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Posts: 90
Location: Athens, Ohio | Any advice for a good dozen starter baits for a new guy. I will be fishing the musky lakes of ohio, with most time being spent @ Salt Fork. Only have 2 under my belt, a 25", and 52" I caught in June on Lake Nipeeing, Ontario. Needless to say, after the 52 (dumb luck)... I have to learn to do this a little more regularly!
Suggestions on books, videos to help school a newb?
Thanks. Great Forum.
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Posts: 642
Location: Richfield, MN | Hey there Big I too am a newbie and I have been trying to find the book called Musky fishing for dummies and still to this date have not found it!!! I figured they have that book out for everything else why not musky fishing!!! LOL
I have gotten a tremendous amount of help from alot of great people on this site. So good luck with your knowledge building it has been alot of fun for me I know that!!!
Good luck. AND CONGRATS on that 52. That had to have been a heck of alot of fun reeling that one in!!! Nice job.
Mike
Edited by Muddy41 9/22/2010 10:34 PM
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Posts: 547
Location: Oshkosh | Weagle, Wabull, 12in Suick weighted, Cowgirl, Showgirl, 2 9in Curly Sues, Depth Raider or two, Water Chopper, Phantom, and 11in Curly Sue. As for books, there are a lot out there but The Complete Guide to Musky Hunting by Jim Saric and Steve Heiting is a good one that covers a lot. Great job on your 52 and welcome to the madness!
Peter |
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Posts: 90
Location: Athens, Ohio | The 52".... on 10# Trilene and a 4" Rapala Xrap, pink. Nice to be lucky every now and then! |
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Posts: 1168
| A dozen or so baits?
Why not do this...trim that dozen down to about 4 and learn how to work those really well. You won't be as tempted to constantly change baits all the time. Once you get comfortable with those 4 then expand your arsenal. You'll save money that way and won't be stuck with stuff that one guy absolutely loves but you don't. |
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Posts: 1296
Location: WI | Double Cowgirl, Pacemaker, Weagle, a smaller bucktail like an Inhaler or Buchertail, Suick, and a few spinnerbaits and cranks and you should be set. Greg Thomas has dvds that are supposed to be pretty good. Lots of good books out there. |
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| Books: Saric and Heiting, Complete Guide To Muskie Hunting. Explains the various lures. Really valuable starter book.
Dick Pearson, Muskies On The Shield. You're not on the Canadian Shield, but neither am I. I thought it was really valuable.
Tony Rizzo, Secrets of A Muskie Guide (I). Valuable season by season analysis.
Lures (just some suggestions).
Spinners: Mepps Magnum Muskie Killer (single tail and tandem tail); Mepps Giant Killer.
Crankbaits: 6" Jake with size 1 hooks; 8" Jake for trolling.
7" Grandma for casting.
6", 7", and 8" Believer.
6" and 8" Depthraider.
Pricier but effective: 5.5" and 6.5" Wiley.
Topwater: Regular Topraider.
Any medium sized walk the dog type bait.
Color and finish: When in clear water, try natural finish first (?); when in dark water, something a little funkier (firetiger) might be in order. But don't get too funky. You don't want to spend money on something that turns out to be useless. |
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| Red October Tubes!!!!! Absolute must have!! |
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Posts: 219
Location: Ohio | If your going to be doing any trolling the fish in Ohio like tuff shads and monster shads. |
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Location: Northern Wisconsin | Guest - 9/23/2010 8:52 AM
Color and finish: When in clear water, try natural finish first (?); when in dark water, something a little funkier (firetiger) might be in order. But don't get too funky. You don't want to spend money on something that turns out to be useless.
muskies like funky, get the wackiest colors you can find. |
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | I'd recommend first getting a good net and all the release tools. Then watch a few videos from guys like Steve Heiting, Jim Saric, or Joe Bucher and pay attention to their entire release process. Important things are to minimize the fight and time out of the water. Take the hooks out in the water and never, ever drop the fish.
As for lures, I would recommend keeping it very simple. Spinner baits like CJs, Rad Dogs, and Grinders will provide the most versatility and make unhooking the fish very easy. A couple of topwaters like a Low Rider or Top Raider and a couple of cranks should be sufficient on most days. As others have said, you don't need a lot of lures to catch a Muskie.
As for rods, you don't need $200 rods and $400 reels. There is no need for that. A $100 rod and a $100 reel will work just fine. Something like a Gander Mountain 8' MH IM8 rod and a ABU 6500C3 reel with a power handle will catch many fish.
As for line, don't go to light. Use super lines in the 80-100 range and good steel leaders with #5 Stay-Lok snaps. Anything less and you're asking for trouble. You should also check the knots at the leader before each outing and after each fish to ensure the line is not frayed. If it is frayed, retie.
Learn how to clean and fix your own reels. It is very easy and parts are readily available for the popular reels. ABU reel parts are probably the most readily available.
Learn how to control your boat. Proper boat control is much more important than any particular lure choice.
