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Posts: 7110
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Beyond "don't eat yellow snow", what is ONE tip you would give to all muskie fisherman, young, old and everyone in between?
Mine would be (somewhat existentially): fish in a way that you enjoy the fishing part of the experience....or you won't last long enough to get much in the way of the catching part.
Yours? |
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| Confucius says
Edited by mnmusky 7/26/2017 12:44 PM
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Posts: 343
| Fish smarter not harder, since my bone cancer, I'm unable to fish for very long stretches so I fish the key times, dawn, dusk, storms, etc. |
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Posts: 983
| Dont Get frustrated if it was easy everyone would do it...Keep at it the REWARD is well worth the wait.... |
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Posts: 1150
Location: Minnesota. | From a lesson on the Big V - more than once this last few weeks,,,,when the sucka hits you and you put the steel to her, even w/a bent rod, don't stop reeeling like heck or you'll get spat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dammmmit! |
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Posts: 431
| For me its that as soon as I lose faith that Im going to catch a fish and get lazy is when I get a follow and screw up. Force yourself to keep believing a fish is behind your lure so that your ready when it happens. Hardest thing for me to do for 6+ straight hours. |
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Posts: 20278
Location: oswego, il | Perfect your awareness. Everything improves from there.
Edited by ToddM 7/26/2017 1:13 PM
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Posts: 815
Location: Waukee, IA | Check your hooks every time you get snagged or bump a rock. Resharpen or replace dulled hooks. |
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Posts: 2389
Location: Chisholm, MN | Be respectful to the fish and other muskie fisherman. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | spend less money on baits, and more money on fishing w the best in the game on their waters to learn as much as possible.
Edited by BNelson 7/26/2017 1:31 PM
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Posts: 386
| Be humble, there is always someone who catches more and bigger fish. |
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Posts: 4269
Location: Ashland WI | The biggest secret is simply "time on the water".
In general, those who catch the most fish, spend a lot of time on the water. |
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Posts: 331
Location: Stevens Point, Wisconsin | “Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”
? Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea |
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Posts: 101
Location: Tulsa, OK | My tip would be to always be ready when it is extremely slow and transition into a good figure 8 on each cast. Because the 1 time you don't you are guaranteed to blow your chance at a fish. |
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Posts: 785
| Change it up often. Often times you have to wait for a feeding window or find the right fish but when the traditional approach isn't working be willing to go deeper, go shallower, try faster moving baits or slow things down. Many times the fish were biting but I was too stubborn to leave the pattern that had been working and missed out on a hot bite that was just a few contours away from where I was struggling. Even when I had been moving fish on one pattern I'll make a quick run in shallow or out deep and find that there's fish both places or that the bite moved part way through the day.
Edited by musky-skunk 7/26/2017 3:26 PM
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Posts: 7110
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Another: put jumper cables and/or a jump pack in your boat. Trust me on this one. |
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Posts: 1425
Location: St. Lawrence River | sharpen your hooks. get good at it. and do it often. |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | I see way too many new guys in the hobby spend too many hours/days/money fishing tough water. 1-2 trips per year on good water is just way more valuable than beating tough lakes to a froth and not contacting fish or learning anything...
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Posts: 612
| Fish a while and take the time to find out what works for best for you (not others). You need to gain confidence in your methods- baits used. Then slowly add other techniques as you go until you buildup a variety of techniques for different situations. |
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Posts: 770
| Perfect your figure 8.... 80% of people that think they are doing it right are making fatal mistakes. |
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Posts: 1901
Location: MN | Fatal? |
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Posts: 906
Location: Warroad, Mn | Fish good spots! Learn how to recognize good spots at different times of the year. Fish location is the most important part of fishing success! |
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Posts: 735
Location: Apparently where the Muskie aren't | Musky Brian - 7/26/2017 4:26 PM
I see way too many new guys in the hobby spend too many hours/days/money fishing tough water. 1-2 trips per year on good water is just way more valuable than beating tough lakes to a froth and not contacting fish or learning anything...
I can agree with this as a new guy. I like to beat the Illinois water until I get to go up north in a few weeks here. But I can say I'd rather go fishing a not catch anything than sit on my couch and say "man, I wonder if I would have got one today" |
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Posts: 2327
Location: SE, WI. | Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained..... Like Tom Gelb says, if you always do, what you always done, you will always get, what you always got! JD |
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Posts: 638
Location: S.W. WI | Look around occasionally and realize how awesome it is just to be out there. The fish will come in time. Enjoy the ride. Enjoy the lost fish too, they put on a heck of a show sometimes. |
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Posts: 32954
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Slow the ride down. You will miss more than you think if the trolling motor is always at mach 30. |
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Posts: 221
| Have everything you could possibly need. And a spare of everything you could possibly need. |
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Posts: 735
Location: Apparently where the Muskie aren't | Rudedog - 7/26/2017 9:59 PM
Enjoy the lost fish too,
From a general fishing point of view, fishing for any species. Isn't this what makes fishing so much fun? If you caught every fish what would be the point in trying. That "lost fish" is what makes us go back.
