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| so i am considering making a loon swimbait. an underwater loon swimbait. i was just curious if muskies chase loons much at all and if it would be worth making the swimbait... |
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Posts: 40
Location: Baxter, MN | I had an experience this fall that is exactly the opposite.
The loon was checking out our sucker rigs and we had a mid 40's fish come in and the loon actually chased the muskie off. They went around and under the boat twice and the muskie ran for the cover of the weeds.
I would not believe it if I would not have seen it with my own eyes. |
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Posts: 8782
| Baby loons make a nice muskie meal, as do baby ducks. I have only heard of one instance where a muskie took down an adult loon, and it was a BIG muskie. |
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Location: Brookfield, WI | Depends where you fish. Such a bait might be more successful in MN. There're a lot of loons in MN.
A lot.
Kevin |
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| here on st clair, seagulls and the occasional bluebill duck. muskies at the right moment will attack anything. |
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Location: MN | MuskyHopeful - 12/21/2010 9:40 PM
Depends where you fish. Such a bait might be more successful in MN. There're a lot of loons in MN.
A lot.
Kevin
Hey I resemble that remark! |
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| Be careful about making loon-patterned baits.........
A couple years ago there was a winternet story about the Humane Society or Audubon Society types or one of those bunches being all up in arms because one of them was in Rollie and Helen's or something and saw some of the paint patterns and got all snarly because muskie anglers were CONDITIONING muskies to eat loons because of baits painted black with white dashes.
I'll pause, while you think about how idiotic and totally backwards that mindset is. I believe my comment at the time, was that the common loons and the Humane Society loons both owed us thank you for teaching muskies NOT to eat loons.
Good luck in your endeavor. Remember, the paint scheme is to catch the angler. If it catches fish....added bonus. Mostly though, I think the fish could care less.
-Eric |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | No muskie lure out there behaves, looks, or sounds like a loon to any muskie. No worries, it's just a black and white paint pattern. |
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| i've actually seen the opposite, where adult loons chase muskies away. for some reason they don't seem to like muskies hanging out near their young/nests... |
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Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | Loons are muskie repellent. Make your bait and give it to everyone else fishing on the lake except for me  |
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Posts: 574
Location: Elk Grove Village, IL & Phillips, WI | Here's the exact opposite!! A loon eating a musky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTrQk8z5ws |
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Posts: 676
Location: Wisconsin | The Loon is one of my best sellers....probably looks more like a Crappie than a Loon really. Like was said before, it's just a black and white pattern bait. Who doesn't have those? |
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Location: oswego, il | I would like to see that swimbait. Loons are pretty big and a loon swimbait would have to weigh 10+ pounds. A baby loon swimbait would still be a big bait but with a drap brownish color.  |
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Posts: 1141
Location: NorthCentral WI | I've had loons follow up to the boat. Scared the crap out of me the first time, it looked like a big white basketball following under the water. But it's only ever happened to me on WTD baits, both topwater and sub-surface.
My question is, if there's a loon in the area you're fishing what do you do? Move spots, because muskies will shy away from adult loons OR continue to fish the spot beacuse muskies are often caught within close proximity of loons.
Edited by MartinTD 12/22/2010 10:17 AM
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | 30acre-Go for it. I have loon/baby loon colors in about every bait I make from 6" up to a 17" trolling bait. They sell ok and according to my customers produce lots of decent pike and musky. If you want to try your painting out on a few blanks shoot me an email. I will sell you a few of my lure blanks for cheap for you to practice on over winter.
James
Here is one of my 10" long Nokken "Baby Loon" lures:
Edited by Tackle Industries 12/22/2010 10:19 AM
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 Baby loon.png (58KB - 513 downloads)
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | A few times I have seen Loons chase muskies out of small shallow (close to shore) areas, but I also know that when you see loons eating bait fish there are sometimes muskies in that same area, especially near mid -lake rock bars.
I have caught a few muskies on loon colored prop baits and loon colored swim baits, but I think the action of the lure was the attraction and not the color of the lure.
I can say that most top water strikes for me has occurred with black and white colored lures as opposed to bright colored lures for the most part.
Jerome |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | sworrall - 12/22/2010 8:18 AMNo muskie lure out there behaves, looks, or sounds like a loon to any muskie. No worries, it's just a black and white paint pattern.
