|
|
Posts: 7037
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | This is a question I make sure to ask during all of our chat sessions:
What is just one tip that you would give to a beginner (new) muskie fisherman?
Let's change it around for the general masses: What is one tip that you would give to people who might have a little less "on the water time" than you?
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 2089
| Keep casting, don't leave fish to find fish. Steve |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1769
Location: Algonquin, ILL | Don't get Discouraged, Keep trying
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 5874
| Pay attention to detail in everything you do. If you have a weak link, these fish will find it, and leave you frustrated. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 90
Location: ne53 | Make sure your gear is ready to go, sharpen those hooks to the point where they will hang from your thumbnail without sliding. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1764
Location: Ogden, Ut | I'd suggest that they pay attention. To what you're doing and your surroundings; mainly just be aware of stuff.
I'm totally guilty of this myself, and have to keep doing things to keep my attention on what I am doing. I don't mean that you have to be a total concentration freak and make yourself a boat partner from hell, but do the basics well. Watch behind and below the bait, finish all your casts, keep the boat where it needs to be, keep a bait wet, notice the terns diving on baitfish, notice the thunderhead rolling in, have your plan worked out for when a fish is hooked (know where the release tools are, camera, etc.), and enjoy it. Oh, and let your boat partner handle the suckers, so they don't turn into a knotted mess. 
S. |
|
| |
|
| Stay focused on your lure and watch behind it for follows and wait to feel the weight of the fish before you set the hook |
|
| |
|
| Enjoy yourself!
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | Stop changing your lure every 10 Mins, pick a proven bait and let it ride! |
|
| |
|
Posts: 691
Location: nationwide | Hey Bloss . . . . . did you read the tip about not changing lures every 10 minutes???????
LOL :b
Corey Meyer |
|
| |
|
Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | don't get caught up in the bait thing ... a bucktail, a prop-topwater and start chuckin' |
|
| |
|
Posts: 11
Location: Maple Grove, Minnesota | Measure a successful day by the amount that you learned not by the amount of fish in the boat. Some of my most successful days are the tough ones. Always try to learn something. |
|
| |
|
| hire as many guides on the waters you fish as your budget will allow...pay attention to how they run the boat, work the lures, ask them questions...it can shorten the learning curve by years...
|
|
| |
|
Location: Grand Rapids, MI | Read: Spoonplugging Your Guide To Lunker Catches by Buck Perry Then read it again. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 291
Location: Madison, WI | sharp hooks, sharp hooks, and sharp hooks. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1310
Location: Washington, PA | Just keep casting. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | Location, Location, Location. Nothing works if your not in the right spots, and the right spots are more specific than most think. This is the basis for most of my seminars.
That one tip will up your catches more than anything. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 401
| I have to totally agree with bn. I have had the chance to fish with a couple that I build sticks for over the years. It is not learning exact spots but it is how they fish and then try to duplicate it on another part of the lake.
Keith |
|
| |
|
Posts: 670
Location: Otsego, MN | Don't get frustrated and feel defeated, keep plugging away and it will get easier. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 355
Location: Wausau, Wisconsin | Simplify your aresenal. Stick to proven lures in a variety of sizes and colors. Learn how to use the bait in many ways and become confident. I wish someone like a guide would have brought me into a shop and picked out 25 good lures for me rather than me buying 100 and now having 80 of them hanging in the "cemetary".
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 720
| Lambeau,
You stoled my thunder and I couldn't agree more with what you wrote. Have fun. Thats it and there isn't anymore. Fishing is fun. When it stops being fun its time to quit. Some of my best days on the water have been just being out on the water. Wheather with friends, family or by myself. God, I love this sport.
Dave |
|
| |
|
Posts: 756
| I agree with Norm. I would first say to first pick up a good map of the lake you intend on fishing. Kdawg |
|
| |
|
Posts: 457
| IMO treat free advice like it is just that. Get on the water and experience things for yourself, take very few pieces, from very few people, as being worth its weight in gold. (I'm not baggin on anyone, but making the statement that many will be overwhelmed by this, that, and the other; until they have had the chance to figure out much of it for themselves. Sure, reading, and grabbing info from various sources is a great way, as is listening to the advice of others. Yet, there comes a time when trial and error plays the biggest part of any education.) |
|
| |
|
Posts: 96
| Have everything ready before you start (i.e. net, hook cutters, measuring device, camera, etc.).
Make sure to do the figure 8 EVERY time...I've seen too many missed opportuntities boatside when the lure was pulled away too soon. Unfortunately a number of times myself.  |
|
| |
|
Posts: 32879
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | What NDUski said.
and What Sorno said, too.
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 272
| Just one thing?? Really? Three would be easier than just one.
My ONE tip would be that the last ten feet of your retrieve are the most important ten feet. What you do, and when you do it are paramount to sticking more muskies. Learn to do a good F8, and do it EVERY cast, and do it well on every cast.
One thread that keeps popping up over and over yearly on any site that talks about muskie fishing is from some person who asks how important F8s are, and if anybody has EVER caught a fish on one....or who hasn't. I cringe. Buwaah??
Even if you're a non-believer in the F8 thing, watch The Musky Hunter or Keyes Outdoors. You'll believe. Of the shows I've seen just this year, I'd say that easily a third, probably more like half, of the fish filmed were stuck on a F8.
LEARN IT!!!! DO IT!!!!!! ITS NOT A MYTH!!!!
Edited by muskie-addict 2/13/2008 9:27 AM
|
|
| |
|
Location: Illinois | Once you learn a lake very well, fish it at night with DCG's! |
|
| |
|
Posts: 299
Location: Ontario, California | Hmm... Sell all the gear you just bought or you will be having nightmares of toothy critters while knocking your wife out of bed with your horizontal hooksets. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 8772
| 1. Before you do anything: Instead of spending thousands of dollars on rods reels and tackle, buy yourself one combo and 10 lures. Take the rest of that money and hire as many guides as you can in as many different places as you can.
2. On the water: Watch, listen, & learn.
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 1316
Location: Madison, WI | Never fish with Slamr! :P
K now that's out of the way.
Don't forget to toss a couple cast to the back of the boat!
|
|
| |
