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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | Just got back from a 4 day trip Musky fishing and were blanked. We fished from 6 to 50 feet, (deepest water). We had 3 suckers (10-12”) out and were jigging Bondy baits, Bull Dawgs, and Fuzzy Duzzits. We had line counter reels so we could hit the perfect depth. Surface temps were in the middle 30’s. We fished from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The suckers were at different depths from 6 feet down to on the bottom and were moved up and down according to the baitfish. We found ball of baitfish with hooks around them and we jigged them all. We fished shallow, deep and in between, anywhere we saw baitfish. What did we do wrong? Thanks for any help. Tom |
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| needed bigger suckers. 14-16in work great. |
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Posts: 667
Location: Roscoe IL | Happens to everyone, and from what you said I don't see that you could have done any more. Musky's suck!
Just make you better appreceiate (spelling) the days when you get one in the net. |
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Posts: 129
Location: North Metro - Twin Cities | Sounds like you did a lot of things right. As guest suggested, the bigger the better when it comes to suckers. If you can get them 15" + is ideal. The toughest part about late fall is how short the feeding windows are so if your not on fish when the bite in going you can easily miss it. We all blank sometimes no matter what you read on the forums. |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | I agree that you've got to be on fish when there active, 4pm or 4am.
The part I disagree with is if the fish are in a dormant or very inactive time, a "slow" and you did that, a "smaller" presentation would have been best. |
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Posts: 129
Location: North Metro - Twin Cities | Going smaller sometimes works, caught plenty of 30 something degree water temp muskies on traditional jigs 6 to 8-inches. That said up here in the late fall we are targeting really big fish so it's lures and bait 14" +. |
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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | Guys, thanks for the suggestions. We had 10-12” suckers, Fuzzy’s were 6”, Dawgs Regular and Magnum and Bondy was 6” & 7.5”, so we had different size baits from small to what we consider large. I guess large wasn’t large enough. Thanks again, Tom. |
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| The only thing you did wrong was picking the wrong water  You covered as many bases as possible----at least you went down swinging------Jobu |
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Location: North Central IL USA | Where were you fishing? |
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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | Webster Lake in Indiana. Maybe that was the problem. Thanks guys, Tom |
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| Last time out on Ol' Webby we did pretty good----got a 44 and a 46----also had a monster terrorizing a sucker for a half hour. Maybe those "southern skies" are finally getting wise to the same old same old. Hope the water stays open a few more weeks----I wanna fish open water in January---that would be awesome!!!!!---Jobu |
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| Sounds like my last time on webster a couple weeks ago. I have been doing much better on The Barbie Chain but the canal on Kuhn was pretty frozen up to 2" thick as of tuesday. I don't know what the warmer weather yesterday 12/15 and the rain did but the past two weeks we have boated a 48" and 49.5" on Barbie Chain. Good luck to you.
Since you are from Chicago area stop in Hammon at Mik Lurch to get some bigger suckes they usually have them in. Check there website for contact info they get shipments all the time. |
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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | Guys, thanks for the suggestions. I have one more question. Do you guys really think that a musky will let a 12“ sucker swim by waiting for a 15”. That doesn’t seem like an opportunistic feeder to me. But I’ve been wrong before. Thanks, Tom |
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Posts: 129
Location: North Metro - Twin Cities | Fever, In most of my sucker experience and keep in mind I'm talking about super heavy pressure fisheries, the 10-14" size sucker are drastically tougher to get strikes then the 16- 20" size. When you get the big dudes, their life expectancy is pretty short once you put them down. I'm convinced that muskies on heavy pressure fisheries have learned that large size prey equals safer prey. CM |
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| Another "secret"---shhh! is to use really small suckers -----one bite----game on! Everyone knows the bite on Webster was "sub-par" this year. Kudos to you for venturing out so late in the season. I hope it stays open all winter---would love to bag a NEW YEARS MUSKY. The biggest problem with small waters-----the fish have seen it all-----that includes the fall sucker parade unfortunately. Maybe after they stew a bit this winter, they'll have better attitudes-----muskies beware! Good luck---Jobu |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | Sorry I just can't buy into waiting for a fish to have a better attitude,,, We need to change depths, speeds and Jobu your right about, "size". Tom, you had plenty of time but placed limits on how "small" you we're willing to go. The only thing a large or jumbo bait / sucker does is keep inactive or small fish from hitting, unless we're talking about a very old fish.
