Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Muskies from the weekend

Nothing big at all but still took the same amount of work. Can't complain too much. These will grow up one day and are the future of the sport

Cool beans!


I wish it were shorts weather here!

Cool photo's

Muskies and Pike are about the closest fish you can get in freshwater to a salt water fish's vicious teeth and attitude!

Sure looks like fun and a great way to pass the time never knowing when the big one will strike. Thanks for the pictures. Tom

It just changed ingwe lol. 30s at night 50s in the day. It has been unseasonably warm. The rivers just now turned over and the water is black. That should have happned last month. I think that has a little to do with not seeing any of the bigger fish this weekend

Congrats again.... From everything I've read and heard Muskies are one of the hardest fish to catch, even for experienced fishermen in areas that have plenty of Muskies. Based on your photos you get more than your share. How often do you go and %wise how often would you guess you get skunked?

43 shooter---- even where muskie numbers are great, there still aren't near as many of them as there are other fish...being a top of the line apex predator in the waters that contain them, there will always be less of them than other fish.

Hard to catch? Nah not really. When you find one and can actually get his attention or get a lure in front of a hungry fish, you cannot keep him off of it.


I work night shift so I usually get to fish 2-3 days a week, when the fish are on I will grind it out and fish more but generally 2x a week. Sometimes 3.

Some days we catch 2-3 fish, some days 1, very rarely do we go and not get at least one good shot at a fish.

Mainly. Fish where you know Muskies are, fish big fish tackle ( baits that are appealing to Muskies), keep casting, pay attention to weather and water temp and adjust your fishing to what you think the Muskies are doing. If it's 40* water temps then logic says a fast moving bucktail probably isn't the wisest choice. Lot of it comes down to thinking like a fish lol

Hey Ky, I went to that place I heard there were muskies. It's confirmed they are present. I had one on and it got off and had another strike. I wasn't fishing for them, I was bass fishing as a friend has my large casting reel and hasn't been able to find it, so I'm not set up for them yet. But it's a good sign and I am anxious to get after them. I have only fished this place a few times and am getting to know it. I found a couple of oxbow type pockets that are good looking places with grass and lots of wood cover.

Get on them!!!!

Was it good fish that you had a strike from?

The one I lost was around 30"-36" probably and the other was maybe a touch bigger. Hard to tell it came to the surface and thrashed then swam away the other just flashed on my bait and bumped it and pulled for a split second then pulled off. But I was using a bass spinnerbait (without a trailer hook duh) although the one with a long skirt and huge blades, i was trying to make the profile big as possable since those toofy cridder be inair. I'm guessing bigger bait bigger fish.

Going today to order a shimano sojourn composite musky rod to use braid on. Composite rods are tough and good with superlines, plus side is they aren't as expensive. If Tony doesn't find my 5600C I will find a ebay reel I guess. I can't afford a new revo toro...

I'll keep you posted on my failer/success. Dang youngun, your pics are costing me a fortune... lol... Maybe one day next year when it warms up you can come down and chase'em.

Best rods I've found for the $$ are made by Okuma. It's their evx musky models. Pretty light for the price, good warranty, and super strong

Okuma evx Rod Rod woukd run you about 110$. I would get an 8' heavy. It would make for a good all around Rod

You could pick up a Garcia 5500 c3 new for 100$ also. That would work for everything but the heavy stuff.

I use a few Okuma ultralights for my fishing. I like them too!

I'll check them out. Is the 8' length so you can figure 8 better or something and does that actually work ofter?

Does the figure 8 work? Absolutely. I've caught 19 fish I think this year, 15 of them were taken on the 8.

Longer rods are better for 8s, longer casts, and better hook sets.

We tried figure 8s on pike...no noticeable difference.
What seems to really get to them is yanking the lure away from them as fast as you can....throw it back to the same spot and I promise you aren't fast enough to get it away from them a second time....

3/4 of Muskies caught will be on the 8 ....if you do it right. You have to read the fish. You will always raise more Muskies than you ever catch just for the simple reason they follow so much. Just the nature of then beast. But you can almost always get a hot fish to eat boatside and sometimes trigger a neutral fish into eating. It really is a good technique to learn and get down pat.

Remember that a big fish cannot turn on a dime, big wide ovals or 8s will keep him
Interested. Can't make him work too hard. Again this is where long rods really come in handy

That's awesome and bizarre that the figure 8 works that often.

Poobs, that's cool how you can figure out a way to make them strike, does it work often? Yesterday was a huge cold front and I knew it would do one of two things, shut them off or turn them on. It turned them on big time but there was a twist. I had to crank a square bill bandit crankbait slow and as soon as it hit the rocky bottom I would crank 1 revolution super fast then kill it. I couldn't even start the retrieve again and they would blast it. They would not strike a strait retrieve. It doesn't always work but it did yeasterday. I love it when you can provoke them to bite.

2 ways to fish a cold front... Big and slow or you can down size and bump cover.

My favorite is big and slow. This usually involves large gliders fished very slow.

Downsizing would involve 5-6" cranks, gliders, bumped into wood, rocks, thick weeds etc