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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | But the biggest muskie I had on this last year was on a Bandit 100 crankbait I was using for smallies in the river here. Sometimes I think there is something to be said for bass lures on muskies, they just aren't really made to hold up to a fish that size. |
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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | No laughing here. Many many muskies get caught every year by non musky fisherman targeting walleye or bass. Sadly most of them swim off with a lure in their mouth of course. Size matters? |
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Posts: 1023
Location: Lafayette, IN | My nephew caught and landed a 41" pike on a Bandit while bass fishing off a dock on Vermilion. What a fish! He did and awesome job handling it too. An average angler never would've brought that girl in, I'm sure.
(Ben's 41[1].5 Inch Northern.jpg)
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 Ben's 41[1].5 Inch Northern.jpg (4KB - 288 downloads)
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Posts: 188
Location: Downers Grove | i got a 48 inch muskie est.. up in canada on eagle lake on a bandit. It got it on 8lb test and a gloomis crankbait series rod. It was awesome. I had a boat near me that came cand help me try and land the fish. I was by myself i grabbed it and it thrashed and it took off and my reel wasnt in freespool and it snapped the line.
Great fighter thought but no pick to show |
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Posts: 32926
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | No laughing here. Keith slapped the Sabaskong Muskies around pretty well on a small crankbiat. I went to a bass sized bait when he told me about the success he was having, and did really well. We were fishing rock walls for the most part, taking the fish off cracks in the walls that had a couple busted hunks of stone associated with the fissure. |
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Posts: 1189
Location: Bagley,MN 56621 | 2 words....Ken O'Brien
it happens. |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | I don't have a problem with small crankbaits. The panfish in the lakes I fish are small so I try to match what they eat.
I bet I caught over 50 muskies last year on baits smaller than 6-inches and 1/3 of them came from baits smaller than 4-inches. I had a client catch a 47-inch muskie on a 3 1/2 inch crankbait last July. They wanted to go after multi species that afternoon. Thats a big fish for that little bait.
Match the bait fish size in your lake and you will catch more muskies by the end of the year.
Big baits will catch fish everywhere but there is a time and a place for small crankbaits.
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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | Thanks for the great replies guys. I was actually looking for a Bandit 500 series since I was having luck on the small ones. The 500 is an oversized Bandit that runs shallow, but so far haven't had any luck finding any. Does anybody know where I could get one, or something similar in the muskie tackle?
Who's Ken O'Brien and what is his significance? |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | I have caught several Muskies on Bass sized cranks.. Rattlin Fat rap's, Mann's stretch 20+, skitter pops..Well that one is a top water not crank, but still bass sized... Biggest for me so far is a 40" musky. |
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Posts: 1189
Location: Bagley,MN 56621 | Srry, thought most knew.
Ken Obrien caught a sumo 65# muskie (late 80's, I think ) in canada on a dinky rapala trolling for walleyes.
It;s recognized as the canadian record Musky. |
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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | Thanks, I'm fairly new to muskie fishing....just the last two years. That's why I missed the Ken O'Brien thing. |
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Posts: 585
Location: Gaithersburg, Maryland | I use a few Bass minnow type baits for Tigers. I replace the hooks with a size or two bigger as long as it doesn't interfere with the action of the lures.
A lot of Bass guys catch Tigers in the spring on their lures, especially jigs. Most of these fish are 36-42" long. A friend of mine took one on a plastic worm with 4 lb. line fishing for Bass.
I guess it's like eating a slice of pizza. Eat one piece (a small lure)may not be enough. However, you still eat the pizza. Wondering....do you think there are Italian Muskies out there? |
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Posts: 4266
| I had to throw away a Bagley DB3 after a 3 fish day. Two of the fish were over 40". I fished a weedline with "traditional" muskie gear and came up with nothing, so I went back cranking for walleyes or smallies....SUPRISE!
One 200 yard stretch fished over twice...3 skis on mini baits.
Go figure.
Beaver |
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| The lake I'm on up in Vilas co. is a notorious Musky lake, but I've been catching nice Largemouths up there alot using "bass sized baits". Knowing that we have a large Musky population and also knowing how easy they bite off mono, I made a change from mono to 30lb Fire line, it has 10-12 lb diameter. I can still have my "Bass cake and eat it too", with a little more confidence that Musky are'nt going to bite me off. Another suggestion is to increase the size of your Crank's trebels.
If you know you're "Other Species" fishing in a Musky populated lake, you should consider making changes to your gear to avoid Musky swimming away with baits in thier mouths. |
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| Look at the last poster girl here it was caught on a 6" Bucher bait, not a big bait at all
Musk. |
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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | Gander Mt. Guide, I'm using 30# TufLine on my bass outfit just in case I get into a muskie, and lo and behold I landed two decent muskies this year on a Bass Pro Shops TopKnocker. They seemed to like that smaller "walk the dog" motion. |
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Posts: 1462
Location: Davenport, IA | I hooked my first muskie on a leech. Small baits can definetly catch muskies. Last year I was having a terrible day one day so I grabbed my bass rod and started making 10' casts with a rapala along the shore and at boatside I thought I snagged a log at boatside. Then it took off. I fought the muskie for awhile before it shook the hooks. Luckily I had 20 lb braid on that rod so I didn't have a muskie running around with hooks in its mouth. |
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