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| I recieved a musky education two weeks ago sucker fishing.. My buddy Pete and I had a blue bird cold front shut out going....we threw every bait in the book and worked the lakes like Rosanne Barr does a buffet. After arguing with Pete that they might be in deep weeds we gave it a shot. I was throwing 9" slug go's and had two follows out of the weeds and they eye balled our suckers in 6 feet of water three feet down for ten min. We finally found them we said aloud! We went on fishing that weed line up and down and because the water was gin clear we saw actually how many muskies are really out there on any given weed bed. We had three musky's behind the boat at the same time following our baits but wouldn't hit. In that two hour period we saw over 20 musky's but they would only follow and wouldn't strike even small chubs...Don't get me wrong this was totally cool they looked like sharks following meat. I wish I would have taken a mpeg!!
The lesson of the story is when you think your fishing the dead sea you probably had 30 short follows that day or went over the heads of many of muskie!!!
It's all about the feeding window and being there on top of them. This was a huge lesson for me to keep the confidence up on these kind of days.
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Posts: 148
Location: DES MOINES, IOWA | IT IS AMAZING YOU CAN SEE THAT MANY FISH WITH FOLLOWS, AND NOT GET ONE FISH HUNGRY ENOUGH TO HIT. HOWEVER, WE ALL HAVE THOSE DAYS WHERE YOU CAN,T FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING WRONG, AND WHAT YOU COULD DO DIFFERENT. TRUTH BE KNOWN, YOU ARE PROBABLY RIGHT ABOUT FEEDING WINDOWS, SINCE AFTER A COUPLE OF DAYS THINKING I AM THE WORST MUSKY FISHERMAN IN THE WORLD, I WILL SCORE 3 IN ONE DAY. I | |
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Posts: 1294
Location: Stevens Point, Wi. | Your sucker part of the story has happened to me many times in the past. My question to you, did the suckers try escaping or in any way act nervous? I have found over the past few years, that most of the suckers that are available in bait shops are pen raised and about as energetic as a slab of bacon. They just swim along with the boat and give hardly any sign of distress when a muskie gets near. This, I believe, is why the muskies are often seen eyeing up the bait, it just isn't natural. I have, on occasion, been successful in eliciting a hit by giving small twitches to the bait when I've noticed a following fish. But the real answer is to find a shop that sells those big, black, wild, river suckers. Much to some of my boat partners misgivings, I've been known to drive 50 miles out of the way in order to buy them. When you get soaking wet getting one out of the live well and it takes two people just to get them harnessed up, now you've got some real meat. A good healthy river sucker can't be held by just the clicker and set on free spool. If you can find these musculer beauties buy them, if not, good luck!
Edited by ghoti 10/14/2003 7:57 PM
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| I heard from a buddy about the wild suckers and he claimed the same thing..Do bait stores advertise these?
When we had the three skis behind he boat the suckers were trying to move away but only two foot movements to the side..We also tried twitching them moving very slow not to spoke the skis. I also threw a 4" red tail behind the boat to no prevail...At the end of experience I just cracked open a beer and watched them trying to identify if they where tigers or reg. I also kept casting to bring a hungry one in...For Pete and I it was a unforgettable experience. | |
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Posts: 1294
Location: Stevens Point, Wi. | mc. A lot of bait shops advertise "wild" suckers, but don't believe it. In general, a wild, river sucker will be very dark and a lot thinner for its length than a tank raised sucker, which generally are fatter and a golden or brown color. If you have a hard time netting them in the tank and transferring them to your boat you've got the real deal. Ask the shop owner where he gets his suckers from. Most commercial dealers only sell pond raised (read as fat and lazy) suckers. If he's getting them from an individual, odds are they are wild, trapped ones. Here in Wi., most shops get there bait from Gollons, which are pond raised. I'd rather use dead smelt. | |
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Close encouters of the musky kind