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Posts: 371
Location: Northern Illinois | Growing up fishing, my grandfather would sometimes cut the motor and row the last maybe 100 ft, or so, to some spots. We would be mainly fishing for bass, pike and walleye. Also, 100% notice/fact that bass on the side of my backyard pond get spooked and leave when I approach either through sound, vibration, or sight/shadow.
Are any of you ever concerned about sppoking a musky away when you fish? Or, it's not really a factor for you? Maybe it's a style/circumstance thing? |
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| I don't know the answer. Have caught musky trolling with a lure 8 feet back in the prop wash of the kicker. But in the spring when they are spawning near my dock some are very skittish, others don't seem bothered much at all by me walking out on the dock. |
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Posts: 267
Location: Central Pennsylvania | Yes, because I shore fish. I tend to cast while I'm ten or fifteen feet back from the water when I first get there. Most of the time they don't spook even when I get down to the edge of the water. Then again, I have yet to sight fish a tiger. |
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Posts: 1197
Location: Walker, MN | A "hot fish" won't spook too easily, but this is a small portion of the fish in the lake at any given time imo.
I feel like bigger muskies especially, are a bit like big bucks. If you push them, they may not ever bite.
Get the timing right on any fish, and they'll make it easy on you. I agree that there is no clear answer to this question. |
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Posts: 730
| As a general rule of thumb, the clearer the water, a fish might spook easier than a fish in darker water. Makes sense. If you can see a fish, then there is a good chance it can see you. Kdawg |
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Posts: 155
Location: Cedarburg, WI. | If I am going back on a fish I have raised earlier in the day I usually go back a bit stealthy. I am usually throwing like a hawg wobbler or something slower/subtle so I will kill the trolling motor and more or less glide into the spot. Like NO8 said some will hit a lure in prop wash or I've had them go round and round in the 8 next to a running trolling motor. Who knows hahaha! |
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Posts: 26
Location: Foley, Mn | If the fish are active I dont think it matters much. I had a fish hit my electric motor while it was running. We catch them in the propwash of the big motor trolling. I almost always have music on in the boat and we catch fish. Im sure I have spooked less aggressive fish by doing all of the things I just mentioned.
Back in the hay days of Mille Lacs you could see fish sitting up on the sand that had no interest and could nearly touch them with your rod tip before they would move.
With all that being said, Im with Slopski on returning to a fish that followed.
Edited by Tony S 10/25/2021 11:07 AM
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Posts: 1167
| I've had Muskie hit trolling motor and lots of guys catch them in the prop wash but for the most part I like to be stealthy.
When fishing out in open water I even turn off my depth finder just look for pods of bait fish with my eyes.
In gin clear water I been known to even sit on the floor and cast and with a 9 foot rod I do a figure eight nine feet in front of me. (and that's hard fishing )The more pressured, bigger the fish, and clearer the water = stealth.
We seen some giant fish in fairly small bodies of water, who knows what's out lurking in the deep.
And if I can rent a bigger boat that has a set of oars i'm real happy ! |
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| In observing spawning muskies next to my dock, the "it depends" answer seems the best. Couple times I did not see until I stepped on the dock and they took off like shot out of a cannon. But, on one occasion I was putting my old dock in, which entailed hooking the shore end of a piece to one already in the water and dropping the frame, with 6x6" pads into the water. Made quite a splash, but as I turned around to get another there was a low 40s fish right next to the dock, seemingly undisturbed.
Another time I was in wading, coming back along the shore from helping an elderly neighbor put his dock in. Along side my dock were two fish side by side. A mid 30s and a much larger fish. I stopped as soon as I saw them. I didn't want to disturb, so I turned my head to see if there was spot I could step out onto my steep shoreline. Just like that the smaller (male) freaked and instead of swimming straight out into the lake, did a 90 degree turn and swam over the top of the larger fish's back, coming mostly out of the water in doing so. The big fish swam slowly out into the lake. The big fish clearly was not all that concerned but the little one was panicked. |
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Posts: 24
Location: Southern WI | Keeping my mouth shut during follows is something I’m still trying to work on. I know a few have for sure been spooked by the sound of my voice. Outboard on (as long as it’s low/idle) before making casts doesn’t seem to bother them though.
Edited by civil twilight 10/25/2021 2:08 PM
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Posts: 8715
| My wife scared away the biggest fish I have ever seen by jumping up and down and yelling "you got her, you got her!!" That fish was coming to eat. I've scared away a few in my day, too. |
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Posts: 2271
Location: Chisholm, MN | Absolutely. Sometimes it doesn't matter but most of the time it does. |
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Posts: 1167
| Years ago I was in western Wisconsin in a bar in April and someone said "hay the Muskies are spawning" So the next day we went and watched and you could walk right up on them. In fact my friends son took a sick and put it under a Muskies belly and he lifted it up off the bottom for a picture. If you were a poacher with spear or a club you could wipe out a lot of fish in a hurry!
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Posts: 478
Location: NW WI | It certainly "varies" but in my opinion err on the side of stealth, only thing you loose is a little time.
A small river I fish averages 40yds wide x 5ft deep with little current. It weeds up super thick by mid June and stays that way until mid October. We're talking weedless frogs only and mudmotor,paddle or push pole only type of thick. Over many years on this river I noticed a few things:
Kayak vs Aluminum Row Boat- The carp,suckers, and sturgeon don't typically spook until I'm right on top of them. Where as with the row boat, even with freshly lubed sockets, careful strokes, and trying my hardest to not bang around in the boat; they spook an average of 30ft away. Only theory I have is size of watercraft=water displacement = larger signature?
Also I've had way more hits/landed fish out of the Kayak vs row boat.
I've used a motor there before and in those instances the hit % was way down vs the other two. I should note that I'd motor upstream and drift/row back down.
So as the Kayak being the default, when I get follows by pike n muskies I've learned over time to not figure eight, (weedless frog format of baits) instead I super long pause or twitch so it's a similar action to like an insect stuck on water. Not really moving,just vibrating. The record is a 18sec staredown I had with a low 30's musky eyeballing a Lunkerhunt hollowbody mouse. He finally shot at it but I didn't get the hooks in em.
I do this because everytime I've tried to hop a direction changing pattern they'll spook. It's gotta be because of the Kayak shifting, and/or because I'm so close to the water they see my body,arms,and rod moving.
-Credit this for what you will: In an episode of River Monsters, Jeremey targets Tarpon in Brackish River water in the Amazon. Fishing out of a boat he does terrible. He seeks advice from the only white guy around (the small local community call this guy "whitey" or "white boy") that lives way upstream on his own (I think this fella was angling for tarpon for research). This dude says something like the Tarpon pick up on the vibrations of the motor and the stepping around in the boat. So he uses one of those inflatable float chairs propelled by flippers on your feet and apparently does wway better.
-watch any of the inland Florida fisherman on Youtube hitting all their little pock lakes/ponds and drainage creeks/rivers from shore. They all cast long before they're at the edge so they don't spook anything on their first few casts before they get close.
On the other hand, I've caught bass n pike while making a ruckus.
Edited by 7.62xJay 11/12/2021 10:04 PM
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Posts: 55
| In gin clear water I been known to even sit on the floor and cast and with a 9 foot rod .
Now that is Stealth!! |
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