Just last week, went smallmouth fishing at a place I "thought" I would never go back to. Caught a few fish but the whole industrial scenery isn't my cup of tea. Until, I hooked something, something big, fought for about 2 minutes and broke me off. At that moment, plans were made to return the next week, I'll see how it goes 
Edited by Musky_Mo16 7/26/2017 11:24 PM
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Posts: 20278
Location: oswego, il | Mo16, wait until you hook into a striper therr and it makes some 50ft runs on you. Try the other industrial place to the west of there and tangle with a blue cat. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | If you don't know where to start, go back to the beginning. |
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Posts: 1086
| If it's in the water...and it's moving: it's food.
Don't over think it.
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Posts: 88
Location: Des Plaines, IL | BNelson - 7/26/2017 1:30 PM
spend less money on baits, and more money on fishing w the best in the game on their waters to learn as much as possible.
I completely agree with this for someone who is in the third year of it. Ask a ton of questions while you are out. Up at Vermilion this year we went out with a guide for a half day. We didn't get any in the boat but had some fish up. For the last hour we trolled, which I haven't really done. I asked about different baits he uses, specifically the ones I have, and things like "do you run them on boards", "how much line", "how fast", "what do you look for on the electronics." Sure enough, he helped me out with what to do on a Cover 6 bait and the next day we got one to rip when out with my mom and sister (their first fish).
I always try and watch the screens that guides have for what's going on below the spots we are fishing. The thing that I still struggle with most is boat control and positioning. I try to be acutely aware of what a guide is doing to put us on fish: how far from structure are we sitting, what are we casting to, how is the wind affecting where the boat is, etc. If you have a boat, I think position is incredibly important. |
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| Learn some new expletives, perhaps in a new language. You'll use every one, and will always want more. Then, learn how to get over it quickly and get back fishing with a positive mental attitude again. |
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Posts: 209
| the fish that aren't using shoreline structure are less educated - find them........... |
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Posts: 93
Location: Des Moines IA | Can't catch fish playing with your cell phone.
Edited by Larbo 7/27/2017 10:26 AM
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Posts: 264
| Fishing in general can suck.
Musky(ie) fishing in particular can really suck.
Learn to embrace the suck, for on the next cast everything can change to FANTASTIC!!!! |
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Posts: 697
Location: Minnetonka | Building relationships with other humans is more important than building relationships with muskies. Nobody will ever be lying on their death bed and say, "I wish I would have been better in tune to what the muskies were doing". It's all about the people. Muskie fishing just happens to be the thing we do when we build meaningful relationships. |
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Posts: 13
Location: Billings, MT | So many good ones listed already. I would add Details. I think someone earlier said to 'perfect your awareness'. Its so true. The biggest difference between average fisherman and really good fisherman is the ability to think about the details that are making the difference in finding fish and getting them to bite. Then, remembering those experiences to use for future situations. If the OP asked what "two" tips you would share, would add 'fish with confidence'. |
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Posts: 1086
| Weather is the trump card
(no presidential pun intended) |
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Posts: 1086
| Everyone gets skunked from time to time
(Everyone. Even the Pros/Guides) |
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Posts: 8863
| Never forget why you're out there. Even during the most frustrating times, bad weather, wind, fish not moving, broken rods/reels/whatever. You're fishing. It's still better than a day at the office! |
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Posts: 105
Location: Jane Lew, WV | Just keep casting. It will happen eventually. |
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Posts: 73
Location: Cedarburg, WI | X2
(Sorry...Was trying to "second" Kirby's post).
Edited by Softwater 7/27/2017 1:40 PM
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Posts: 4269
Location: Ashland WI | MACK - 7/27/2017 12:16 PM
Everyone gets skunked from time to time
(Everyone. Even the Pros/Guides)
Even BNelson??? |
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Location: Contrarian Island | lol. oh yah, skunked a lot... but you learn more from your failures than from your successes..  or you should anyway.
one more tip: take whatever you read on musky boards w a grain of salt.. everyone is a fish magician behind a keyboard.
Edited by BNelson 7/27/2017 1:44 PM
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Posts: 7110
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | BNelson - 7/27/2017 1:41 PM
lol. oh yah, skunked a lot... but you learn more from your failures than from your successes.. or you should anyway.
one more tip: take whatever you read on musky boards w a grain of salt.. everyone is a fish magician behind a keyboard.
