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Posts: 1283
| I have a local lake that definitely has muskie in it, but the majority of the fisherman catch them on bass gear. Im sure there are a few people throwing muskie lures but do not see any reports of that happening with success. So my question is should I hit with muskie baits or stick with bass size baits. There is plenty of big shad in the lake. What would you throw this time of year?
Edited by achotrod 4/21/2014 10:24 PM
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Posts: 572
Location: Maplewood, MN | If you wanna go bass gear a highly over looked bait is a large spinnerbait say 1oz and up. Definitely have a leader as well. I have a buddy who is more of a bass guy than musky and he catches his fair share on spinnerbaits. |
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Posts: 1220
| No question that lots of muskies are caught by accident on bass lures as they are on a jig and minnow while walleye fishing. They are often caught on purpose too on bass baits, especially during the early, early season when cold water temps makes them far easier to handle. and other neutral/negative times when a smaller presentation will buy you a bite. I do believe (by a good margin) that you will take a lot of the bigger fish out of the picture as this practice has shown me many times. You are asking for a lot of dinks, shorts and slimers with bass baits. Still, in Saturday's PMTT when a 30 incher can measure, you will see a lot of bass baits thrown. I would sure not do it on a trip to Canada, Minnesota or the Great Lakes connected water where your fish of a lifetime is lost for you and everybody else swimming away with a bait caught in its throat. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | Junkman - 4/22/2014 8:38 AM
No question that lots of muskies are caught by accident on bass lures as they are on a jig and minnow while walleye fishing. They are often caught on purpose too on bass baits, especially during the early, early season when cold water temps makes them far easier to handle. and other neutral/negative times when a smaller presentation will buy you a bite. I do believe (by a good margin) that you will take a lot of the bigger fish out of the picture as this practice has shown me many times. You are asking for a lot of dinks, shorts and slimers with bass baits. Still, in Saturday's PMTT when a 30 incher can measure, you will see a lot of bass baits thrown. I would sure not do it on a trip to Canada, Minnesota or the Great Lakes connected water where your fish of a lifetime is lost for you and everybody else swimming away with a bait caught in its throat.
Amen |
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Posts: 150
Location: Appleton, WI | I always hear bass guys saying that they catch muskies when fishing for bass. I ask them how many they catch and it is maybe one a year. Just think how many big bass you catch a day with musky baits. There is a reason that we all buy musky baits to fish for muskies. |
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Posts: 409
Location: Almond, WI | Clue in to location based off of where the bass are. If the bass are on the outside weed edge, I check either timber or suspended. If the bass are on the inside weed edge, I check the outside weed edge. I've noticed that typically active bass and active muskies don't hang out together. I'd throw something shad like but wouldn't get too hung up on size. 6" hellhounds, 1oz spinnerbaits, 7.5" grandmas. |
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Posts: 20219
Location: oswego, il | Besides spinnerbaits rattle traps and buzz baits too. Upsize your hooks and split rings. Make sure the spinnerbait has a closed loop line tie for the leader to connect otherwise put a small split ring over the bend to close it off. |
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Posts: 1529
| try large casting spoons. reality on above post most are fishing putntake muskies. that's why 30 inches makes the cut. sad deal. |
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Posts: 265
Location: McGuire AFB, NJ | I have caught my fair share of musky on bass gear. Also, a ton of trophy bass on musky gear! I'm a spinnerbait chucking fool. A lot of it comes down to the size of the bait the musky are targeting. Early in the year, the bait is much smaller, hence success on down sized spinnerbaits. At lakes when I would start to hear the bass guys talk about catching muskys I knew immediately it was time to downsize.
Todd hit the nail on the head. Swapping hooks is a must along with heavy duty split rings. I learned this the hard way 
Since I’ve been in Cali I have some great luck tossing musky baits for BIG bass too. SS Shads, Top Raiders, and Nutbuster Jr’s. Don’t get bit often, but when you do…I guarantee you’ll get a nice picture out of it 
Chris |
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Posts: 1283
| Thanks for all the replies!
Ive been throwing DBL8s & 10s, shad colored shallow invader, 6" Hellhound, reg size bulldawgs, medussas, top raider, and a TI tube. This is all fishing from shore as the lake does not allow motor boats, so what I can bring with is kinda limited. Just trying to see if I should bring even smaller baits or just keep doing what Im doing. |
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Posts: 1283
| Heres a couple pics of fish from the last week, from the lake Im talking about. Not huge but they look healthy and I know they get to mid 40s in there.
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 muskie 2.jpg (76KB - 245 downloads)
muskie.JPG (60KB - 251 downloads)
muskie.JPG (60KB - 235 downloads)
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Posts: 1202
Location: Money, PA | What I have learned about most bass guys is that they like to exaggerate...if you know what I mean....A 50+ inch muskie was probably actually 40" & Tons of fish a year probably means 5 to 10....Take it with a grain of salt...If you know theres muskies there, fish them how you normally would at the given time of year. |
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Posts: 1283
| Very well could be bass guys over exaggerating. Although one guy I spoke with was definitely a muskie fisherman and told me he has caught over 100 skis in this lake with a biggest of 44". He was very hesitant to talk with me at first but when he saw my gear Knipex, long pliers, musky net and only muskie baits, rods reels etc. he started to open up and talk. Told me he has the most success this time of year with 7" tubes and a few good spots. Havent had the chance to grab more tubes but I will before I head back out there. |
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Posts: 1283
| Heres another one taken from there.
