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Posts: 8
| The lake we have been fishing has been extremely clear in the past weeks. The lake is small compared to the lakes up north. The lake is less than 300 acres but has shared over 70 muskies with us in the past 3 years. The lake receives a ton of bass pressure and some musky pressure but not a lot. We can move fish on every outing but they don't seem to be very aggressive like they used to be. They usually come in deep and slow. The water temps have risen and dropped every 3 to 4 days and never really stabilizing. We thrown just about every bait possible at them. Any suggestions how to combat these slow and lazy follows would be greatly appreciated. |
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Posts: 140
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That is the Golden Question to which you will more than likely get quite a few answers.
My personal experience is to use speed. My Fig 8 starts out away from the boat with a slight speed increase. Those following fish will only swim as fast as your bait is going, so if your bait is going slow, the fish will be going slow. Think of those lazy follows as a car in low gear. You need to get those fish to shift from low gear to high gear with a slight speed increase before you get to your boat side Fig 8.
That is what I would start with then read the fish. Good big turns and a little speed in the straights of your 8 and read the fish. |
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| i'd use my longest rod, get as deep as i can, and really sweep the bait underneath the boat when you do your 8 |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Use cranks with a slow rise. At the boat give them a few rips/jerks, and then let them sit. Deadsticking can be deadly at times. |
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Posts: 8
| Thanks guys, ill keep trying to change my approach and read the fish a little more. I've got a 9'3" recently and have not been taking advantage of going deep with my 8's. I'll try it! |
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| Do they commit to the 8? |
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Posts: 697
Location: Minnetonka | +1 on reading the fish. If the fish is still lagging behind after your speed increase by the boat, take your time in making your first big turn of the figure 8... do your best to get her synced up and engaged on your lure before increasing your speed again. |
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Posts: 8
| Very few ever commit to the 8, they seem to lose interest. We have had only a couple follow the 8 once or twice. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | I've caught a few on the 8 but probably not enough to give you as qualified advice as has already been given. In my experience speed can help but for me, lots of the lazy and deep followers can lose interest when I speed the bait up too. These fish are something I'm working on too...
Have you tried a slow moving topwater bait like a Weagle yet? Sometimes they can do a good job of making neutral fish bite away from the boat. Worked painfully slow can be a patience testing, but great technique. Swoosh...........Swooosh..........Swoosh..........
You might want to try that if it's something you haven't yet.
Tucker |
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Posts: 1036
| Try using small suckers in the spring. Set those suckers waaayyy down there and hope that one of your follows eats the sucker. When water temps rise, hook a bluegill and do the same thing.
And if you are on a lake as small as you say and the fish have "changed" their habits, maybe they are being conditioned to your lures? Try throwing some baits that they haven't seen before. If you need something that goes deep, try an Echotail from Vibrations tackle. That should give off a vibration that the fish haven't seen/felt before.
Good luck. |
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Posts: 238
Location: Rhinelander | Following the advice above if you can't them to go on the 8 I leave them alone until switch in the weather or a moon/sun rise set.
Leave them alone, don't pressure them, and return at the oppertune time and try with a deep running bait.....the last rip up near the boat can be the ticket...... More times than not can get them to go then. |
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| When they are deep and far behind the lure,they usually don't even react to any speed change,my best advice for those lazy biatch is to use a little stick of tnt.Seriously it seems impossible to just commit them to turn into the 8,there is no big chance for you to caught these kind of fish.Sometimes i have literally jig my dawg on the fish head.(COLD FRONT SYNDROME lol)
This year i'll try for the first time to use a creature for that kind of particular situation,will see what happen. |
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Posts: 540
Location: Leech Lake, Walker MN | I have fished clear water all my life ,the big circle and the speed at boat side is a big deal.when they are a little bit back from the bait they really are not showing you that I'm really not very aggressive right now but I did see it and I am curious as to what is this ,that's their nature. My suggestion is when you catch a pike or a bass rub some slime on you lure from that fish my be it's a smell thing. Or fish that are that shy maybe
Go back to thous fish in the dark.sounds like it is not a location thing you have found them that in it self is more than half the battle.try the night thing no liters on or any thing untill you get hooked up the best of luck to you.ALWAYS CALM WATERS TO YOU
Don |
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Posts: 164
Location: Bloomington,MN | night fish |
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | You might want to try some fish scent on the lure. That has worked for us on several occasions. Only problem is the boat might stink when you get home.  |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | Herb_b - 5/2/2012 3:46 PM
You might want to try some fish scent on the lure. That has worked for us on several occasions. Only problem is the boat might stink when you get home. ;)
And the wife might get mad. |
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Posts: 46
| One that i have seemed to have luck on last year was to have the lure come in on surface or higher in water column and then when close enough stick the end of the rod really deep in down all the way to the fore-grip sometimes going all the way to reel seat and continue the same speed the fish came in on, sometimes only a very slight speed increase, then when completing the first turn rip the bait up towards the surface as hard as you can. To the fish, the meal it was following just made a quick escape and you may get a reaction strike. Ive had this work in clear water as well as doing it blind in very dark water and not even knowing a fish was following and having a fish smoke it and almost take me in. Give it a try, whats the worst that can happen |
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Posts: 38
| I have found that incorporating the right triggering mechanisms will get those fish to bite. You shouldn't focus all on the eight. When I work rubber baits I loose line the bait, then the lure swings out a bit. This shows the musky that it can intercept the baits head. Also on spinners and bucks, I like to twitch my rod a little bit when I know a fish is following. But a good thing to try is to speed up when the fish gets behind the lure, or a very quick pause. |
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Posts: 2361
| curleytail - 5/2/2012 10:33 AM
Have you tried a slow moving topwater bait like a Weagle yet? Sometimes they can do a good job of making neutral fish bite away from the boat. Worked painfully slow can be a patience testing, but great technique. Swoosh...........Swooosh..........Swoosh..........
Tucker
How do you know they are neutral if they bite away from the boat? |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | firstsixfeet - 5/3/2012 5:13 AM
curleytail - 5/2/2012 10:33 AM
Have you tried a slow moving topwater bait like a Weagle yet? Sometimes they can do a good job of making neutral fish bite away from the boat. Worked painfully slow can be a patience testing, but great technique. Swoosh...........Swooosh..........Swoosh..........
Tucker
How do you know they are neutral if they bite away from the boat?
I never KNOW anything about fishing, but I've had days where nothing else worked, and any fish seen were low and slow, but a Weagle triggered a hit without a figure 8. In my mind that was likely a neutral fish that was converted away from the boat.
In my experience, nearly all of my fish have hit Weagles away from the boat rather than following back to boatside. Other baits more commonly get followed. If I was getting follows from lazy fish that wouldn't commit, I would certainly be trying a Weagle for a while.
Tucker
Edited by curleytail 5/3/2012 10:36 AM
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Posts: 767
Location: Ames, Iowa | Rumbler is right on- I would be fishing this water at dusk or at night. My favorite night baits are props like rumblers- or jackpots, or the little Suick Topper. I also use baits like Reef Hawgs, Suicks or Bulldawgs during the day that get deeper, are a lot less flashy, go slower and stay in the fish's face. Biggest fish I ever saw was a follow on a suick on a crystal clear lake right near dark, where I've never had a decent sunny day follow. When everything had to be perfect, the bait had 2 feet of cabbage on it and I never saw the beast again. |
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