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| A local bait shop owner and respected long-time musky chaser recently told me (paraphrased) - "Almost all of your strikes will come either just after the bait hits the water or just as the bait approaches the boat. To maximize those high percentage times, and minimize the dead time in between, always throw short casts."
Hmmmm....what do you think? |
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| never mind... |
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| I would disagree as at times its a necessary evil to have that football field cast! I would assume anyone who has chased these critters for awhile would have ran into that situation! Handy |
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| I think it depends on what the situation is. I have had muskies strike my lure from the point of entry to everywhere in between. |
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| Ranger, Hope that you like long involved answers. For me it depends upon conditions and lures. In heavy cover such as timber, rushes etc. shorter would be better. Less chance of a fish becoming entangled in the cover.In the open I would opt for longer casts. Sometimes in order to get a lure such as a crankbait to it's proper depth on a cast, you have to make a long cast. I make longer casts with bucktails than I do with jerkbaits. This is because of hooking capabilities. When I fish a Jigs in the weeds I make shorter "pitches" so as to work the jig as verticly as possible as long as possible. When jigging the rocks, I make longer casts to move the bait more horizontally along the bottom. Could be that I over analyze this stuff way to much as well. |
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| another good time to be throwing short cast are in heavy wind.with long cast in heavy wind you will lose control over your bait.weeds+wind=short cast
plitzzz[:0] |
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| Ranger,
I am a firm believer in the fact that about 80% of all my catches come in the first 10 feet of the cast and the last 10 feet of the cast. With that, I have tried mixing some things up mid retrieve in order to try and increase the percentages (zig-zags, twitches, pops, pauses, etc......).
The thing I don't like about throwing bombs is I generally will end up losing the fish. If it hits way out there, so many things can happen before you get that fish any where near the boat. Some people can throw bombs and do well, while others lose whatever decides to eat. Change it up and see what works best for you. |
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| If you're drifting, short casts allow you to cover the water more thoroughly as you can cast to a lot of different spots with short casts before you drift over them. A long cast only covers one line. |
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| I toss short casts most of the time at 'targets'. I try to read the water all the time, trying to place every cast in a 'fishy' spot.
The exception is surface baits over large expanses of cover. I will toss some pretty long casts in that situation. I agree with Scott that one has a better chance of losing a fish way out there, but my success on first impact strikes way out there has improved with the superline hooksets. |
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| I'm with Mike, Scott and Steve. The only time I cast long is when I need to get to some spot that I would miss on that drift, other wise I make shorter casts targeting spots on the spot. The longer the cast the better chance of not getting a solid hook set. Most of the time a fish will hit withing the first 20 foot of the retreave when your casting at a spot but you never know when its going to happen.[;)] |
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