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Posts: 14
| I'm a little anxious to get out, raise and hopefully land a few muskies. I have never targeted muskies this early in the year. I assume muskies are currently prespawn at this latitude. If you were going to fish northern Michigan or Wisconsin right now, what would be your approach.
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Posts: 2050
| My approach would be to save some money to pay the fines for fishing muskies out of season in Wisconsin  ..... Pre-spawn glide baits and DDD with long pauses is my go to.
Edited by IAJustin 4/29/2025 12:08 PM
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Posts: 14
| Catch and immediate release is legal 365 on the waters I will be fishing. |
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Posts: 661
Location: Duluth | And we wonder why some the of UP spots don't produce like they used too.........
The fish need a break, now more than ever. |
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Posts: 8814
| Before the season opens, I prefer to target muskies with an M-80. They'll be shallow, easy pickin's that time of year. If you're gonna kill them out of season, you may as well make quick work of it. Watch your fingers, though. Gotta toss those suckers as soon as you light 'em. Them muskies are good eatin' in cold water! |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Spotted owl - broiled - makes an excellent side-dish, but not near as good as eagle wings. m |
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Posts: 14
| I have been a musky hunter since the late 1980s and have only ever killed one(52in.36#) to get it mounted and that was before replicas were even available. I don't even kill pike or bass. I have never used live bait for musky. I wish there were more mandatory catch and release waters for not only muskies but other species as well. IMO, Michigan's musky management has improved thru the years, but I wish they would ban all musky spearing. I like to take people fishing but they have to agree to releasing all muskies or they don't fish in my boat. The replies I've gotten on this topic are a little surprising. I guess I will just fish for other species for the next 3-4 weeks. If catching muskies this time of year is so detrimental to the population, why is it even allowed? I wish fishing tournaments, derbies and other competitions that pay out cash and valuable prizes should be outlawed. For me the joy of fishing isn't killing fish. I just like catching fish, and watching them swim away to grow, reproduce and maybe be caught again. |
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Posts: 7065
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | GUYS,
If it's legal, it's legal. Come on.
And I've fished pre and post spawn (and during, which is a fabulously painful catchless situation). Find'em, fish'em how you'd fish any other time of the year. I'm not a huge fan of the "spring = small baits" deal, but some believe it.
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Posts: 661
Location: Duluth | One should be able to discriminate between fisheries entirely supported by stocking and those that rely on natural reproduction. Decisions made by legislatures to "streamline" regulations are no excuse to forget what we already know.
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| Following Cincy's thinking, I am thinking if you fish a body of water that is entirely Tigers you should not worry about anything to do with spawning, correct?
The chain I live on depends on natural reproduction, so there the spawning cycle should be considered. Based on what I see alongside my dock, spawning is done well before the northern zone musky season opens Memorial Day weekend but not before the fishing season for other species opens first weekend in May. |
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Posts: 1358
| Plenty of regulations have nothing to do with biological reasons. Primary thing to remember is don't break whatever regulations are in place, even if they seem dumb. Secondarily, within whatever rules are in place, use your common sense, knowledge, and ethics to guide your choices. If it's legal to fish, and there is no natural reproduction(no native population), there really isn't any harm in fishing. Particularly if it's not heavily pressured water. The reason muskies are in those lakes, is for our recreation. You just don't want to unnecessarily ramp up mortality with your method of fishing, equipment, or weather conditions(hot water). |
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