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| I'm thinking of in line spinnerbaits for next season. I'm still a beginner and would appreciate some advanced opinions. What I've been using are Mepps.
1. My impression is that the regular Mepps Muskie Killer is too small to be really effective after spring season. Am I accurate?
2. The Magnum Muskie Killer is big enough to be effective, but the bucktail is too small. Correct or not?
3. Attaching a tandem bucktail to the Magnum Muskie Killer would make it more effective as a summer-into-fall lure. True or not?
4. The Mepps Giant Killer would be more effective after spring with a tandem bucktail. Yes? No? Maybe so?
What do you'all think? |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | I love my Mepps Muskie Killers too but now use them for pike fishing. You might want to go with a big double #8 or #10 bucktail for muskies. I think a lot of what has been found is that the bigger twin bladed bucktails that throw out a lot of vibration really get the muskies going. It is not a secret that muskies and pike go after vibration but that is the key to these bigger bucktails getting the numbers of big fish boated IMO. Lots of good places to get those big blades and terminal tackle. Just post the question on the Basement forum and you will get more links than you want. |
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Posts: 1237
Location: South Portsmouth, KY | You might also want to look at the Mepps Musky Marabou. The black/nickel is my favorite. The fish up in canada really loved them. i wish they had just a little bit more marabou on them. The Colorado blade puts out a lot of flash and vibration. |
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| a number of big-water tournies in MN in the last couple years have been won by guys burning small single-blade bucktails similar to the Mepps you describe. obviously the big double-10s are a must-have, but they're not the only way to catch fish, especially as more and more people saturate the water with them.
adding tandem bodies such as you suggest in your questions will create a bigger profile which can be a good thing at times. consider the size of the forage in the particular water you're fishing, or reports from other anglers on what lure size is working. one of the real great aspects of the Mepps lures is that you can easily switch out the tails - get a variety of single and tandem tails of different sizes and materials and experiment until you find what they're going on.
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Many of my muskies have come in on the 'small' Mepps bucktails. Fish will eat them. Do you alwyas eat a triple at Wendy's or sometimes just a small fry or Jr. burger? Same here, they aren't always in the mood for a big gulp. m |
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Posts: 578
Location: Sheboygan Falls, WI | 1. My impression is that the regular Mepps Muskie Killer is too small to be really effective after spring season. Am I accurate?
*** My opinion is that is an inaccurate impression. The standard Musky Killer is not only a great early season bait, but a great size to throw when there is a lot of fishing pressure as in a tournament. Lambeau made mention of this already. Mikie made mention about the desired size to eat as well at certain times. Bigger is not always better. Many musky are caught each year during the summer on #3, #4 and #5 Mepps Aglias to prove that. Look how many musky eat crank baits that you would throw for bass or walleye. Also look at the number of musky that eat spinner baits that you throw for bass.
2. The Magnum Muskie Killer is big enough to be effective, but the bucktail is too small. Correct or not?
*** Ask MuskyTime what he did on LOTW in the past on the single Magnums. These are great baits with a lot of thump to them.
3. Attaching a tandem bucktail to the Magnum Muskie Killer would make it more effective as a summer-into-fall lure. True or not?
*** Now you are thinking if you want a larger profile presentation. Lambeau mentioned one of the beautiful things of a Mepps and that is the ability to easily change the bucktails on the bait. I actually "built" these in the store at Rollie and Helen's with the help of Rick there. Tandem Magnums and they could not keep them in the store. This was several years ago now.
4. The Mepps Giant Killer would be more effective after spring with a tandem bucktail. Yes? No? Maybe so?
*** Not necessarily. I prefished a tournament with a late guide friend of mine on the Minocqua chain. The single Giant Killer is a great bait over deeper weeds and rock bars. The willow leaf does not give the bait the lift like the other blades and it gets deeper easier. I really like to throw the single Giant Killer on deep points, weeds and rock bars.
The Musky Marabou was also mentioned by muskie_man. This is a dynamite bait that we worked on for over 2 years getting it to where we wanted it. Everyone has their favorite colors and the white/black-white is my absolute all around favorite color. My daughters first and largest musky was caught on this bait on LOTW. I also lost a mid 50" fish with her on the same trip. The Musky Marabou just flat out produces for me and most people that I know that fish them.
Don't over look the tandem Musky Killer either. This is a bigger profile bait than its little brother and it is easy to burn. No getting burnt out throwing these baits.
