How common are muskie follows?
TMuskyFisher
Posted 5/29/2018 9:14 PM (#908571)
Subject: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 86


Location: Illinois
I've been muskie fishing for around two years and have yet to see a follow.
TSMUSKY89
Posted 5/29/2018 9:25 PM (#908573 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





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
NathanH
Posted 5/29/2018 9:39 PM (#908575 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: RE: How common are muskie follows?





Posts: 859


Location: MN
Let me ask have you caught fish?

Edited by NathanH 5/29/2018 9:40 PM
TMuskyFisher
Posted 5/29/2018 9:43 PM (#908576 - in reply to #908575)
Subject: RE: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 86


Location: Illinois
Yes, i have caught two, and lost one. I am mostly limited to fishing weekends.
NathanH
Posted 5/29/2018 9:59 PM (#908577 - in reply to #908576)
Subject: RE: How common are muskie follows?





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.
Lizmorea
Posted 5/29/2018 10:18 PM (#908578 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




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.....
happy hooker
Posted 5/30/2018 5:05 AM (#908588 - in reply to #908578)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 3136


By chance is it a tiger muskie fisheries you mostly fish.
happy hooker
Posted 5/30/2018 5:09 AM (#908589 - in reply to #908578)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 3136


T

Edited by happy hooker 5/30/2018 5:11 AM
Kirby Budrow
Posted 5/30/2018 8:17 AM (#908604 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





Posts: 2255


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.
Booch
Posted 5/30/2018 8:32 AM (#908608 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




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.
BretRobert1
Posted 5/30/2018 8:59 AM (#908613 - in reply to #908588)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




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.

sworrall
Posted 5/30/2018 9:06 AM (#908615 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





Posts: 32761


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.
supertrollr
Posted 5/30/2018 9:08 AM (#908616 - in reply to #908573)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?


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
Nomadmusky
Posted 5/30/2018 9:23 AM (#908617 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: RE: How common are muskie follows?




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
tyler k
Posted 5/30/2018 9:46 AM (#908618 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




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.
14ledo81
Posted 5/30/2018 10:34 AM (#908624 - in reply to #908616)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





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.
Flambeauski
Posted 5/30/2018 11:13 AM (#908628 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 4343


Location: Smith Creek
Do you happen to be fishing from shore?
FishFearMe
Posted 5/30/2018 1:31 PM (#908643 - in reply to #908624)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




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.
NPike
Posted 5/30/2018 1:41 PM (#908647 - in reply to #908624)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




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
esoxaddict
Posted 5/30/2018 1:50 PM (#908649 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





Posts: 8703


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"...
TMuskyFisher
Posted 5/30/2018 2:23 PM (#908651 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




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.
muskidiem
Posted 5/30/2018 2:23 PM (#908652 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





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".
TMuskyFisher
Posted 5/30/2018 2:25 PM (#908653 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 86


Location: Illinois
Also no, i am fishing from a boat.
ulbian
Posted 5/30/2018 4:09 PM (#908661 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




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.
esoxaddict
Posted 5/30/2018 4:35 PM (#908664 - in reply to #908651)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





Posts: 8703


TMuskyFisher - 5/30/2018 2:23 PM

[...] I'm fishing in Illinois.


There's your problem right there...

Junkman
Posted 5/30/2018 5:07 PM (#908667 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




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.
ToddM
Posted 5/30/2018 5:35 PM (#908669 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





Posts: 20173


Location: oswego, il
^this. Muskies know how to stalk. They can and do follow at a depth they cannot be seen.
TMuskyFisher
Posted 5/30/2018 8:23 PM (#908684 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 86


Location: Illinois
I must just not be seeing them follow then.
Reelwise
Posted 5/30/2018 8:44 PM (#908688 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 1636


I once met a guy who went 19 years without a follow... so, 2 years is not too bad.
curleytail
Posted 5/31/2018 1:42 PM (#908733 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




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.
BNelson
Posted 5/31/2018 1:51 PM (#908734 - in reply to #908733)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





Location: Contrarian Island
some days you can't buy a hit or a follow...some days they are everywhere, one outing a week or 2 ago we had follows from 25 fish, in 10 hrs with 4 or 5 other hits.. some days they are simply shut down. We put in 12 hrs on lake of the woods after a cold front and saw one 38 the last half hour.... that's just musky fishing... but on avg a guy should get action from about a fish per hour on most bodies of water..again, avg. some days it can be 10 in an hour... but if the water has some clarity say 2-3 feet or more, and there is a decent population, you should be seeing more than you are....

Edited by BNelson 5/31/2018 1:52 PM
esoxaddict
Posted 5/31/2018 2:55 PM (#908746 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





Posts: 8703


We went three days on Eagle and had one lazy follow to show for it. About 11:00 am on the fourth day we had a fish come in hot, but not turn with the lure on the figure 8. It just kept going. We all turned around and watched it go. Casted at it. Nothing. Over the next two hours we raised a good two dozen fish (we lost count around 20) that all did the same thing. Fish coming out of everywhere, and all of decent size. And then around 1:00 we had one come in lazy. That was the last fish we saw that day. Sometimes you think you've got them all figured out. Other times, no so much.
BNelson
Posted 5/31/2018 3:04 PM (#908748 - in reply to #908746)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





Location: Contrarian Island
we have zero control when they bite...that is 100% for sure.
Esox715
Posted 6/1/2018 9:22 AM (#908808 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 14


I love follows. Raised a tank on Black the other afternoon that my cousin got to see. It was almost a reply of my last nice catch with her last season. While out yesterday afternoon I had multiple follows but only 1 was a lunge!!! I #*#* ya not....2 big walleyes nose up on my Mepps I felt them push it before I saw them....and a huge crappie....and a couple huge smallies. It was wild! Switched to small tackle and got a meal of crappies and too many rock bass lol. Follows rock, but you could be just having a dry spell bro. I even had a loon chase!
Herb_b
Posted 6/5/2018 12:57 PM (#909200 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





Posts: 829


Location: Maple Grove, MN
I would take a look at your retrieve. If you slow down your retrieve as the bait nears the boat, even slightly, following Muskies will almost always turn off and you won't see them. It is best to keep the lure moving at the same speed or slightly faster as it approaches the boat. The same goes for the figure-8. The transition into the figure-8 should be smooth and not slow down.

