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Posts: 32884
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | The Sabaskong trip was a blast, and while there I re-learned that small baits will catch muskies. My hot crankbait was a 5" Slammer, but Keith was kicking my hinder on even smaller deep divers. Keeping the bigger fish pinned up was a problem sometimes, we lost several mid to upper 40" class fish as they got close to the boat, usually on a jump or wild headshaking spree. Ryan, Keith and I put 34 in the net for the week, and nearly half came on these baits. Here is a picture. Builders are Cisco Kid, Poes, and Storm. We also used a Hot N Tot, which I can't find right now. We were fishing rock walls ( I have done well there on the walls since the very early 80's) with big stuff, looking for rubble, deep cuts in the walls, or shelves sticking out some, and Keith decided to multi-specie fish with a small crank in hopes of popping a couple eating type fish. Instead, he caught several mid to upper 30's muskies, and lost a few, too. He changed the hooks to larger more agressive models, and the hook-ups improved. I know the DB4 is a hot trolling lure, but these baits are a bit smaller yet. Anyone else have success pitching lures this small?
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Posts: 177
Location: Germantown & Land O Lakes WI | I always throw Lil Rippers (Reef Runner trolling baits) along wind swept shore lines....it never fails that I pick up something, especially in low-light times.
I like the new #7 Rapala Jointed Shad Rap in perch as well. |
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Posts: 1023
Location: Lafayette, IN | I have 2 Storms (Shad and Firetiger) and 1 Frenzy (walleye). I got them just for the "downsizing" reason. I do use them but as of yet have not caught any. |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | No.9 Shad Rap by Rapala. |
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Posts: 1764
Location: Ogden, Ut | I have a hard time getting the tigers out here interested in anything much bigger than 5". It drives me nuts! I have all of these beautiful bigger baits in my box (leftovers from when I lived in Mn) that haven't even gotten a look. It's not that the fish are too small for bigger stuff (we have fish over 45" commonly caught), they just aren't interested for the most part. Prey base is perch and crappie; in this reservoir, these commonly get to 10 and 12 inches, respectively. I can't figure it. From a purely bioenergetic standpoint, they should be after the bigger prey, but they seem to prefer the lure size in 4-5" at most. I wouldn't mind throwing the smaller stuff if it worked well on my rod/reel combos. I hate downsizing in that arena though. |
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Posts: 32884
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I remember a survey of all the taxidermists here in Wisconsin back about 20 years ago asking for a stomach contents listing from all mounted muskies. As I remember, the average size prey was about 5". Crappies, white bass, and bluegills were rare, perch and bullheads common. It was sugggested that that a larger crappie or like prey is tough for a muskie to swallow because of body shape and fins. I was musing today about the shape of my 5" Slammer (looks just like a perch) and the shape of the cranks we were throwing, and decided the deep diving portion of the presentation might have been the key. We were getting the strikes directly under the boat as the deep diver began it's upward travel. It was fun tossing the little baits. I used my 7' rod and 50# line, so I was not undergunned. The baits casted well, even in a wind. Easy on the old hands, too. |
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Posts: 1764
Location: Ogden, Ut | When I was the biologist on that water (Pineview) the stomach contents of netted fish was split almost 50/50 perch and crappies (in fact, crappies slightly outnumbered perch). Incidental catches of large and smallmouth bass, bluegill, rainbow trout, bullheads and carp made up the balance of the diet. The prey items did, however, seem to run smaller than I would have intuitively thought. Sometimes the answers make no sense...
Edited by sorenson 9/5/2003 3:42 PM
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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | that picture was not submitted by Sworrall.
His always have that cool old beat up table in them.
Who snuck that photo in under his post? |
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Posts: 32884
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Hard to believe, but Sue refinished that old table while I was in Canada. Shiny as all getout now, not a good background. Really nice to look at though! |
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Posts: 216
| small cranks are hot stuck a 34 and 36 this evening on rapala dt 16.
bolth fish were suspended under schools 2to 3in blue gils. |
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Posts: 1462
Location: Davenport, IA | Those new rapala DT's seem to really attract bigger fish. I have a few DT-10's and they've done me good. I'm really fishing for bass with them, but had some other luck. I've caught lots of 2-3 lb bass with them (smaller ones aren't often caught with it) and a 23" pike and lost a low 30's muskie on one. I think they trigger muskies pretty good. The deal is they are going straight stayign deep then suddenly go up. (I had one hit boatside) Theres a new DT-6 coming out sometime, hopefully they dont' make it any smaller than the DT-10, it could be a really sweet spring lure. Another thing about the DT-10, is that it stays wobbling when its digging in the bottom. The mud doesn't make it stop working. The only thing I"m afraid of is that the lip is extremley thin. But, i've banged it against rocks and trees and caught lots of fish on it with no problems so far. |
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Posts: 229
Location: Willoughby, Ohio | Steve, Here in Ohio, we use quite a few small crankbaits. One of the most popular lures on Leesville Lake is the # 41 Sisson (almost a twin to a DB3), which is basically a bass bait. 5" Tuff Shads and Grandma Shads are popular throughout the state as well. I've been told that smaller works better here due to the forage base being mostly shad based as opposed to Wisc & Minn, where it is more cisco based.
Edited by Worm Drowner 9/6/2003 10:06 PM
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