Lambeau hit it on the head with the mention of the changing of tails. You can also build a tandem tail larger as well. Take off the back hook and add either a tandem tail or a single tail. If you want to keep the bait straighter, add a piece of shrink tube to the tail wire first and then add the second bucktail, slide the tube down and carefully shrink the tubing.
You can build what ever color combination you want with with the Mepps musky bucktails. Many people are not aware of this or forget about it.
You will want to throw some of the popular larger bucktails during the season. When you get tired of throwing them and need a break, put a Mepps back on for a presentation that will be a lot easier to throw and will produce fish. The Mepps will not burn up your reels fast either.
Chuck
Edited by C_Nelson 12/10/2007 8:27 AM
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Posts: 663
| What Chuck said!!!! |
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| Thanks for the responses, especially Chuck.
Chuck you sound like you are involved with Mepps: "...we worked on {Musky Marabou} 2 years getting it where we wanted it." If so, here is a question: Why didn't Mepps increase the size of the bucktail attached to the Magnum Musky Killer?
Mepps advertises the Magnum as "143% bigger" than the regular Musky Killer. But only the blade is larger; not the tail. Was it a matter of not wanting the cost of upsizing? |
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Posts: 578
Location: Sheboygan Falls, WI | Yes Beginner, I am slightly involved with the company.
Very good question on the Magnum. The 143% IS the size of the blade. It was not done in a tandem not so much because of cost, but sales. If you go back to when this bait was first introduced, there were few LARGE bucktails/spinners in the market. Eagle tail was the biggy at the time and we had a pretty good idea of how many were being sold. Our tandems were still considered decent size tails.
As a manufacturer overall sales potential was taken in to consideration. Plus, with the ease of changing the tails, a person could put one together with tandem tails they had. I would work with Rick, Tom and Jay (mainly Rick) on building the Tandem Magnums in the store. They sold great in the one store, but we never had significant numbers of requests for tandems. With all of the shows we did, the number of anglers we came in contact with, the demand was not there at the time.
I have been involved in the industry a couple of years. When a company, any company, has to decide what products they are going to bring to the market, it is greatly influenced by sales and sales potential. Take a look at the reel companies. How many of them have left handed reels? The market had dictated right handed reel dominance. The trend now is lefties are becoming increasingly popular, slowly, but it is increasing. How many companies had 8' rods 10 years ago? Heck, a 7'6" rod was considered really long at the time. Now custom rod manufacturers are building 9', 9 1/2' and even 10'+ rods for some guys. The trends in the industry and what the consumers want really dictate what many manufacturers do.
Sorry about getting off on a tangent there. Hopefully I answered your question. One thing that we take pride in is the overall quality of our products. We hear more compliments as to how our bucktails do NOT need kick starting; the quality of the components we use, the quality of the tails, etc. We don't sit still with the products either. For example, this year all musky baits will have the heavier wire no matter what size of bait. We are continuously looking at doing different things with the spinners. I will say that I do NOT see us going to the Cowgirl style bait at all though.
Good, successful product development does not happen overnight. Those companies that have products that flop badly are those that usually rush a product to market without doing the proper market research and without doing the proper overall development of the products. There are companies that bring a bunch of stuff out, fire it up against a wall and sees what sticks. A lot of time and dollars are invested into a lot of products that do nothing. If a little time would have been taken, all of that money wasted on the other products could have been used in developing the successful products or marketing them.
Prime example for this year, Bucher Tackle. Roberts Outdoors and Joe have been hearing for a long time about a larger Depth Raider and larger Shallow Raider. Heck, I am sure that Tom Deitz heard it when he was with Bucher before all of Tom's grey hair. LOL (sorry Tom) The market is ripe for those baits and there you go. There are only a couple of manufacturers that have baits similar to them out there.
Now, if you were to look at the Cowgirl style spinners, everyone and their uncle is trying to knock them off. With looks and style of spinners, all of them are pretty much alike; not quality though. Brad and his partner (I appologize for forgetting her name, I spoke with her at a show in Sept, GREAT person) have this larger bait nailed. Ta Da, here come the guys that are copying it.
Some say that we did it with our Musky Marabou. Well, we did incorporate marabou and a colorado blade into a spinner, but it was of a different design. After the Musky Marabou got going hot and heavy, then others made a huge push at marabou spinners.
Hopefully this gives you a little more insight into the way the industry works and some things manufacturers look at to help them make the right/best decisions.
