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| Has anyone ever wade fished for musky. I have been a bass fisherman all my life and fished tournamets for 10yrs now but last july my brother told me about some guys catching musky in a nearby creek, so I thought It would be fun to go wade fishing for a change. I rigged up a med/heavy rod with 25lb line (the biggest I had) and grabbed some big bass stick baits and buzz baits and headed out. My first trip my buddy hooked a huge musky (in a bass fishermans eyes) but lost it. The next day I had to go back and try to catch this fish. I was standing in the edge of the creek at daybreak the next morning and within an hour I had raised a big musky and cought a 45"er. I think I had my boat out 3 more time that year, I spent all my time wade fishing, needless to say Im hooked. I landed 2 more last year a 41" & a 42". I hooked 3 and raised at least a dozen. This is the funnest thing I have ever done. |
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Posts: 282
Location: north west wisconsin | Did you upgrade your equipment? There are some people on here the "wade fish" i call it fishing from shore but to each his own. There are alot of release techniques (SP) that can be learned by doing a search and i would suggest you use heavier line. congrats on your catch and welcome to the madness |
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| I have upgraded, my line anyway. And as for the catch and release, this was the first time I had ever been close to a musky so me being in the water anyway I never took them out. I simply let them calm down and drifted them up next to me and used a pair of long nosed pliers to take the hooks out. Luckly they were only hooked in the corner of the jaw. I had measured my rod and marked it like a rule and I would hold it next to the fish to measure it so give or take a little on the sizes. I would never intend on keeping one mainly because this is a creek so i know that musky is limited in these waters and I want to return every year and continue catching them. I would think that it would be easy to depleat them in these waters. I do know one thing, Its an eary feeling when you are standing in waist deep water and you have 3 1/2 foot fish hit your lure not 10 feet in front of you. but I love it. |
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Posts: 159
Location: Stevens Point, WI | Pointer will chime in when he gets online. He's a wader. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | I will chime in eventually....I need to meet with a prof in a few minutes. I'll give you the rundown on how I do things. Might be a while until I get to it though. Stupid school. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Bowman,
Welcome to fishing muskies while wading. Since I have no boat here at school I spend a lot of my fishing time standing and wandering around the Wisconsin River. Reading your posts it sounds like you have experience some cool things already. You think its erie when a fish hits 10 feet away from you when you are standing in the water with them? Just wait till one runs straight into you leg chasing your bait, now that is a rush! It also sounds like you are on the right track. It is good to hear you upgraded your line. I wouldnt go any lower than 80 lb. test braid. Also be sure to have a good leader.
I'm not sure where you are fishing or what the current is like, but for me I really enjoy fishing some of the faster current. Some people shy away from the strong current thinking that no fish would actually sit in it, but fish do. But fish can also be found in slower moving current. Almost any variety of baits will work, and it sounds like you are on a good pattern right now, so I would continue to stick with what is working. I like to throw topraiders and manta's in the river here. In spring I will also throw baby shallow raiders, baby jakes, and X-Raps. This spring I am going to try out the new Krushers and I think they will work really well.
Areas of interest to throw at are current breaks, deeper pools and eddies. I always throw up stream and work the bait back to me with the current. I do my best to not work a bait moving up stream. It does happen, and fish can be caught doing this, but I feel the bait looks more like a wounded or dying piece of food if it is traveling downstream as opposed to working upstream.
Once I get the bait close to me I try to make it just sit in the current and make it look like the bait is moving side to side in the current and holding its position in the current. This is where the fish run into your legs. Its a heart stopping site to see, but a lot of fun.
I wish you luck fishing from shore, it is a lot of fun. Feel free to ask anymore questions, I'll do my best to answer them for you.
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| here is a question for you guys, I have noticed that the musky that i catch out of streams,creeks do not seem to have the weight that the ones out of lakes have. Is their any rhyme or reason to this? I know that If you take a gold fish and put him in a small tank he will not grow very big, but if you take him out and put him in a bigger tank he will get bigger, could this be the same with creek fish versus lake fish? |
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Posts: 92
Location: chicago | If you read the spray book he states that the muskies from the rivers are usually smaller.However he said that the longest one he ever hooked but never landed lived in an eddy on the south fork. |
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Posts: 41
| River fish have to fight the current all their lives. Lake fish can spend vast amounts of time "sitting" |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | The fish here in the Wisconsin River can get pretty big. In my opinion the fish here in ther river are some of the fattest fish I've found. I've caught some in lakes where they have a good belly on them but the river fish seem to be thick all the way through. JZDANK1 also make a very good point, some energy is burned swimming in the current. |
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Location: Eau Claire,WI | I gotta disagree with what Pointer said...I do my best to not work a bait moving up stream. It does happen, and fish can be caught doing this, but I feel the bait looks more like a wounded or dying piece of food if it is traveling downstream as opposed to working upstream.
Here is why.I spend most of my time fishing rivers,most of my life too.Anyway,fish DO swim upstream,when they are injured they swim upstream,when they want to get away from being eaten they swim upstream.Fish are used to seeing fish move up and down and upstream. One of my favorite tactics on a river I quit fishing was to let my topwater or bucktail sit in a rapid area.The tail or blade would spin,in one spot.You knew when you got a hit! Last year my biggest fish came going against the current,a 46"er. In fact in any given year I bet over 50% of my fish are caught going againt the current.
