|
|
Posts: 32882
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | What do you consider the toughest part of muskie fishing? What single factor is the most difficult for you to 'get'?
For me, it's always been the 'where'. I KNOW muskies are usually in certain places, but what if those fish are not going? I should be looking in the OTHER places they live, but find myself beating the same water too much. Gotta get better at finding those open water fish.
You?
Do you have a Q of the Week idea? Q of the week is a new Winter feature on the MuskieFirst general message board. Send ideas for the question of the week to [email protected]. All questions and answers will be added to the FAQ section of the site for future reference. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1764
Location: Ogden, Ut | Other than finding enough time to actually do much of it...
I'd say keeping the confidence levels high. The fish encounters are infrequent enough that I often find myself second guessing things that I'm probably doing just fine. I end up changing lures, tactics, locations, etc. far too much. I tend to get into a rut and believe that 'my fish don't do that', but when visitors who don't have the burden of those preconceived notions give it a try, they catch fish. Of course, they have been pretty good sticks in their own right...
Sorno |
|
| |
|
| For me, it's spending time trying out new things, such as trolling that I don't usually do when I get out. Diversifying and having the confidence to stick with it as well. BG |
|
| |
|
Posts: 4266
| Physical durability.
Used to go all day, now I have to fish in 2-3 hour shifts with breaks in between.
Now I actually watch the solunar tables and try to make sure that I'm not taking a break during major periods.
Beav |
|
| |
|
Posts: 389
Location: Presque Isle Wisconsin | Figuring out why muskies prefer a certain type of lure and action on one lake and totally ignore it on the lake across the road has always mystified me.Ive encountered this even on connected bodies of water that are the same forage,water clarity etc and have never figured it out.I certainly respect it,just have never figured out why.I might add that one of the most difficult things is getting my clients to respect those facts also.
Edited by 7Islands 12/9/2005 8:29 AM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | The hardest thing for me is fitting family and friends time to mesh with muskie time! I am sure that is the hardest for almost everyone...does the phrase "Honey, would you mind if I went fishing again today?" sound familiar?lol |
|
| |
|
Posts: 354
| Triggering fish. I have become pretty good at locating fish. Most every day out we find and contact fish. I have been getting too many followers and not enough takers, especially boatside. I have found the open water thing to actually be
easier than expected. I didn't really give open water a hard try to two seasons ago. It is actually pretty amazing how often you can locate fish. They tend to be more aggressive as well it seems. I still get WAY too many lookers on glide baits. I talked to people last year at the shows and most stated I probably wasn't fast or eratic enough with the bait movement. I tried to really spice it up this year with the Hellhound. It resulted in numerous undersized muskys being caught but the luck didn't improve much with the big girls. I still would like to get better at working crankbaits around weeds as well. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 35
Location: Burnsville, MN | I am sad to say that I am answering this question the same way I answered it at the end of last season. I failed to spend any real time targeting open water/main basin/suspended fish. I like you Steve, was unable to break away from old habits... Why is it so hard look away from the structure I have always fished? 
I think I need to book a guide trip with someone who fishes the suspendo's.
Derek |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1536
Location: God's Country......USA..... Western Wisconsin | For me it is definitley those suspended fish. I have a tough time fishing out in the middle of nowhere depending upon baitfish or who knows what for the fish to be around. I know that they are there but just can't seem to keep myself fishing for them. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | Finding the pattern that will produce multiple fish days. Where do you start? How long do you fish a bait before changing? How long do you fish a piece of water before moving? Fast presentation or slow? Colors? The thing is all the factors have to line up to produce a pattern.
Musky have to be one of the most difficult fish to pattern because their main pattern is unpredictibility!
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 434
Location: searchin for 50 | Trying to figure out why I'm only seeing small fish when every one else is always seeing larger fish. |
|
| |
|
| Converting follows into biters |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2378
| Triggering fish. Havent had a problem locating them lately, but struggle getting them to go/ |
|
| |
|
| Hmmm.....Steve, good question....I'd have to say EVERYTHING is hard for me to grasp!!  :-)
Donnie |
|
| |
|
| fricken getting them to the boat after I hook them...drives me nuts...Ben |
|
| |
|
Posts: 619
Location: Seymour, WI | Other than getting enough time to fish. Locating active fish is the hardest part for me. I find that I go into the day with an idea about where I think the fish should be and then it takes me until the end of the day to figure out that they're either not there or not active there.