Chuck
Edited by C_Nelson 12/13/2007 1:05 PM
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| try to stay away from treble hook bucktails,those mepps are tied right on the treble hook,thats not cool when you have to scrap a bucktail,just because you have to cut a hook.for a solid hookset and a better chance for a good released try the eagletails,you will be very happy,and fish 2 |
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Posts: 578
Location: Sheboygan Falls, WI | One treble is tied, on a tandem the rear treble is not. I have caught a few musky on bucktails. I have cut the hooks on one tail. Do I care if I have to cut any hooks for what is best for the fish? Heck no. Not when I just have to replace the tail of the spinner or just the back hook. To each their own on what bucktails to use. I know how many we sell and I don't think that we will stop making them any time soon. We sell just a couple a year because they catch fish.
How many anglers throw any of the large, expensive soft plastics for musky? You know the ones, the ones that a single fish may destroy or make useless? I guess if people are going to think that its "not cool" when you have to cut the hooks on the bucktail that it REALLY must not be cool to have to ditch a $12-$20+ bait because you caught one fish on it and the fish shredded it or ripped the tail off of it. I still throw them knowing full well that I may not even catch a fish on one and a fish may bite the tail off. Been there, done that with a well known big fish catching son of a gun guide in the Hayward area. Oops, there goes $12+ in a fishes mouth.
Chuck |
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| they dont have other option than the bulldawg,thats not the case for the bucktails!do you think mcdonalds is the greatest restaurant because there is a million of them around the world? imho all the spinners will catch,fish but some of them are just better......
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Posts: 457
| ron f - 12/12/2007 11:43 AM
they dont have other option than the bulldawg,thats not the case for the bucktails!do you think mcdonalds is the greatest restaurant because there is a million of them around the world? imho all the spinners will catch,fish but some of them are just better......
Oh, I dunno, Sues, d's, Probos, Swimtastics... I'd say there is a variety. to each their own... |
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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | Well I've caught a heck of alot of fish on Mepps, and only had to cut one hook. You can bet I'll keep using them! |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Same here. |
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| if you hade to cut only one hook when you caught a lot of fish on them,i begin 2 think 3 things
1 they were all small fishs
2 you spend 2much time to unhook them,everybody know how deep bucktails goes in the musky mouth compare to the majority of the other lures.........
3 a lots of fishs is 1 or 2 maybe 3??
funny |
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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | Wow, wrong on all counts. CONGRATULATIONS! |
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Posts: 578
Location: Sheboygan Falls, WI | Sorry ron f, I was originally just trying to help out fellow musky fishing brethren with some answers and insights. I have fished a year or two, catch a fish every once in a while and helped develop spinners and also sold a couple spinners too. I just thought I would share my insights on the subject at hand.
I will let you battle it out with others on the subject. It is too early in the cold months for me to do battle. Maybe it is just my old age influencing me, maybe it is just common sense kicking in.
Good fishing to all and to all a good night. (just had to bring the holiday season in)
Chuck |
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Posts: 756
| I've started musky fishing with Mepps bucktails and I will finish with them as well. Chuck, about that Magnum Giant Killer I wish Mepps would make??? Kdawg |
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Posts: 578
Location: Sheboygan Falls, WI | Good to hear kdawg. I am glad a couple others out there besides me like throwing Mepps bucktails. LOL
Magnum Giant Killer??? You mean the prototype that we had oh, about 6-8 years ago or so? LOL The blade that if my mind recalls correctly was as big as the the large bladed bucktails in today's market? Yes, we had prototypes of these. We had them at musky shows as well back then and the majortity of the comments were that they were too big and would be too difficult to throw and retrieve all day long. I bet some of those same people are busting down doors to buy today's large bladed bucktails. If one only had a crystal ball. LOL
Chuck |
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Posts: 35
| After reading this post, I got to thinking. I can remember when the Musky Marabou came out and people thought that it was huge. Looks kinda small next to a DC-10, but it sure fishes alot easier. |
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Posts: 76
| ron f - 12/12/2007 5:18 AM
try to stay away from treble hook bucktails,those mepps are tied right on the treble hook,thats not cool when you have to scrap a bucktail,just because you have to cut a hook.for a solid hookset and a better chance for a good released try the eagletails,you will be very happy,and fish 2
You don't have to scrap a MEPPS after you cut off the treble. Just add a heavy duty split ring to the loop and put a new treble on the split ring. |
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Bucktails