Except for me, I admit that I am a Factory of Sadness for the last 9 months of muskie fishing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-ZqR8J_Ktw |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | Musky_Mo16 - 7/26/2017 7:39 PM
Musky Brian - 7/26/2017 4:26 PM
I see way too many new guys in the hobby spend too many hours/days/money fishing tough water. 1-2 trips per year on good water is just way more valuable than beating tough lakes to a froth and not contacting fish or learning anything...
I can agree with this as a new guy. I like to beat the Illinois water until I get to go up north in a few weeks here. But I can say I'd rather go fishing a not catch anything than sit on my couch and say "man, I wonder if I would have got one today"
Well...Former FIB here, not even sure I bought an IL license my last 5 years of residency. Really not worth investing all that much time in. Couch > 30$ for Fox Chain Ripoff stickers for mediocre at best fishing ...
Edited by Musky Brian 7/27/2017 2:10 PM
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Posts: 1150
Location: Minnesota. | Remember to fish those two best times to fish....when it's rainin' an' when it aint!! |
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Posts: 1168
| true tiger tamer - 7/26/2017 1:30 PM
Fish smarter not harder
^This.
There's no need to beat yourself 18 hours a day with little to show for it. That's being dumb. If you can't fish in the so called "ideal conditions" don't fret. There's a fish out there somewhere that will eat. It's up to you to find it and fool it. |
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Posts: 32954
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | BNelson - 7/27/2017 1:41 PM
lol. oh yah, skunked a lot... but you learn more from your failures than from your successes.. or you should anyway.
one more tip: take whatever you read on musky boards w a grain of salt.. everyone is a fish magician behind a keyboard.
Except for you and me, right? |
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Posts: 1416
Location: oconomowoc, wi | Slamr - 7/27/2017 1:46 PM
BNelson - 7/27/2017 1:41 PM
lol. oh yah, skunked a lot... but you learn more from your failures than from your successes.. or you should anyway.
one more tip: take whatever you read on musky boards w a grain of salt.. everyone is a fish magician behind a keyboard.
Except for me, I admit that I am a Factory of Sadness for the last 9 months of muskie fishing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-ZqR8J_Ktw
BUMP! |
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Posts: 841
Location: Southwest PA | Take a kid fishing with ya... even if his mum, your sister, gets driven up a wall by a 7yr old screaming: "I got muskie fever! I gotta get me a muskie!!", for the whole day before and after the trip. |
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Posts: 108
| Have a plan and purpose with your time on the water...everyday...every time...fish with purpose...but be quick to adapt to what the fish/conditions are telling you.
The very best anglers I have fished with have a plan before they hit the water...a mental checklist so to speak...but they are also very versatile and know how to adjust that plan to what feedback the conditions are giving them. |
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Posts: 700
Location: Livin on a Prayer. | "Our greatest trophies are not things, but times."
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Posts: 1209
| Since I'm normally around fish my advise is to my dad and friends who get backlashes, "aim hi" reallly seams to help.
And 2, just enjoy the chase. |
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Posts: 1758
Location: Mt. Zion, IL | Take care of your gear and have it serviced or inspected about twice as often as you would think. You don't want a failure with a big fish on the line that gets away due to an equipment malfunction. |
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Posts: 584
| As has been said above, realize that fishing is about more than just the fish. My most cherished moments in the boat have come from the time spent with my brother, my dad, my daughters, and friends and aren't related to any actual catch. |
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Posts: 8863
| If I could go back a dozen years and give myself one piece of advice, it would be this:
Don't waste your time and money driving all around the Midwest to fish lakes that don't have a good population of quality fish. Just because it has muskies in it does not mean its worth a 6 hour drive. I learned more fishing with Herbie for 3 days than I learned in 3 years before that, because I was actually contacting fish on a regular basis. And some good ones at that. |
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Posts: 119
| PMA -- Positive Mental Attitude -- If you have a good outlook on the day, even if it's a spot you've fished a million times before, if you have a positive outlook on fishing then you fish harder and smarter and more often than not you end up with a reward for your effort. |
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| Whenever possible, fish out of someone else's rig. That way, when you get skunked, you have someone to blame other than yourself. |
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Posts: 323
| "Enjoy every sandwich"
- Warren Zevon |
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Posts: 1416
Location: oconomowoc, wi | don't be THAT guy.. |
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Posts: 1348
Location: Pewaukee, WI | Keep things in the proper perspective. You are out doors enjoying the activity you love. If you catch a fish that's a bonus or frosting on the cake. There may come a time in your life when you are no longer able to do this sport and believe me, the fish you caught or missed will only rate a secondary thought. |
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Posts: 770
| If nothing breaks your having a good day! Seems like that was my moto for a few years |
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Location: 31 | Start out as a non-fishermen? Reduce the learning curve by going largemouth Bass fishing. Lots of fun, and it will pay huge dividends that can be applied to muskie. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | take what is there and learn to play all the games on the water and ice ... will make you more capable at everything. also, leave the ruler at home and just let everyone else measure your success for you. |
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