I know that I have too many preconcieved ideas about where the fish are supposed to like "Clear water fish are always deep" or "Dark water fish are always shallow" Even though that's where they're supposed to be, sometimes clear water fish are active in the shallows. Sometimes dark water fish are not active in shallow weeds.
I need to be able to recognize this quicker and then make the decision to change tactics before the end of the day or end of the tourney.
I need to be more versatile when I make the decision to change tactics too. One of the new things I want to learn in 2006 is how to fish muskies in the slop effectively. I think I am missing out on fish there especially on the tough blue bird days.
Grass, |
|
| |
|
Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | The "where" is the key and takes the most time. However, if your on the water all the time then you should know where they were yesterday or a seasonal movement, so locating them today may or may not be as difficult.
I don't know if I'd say anything about this is easy or particularly "hard". I guess some may view sleeping in your truck in Nov. or fishing all day then driving 10 hours and having to be at work early is hard. Most would say Donny's trip back from Eagle, that would be called hard!
Once fish are located then it's just a matter of time,, waiting for them to become active and then presenting baits at the right depth and at the right speed, bingo fish on! Not hard.
No need to fight or get frustrated over fishing facts? No one has ever caught a fish that was not there or a fish that was not active enough to be caught.
Jerry Borst
Spoonplugger/Instructor
Edited by jerryb 12/9/2005 11:51 PM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 561
Location: Monee, Illinois | Mental Toughness |
|
| |
|
Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | I would have emailed it, but then read Howies response that really nailed it. It is regarding laek,county,state hopping nuances. I concur with him on another front. Been having fun with the wife, hopping from lake to lake, visiting friends and relatives in different areas of the midwest. Long story short, we have noticed timing differences that were very peculiar. Seems lure choice can be a nuance(that does occasionally really agravate), and pressure of the recreational and fishing kind can impact timing on the abvious standpoint. But, what the heck is up with one stretch of the the river(a number of them in WI or Canada for us) being hot in the late afternoon, while the stretch four miles above is currently blowing up at 8 AM. Timing screws with my head sometimes....... From 'night bites' not occuring simultaneously on similar waters, to certain lakes just plain getting hot for an honest unkown reason during certain years(this is very evident in northern WI), timing seems to be a strength at times, and a struggle during other. It is of the funnest aspects of the sport to study/question..
Edited by Reef Hawg 12/11/2005 1:12 AM
|
|
| |
|
| Trying to figure out why I'm only seeing small fish when every one else is always seeing larger fish. :-(
lol.
raider, that's probably just because you're being honest!
for me it's rut-breaking. once i locate 'em i keep trying to catch "yesterday's fish" and am slow to move through search progressions of presentation style and location.
i'm getting better at it and expanding things paid off for me very nicely this year, but most times these fish train me way too easily. for example, last year i pretty much threw gliders or a weagle because i kept seeing fish. if i'd been throwing a bucktail i'd probably have been catching fish.
it's like pigeons pecking for the food pellet in behavior mod experiments: random reinforcement is the strongest type at getting m to keep doing something that does't really work. does the same thing for me.
peck...peck...ding!...peck...peck...peck...peck...peck...dammit...peck...peck... |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2361
| Where is always the ultimate question. It is always the first question, and always will be the last question in musky fishing.
Before you can catch your first fish, you or someone else has to solve the where? for you to be successful. Once you start catching fish you deal with so many other problems and questions involved with the process from baits to boat landings, but no matter how expert you get in all the various skills involved with catching fish, you always end up with the same problem everyday, where's a musky, and ALL other questions always remain subservient to that original problem. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | I don't think a level of importance can be higher on one of the key aspects than the other. Often, if timing is not correct, even 'the' location, will not produce so much as a follow, but if timing is absolutely perfect, and stars align, even a crappy, or less than secondary spot will produce a musky. You are right in that finding the good areas is the first thing to do, but being there when the fish are, and when they will show, and more importantly bite, is my big Q....... Lots of smaller lakes can be fished quite thoroughly during the wrong times, and one will not know the spots that will produce.... The only situation where I see timing not much of an issue though, is fishing rivers in current situations. Otherwise, it is 'it' for us.
