I haven't, but my Son has hooked fish on the figure eight. Well actually he doesn't do a figure eight, he just goes in a big oval pattern. His feeling, along with some other fisherman, is that the figure eight slows down too much in the turns, thus the big oval pattern to keep the lure moving at a constant rate.

I caught my first Musky years ago on a Mepps Giant Killer fishing with a guy I worked with who claimed to be a big time Musky fisherman. He was using pool cue like rods with absolutely no action whatsoever and couldn't cast a lure beyond 10 feet. I snapped the Mepps onto a rod I had built with a fairly fast action and could cast it quite some distance. So after years of trying, he had to watch me catch a Musky, something I'd never even bothered with at that time.

These days, my favorite buck tail is a Vibrax Musky Buck. Something about the bell and gearing at the front of the lure that emits a vibration seems to work. In clear Canadian water, natural colors work best for me, like brown, black and brass with just a touch of orange somewhere on the lure are what I reach for. For slow trolling, the absolute best lure for me is a gold and orange Suick. It hammers northerns and Muskies equally well but you have to keep working it, pulling forward with your rod then letting it slide back to get that dive - float - dive action.

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