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Posts: 572
Location: Maplewood, MN | I'm having a struggle of a season so far. I can't seem to find any sort of pattern or luck for that matter. I've been out about 20-22 days and only have a small 30's and follows. What would you say is the best way to 'up the odds' when you are musky fishing? Is it boat control? Lure speed, color, profile, action? Casting angles? Timing? I'm fishing lakes that I fish regularly and I can't seem to move much of anything let alone find hungry fish. I work parallel to the structure and have my boat out about 10' deeper than what i'm casting to. Any suggestions would be great. |
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Posts: 114
| More time on the water does wonderful things on and off the water. |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | fish with someone else and let them take charge. You can pickup some new ideas from them and take your mind off running the boat. |
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Location: Eau Claire,WI | I try and make contact with structure. Try going shallower,fish the weed clumps,a very slow or a very fast moving topwater should work. fish area nobody else fishes,tight to shore,slop,etc. Been a wierd year for me too so don't feel too bad.Keep after em... |
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Location: MN | If you are fishing around Maplewood you are fishing some pressured waters. Try night fishing and slow down your retrieves. Top waters and slow rolling DCG's. If you are uncomfortable fishing at night go out on a full moon. The last few nights you could see incredibly well with the moon shine.
Another thing I have found to work is try casting from an angle that others do not. Just about everyone works the boat like you do, running parrallel to the structure and casting into it. Try going over the structure and casting out deep. If the structure is big enough go right over the middle of it and cast up on top where most guys don't even fish. This can work real well on big mid lake structure. Just about everyone just circles around the edges. You can also try running right up tight to the structure and cast off your bow bringing the bait right along the edge of the weedline or break.
Pay attention to the moon cycles. My best action this year has been on or very close to full or new moons.
Sometimes no matter what you do they won't eat. Stay positive and keep pounding away. The best time of the year is just around the corner. |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | Sorry to hear of your troubles.. But since you asked I'm gonna tell you "exactly" why your not catching fish. 1st, It has nothing to do with "a pattern" or "boat control " or color or the moon or wind or casting angle, "timing" maybeeee but I doubt it, your a muskie fisherman and probably a die hard. Hungry fish, really?
The reason you are not catching fish is very simple, your fishing where there are NO fish! In order for a spot to be good the structure, (defined correctly as not a weed or a rock but "The "BOTTOM" of the lake with some unusual features that distinguish it from the surrounding BOTTOM area") must lead from the shallows to the deep. Once or twice on an average fishing day the fish "may" get active and may move towards the shallows, how far they go and how long they stays is totally dependent on the weather and water conditions at the time. Wish I thought of it, ha ha. If we spend our entire season fishing in water less than 10' and the fish only reach a depth of 15' at their shallowest when were on the water, how many we gonna catch?
Last week we caught well over 150 pike, bass, walleye and Muskie (to 48") from lake Delavan in southern WI. few were caught in water less than 18'. |
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Posts: 30
| i'm not a musky man,but what I found with bass a few years ago on ky lake this time of year gets tough.you fish all day and maybe get a couple of keepers knowing this lake has a good population of 4&5 lb. bass.finally convinced my partner lets try something different!! went to the main river 50 to 60 foot and fished ledges and humps that was 25 to 35 on top.guess what we found! this is a pattern we fish every year now.maybe try some thing like this for musky.go deep and find your breaks and humps.lol! |
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Posts: 572
Location: Maplewood, MN | Maybe I generalized too much. GENERALLY I work structure that way on some bodies of water. On one it particular I fish DEEP. I'm talking open water casting/trolling 60-80 feet. I fish a lot of open water areas and deep humps. When I meant shallow casting I was referring to ONE lake I spend a lot of time on. I appreciate the insight but I just don't understand if you say I'm fishing poor areas when I have moved many fish there before and suddenly they are gone or I see guides working the exact same areas. It's maddening to see this happen and see them move fish and connect. |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | I'm not tying to beat you up or saying your fishing bad areas/ have no idea, just stating your not fishing the depth the fish are in. Here's the guideline write it down, put it in your mind and toss out all that other,,, stuff like boat control, moon blah, blah blah...Guideline: If we present lures or bait at the right "depth", in the right area, move it at the right "speed" and do so at the right "time", we WILL catch a fish, every single time! If we are not catching fish obviously there is a piece of the puzzle missing and need to figure out what that is. As stated before you could be on the best spot in the lake and have caught hundreds of muskies in the past at 14' but if the fish are in 22'......or 42'... Getting active at 6:30pm and requiring a speed of 6 mph.... And we're not? Upping the odds means checking all depths and all speeds until we figure out what there doing and when.
There are a lot of good guides but have confidence in what your doing. Ask them only two questions, "what depth" and "what time" thats it! Thats all you need to know, you can figure out the rest. Hopefully they'll be truthful. The other day as we launched the boat a local guide, nice guy, was droping off a couple of guys and picking up two more. He saw my muskie size JB1 spoonplug and said something to the effect of , "there we go" which was followed by "things are slow out there". We said thanks and went on our way. By him telling us things were slow "to that point", it told us maybe the fish hadn't moved or gotten active yet. We already knew the aproximate depth and speed from our trips out earlier in the week. It turned out the fish were on the move as soon as our lures hit the water. My partner somewhere after our 12th or 13th fish turns and says, "slow huh" and smiled, we caught the tail end of a movement and ended up with about 20 pike,bass, and walleye, no muskies that day, should have gotten out earlier. 
Good luck on your next trip out!
Edited by jerryb 8/24/2013 9:23 AM
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Posts: 30
| not saying your a bad fisherman,its the mind game that these creatures play on us all.places where we catch bass through the early summer you can not get bite there now in the day.but you go back at midnite and throw spinnerbaits over these areas and they will rip the rod out of your hands.i don't know if its not as much pressure,boat activity,or if they are just feeding in the pattern or the moon phase.you have to just keep chugging along till you find the pattern.i luv nite time cause the big boys like to play.mix it up you will come across what will work.lol james. |
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Posts: 572
Location: Maplewood, MN | Hmmmm. Some of this is useful, I'll see what I can do. My theory is that it's 90% time on the water. Earlier in the year I was moving fish but now it's really slowed since I just got through with my bass circuit. I should just travel to a NW WI numbers lake to build confidence, not saying it's easier but I will more often than not see a good number of fish. These city lakes are like a woman; one day they can't stay away, the next, the goneee. |
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Posts: 572
Location: Maplewood, MN | Nershi - 8/23/2013 4:28 PM
If you are fishing around Maplewood you are fishing some pressured waters. Try night fishing and slow down your retrieves. Top waters and slow rolling DCG's. If you are uncomfortable fishing at night go out on a full moon. The last few nights you could see incredibly well with the moon shine.
Another thing I have found to work is try casting from an angle that others do not. Just about everyone works the boat like you do, running parrallel to the structure and casting into it. Try going over the structure and casting out deep. If the structure is big enough go right over the middle of it and cast up on top where most guys don't even fish. This can work real well on big mid lake structure. Just about everyone just circles around the edges. You can also try running right up tight to the structure and cast off your bow bringing the bait right along the edge of the weedline or break.
Pay attention to the moon cycles. My best action this year has been on or very close to full or new moons.
Sometimes no matter what you do they won't eat. Stay positive and keep pounding away. The best time of the year is just around the corner.
Some good stuff here. I DO need to slow down. In my head it's run and gun but doesn't everyone sort of do that around here? Also, my last fish did come from an inside out way of casting. I think I just would like to hear others with my same ideas so I feel more confident in what I'm doing. Otherwise I change my tactics too often. |
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Upping the Odds