Agree. Musky don't see paint jobs and think, "Loon!" or "Baby Mallard!", they see shades, which attracts them. That said, I like my loon colors because the blue eyes look sweet on the black bodies and I love my paintjobs for me
Feeding muskies binging on something at the moment, like a school of shad, may see the lure patterned/painted the same as the forage and only "Feel" the difference, the difference which hopefully is a positive one and splits the school of shad and makes itself vulnerable 
Edited by Sam Ubl 12/22/2010 11:28 AM
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Sam,
Exactly. The lure footprint is so different from a Loon swimming around it's a different universe. Jerome, you need to toss topwater in black/orange, and black/yellow patterns up there some.
Muskies will eat birds because they eat what moves, but loons are not on the regular menu, mostly because the feathers cause constipation and the 'farts'. |
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Posts: 56
| That's why I don't eat them anymore, either! |
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| Muskies eat baby ducks, so why not baby loons! I doubt they would eat a fully grown duck or loon! |
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Posts: 2361
| sworrall - 12/23/2010 8:25 AM
...
Muskies will eat birds because they eat what moves, but loons are not on the regular menu, mostly because the feathers cause constipation and the 'farts'.
How exactly do you KNOW this???? |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Sniffing bubbles. |
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Location: Hugo, MN | firstsixfeet - 12/24/2010 6:53 AM
sworrall - 12/23/2010 8:25 AM
...
Muskies will eat birds because they eat what moves, but loons are not on the regular menu, mostly because the feathers cause constipation and the 'farts'. How exactly do you KNOW this????
Loon always give me terrible gas. I usually opt for Trumpeter Swan much more tender meat too. |
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Posts: 8782
| sworrall - 12/23/2010 11:08 PM
Sniffing bubbles.
Good one, Steve.
What I wonder is this: When a muskie farts, do the other muskies in the area laugh? Do they vacate the area? Or do they just look at him and say "Aw, Maaan!..." And if they are anything like people, do lady musky farts peel the proverbial paint off the walls?
Hey, maybe THAT's why some days a great spot is like the dead sea, even when a day or even a few hours ago there were several fish there!
You might be on to something here Steve...
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Posts: 131
| For what its worth I've seen a juvenile loon get smashed by a muskie or muskies twice in about a 3 minute span . It was late fall tullibes were starting to group up and there were 5 loons feeding like mad . Just as I was telling my son to look over there this loon got taken down . We were about 100 yds away . It was obivous thats were we wanted to be so as we moved in, this loon comes to the top does the one wing flopping circle and pow, got nailed again never to be seen again . On the other hand, we had about 45 minutes of fantastic fishing multiple follows and 3 in the boat on that spot. I've also seen a hen wood duck get taken down also .
Edited by oddball 12/24/2010 6:07 PM
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Posts: 1058
Location: Medford, WI | Along with others, I've seen what appeared to be loons chasing muskies out of shallower, close to shore areas. Had three or four different fish following in a very small bay (not even a bay really) two or three times each within half an hour. Next time through, we get there and a loon is fleeing all over the water for about 2 minutes throughout the whole area...no surprises when we didn't see any of the fish again.
Jerome was there for that one...not quite as amazing as Crazy Loon Bay though...
-Jake Bucki |
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Posts: 50
| MartinTD - 12/22/2010 10:16 AM
I've had loons follow up to the boat. Scared the crap out of me the first time, it looked like a big white basketball following under the water. But it's only ever happened to me on WTD baits, both topwater and sub-surface.
My question is, if there's a loon in the area you're fishing what do you do? Move spots, because muskies will shy away from adult loons OR continue to fish the spot beacuse muskies are often caught within close proximity of loons.
I had a loon follow my Weagle twice on back to back casts. I wonder what it is about the WTD style? |
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Posts: 8782
| I've had them chase lures from time to time, and I've always figured that if you see loons feeding it's a good sign that the baitfish are there. If the baitfish are there, I expect the muskies will be there as well. That said, I've never caught a muskie in those situations, though. I have noticed that my best days fishing have been when the loons, gulls, eagles, etc are active and feeding. If all the birds are just sitting there? Probably going to be a tough day.
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Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | sworrall - 12/23/2010 9:25 AM
Sam,
Exactly. The lure footprint is so different from a Loon swimming around it's a different universe. Jerome, you need to toss topwater in black/orange, and black/yellow patterns up there some.
Muskies will eat birds because they eat what moves, but loons are not on the regular menu, mostly because the feathers cause constipation and the 'farts'.
Steve, do you mean something like these colors ?? Can you tell that I throw that Weagle a little bit...... A gift from Steve Jonesi at a swap meet in Chicago..... Black,Yellow, Orange, White, all good colors but action and noise (vibration) will cause fish to react more.
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Posts: 74
Location: Brainerd, MN 56401 | I've had several loons chase pounders. They seem to like sherbert more than anything else. |
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