MartinTD - 2/16/2023 6:13 AM

There are no magic lures and more expensive lures do not equal more fish. If I were you, I would spend a fraction of the money on a couple of Suicks and take the time to learn how to work them (I like the HI version). For the glide, pick up a Phantom softail or a Hellhound with a soft tail, plenty of belly roll with those. In my opinion, forget about the chatterbait altogether.

7.62xJay - 2/15/2023 10:58 PM

Well in my personal experience and what I gather from previous chats on here, I'd state that "musky chatters are a tool worth having, but not mandatory, they do catch fish, but not tons. It's something u throw off of gut instinct or when your scratching head. It shines the most in rivers". Now I'd personally recommend getting the largest Swimmin Dragon and replacing the front hook with the largest treble ya got. Than T it. Than screw in a MI hook magnet to keep that T'd hook up tight to the body. Tail hook you can magnet or stick in to the rubber body. Now you got a chatter that doesn't foul on itself and an alternative presentation vs top water/bulging bucktails/spinner baits over shallow weeds.

The other 2 I can't comment on other than D&R baits are a tried and true staple and your not gunna go wrong. I'm very happy with my shum shum slim, a tap dancer im sure is a good move as well.

Kirby Budrow - 2/16/2023 8:09 AM

It kind of seems like you just want to buy some baits. Nothing wrong with that but what kind of baits do you catch most of your fish on? Confidence is key and buying another bait because it has belly roll or whatever little thing that seems attractive might not be the answer. I find myself throwing some of the cheapest baits after fishing muskies for 24 years. Once you learn those baits and how to make fish bite, you realize $70 jerkbaits aren't the answer. I Have no experience with any of the baits you mentioned, so I can't say if they are good or not. I do know that I have blown a lot of money on expensive baits that end up not producing.

You say you have a hard time throwing suicks with how light they are. What kind of rod are you using? I can throw little baits no problem with xh rods and 80 braid. I don't think a bass setup is necessary.

MartinTD - 2/16/2023 8:19 AM

There is no doubt Supernatural baits have an awesome wander to them that most cranks just don't. The majority of the boutique baits today just don't impress me. Do you honestly think a muskie that eats a Leviathan wouldn't have eaten a Suick cast into the same spot? As the saying goes, perception is reality.

jvlast15 - 2/16/2023 11:22 AM

Personal results may vary - but I have thrown an angry dragon a lot - and I have yet to raise a single fish on the dang thing. And I have dedicated HOURS to fishing it in all sorts of conditions and seasons.

Angling Oracle - 2/17/2023 8:43 AM

Just reading between the lines you seem to be at the stage of musky fishing where you are spending too much time changing lures when you should spend more time fishing. The fish you have caught evaluate the where and why and how caught (or had follows) and try and duplicate that. Don't know what's in your arsenal but obviously blades and topwater are two that you don't mention you have had action on - meaning you probably are not throwing those enough assuming you have them. Your fish are biting rubber - I would up or downsize on those before expanding to other oddball (ie chatterbait) lure categories or different makers of the same lure category.

7.62xJay - 2/17/2023 9:21 AM

AO's right. Darn near all of us have "dusty baits". Ain't that there bad, they just didn't make our comfort and confidence roster. Like he was saying over time as you learn specific water throughout you'll enevitably develop patterns. ( X bait at X depth at X time and conditions) than you'll make your way through your starting lineup because it produced the most "points". The dusty fellas are your special teams. They hit the field when nothing is working. I also agree with em on expanding on what's already working, different weights and sizes allows you the versatility to change depth and retrieve speed/pause hang time=can be SUPER important.
You have any walk the dogs?

7.62xJay - 2/18/2023 10:39 AM

Well, I'd say save ur money since ur in college. But if anything diversify your bucktail selection some by presentation and single/ double blades,if you got lots of shallow weeds single hook spinner baits are your friend but also do nicely slow rolled deep,nab a "finesse" top water like a smaller WTD in the 5" range,wake bait,creeper, flaptail. Some bass guys have been having good luck throwing finesse topwater deeper than typical where there's schooling shad. If the shad are there, and the bass are there, good chance there's a Musky looking up waiting for an easy meal.