Edited by Reef Hawg 12/12/2005 5:20 PM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 2361
| Reef Hawg - 12/11/2005 12:52 PM
I don't think a level of importance can be higher on one of the key aspects than the other. Often, if timing is not correct, even 'the' location, will not produce so much as a follow, but if timing is absolutely perfect, and stars align, even a crappy, or less than secondary spot will produce a musky. You are right in that finding the good areas is the first thing to do(I guess alot of us take for granted that wehich used to be more of a headache and of course still can be), but being there when the fish are, and when they will show, and more importantly bite, is, in my opinion, the answer....... Lots of smaller lakes can be fished quite thoroughly during the wrong times, and one will not know the spots that will produce.... The only situation where I see timing not much of an issue, is fishing rivers in current situations. Otherwise, it is 'it' for us.
I don't think Sworrall was trying to start an argument, simply asking what aspect is toughest for each of us, and you seem to think timing is the most important aspect, and that is probably your, totally correct for you, answer. If I look at the question presented and invert it, "What aspect of musky fishing makes it EASIEST TO NOT CATCH A MUSKY?", it quickly becomes apparent to me that the easiest way to not catch a musky is to fish in areas where there ARE NO MUSKIES. Bad timing, bad baits, bad presentation, bad confidence, or bad body odor will not impede an occassional musky catch in areas that have musky. We know that even dangling feet can catch musky if there are musky present to be caught, however, no level of expertise will ever create a musky where there is no musky, so that is always my primary question to answer.
I was interested to watch some other musky fisherman fish a lake I fish down here this fall, and knowing that they stuck to an early fall pattern, their reports seemed to indicate a declining and tough musky bite. It appeared to me that they were fishing locations the fish had vacated, and areas I generally quit fishing in the fall. Now your take on this might be that their "timing" was off, and that they needed to fish these spots earlier in the fall, but my interpretation is that their location was off. My fishing on the same days was turning up multiple fish, activities, and legals in the boat, so it becomes hard to call that a timing problem. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2752
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | For me, what I don't get is time on the water. To #*^@ed much going on with my life, regular day job, retirement job & family. Need the first for a few more years.
Have fun!
Al |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1168
| Too much thinking outside of the box for me. I'll do stuff that in theory shouldn't work but when it does it feeds the desire to concoct some oddball theories of my own that have paid off when conditions are not ideal....post cold front, bluebird sky days, etc. When conditions are in theory perfect I tend to out think myself instead of just fishing. |
|
| |
|
| Mine is, like many have already noted, not having enough time to do it all: work, family, non-fishing friends, chores and other hobbies. Most important though is getting my wife out there. It just will not happen and I wish it could. For those of you who have partners who enjoy fishing with you, you are the luckiest. How simple to share an addiction! |
|
| |
|
Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | Not trying to ruffle your feathers, just having fun with it. I'm not really one to argue anyhow. I interpreted your comment: "Where is always the ultimate question. It is always the first question, and always will be the last question in musky fishing" , as a blanket statement for every Musky angler. I know my dads biggest deal(as he reads this over my shoulder right now) is and always was location. I guess one could say that location is actually part of my timing Q, as learning 'when' a fish will be on a particular structure, or feeding on it, often makes me follow up by asking, 'where are they when they are not here???' You are right, each of us has our own big 'Q', and I think this thread is a great way to convey them, even though we are not doing as Sworral intended, in pointing them out here instead of sending them to him.
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 2361
| Actually I read Sworrall's post as a question then a request for questions. He is trying to get board fodder for the winter, but I ain't biting until he offers prizes! My questions are so germane I feel I should probably get, hmmmm, DOUBLE PRIZES, and in fact I will nominate you for DOUBLE PRIZES too, Reef.
I had a really interesting question come up discussing fishing with my occassional fishing partner in WI, and it really took me by surprise because he is an exceptional fisherman and multi specie fisherman, and we were discussing something and he told me that he had never considered the subject the same way I had. Extremely interesting to me and made me wonder what other people thought about this particular subject. It had never occurred to me that anyone would consider it differently than I did. Of course it may not be that interesting and only good for boat talk, but still, I am going to hold out for double prizes, and better than the ones Slamr wants to give out.
Timing is an interesting question and unless you can see fish it can also be a location problem. Probably Sworrall should have eliminated location as a problem and let us all know where that fish is, and then asked us what our most perplexing problem was, and of course awarded double prizes for interesting answers like timing...!  |
|
| |
