|
|
| After years of fishing for muskies, what, if any, are some, more true than not, facts of musky behaviour, I.e (cold fronts shut em down, moon up/down? Cloud, sun? Fish up wind or down?
What do these fish do? What do they like? Are there any hard and fast rules? These fish are driving me crazy. Some days is smoking, others crap. I cant find any patterns. I never know if it going be a good day or not. surely, someone out there has them SOMEWHAT figured out??
Let share some facts. | |
| | |
Posts: 1168
| Just gotta keep hammering away at it. I know some bodies of water that are insanely good on a post frontal, bluebird sky day but when a front is rolling in it's a dead sea. Same deal with the moon stuff. Some water is great in moon phases, others are just crap. So I would say that there are no true "facts." My best topwater day was thanksgiving a few years back. Cold, windy, clear, 25 degree air temps, had to break ice to launch....went on top just for kicks and those fish were going nuts on that stuff. My take is that if you box yourself into what you assume to be "facts" you end up pounding the same old stuff over and over again. The only thing predictable about muskies is that they can be very unpredictable. You just need to narrow that chunk of water or window to a point where you start tipping the odds a little more in your favor. | |
| | |
 (Small) (Small) (WinCE).JPG)
Posts: 17
| I see them breaching allot on windy days coming out of waterlike a dolphin, not sure what they are doing (sucking air?). I also see them wildly taking "swipes" at my lures in wind too. They miss allot fo these "swipes", almost like they are wildly swimming in circles looking for food. I've read the wind confuses the baitfish, knocks them around and the muskies take advantage of this. Not sure if true, but it might be. If so, a good "fact" for sure. | |
| | |
Posts: 32951
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Be on the water when you can.
The only rule is there are no rules, best time to go is when you can. (SVL, author)
They will do what you least expect when you least expect them to do so. When they do exactly what you expect more often than not, you are learning how to pattern those fish, on that water at that time, as much as is possible. This too will change. I think Muskie Angler's behavior is way more relevant to success percentages, but that's me! | |
| | |
Posts: 294
Location: New Jersey | Good stuff so far by the guys, but let me just chime in. I fish with my dad a lot and in the eyes of musky rules.......he does everything wrong. BUT, he always has fish up at the boat. The water temps are still warm and he makes his own bucktails and loves throwing them. The rule is fast retrieve in warm water temps right?? Not for dad, he slow rolls all through summer, fouling the cast in weeds constantly. Just the other day, he is thowing a small inline bucktail (go large in the fall with bait presentation, not for dad), and a musky slams the bucktail, dad sets the hook, misses the fish and stops reeling. Well, the musky immediately comes back on a sinking inline bucktail and smokes it. It was only a 39 but, according to rules you never stop reeling. He has the worst figure eight i have ever seen and never gets fish to hit on the 8, but with his odd slow retrieves and possibly deeper presentation, he just gets bit. Oh, and he never sharpens his hooks, never. Drives me nuts, to date he has lost only 1 musky in his life. I sharpen my hooks obcessively and i have lost about 8 muskys within the last month or two.
The moral of the story, and the point that i am trying to drive home, is not to do what my dad does, but understand that the muskys didnt read a book about how they are supposed to act.
I read every article, book and message board out there. And it is true, the best day to go musky fishing is the day you can. Stay out as long as you can and throw your confidence baits. I forget who said this, but i always think of it on tough days. "if you do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten." If you are not seeing fish on a bucktail, dont be afraid to rip a minnow bait. If you are fishing the wind with no success, fish the current behind the wind. There is NO subsitute for time on the water. You dont even realize you are putting the pieces together.
Good luck, put your time in and good things will happen. Rob
Edited by muskyhunter34 9/30/2008 5:37 AM
| |
| | |
Posts: 8856
| Joel... If could go back in time to when I started and give myself some advice, it would be this:
Fish. All the other gobbledeegook is entertaining, but the only way to learn anything is to fish. You will do right and wrong things. Learn from both.
you ask if there are any facts and hard fast rules. Rules? No rules. Guidelines, yes.
Here's a few things I consider "facts"
1. If those fish want to eat, there's not much you can do to stop them.
2. If those fish don't want to eat, there's not much you can do to make them.
Most of the time, though, they're somewhere in between. Your job is to figure out what it takes to turn the followers into eaters. That can be frustrating, and it can take the fun out of muskie fishing. Or it can BE the fun. Because that 30 seconds of battle goes pretty quick. If you're not enjoying the process, muskie fishing will get old in a hurry.