I am by no means saying you can't get fish going with the current,I have cought plenty that way too.I am just saying sometimes it does pay to try something new or that nobody else is doing.
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | FishingFool, I wasnt saying that fish cant be caught working a bait upstream. I've seen fish caught coming back up against the current. I personally have more success working a bait downstream, but I have caught fish working a bait back upstream when I make long casts and the bait drifts down passed me. But I wont intentionaly chuck a bait way downstream and work it back up, but thats just how I fish. Maybe I'll have to try a few casts downstream this season. |
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | I think Mike and Paul have missed an important tactic, i.e., casting across the current. I have found this and casting with and against the current to also be quite productive. I think the most important lesson is "don't be afraid to fish the current". But, if you insist on fishing river current edges and wading, wear a PFD! I know of places where the river current break goes from ~2-3ft to ~ 20-30ft in one step! A PFD will let you hang onto your gear/fish and possibly come up smiling!
Have fun!
Al |
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Posts: 2024
| JZDANK1 - 4/2/2008 2:15 PM
River fish have to fight the current all their lives. Lake fish can spend vast amounts of time "sitting"
You'd be surprised how LITTLE river fish move, even in heavy current. Form and function. Check out their streamlined bodies. There's a reason for their morphology. Do they expend some energy? You bet, but on the whole not as much as we may think. It would make an interesting study. Put muskies from lakes and rivers into a respirometer and try to compare lacustrine energy reserves to riverine.
Here's a video of muskies on the Niagara River. When I saw it I was really surprised to see how little they moved. Pretty cool video on so many levels (thank, Jim!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6e466ulg3E |
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| How did they get down the river to yorkville area of the fox river etc etc from the fox chain than?
esox50 - 4/2/2008 6:27 PM
JZDANK1 - 4/2/2008 2:15 PM
River fish have to fight the current all their lives. Lake fish can spend vast amounts of time "sitting"
You'd be surprised how LITTLE river fish move, even in heavy current. Form and function. Check out their streamlined bodies. There's a reason for their morphology. Do they expend some energy? You bet, but on the whole not as much as we may think. It would make an interesting study. Put muskies from lakes and rivers into a respirometer and try to compare lacustrine energy reserves to riverine.
Here's a video of muskies on the Niagara River. When I saw it I was really surprised to see how little they moved. Pretty cool video on so many levels (thank, Jim! ).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6e466ulg3E
Edited by SVT 4/2/2008 10:13 PM
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Posts: 2024
| Sorry, you must be confusing me with someone else. I have never fished the Fox River. I'm assuming though that they simply swim downstream. My POINT is not that river fish don't move or somehow have a smaller "home range" than their lacustrine brethren, but that they don't have to "fight" the current to stay stationary by constantly moving their bodies against it.
Sorry if my point wasn't clarified in the other post. |
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| Sorry man I barely read it. thanks!
esox50 - 4/2/2008 10:22 PM
Sorry, you must be confusing me with someone else. I have never fished the Fox River. I'm assuming though that they simply swim downstream. My POINT is not that river fish don't move or somehow have a smaller "home range" than their lacustrine brethren, but that they don't have to "fight" the current to stay stationary by constantly moving their bodies against it.
Sorry if my point wasn't clarified in the other post. |
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Posts: 170
Location: Chicagoland | How can one find out if there is a musky stream near them. i have tried to find out, but its harder than it looks. |
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Where do you live? Most states list all muskie waters, including river's.
Have fun!
Al |
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| when it comes to rivers i hear some guys echoing what some of the shows say, and that is only cast upstream. The problem i have with that is i have caught more than half of my fish casting down stream. Casting upstream you have to reel a lot faster, and only a aggressive fish is going to turn around and chase your lure. Will it happen yes? But by casting down stream your lure will work better and can be retrieved slower for more non aggressive fish. I know Doug Stange was one that said always cast upstream but my experience with rivers says don't be afraid to cast upstream , be more afraid to go home empty handed. |
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Posts: 1310
Location: Washington, PA | Ive caught fish both ways. This is my theory, and it is just a theory. Casting up stream, brings the bait past fish positioned upstream and results in more strikes than follows. The opposite seems to result in followers. This is my theory. I wouldn't worry about it much, just cast, retrieve, repeat. |
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Posts: 273
| Nothing is ever 100%, especially when it come to muskies. Casting downstream will catch fish, but day in day out you will do better going with the flow.
One thing that has been ovelooked is backflows and eddies. These are situations where I will cast down river, since the flow is heading back up river. For me river fishing for muskie is very similar to trout fishing small streams. If you can read the water, it will tell you where to cast.
A lot of times on the Wisconsin ricer there will even be a foam line that will show you exactly where to cast. In the fall watch where the leaves bunch up. This is a dead give away for eddies and is always worth a few cast.
Jeff |
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| river fish seem to be tougher and fight harder then some lake fish |
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Posts: 214
Location: Beaver County, Pennsylvania | i live on the ohio river in PA and let me be the first to say. fish can get big in fast moving water, granted the ohio is huge and has a lot of structure and slow water. i've just started getting into wade fishing and have found a new love in doing so. |
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