then one day they do. Even on suckers. I chased what ended up being my first 50 for 5 days before I got it to eat. Every day it was on the same spot and wouldn't bite. Then finally the weather became much, much more favorable for the time of year and that fish smacked my offering.
And that was with Live bait the whole week.
It pays to become competent in a variety of presentations, both aggressive and finesse so you have tools to throw at different situations. It also pays to learn to read fish. Sometimes you find one and it just ins't the day for that fish, no matter what. Other times you could throw your shoe out there and get it eaten. |
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wont hit lures but will hit fish?