Here's a big pointer. Muskys love "triggers" pretty much means non consistent retrieves. Change up between straight retrieve,jerks,pulls,pauses,and twitches. So like your shallow slammer that's blowing out- cast,crank it down,pause 1-2 seconds, crank it down for more distance, pause, 2 or 3 hard wrist jerks,pause, retrieve, pause (you can even let it surface and twitch it while it's surfaced), than crank it down...etc etc etc.
Your deep slammer, if you got sand or rock, same thing as the shallow mixed with bass technique. Crank it down, bang the bottom, pause, grind the F* out of the bottom pause, jerk, grind, etc etc etc.
Your beaver, go nuts, do what you want, as long as it's erratic.
Your Whopper, once your up to that golden speed, throughout that straight retrieve try throwing in 2-3 extra fast cranks,back to normal for 5 cranks, 1 fast crank, normal for 10, 5 fast cranks, pause and twitch mid retrieve for say 8 seconds, continue as b4. It doesn't have to be that EXACTLY. Your essentially just trying to make your presentation not so monotone.
What's your line n leader setups?

Ogandrews - 2/21/2023 7:33 PM

I would recommend looking at the Kodiak navin dive and rise. I have the 8-10-12” ones and they each have a place. They are almost like halfway between a suick and the high end dive n rise baits custom made. The 8” is awesome for early season because once you tune it right it has almost as much side to side action as a glider, as well as diving. The 10” is really easy to get to suspend and get deep with not much lead in it. The 12” is what I reach for 95% of the time I want to throw a dive and rise. You can get it to run shallow through weeds with a little lead, or you can load it up to get a slow rise. With 3 oz of lead I was able to see it get 12-13’ down on my livescope in the middle of the cast, and still lot of have a really slow rise. The 12” has an incredible amount of body wiggle on the pull and the pause, the other 2 sizes wiggle really well too but it’s more pronounced with the 12”. Just know with the Navins that they are significantly bigger than a suick for the same length. The 10” has way more body displacement than a 10” suick. 12” navin is probably more comparable to the frankensuick although I haven’t thrown it. I know the leviathan has an even bigger profile than the navin.

If I were you, I’d get a 12” navin, a lee lures metal series standard flap, and a bomb squad mk65 flaptail, and a 10” Mattlock if you want to get a crank in there. I know that’s not the bait you were asking about but that’s all I really use for “designer” baits and don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything else.

The other thing I’ll say is before you buy any more baits, buy a real 9-10ft musky rod. I’ve used the dobyns champion swimbait rods and they aren’t musky rods. You need a rod that is designed to set the hook into a musky and work those baits correctly. Those dobyns are usually 8ft if I remember and are way too soft to do a proper figure 8

RJ_692 - 2/22/2023 9:48 AM

my 2 cents...for now don't spend the money on designer baits, regardless of how good they may be. and there are lots of good ones.

if you are getting into some incidental musky catches that means you are in areas where there is fish. this is good.

maximize what you can throw on the equipment you have. think bass size +. 6" magdrafts, spinnerbaits, meps musky killer bucktails, x raps etc. this will maximize the efficiency with what you have.

i have caught lots of all kinds of fish on suicks down to the 7" size. If you have trouble casting suicks you can add screw in weights to them. But there is also some technique in casting them. You need to try to get the release timing so that the tail is pointed in the direction you want when you release. Practicing that is free. adjust on the tail and you can get all kinds of wiggles

PennsylvaniaMuskie - 2/22/2023 8:40 AM



I'll definitely check those out. Unfortunately, I mostly fish from the shore and have a hard time storing and using rods that big, so I don't know if I can really get a 9-10 foot rod because I won't be able to use it much. I'm also pretty new to muskie fishing so I could be wrong here, please correct me if I am. But I am in Pennsylvania (as my username implies, southeast PA specifically), so there's not a whole lot of muskies near me. Does this mean there won't be a whole lot of large muskies nearby? I know up north there are monster muskies, but I don't know if there's huge ones down here, so I don't know if throwing a 10-12 inch lure like a poseidon, dyin dawg, large medusa, etc. is exactly going to work giving where I'm fishing ( a highly pressured bass lake in southeast PA). I hope this makes sense, I might not be explaining it well.

7.62xJay - 2/26/2023 3:51 PM

Do you have alot of shallow weeds that your leaning towards a boiler maker for? Two other baits that are similar are Spanky Baits Pugsly series. And Kramer Bros Woodtick. In case you want to compare.