More than anything, use the KISS principal (Keep It Simple Stupid) in how you fish and what you use. Be very careful not to fall into the "magic lure" trap that causes people to spend rediculous amounts of money on over-hyped baits. Lures are just tools and lure choice matters more to the fisherman than the fish. A hungry fish will often hit any decent lure whether it is a spinner bait, a bucktail (big or small), a topwater, a glider, or a plastic. Remember, fish have a brain the size of a pea and are actually quite stupid.
Good luck. |
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Posts: 1207
Location: Pigeon Forge TN. | Lots of good advice, but as you see, it still boils down to personal preference which you will end up with eventually too. You would surprised as to the lures and color patterns that musky would hit. Beautiful or ugly if they are there and hungry they will eat it.
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| I spend at least a week on LOTW every year and I guarantee you I don't throw 12 different baits all week.
Jr Double Cowgirl (Walleye Gold/Gold and Red/Red)
Weagle
Top Raider
Rad Dogg Spinner for thick weeds
Believer or Swim Whizz to bouce off the rocks
Done. I don't even know why I bother to bring my huge Lakewood every year !!!
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Posts: 366
| If you are just starting out and don't know much about the details of muskie fishing, then my advice is to hire a well known guide who knows what they are doing, or at least find someone with a lot of experience that will take you out and show you details. I read all the magazines and books, and watched videos religiously when I was starting out too, but a couple days with a guide will quantum leap your learning curve. Especially if they have extra gear and baits that they allow you to use to see what you might like and get a feel for the options out there before you go and buy something that it turns out you don't like to use. Ask for bait advice, and you will get about every bait known to man listed eventually, but go with a guide and try a few and you will quickly know which baits might be for you, as well as which aren't a good fit for your style. You could easily buy a bunch of baits without knowing much about them other than someone said they were good, and a few years later look at a couple hundred dollars of baits you threw a few times before you realized you didn't like them that you could have put into guide fees and picked up a lot more than just bait details.
Ryan
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | A trip with a guide would be good, but so would a trip with an experienced Muskie fisherperson. Better yet, hooking up with an experienced fisherperson on a regular basis would really help you learn and could provide a lasting friendship. One possibility would be a local Muskies Inc chapter, if there is one near you. They often have outings where people fish together.
And don't be biased about who you fish with. Women can fish too and some people will surprise you. Some of the best fisherpeople I have ever known have some of the most humble of boats. Boats don't catch fish. Fishermen (and women) do.
Good luck. |
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| HEY Great Big-----man if you already got a 52 on a PINK x-rap----buy 11 more of em!!!! Just kidding---it really depends on the lakes that you fish in Ohio and the depths of water you'll be fishing. For shallow water---spinnerbaits, bucktails, topwaters and shallow crankbaits. For deep water-----big plastics(i.e. bulldawgs, medussas), deep diving cranks and weighted jerkbaits. AS far as color goes PINK for sure---works in clear and dirty water. After that, pick a color, any color---they all work---bright lures in bright conditions---dark lures for cloudy days and after dark. We get alot of muskies on bass sized baits in Indiana--year round--zara spooks, plastic worms--amazing stuff. Good luck to ya---Jobu |
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Posts: 994
Location: Minnesota: where it's tough to be a sportsfan! | You can pick up a wealth of knowledge by fishing with a guide down your way. Just talk to him first and tell him you are there to learn, some guides teach, others are just "teachers"  |
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Posts: 131
| cow girl ,bobbie bait , phantom ,weagle , suick night stalker and some dynamite for the slow days . maybe even a few sessions with a therapist when it really gets bad . |
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Posts: 432
Location: Eagan, MN | ulbian - 9/22/2010 11:22 PM
A dozen or so baits?
Why not do this...trim that dozen down to about 4 and learn how to work those really well. You won't be as tempted to constantly change baits all the time. Once you get comfortable with those 4 then expand your arsenal. You'll save money that way and won't be stuck with stuff that one guy absolutely loves but you don't.
This is the absolute best advice. Lures don't have much to do with catching muskies. We all have the same lures. Yet some guys do well and some don't. Kinda tells me it ain't about the lures. You need to be observing and learning, and you can't do that if you're constantly worrying about what lure to throw. If you snap on a spinnerbait, and use nothing else for your entire first season you'll probably end up learning more, and putting more fish in the boat.
Grinder spinnerbait
DCG
Topraider
Un-weighted Suick
Shallow Invader
Get something like these or similar, and you have the full range of presentations... fast/slow, erratic/straight, shallow/deep, big/small, weeds/wood/rock/open water. |
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| Showgirl,Mepps musky killer,Topraider,Hellhound,Super Stalker. |
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Posts: 225
Location: Nordeast Minneapolis | Rapala Supershad! One of the most versatile multi-species crankbaits I've ever used. Also relatively cheap, in the world of musky baits.
There are a lot of great bait recommendations here... but IMO if you're looking for a lure to start with, a supershad is easy to use- trolled, straight retrieve, twitched, whatever.
For movies, I'm personally a fan of 'The Golden Age of Musky'. But there are a lot of clips on youtube and myoutdoortv.com that you can stream for free! |
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