05/04/2000
- Article
Muskie
Tricks
By
Lance Christensen
Muskie
fishing is really not a hobby for me; it’s an obsession.
I fish all over muskie country and luckily there are some
high-potential lakes near where I live in Iowa.
The Iowa Great Lakes, Spirit and Okoboji, both boast some
wonderful fish these days. The
state record came out of Spirit Lake, a 45-pounder.
The muskie range just keeps on expanding as state biologists
stock lakes that have high potential for this species.
One
thing that anglers are realizing is that muskies are no longer the
fish of a thousand casts. With
some serious effort placed on learning the right techniques for the
timing and conditions of the water you fish, muskies soon become
more catchable.
Sometimes
anglers become specialized and start to rely on one or two tactics
they have become comfortable with.
I believe success comes with using the right technique and
doing whatever it takes to catch fish.
I
will confess that I love to throw surface baits. The way I learned to fish muskies is to start at the top and
work down. Active
muskies will come to the surface without hesitation to strike a
bait.
Where
a surface lure is not a good option to start with is when you’re
fishing over deep, clear water.
In a situation like this a sub-surface bait will likely be a
better choice.
The
number one thing to me when it comes to muskie fishing is, you have
to locate the fish. This
is one of the reasons I think you see muskie anglers casting more
than they troll. Muskies
like to follow a lure and you can spot them.
Consider walleye fishing where you can spot schools of fish
on a sonar. With
muskies I’m searching for one fish, not a school of deep dwellers.
If I’m casting and I get follows at least I know I’m on
the right track.
Knowing
that muskies like to follow should put all muskie anglers into a
mode where they use the figure-eight pattern at the boat after each
cast. It’s a simple
pattern to adopt. Each
time the lure comes to the boat you drop your rod tip to the water
and move it in a figure-eight pattern.
Where
I come from up to 70-percent of all the fish I catch are taken on
the figure-eight pattern. If
you pull that bait out of the water without the figure-eight,
you’re not going to catch many muskies.
My
program is simple, but very effective.
I always start out with a bait that runs high in the water
column like a spinnerbait, bucktail, or jerkbait. If
these lures in this zone don’t prove to be productive then it’s
time to get out a deep-diving crankbait and try to get the fish’s
attention.
When
I do get a follow I will make a slight change in the lure.
I figure if that fish came in on that lure, it’s going to
come in again with the same lure. I figure a slight modification might trigger that fish.
So let’s say it was a bucktail; what I do is bend the blade
a little or cup it one way or another. It just changes something a little bit and will get a
positive reaction from the muskie.
Here’s
a great tip. Us muskie
anglers call it, “The Rip.”
Right before the lure gets to the boat and you start to
figure-eight you give the lure a twitch.
I’m not talking a three-foot rip here, but a slight
hesitation and twitch before you start into the figure-eight.
It’s a triggering effect that really works.
I’m
getting to the point where I like my jerkbaits to be very neutral.
When I give that lure a twitch I really want it to sit right
there. There are ways
you can make this happen. Drill
out the lure and add weight or take the one that has caught some
fish where the paint is all wore off and toss it in your livewell.
It will soak up water and be nice and neutral buoyant.
With
jerkbaits it becomes a waiting game.
Most muskie anglers can’t sit and wait it out, but it’s
very important when using a jerkbait to let the lure sit still and
give it a twitch before giving it a jerk.
Muskies, for some reason, are often going to trigger on a
motionless bait.
Muskie
fishing gets into your blood. I
recommend you only try it if you are someone with willpower, and if
you’re not, then I’ll see you on the water.
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