To summarize?
Fish.
Enjoy fishing.
The rest will come. | |
| | |
Posts: 17
| ya guys that makes sense, for sure. What I would like to see is a GPS chip or something similar put into a dozen or so local muskies, then follow them for a year cross referenceing them with local weather, barometric pressure, wind, temp, cold fronts, basicly just follow their habits. What are they doing out there. It would be facinating I think.
Most of us in here LOVE fishing and LOVE musky fishing, thats not in question. Me for one, I HATE getting skunked. Just hate it. I still love fishing have since I was a boy, but I go out to catch muskies not throw heavy lures for 5 hours and get nothing. I can do that in my back yard.
I have heard from Jim Saric that "a musky is a musky is a musky" There has to be some kind of trigger(s) or trigger killer(s) that can nailed down with some kind of confidence with this fish.
>>>>Your job is to figure out what it takes to turn the followers into eaters. That can be frustrating, and it can take the fun out of muskie fishing. Or it can BE the fun. <<<<< the fellow above said this. Well, why are these fish following? Are they not sure its food? Have they been caught before and are actually learning? Is he full? I find it facinating whats behind this behaviour and all other musky behviour. Surley, a musky won't follow a jumbo real perch like this in the wild or will he? Weve got some work to do on lures if they are figuring us out! | |
| | |
Posts: 8856
| Why are they following? I've asked them that and they just won't answer me. My best guess is that the mechanisms that trigger a feeding response just haven't been tripped. Whether it doesn't look enough like food or doesn't stimulate the lateral line in the right way, I don't know. I've caught fish on things that look nothing like what they eat, and had realistic looking lures with the most beautiful finishes on them get ignored, so I suspect its a combination of the two.
Bue there again, it's just speculation. For all I know they're following because they're watching to see where it goes so they can come back and eat it when they're hungry. Kinda doubt that though....
| |
| | |
Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | ask herbie what to do and how to get ready for a follow and then sit back and enjoy the dynamics of the answer! ... i love it! ... and he's absolutely 100% right. | |
| | |
| There are no facts.... thats why its called Muskie Fishing, the most challenging, confusing fish on earth.. just when you think you have a pattern or "fact" it changes...
Edited by SVT 9/30/2008 4:44 PM
| |
| | |
Posts: 17
| >>>>>the most challenging, confusing fish on earth..<<<<
I would seem to agree with this....grrr | |
| | |
| Oceanrider,
I agree about the GPS chip thing. I would love to be a part of something like that. | |
| | |
Posts: 17
| >>>>I agree about the GPS chip thing. <<<<< Yes, would'nt that be fun. The data would be remarkable, perhaps even deadly, in the hands of a Musky Fisherman. I mean that in a "good day of fishing" way.
Yes, the hunt is fun, and I do enjoy it, greatly-- but an educated hunt would be much better. These fish are creatures and they have habits-regular habits. We can figure them out. Anywho, just some thoughts. | |
| | |
Posts: 1460
Location: Kronenwetter, WI | That all makes sense...I'm not sure why I continue my subscriptions to MH and EA...after 6 years of reading it seems that for every article that proclaims one thing to be true another claims just the opposite. The 'rules' are good starting points, the key, I think, is to be versitle enough to get off your first pattern when there's no action and try something else. | |
| | |
Posts: 17
| I agree COWBOY. These just may be one of the toughest creatures to figure out. In part because we can't watch them, like we do white tailed deer. I get frustrated also with MH and EA because with as much as they say and teach, they stop short of specifics. I guess its the nature of this beast. But I must reiterate, these fish are just creatures, mind u living with many variables, but they should be able to be patterened pretty tight. Just because we cant figure out their pattern does not mean there isn't one.
How much are GPS chips? hehe. | |
| | |
Posts: 17
| This may sound silly but there is something to it. When I get musky fishing, I do my "milkrun". Currently, I have 8 zones that I know hold musky. I try and hit all each outing or at least I try and hit 4. Sometimes even 2, shallow and deep. One thing that I have noticed. If I catch fish in one zone I usually get fish in other zones. If first zone is bare, I rarely see fish (almost never) in others. So, something is activating fish in all zones when they are "on", and when its "dead", its dead everywhere. This is what I find. I would be interested if you all see the same pattern?
Oceanrider. | |
| |
|
musky patterns and behaviour