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Posts: 189
| Relatively new musky fisherman here. Caught a handful of fish over the last couple years fishing weekends here and there. One thing I do not understand is the amount of follows I'm getting, or lack thereof, given how much time I spend on the water. Can legitimately say I've had less legitimate follows than I've caught fish. Not sure if I'm doing something majorly wrong. Fish mainly Vilas county. Fish summer all the way until it snows. Fish bucktails, cranks, bulldawgs. Fish weeds, rock, shallow, deep. Fishing 8 hours and seeing nothing is the usual. Lakes are decent and have fish in them. Got polarized glasses and figure 8 every cast. Is this unusual, going say 40 hrs between follows? Maybe just a result of where I'm fishing? |
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Posts: 499
Location: Northern Illinois | It can take some practice to see follows as fish can be deep or way behind the lure or both. Some lakes are known to have fish that don't follow as much as other lakes, but I'm not sure about Vilas. |
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Posts: 2311
Location: SE, WI. | DK; Very typical for summer months....what your describing. Musky will hold tight to breaks in that 17-30’ or Suspend over deep water. Maybe get yourself some Rod holders, and start trolling. Follows don’t count Anyway  ... JD
Edited by jdsplasher 8/13/2019 11:16 PM
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Location: oswego, il | Are you fishing murky water? |
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Location: Ashland WI | Not that abnormal on (pressured) trophy waters. Seems a bit low to me, but not that far off of what I see sometimes. |
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Posts: 189
| Lakes have visibility anywhere from 3' to 10'. Not really trophy waters since i am looking for action and fishing what i believe to be action lakes. Im not surprised during the summer since it's tough to find them but when i still dont see fish in september and october it's frustrating. |
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| If you want follows, I would use a walk the dog topwater bait or a glider worked slow. |
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Posts: 189
| Baby Mallard - 8/14/2019 8:49 AM
If you want follows, I would use a walk the dog topwater bait or a glider worked slow.
I only want more follows because I feel like they're a sign I'm at least in the right spots at the right time. One theory I had was I fish too slow with a low geared reel and crank slow pretty much all the time. Maybe if I fished a bit faster the fish would need to follow to get a better look at the bait if it flys by them. But then again maybe not... |
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Posts: 8834
| Not saying you haven't, but you need to learn how to spot follows. Sometimes they're a ways behind the lure, sometimes they're down deep, sometimes they come in from the side or under the boat. My guess here is that your presentation needs some work. Could be they're following up way out on a cast and losing interest before you've had a chance to see them.
I'd start with speeding up. You can not reel faster than a musky can swim. Sometimes, we catch them simply because something went past their head and the little "eat" light went on.
Lower and slower is great for post frontal days, cool water temperatures, times when they're not interested in chasing something down, but for most mid summer conditions, speed is a big trigger. The added bonus is you're covering more water.
All that said, we don't typically see a lot of fish on the lakes we fish in Vilas County. Many days we've seen nothing, and many more days the only fish we saw were the one or two we caught.
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Posts: 189
| esoxaddict - 8/18/2019 5:31 PM
Not saying you haven't, but you need to learn how to spot follows. Sometimes they're a ways behind the lure, sometimes they're down deep, sometimes they come in from the side or under the boat. My guess here is that your presentation needs some work. Could be they're following up way out on a cast and losing interest before you've had a chance to see them.
I'd start with speeding up. You can not reel faster than a musky can swim. Sometimes, we catch them simply because something went past their head and the little "eat" light went on.
Lower and slower is great for post frontal days, cool water temperatures, times when they're not interested in chasing something down, but for most mid summer conditions, speed is a big trigger. The added bonus is you're covering more water.
All that said, we don't typically see a lot of fish on the lakes we fish in Vilas County. Many days we've seen nothing, and many more days the only fish we saw were the one or two we caught.
Ive got polarized glasses but I'll try to pay even closer attention.
I think I'll experiment with generally giving it more speed, but take comfort in the fact that my experience in Vilas doesnt sound entirely out of line. Thanks. |
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Posts: 504
Location: Ludington, MI | Read "Time on the Water" and you'll feel better. You're not the first to struggle in cottage country in the summer. |
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Posts: 189
| Not just the summer. Weekends here or there from june to late October. Doesn't appear to be just a summer thing. |
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Location: Ashland WI | Vilas15 - 8/18/2019 11:19 PM
Not just the summer. Weekends here or there from june to late October. Doesn't appear to be just a summer thing.
Are you fishing clear or stained water? Target depth can be very critical.
For example, there is a lake I fish (stained) that I rarely target water deeper than 10'. There is another lake i fish (clear), where I never target shallower than 12'. |
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