It is way to easy to fall into the habit of slowing down the retrieve as the lure approaches the boat, It might not sound like much, but little things like that can make a huge difference in how many fish one sees and catches.

Hope this helps
Reelwise
Posted 6/5/2018 5:55 PM (#909221 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 1636


One good way to at least move fish when nothing else will is to slowly swim a magnum Bulldawg at a depth you can see it. Just under the surface to 6' down. Cast it out and straight retrieve it very slow... with a few changes in your retrieve to give it a little bit more "action." Can be considered a boring way to fish by some... but, I enjoy seeing the follows as the fish give up their location when they do so. This has worked well for me fishing the first major break... which is generally about 10-18' deep... as well as open water. Have not really tried it much while fishing shallow and casting at the bank unless there is a sharp drop off near or just off the shore.
Reelwise
Posted 6/5/2018 6:14 PM (#909223 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 1636


...and I mean SLOW...
Brad P
Posted 6/6/2018 8:22 AM (#909268 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 833


If you identify technique issues as many have identified above, then fix those first. If you are only up to 2 fish lifetime my guess is this an area worthy of your time. We all have areas in technique where we can improve.

Longer term, consider that "nothing" can teach you something almost as well as positive feedback. If you are fishing a certain type structure (say deep edge as an example) over the course of an outing and are seeing nothing, then the fish are telling you they are not there or if they are there, their mode is very negative. This means a change is likely in order.

Unless you have a pattern dialed in from recent trips, you should be mixing up the depths/structures you are fishing. If you have a partner, one should be throwing an erratic lure and one should be throwing something straight line. Once you start getting positive feed back then fine tune what you are doing. Until you get feedback you need to be fishing different structures at a variety of depths in order to identify what the active fish are doing that day.

If you have a lot of experience on your body of water, you might know of some spots that are consistent fish haunts. If this is case a tactic you can use is to fish them three or four different ways. (Deep edge, inside edge, vertical edge, confined open water or inside out, etc.) Use appropriate presentations for each area. If you get feedback, refine from there.

Good Luck out there.
djwilliams
Posted 6/6/2018 8:54 PM (#909342 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 753


Location: Ames, Iowa
I suggest as your bait nears the boat you look away at some good looking girls on a pontoon, a jumping carp, maybe even other boats. Look back just as you complete your J turn or start your figure 8. That's when you'll get a follow.
NPike
Posted 6/11/2018 5:42 AM (#909602 - in reply to #908733)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 612


Follows seem common. Whereever I fish Conesus, Chautauqua, Canada I get them. Guess it's better than not seeing any fish at all. Sometimes they follow it in and dart away in a heartbeat. Other times they come from nowhere and take a nip at it.

Edited by NPike 6/11/2018 5:44 AM
jaultman
Posted 6/11/2018 11:21 AM (#909633 - in reply to #909223)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 1828


Reelwise - 6/5/2018 6:14 PM

...and I mean SLOW...

You can't work a mag dawg "just under the surface to 6' down" AND slow. One or the other.
UglyPike
Posted 6/11/2018 12:51 PM (#909647 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?





Posts: 101


Location: Niagara on the Lake, ON
sometimes they are just lazy or curious and follow the bait in. Rarely you can coax one to follow, turn and bite with a good figure 8. But follows arent strikes and when a muskie wants to eat, chances are you will not see it coming.
0723
Posted 6/13/2018 7:38 PM (#909918 - in reply to #909221)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 5127


Reelwise - 6/5/2018 5:55 PM

One good way to at least move fish when nothing else will is to slowly swim a magnum Bulldawg at a depth you can see it. Just under the surface to 6' down. Cast it out and straight retrieve it very slow... with a few changes in your retrieve to give it a little bit more "action." Can be considered a boring way to fish by some... but, I enjoy seeing the follows as the fish give up their location when they do so. This has worked well for me fishing the first major break... which is generally about 10-18' deep... as well as open water. Have not really tried it much while fishing shallow and casting at the bank unless there is a sharp drop off near or just off the shore.
It works in shallow weeds too.
djwilliams
Posted 6/21/2018 6:22 PM (#910533 - in reply to #908571)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 753


Location: Ames, Iowa
I get the most follows on Suicks. Only thing I can figure is that the bait is slower and runs a bit deeper. Then I read that speed generally works the best.
zombietrolling
Posted 6/22/2018 6:06 PM (#910580 - in reply to #908669)
Subject: Re: How common are muskie follows?




Posts: 246


ToddM - 5/30/2018 6:35 PM

^this. Muskies know how to stalk. They can and do follow at a depth they cannot be seen.


Deep follows that leave you guessing if you saw something or it was a shadow. Do an eight anyways. The ones you don't see come in and slam the bait are the best ones. No time to think. Just hold on!!