Saturday

[BigBassin144]

OK, so my dad and me got invited to go Musky fishing on saturday. We've never fished for Musky before. Anyone got any advice on lures or techniques. If it helps, we will be fishing Lake Hudson near Adrian, MI.

My dad's friend who we're going out with was out with his brotyher last weekend and they landed two 30"ers. They weren't big enough to keep, but it's still awesome. I'm hopnig for one big enough to keep and have mounted.

bb144

[bassbooger]

HMM.... Don't use any snap swivels

[wargoth]

Steel leaders are a good idea too...

[zooker]

18+'' steel leaders is a must. a spinner bait with a twisted eye instead of an "R" bend. normally any big crankbaits probly would work.. my biggest musky was 53" biggest tiger 49" both caught on a 3/4 oz ratltrap.. the 53" came from the french broad river. the tiger came from lake erie..

zooker

[wargoth]

Hmmm... reminds me, Big 'ol Raps (j-10's and bigger) work pretty good somtimes...

[bassfisher02]

Sounds like the guy you are going with will be able to point you in the right direction.

Dont use snap swivels, use a leader, and dont lip it!!

[JB]

steel leader and a big spinner bait, we have muskies up here and most use a yellow inline spinner or a huge jointed stick bait.
If it was me, I'd use a orange or yellow spinnerbait and if you dont have a steel leader, their teeth will break mono and probably braid.

[BigBassin144]

Originally Posted by bassbooger

HMM.... Don't use any snap swivels

Thanks, BB, but I didn't plan on it. Musky lures are too expensive to lose... although so is a Lucky Craft crank... anyways, We do know steel leards are good. As for line, I wanted to use 40-50lb braided, but my dad insists on 30lb mono. and He's in charge of the money so mono it is.

Some lures we were looking at were some spinners (inline), like the Mepps Musky Marabou and the Mepps Musky Killer. A big Spinnerbait and also a big double buzzbait. We are also taking a Musky Jitterbug that we already have. Also some cranks like The Believer, and Suick's Cisco Kid. I was also looking at a few lures form Musky Innovations, like the bulldog, and a Musky Chatterbait. and some topwater like the Zara Mag Spook.

We were looking not to spend a lot of money, but that's kind of hard when your buying lures that are $10+. I also wanted to try a Storm Thunder Core Dawg.

You think these will be good? If not, what are some lure's you'd use.

bb144

[bassfisher02]

I would say your dad was correct in deciding mono over braid, because braid, though very strong, is very easily severed with sharp objects. But since you are using a leader I would have chosen braid for the lack of stretch advantages and the added strength.

No Muskie down here, so I can only say big lures.

[lunker-lander]

We(me and my dad) use 17 lb mono and catch muskys just fine,as long as the line dont cross their mouth. In fact, last weekend I caught a 36" on 12 lb test. Booyah! Spinnerbait, white with twin willow blades.

[BigBassin144]

We went to Cabelas tonight and, to my dad's disgust and my pleasure, we let the Baitmonkey run lose. His friend that we are going with came with us, and the baitmonkey got to us more, but he still spent more (he bought like $300 worth of shotgun shells though) anyways, we got some good lures(we hope) and talked to a guy that worked there. he said theyt had a guy come in the other day and buy a fish landing stretcher cause the fish they caught were too big for their landing net.

The guy said they were using white and red spinnerbaits, so of course, the baitmonkey wanted a few. anyways, We got 20 lb mono to put on my dad's casting rod, and both our trolling rods, while I put 30lb braided on my casting rod. We are using 24" leaders for trolling and 9-12" leaders for casting. and just in case the fish of 10,000 casts doesnt bite, we are bringing worms and some walleye rigs. ( i am also bringing a small amount of bass lures.)

I am going to break in my braided tomarrow and get used to casting my dad's old Abu Ambassador [sp?] 5500 tomarrow in our pond with the new musky rod we bought. I will probably try some of the twitch baits we bought to get used to the feel of them.

bb144

ps: I'll let ya know how the fishing went sunday(or monday depending on the day we fish)

[BigBassin144]

Oh, by the way zooker, I got a 1.5 OZ rattletrap cause you had to go and tell me that ya caught a big one on a rattletrap. My dad doesn't thank you as he paid for the $10 lure.

bb144

[BigBassin144]

One more thing we were wondering, Should you tie directly to you leader, or use a heavyduty snapswivel like that's on the end of the leader. If you tie directly to the leader, what knots (for mono and braided) I'm sure you'll all say the palomar for the braided, but I am still asking. I think because I am fishing for such a big fish, I'll use superglue on my knots for the braided.

Thanks for all the help everyone, and I'm going to be really disappointed if we don't catch anything. But we haven't even gone yet, and I already want to go back. We'll see if that changes when we catch (or don't catch) a musky.

Thanks again,
bb144

[bassfisher02]

Deffinitely do not tie directly to a leader haha.

Connect the leader to a heavy-duty swivel. Not snap swivel. My stepdad makes his own leaders and passes the leader through the swivel then passes through again and takes the leader back down some, then connects the leaders end to the leader itself by using cinches[sp?] I found a picture on the net that kinda shows what I'm talking about:



Dis-regaurd the weed eater line, obviously someone is doing some shark fishing... But anyways from there you tie on you mono to the other end of the swivel and there you go.

[lunker-lander]

To hell with the leader,me and my friends/family always use 12-25 pound mono for musky and have not had one of 15 break offf this year.

[bassfisher02]

Call that luck, LL. It doesnt take but a second for mono to get in those sharp teeth and SNAP there goes a trophy.

[lunker-lander]

Well, "Beef", good point. But let's go into detail. Say your using a #6 Mepps Marabou. Now, don't get me wrong, this is big lure, 7" I believe. So, in theory, the fish(es) would have to get at least 7" plus of lure, and then a good 1/2 inch of monofilament in its mouth to slice the line. So, all in all, the fish(es) would have to get a good 7" of line/lure/swivel in its mouth to,in theory, cut the line.

P.S. - This shall only apply to a lure of 6" or up. Not a guarantee, but rather, an inference...


That is all, just thought I shall let ya'll know...



-LL-

[bassfisher02]

I'm pretty sure we went over the whole dont call me beef thing... Its weird and creepy and personally you dont get the priveledge to make up nicknames until that post status hits the 1000 mark.

With that being said, a fish doesnt always hit the lure, a fish can perform a stun strike on the lure and possibly severe the line. Either way when fishing for the toothy fish what does it hurt to add that leader on?

[lunker-lander]

Good point, the leader will not hurt, but sometimes they hinder the action of the lure. That being said, leader/no leader there is still the possiblity of the fish cutting the line.

[bassfisher02]

True enough.

[BigBassin144]

Well, We're back. I'm not going to say anything here, so read my post in messageboards.

bb144