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Posts: 7036
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Though I came into the weekend, feeling pretty confident in my sucker running skills.....after going 0 for 3 on Saturday, my confidence is GREATLY eroded. And now I'm questioning EVERYTHING!
But a few specific questions that I'm looking for answers for:
-what do you do when can SEE that a muskie has your sucker it its YAP, but its not near/on the hook? We had this happen 2X on Saturday, and other than just hitting it and praying, I couldnt think of a better solution. What do you do?
-tail gunner spinners? are people running these to get muskies to look at the sucker, or to eat it? Reason being, we had about 5 fish circle our suckers over and over again (one about 45" followed it for 30-50 yards!!! talk about frustrating!!!!), without any interest in eating.
Help! |
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| Try pulling the sucker away from the fish, as long as you can see the fish and the sucker you don't have to worry about the fish swallowing the rig. Fish will come back and hit it again, or try to get a better grip. Kinda like playing tug o war with a dog and an old sock. |
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Posts: 358
| Slamr,
I am by far no expert on sucker fishing, but to answer one of your questions, here is what I have done in the past (and actually happened to me this past weekend.) If I see that a "ski" has put the bite on my sucker, the first thing I do is watch, then franticaly call my partner over to the side of the boat and yell "Look, I got a fish on!."
Ok, skip that last comment, but seriously, what I will do is watch to see if the fish is moving with the bait, or if it is just going to sit there. Most of the time, a musky will grab the sucker and run, but that obviously is not always the case. In the event that the fish is just going to sit there, I will bump the troll motor (very low speed) in the opposite direction of the fish. Make a slight "tug" or two on the line, and most of the time the fish will begin to move off. At this time, I then attempt to pull up the bottom of the lake, you know the drill, plant the hooks hard.
That very scenario happened to me this past weekend. I looked over the side of the boat, just as partner lost his fish only seconds earlier on a sucker. There she was, just sitting there with the prize sucker in her mouth, not moving, just absolutely still. I bumped the troll motor to try and get her to move, and to get a little better leverage, planted the hooks, and had her on momentarily.
Good luck man, I hope this little bit of info helps ya!
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Posts: 185
Location: Mendota Heights, MN | I like to add a spinner blade to my leader as an attractant. Also, if I see a fish hanging around the sucker I will twitch/jig it. I have had the problem of fish checking out the sucker and just looking but not biting. Dead or dying suckers seem to have less appeal as it happens most often with these. Also, if you are using tail gunners, and or spinner blades and the fish still won't bite, take em off. Sometimes it seems they want a real natural presentation. One final idea, drop another one over the side away from the fish and "swim" it around to the fish side. I like to add some heavy rubber core lead weights on this one so I can jerk and jig and it falls fast and rises.
Steve |
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| slamr,
Downsize your suckers when you're getting a lot of follows. I know most of us like those monster suckers, but try having one sucker that is a little smaller off the boat. Use a jig head in the front of the mouth and a treble in the back. The smaller sucker will trigger more strikes and give you better hooking percentage. good luck---Todd K |
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Posts: 714
Location: Rhinelander, WI | Slamr,
I prefer not seeing anything, I know that is not always possible especially where you had your 3 pickups on Saturday. Clear water high weeds the sucker had to be up high, which means you are going to see what is going on. I don’t know what I would do in that situation, I don’t like that situation as it adds to much stress.
What I do when I can’t see the fish is ensure I know the angle the fish is moving off with the sucker and try and set the hooks so the rig pulls across the face of the fish. This way even if the fish doesn’t have a hook in the mouth you might be pulling the rig into the mouth, because hopefully the leader on at least one of the hooks is in the mouth even if the actual hook isn’t.
Hope that made sense. There is much about musky fishing that is left to chance, the best we can do is try and eliminate as much chance as possible. But I will say me and J where lucky this weekend. We had two sucker pick up and ended up hooking both fish. On a whole I don’t see quick strike rigging as be much better than a 50/50 proposition. The bigger the suckers the worse the odds, but that is related to the size of the musky. A 50” fish can pick up a 18” sucker and you have the same chance as a 34” fish picking up a 10” sucker. If that 34 incher grabs that 18” sucker your odds of hooking that fish go way down. I think, it’s all about mouth size the more sucker that can fit in that mouth the better the odds of hook up.
Good luck, all this, including constantly getting snagged or tangled, freezing hands, hooks in the hand during rig up and many other reasons, including the vague position fishing rule, is why I still HATE fishing with suckers, even though they earned J and I a great prize last weekend. I see it as a necessary evil, to help put more fish in the boat while on the water in the fall. I am glad they don’t stay alive well in the summer months or I would feel the need to fish with them more.
Nail A Pig!
Mike
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Location: The Yahara Chain | I always stagger two trebles on the sucker. I like using 12" suckers. The smaller the sucker the higher your hook up % will be. Last year was the first time I downsized my sucker size and my hook up percentage went from 50% to 75%. I caught my biggest last year(47.75) on a 10" sucker, which at the time I thought was to small. When a big fish picks up a small sucker your chances are very high on catching that fish.
I don't think a tail gunner will stop a fish from eating your sucker. I have had several fish follow my suckers down the weedline and never eat them. It has happened with gunners and without. Generally I like using the gunners unless I am in the weeds.
On the fish that you could tell that it didn't have any hooks in its mouth.....sounds like you didn't do anything wrong, just make sure it is moving away from you and maybe the hooks catch her. I caught one like that last year, sometimes you need to be lucky.
Nobody catches all the fish that pick up their quicksets....but if you aren't catching at least 50% of them it is time to analyze everything you are doing.
Edited by Bytor 10/19/2005 10:22 AM
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Posts: 333
Location: menasha wi 54952 | Great posts guys!!
Its a game of chance anyway so here is what I have done in the past. If you can see the fish just pick up the rod and very slowly reel the fish in. Many times the fish will get very close to the boat before she gives up the prize. On very rare occasions you can even net a small fish. When she gives it up drop it right back down and more often than not she will come back and get it. It will be in her mouth at a different angle "AND" she will be moving away from you. It is now time to put the hammer down. Once you see it works you will not have a hard time pulling the sucker away from a 45"+ fish.
Good Luck 
MR |
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Posts: 2361
| I am curious as to where you set up your hook or hooks? |
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Posts: 32884
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | The rigs I have seen have a jig that attaches lightly to the sucker's mouth, and a treble that attaches right by the dorsal. The trick as I saw it was to hook up the sucker well enough so one doesn't lose it, but lightly enough to allow for an effective hook set. The fish we had hit last weekend T Boned the sucker, but forward up by the head a couple times for some reason. Hard to get the hook in the fish if it isn't in their yap! It was quite interesting watching a 45" class fish swim all around the sucker for a very very long time, without ever even coming close to hitting the thing. One very long follow, that was. |
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Location: The Yahara Chain | I always use two trebles, I feel it increases my hook ups. I put one in front of the dorsal fin and one behind it. The hooks are on opposite sides with both hooks placed near the top of the sucker. I use a rubber band or a crappie jig to attach the sucker to the snap at the end of the leader. Using a smaller sucker ,12", rigged this way, you are pretty much guarenteed that you will have one hook in the fishes mouth when they pick it up. SMALL SUCKERS RULE!!!
Edited by Bytor 10/20/2005 7:18 PM
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