Solitario Lupo - 2/26/2023 4:27 PM



Throw them big lures they work. Pennsylvania has some very big Muskie. Them big fish like big easy food. Do a lot of my fishing NW PA can always come to this side.

Bigger the rod the better of a cast you will get. Plus I don’t like two pieces but the 9’ or 10’ will break down.

I know not many waters out SE PA but there are some great waters by you or threw out PA.

PennsylvaniaMuskie - 3/2/2023 3:22 PM


The lake near me is a known bass lake and there's a lot of weed beds, but they aren't submerged if that makes sense. Like, there's a lot of weed beds along the shore, but they don't become submerged necessarily. They just jut off the shore and then stop. The water in this area is usually somewhere around 4 to 6 feet deep, but can go upwards of 10 feet deep. This lake is man made so there's a lot of sudden drop offs really close to shore.

7.62xJay - 3/3/2023 5:23 AM



Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm understanding this as- Your vegetation is probably thick and abundant and grows to and/or above the surface of the water. Aka " The Slop,The Filth, The S***, The Scum, etc." Than relatively it stops abruptly at X depth break line.
Assuming my interpretation is correct- the fish you've caught so far are they on those weeds or suspended deeper?

Ogandrews - 3/4/2023 8:18 AM

I’ll throw one other thing out there too. Instead of buying some expensive baits go buy a cheap kayak. When I was younger I bought field and stream “fishing” kayak for $150 off of Facebook and caught so many fish in it over the years. There are a lot of fancy kayaks out now but as long as you have somewhere to put a net than you can make it work. To this day my biggest tiger at 45”, biggest pike at 44”, and biggest largemouth at 7.2lbs all came out of that cheap little kayak. Getting yourself off of the bank will put way more fish in the boat than some fancy baits. What I did back then was buy one of those cheap 4” garmins for $100 and screwed the ducer to the side of the boat, so I could at least get a depth/water temp.

Ogandrews - 3/4/2023 8:18 AM

I’ll throw one other thing out there too. Instead of buying some expensive baits go buy a cheap kayak. When I was younger I bought field and stream “fishing” kayak for $150 off of Facebook and caught so many fish in it over the years. There are a lot of fancy kayaks out now but as long as you have somewhere to put a net than you can make it work. To this day my biggest tiger at 45”, biggest pike at 44”, and biggest largemouth at 7.2lbs all came out of that cheap little kayak. Getting yourself off of the bank will put way more fish in the boat than some fancy baits. What I did back then was buy one of those cheap 4” garmins for $100 and screwed the ducer to the side of the boat, so I could at least get a depth/water temp.

Ogandrews - 3/4/2023 8:18 AM

I’ll throw one other thing out there too. Instead of buying some expensive baits go buy a cheap kayak. When I was younger I bought field and stream “fishing” kayak for $150 off of Facebook and caught so many fish in it over the years. There are a lot of fancy kayaks out now but as long as you have somewhere to put a net than you can make it work. To this day my biggest tiger at 45”, biggest pike at 44”, and biggest largemouth at 7.2lbs all came out of that cheap little kayak. Getting yourself off of the bank will put way more fish in the boat than some fancy baits. What I did back then was buy one of those cheap 4” garmins for $100 and screwed the ducer to the side of the boat, so I could at least get a depth/water temp.

Ogandrews - 3/4/2023 8:18 AM

I’ll throw one other thing out there too. Instead of buying some expensive baits go buy a cheap kayak. When I was younger I bought field and stream “fishing” kayak for $150 off of Facebook and caught so many fish in it over the years. There are a lot of fancy kayaks out now but as long as you have somewhere to put a net than you can make it work. To this day my biggest tiger at 45”, biggest pike at 44”, and biggest largemouth at 7.2lbs all came out of that cheap little kayak. Getting yourself off of the bank will put way more fish in the boat than some fancy baits. What I did back then was buy one of those cheap 4” garmins for $100 and screwed the ducer to the side of the boat, so I could at least get a depth/water temp.

7.62xJay - 3/4/2023 6:38 PM

Aw dude your fine, sounds like u NEED a Kayak, provided u got a way to haul it. Any open top with rod holder holes will do. Be looking at about $200 roughly for something basic. Just leash your paddle and wear a PFD. Bicycles don't SEEM safe until you learn to ride right? Same thing. Also, Tell your Mom some guy on the internet says that if your old enough to go to college your F'in old enough to purchase and tow a trailer.