The fish were obviously in a "slow and inactive time", it's been that way this fall. Here in the Midwest and in Canada as well on many occasions we couldn't get a fish to take trolling, large or small baits. Make a trolling pass over a known productive area and get nothing, but turn the boat around and drag a small bait and get hammered!
When fish are active they will take a fast moving or large bait but when they are inactive they "may" take a sloooow,,,, moving,,, bait and if they're really inactive due to a bad weather or water condition a small, and btw a 6" dozit doesn't qualify for small, try a "dead" sucker, works for slow speed too. Don't give this (muskie) or any fish any credit for being smart, or conditioned.
To answer your question, "Do you guys really think that a musky will let a 12“ sucker swim by waiting for a 15”. That doesn’t seem like an opportunistic feeder to me."
You are exactly right, makes no sense. However if he's "active" he,, will take what ever comes his way.
You said you were marking fish, my question to you is, didn't you want to know what the h%$@ they were? You should have dropped something small down just to check it out? The next time your fishing in that area look up Denny Coulardot he's by far the most knowledgeable!
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| This fall on Tonka I watched a 50+ follow a sucker for over 200'. We sped it up, twitched it, let it stop dead. She stayed back 2-3' from the minnow and just followed it all the way through channel before slowly fading away. That minnow was over 14".
The friend whose boat I was in put it pretty bluntly: "They eat when they want to eat." We were simply not there for the window.
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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | Jobu, Chris, thanks for the tips. Jerry, in the past we have snagged small (under 6") perch, crappies and a few shad while jigging Fuzzy's. We just took it for granted that these were the same. Also to guest, I completely agree that they eat when they want to, and also believe in windows. Again thanks all for the tips, good luck to all, Tom |
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| Chris-
please don't take this the wrong way but how can you say big muskies have a comfort zone with "Big Prey" equating to safe food? Large size prey = safer prey in pressured waters? That makes no sense to me & how can a fish with the brain the size of a pea realistically figure that out? Didn't someone recently catch a 60" fish on a 5" Husky Jerk? Fever seemed to try a lot of different tactics & even said he used a Magnum Bull Dawg which is about 14"or 15" with the tail extended I believe...maybe its just the fact that he was fishing in one of the toughest times & he never did run into a feeding window which, I too, am a big believer in. Fishing this time of year really only allows you to fish 5 or 6 hours a day which means there are 18 hours that the fish have an advantage over you. I think Fever had a good game plan but he just wasn't able to get a fish to commit. Fishing for Musky is indeed tough & I really don't think anyone can/will ever figure them out. You just have to keep fishing & take your lumps. That being said, I'm sure many people feel the same way I do after a long day of fishing & getting blanked...you hate them as soon as your off the water but on the way home you can't wait to get back at them!!!! Remember, you can tuna piano but you can't tuna fish!!!!!! Happy Holiday's & safe fishing to all |
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| Chris could very well have a road to success. That brain the size of a pea thing is a common comment, but get real toots, some of those fish sort baits and presentations, and don't accept all presentations all the time. JerryB Lookatme says he might need to go smaller, but that presents a problem with actually hooking and holding a fish that you do get to strike. If you can get them to strike.
Let's face the facts, when you go to fish the world's densist musky lake and strike out, there could be a lot of things wrong, not the least of which might be Fever's skill set. People do get skunked on densely populated lakes, and if your success has to come in a limited window of opportunity, tough luck if they aint on the bite.
But poor skill set or no, if Fever keeps pounding, he will get on the bite sooner rather than later. I wouldn't get too upset if I were Fever, unless I seemed to be making a habit out of getting skunked while noting others success during the same time period. One skirmish doesn't determine a war. |
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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | Guest, you could be right about my skill set, I’ve had quite a number of blank days musky fishing. But jigging through balls of bait fish and dragging suckers didn’t seem to hard with line counter reels and I-Pilot. But poor skill set or not I'll keep at it. Thanks for the help? Tom |
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| Hey Tom----there's NOTHING wrong with your skills! I've seen "newbies" catch monsters on their first cast on Webster and I've witnessed the "PROS" get blanked for days/weeks on end. Since we all know that there are NO RULES when it comes to musky hunting---you can't put blame on a "skill set"---especially when you tossed the kitchen sink at them---from your description. All you can do is try---and that you did! I'm sure a ton of guys wish they were out there last weekend hunting too! Maybe next year will be another "BULL DAWG" party out there------Jobu |
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