|
|
| probably a stupid question but how do you know how deep to run live suckers on any body of water. sorry for the lame question |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | For me, any body of water start setting a foot or two off the bottom (or weeds/wood) regardless of how deep of water you are in. I am usually running my suckers down 20-30'. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | Depending on how many you can run at a time, cover the water column with the initially, then as you figure out what depths they are feeding at, you can adjust other baits to that depth.
Like Travis, I usually have one or two right off the bottom. I'll then put one about half way down, and one just under the surface and way behind the boat. We're lucky enough in Wisco to be able to use more than one rod, so this helps. In general though, the colder the water, usually the deeper I run my meat.
Also, watch your locator. If you're fishing deeper water, you'll mark fish on your locator. I can't tell you how many times I've dropped a sucker down deeper or brought one up higher due to marking a fish, and had that fish eat. |
|
| |
|
| so far this year we've had about 25 fish in the boat on suckers, been a good year for the sausage bite...what I tend to do is much like Joel and Travis said...run one, right off bottom, I use a Daiwa line counter on my sucker rods so I know the exact depth they are running, no guessing.
If I have 2 out, run one just off bottom and I run the other half way up...doesn't make too much of a difference if i'm in 30 feet or 10...same thing, one down, one half way...if we have 3 out, I run the other a 1/4 way down....and 4 out....stagger them...1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and bottom...fish know the suckers are there whether they are 10 feet below it or 20...if they want it they'll track it down..but the finnicky fish want it in front of their nose at times...
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 281
Location: ROckford IL | I had a musky follow a sucker around for a good 20 minutes yesterday, it was crazy, it would come up and nose the sucker then fall back again then come up again, for a long time before we had another musky hit a different line. |
|
| |
|
| Ok, so lets say you can only use 1 line. What depth would you put your sucker at if you could only use 1 line? What are you most confident in? |
|
| |
|
| higher up in the water column if you can only have one...imo muskies are more prone to feed baitfish above them than below...see where the baitfish are at and set at that depth or just above...if no baitfish i'd probably go with 1/4 of the way down in the water column |
|
| |
|
| also, pay attention to your locator...muskies are very easy to spot on a good locator...there have been many times i've seen a musky on the locator, and had that fish eat one of the suckers at that depth..at times i've even guessed the size by the size of the arch on the locator and been within 2 inches...
keep an eye on the locator at all times... |
|
| |
|
| bn - 11/13/2008 9:39 PM
also, pay attention to your locator...muskies are very easy to spot on a good locator...there have been many times i've seen a musky on the locator, and had that fish eat one of the suckers at that depth..at times i've even guessed the size by the size of the arch on the locator and been within 2 inches...
keep an eye on the locator at all times...
What kind of locators do you resommend for this? are hummindbirds good locators? |
|
| |
|
Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | It depends on what kind of depths you're fishing. If you're fishing a weedline, I'd keep the sucker right over the weeds (deeper weeds). If I was fishing off a breakline, I'd be more inclined to have the sucker on the bottom or just off the bottom, especially now that the water temps are getting down there.
As far as locators go, you can see them with any locator if you know what you are looking for. They usually stick out like a sore thumb. Make sure your fish ID is turned off, and you'll see a big hook on the screen. I've been meaning to take a picture of this on my locator, but keep forgetting. I'll try to remmber tomorrow so you get an idea of what it looks like.
Also, if you are fishing deeper water, watch your sucker on your locator. Usually you'll have 2 lines, one is the weight, one the sucker. If you see a third line come up off the bottom and your rod starts bouncing, make sure to check it if you aren't holding it. They'll grab suckers and not move very much at times. If you don't realize they have it, you'll get a nice set of chomp marks in your sucker the next time you check it, but no fish.  |
|
| |