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muskie 3.jpg (164KB - 251 downloads)
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Posts: 1168
| Paramuskyhunter - 4/22/2014 9:55 AM
Just think how many big bass you catch a day with musky baits. There is a reason that we all buy musky baits to fish for muskies.
This is true. A few years back on a local lake there was a pretty good sized bass tournament. I'm out muskie fishing and had video taped some of the bass I caught that same day. When they were in awe over the big bass of the tournament being around 4 pounds I pull up to where their weigh-in was to use the bathroom and start showing the vids of the multiple 5 pound and up bass I tangled with.
The following year my brother and I fished a handful of these bass tournaments on that same lake except we were targeting muskies and simply registered for the events knowing we had a shot at doing very well by catching incidental bass. It's hilarious when a pair of hillbillies in a scratched up 10 year old deep-V boat pull up by these jokers wearing their billboard type shirts who have the newest and shiniest bass boats on the market. They pointed and laughed at us at the rules meeting. They were not laughing during the awards presentation. |
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Posts: 17
Location: tamahawk,wi-elmwood pk,il | I fish the northern Wisconsin river area. I use mostly medium musky baits and large spinners baits. The forage muskys feed on are smaller any way. I do throw my share of large musky baits but seem ending up catching the majority of muskys on medium size lures. But I use 4x- 3/0 hooks with usually linked treble hooks. But I still use my medium and heavy musky rods. I get a lot of bonus small mouth and large mouth bass. Last year got a 26in smallie on a standard size hog wobbler. The river smallies put up a good fight even on my musky rod. There are a few 40in plus musky but I enjoy more having action. That's me fishing is suppose to be fun . |
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Posts: 295
| lurenut - 4/22/2014 5:42 PM
I fish the northern Wisconsin river area. I use mostly medium musky baits and large spinners baits. The forage muskys feed on are smaller any way. I do throw my share of large musky baits but seem ending up catching the majority of muskys on medium size lures. But I use 4x- 3/0 hooks with usually linked treble hooks. But I still use my medium and heavy musky rods. I get a lot of bonus small mouth and large mouth bass. Last year got a 26in smallie on a standard size hog wobbler. The river smallies put up a good fight even on my musky rod. There are a few 40in plus musky but I enjoy more having action. That's me fishing is suppose to be fun .
26 inch smallmouth? I think I'll take a grain of salt with that one too. |
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Posts: 553
Location: 15 miles east of Lake Kinkaid | Paramuskyhunter - 4/22/2014 8:55 AM
I always hear bass guys saying that they catch muskies when fishing for bass. I ask them how many they catch and it is maybe one a year. Just think how many big bass you catch a day with musky baits. There is a reason that we all buy musky baits to fish for muskies.
You are plain wrong. I don't normally target Muskies with many bass lures, but do on occasion and have had quite a bit of success on smaller fish. I think I have 12 Muskies this year alone on "bass" baits. On lakes that I fish that have both bass and Muskies, I probably hook at least 1 musky EVERY time I bass fish. There have been several times I have left certain spots when the water is over 80 degrees because I was hooking multiple Muskies. Muskies don't know the difference between a "bass" bait and a "Muskie" bait.....let the conditions dictate the presentation. |
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Posts: 1283
| Went out there and tried yesterday. Tried a few small bucktails 7s&8s(black w/silver blades,perch w/ firetiger blades and walleye w/copper blades), slopmaster w/ chartreuse blade and skirt, and a reg dussa. About 30min in the dussa got slammed and the fish tore off 2 of the 3 tails but didnt get any hooks in it. Bummed about the bait since it was a show color but at least it got hit. No luck on anything else Ive tried in the 4 times Ive been there. |
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Posts: 1084
Location: Aurora | bryantukkah - 4/28/2014 10:24 AM
lurenut - 4/22/2014 5:42 PM
I fish the northern Wisconsin river area. I use mostly medium musky baits and large spinners baits. The forage muskys feed on are smaller any way. I do throw my share of large musky baits but seem ending up catching the majority of muskys on medium size lures. But I use 4x- 3/0 hooks with usually linked treble hooks. But I still use my medium and heavy musky rods. I get a lot of bonus small mouth and large mouth bass. Last year got a 26in smallie on a standard size hog wobbler. The river smallies put up a good fight even on my musky rod. There are a few 40in plus musky but I enjoy more having action. That's me fishing is suppose to be fun .
26 inch smallmouth? I think I'll take a grain of salt with that one too.
Jest one inch shy of the nearly 12 pound world record!
So close.. |
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Posts: 17
Location: tamahawk,wi-elmwood pk,il | The smally was about 6lbs I don't measure every fish when I release. The northern wi river has large number of smallys. My point is med size baits give a lot action and bonus fish. Lurenut |
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Posts: 1283
| Been out 3 more times and still no fish. :(. I did rent a boat and found a big bay that is mostly shallow with tons of weeds a couple deeper sections. Should I try some topwater stuff here? Ive burned bucktails over them with no luck but did have a fish swing and miss at a 6" jointed crank right off the weeds in a deeper pool. |
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Posts: 1283
| How about jigging dussas and dawgs through the deeper channels? |
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