Delta presentation Pike/Musky

I fish for pike and a bit for tiger-musky, not Musky’s so things might be different there? I hear people state they use bucktails, spinnerbaits and crankbaits for Musky’s while casting. Do you take a lot of fish with these lures?

The reason I ask is that I- we take our pike mainly by jerk – baiting. Depending on the time of year in summer very aggressive sweeps with the rod with barely a pause to cold water months very small twitches with long pauses. One in a while a will throw a crankbait but that the exception. The only time I don’t jerk bait for long is when I’m using a diving crankbait to troll down at (20 to 35)’.

Curios how this compares with your techniques for Pike / Musky’s.

Thanks,
JOC

Bucktails, big rubber and topwater pretty much rule the roost up here for skis. Personally, double #10s, and double #13s account for the majority of the skis I boat. When the season opens up in MN, and we get a few weeks under our belt, somebody in the boat is always fishing some sort of bucktail.

There are a lot of different brands to check out some of my personal favorites are the Blue Fox Superbou, Musky Mayhem Double Cowgirl & Super Model, and Dadson Bullet to name a few.

In terms of spinnerbaits, I will fish them a lot for pike along with smaller inline spinners. Pretty much if I am fishing heavier weeds, I’ll fish a bent arms spinner bait.

Jerkbaits can be great early in the year but then I just get flat out destroyed by guys throwing bucktails, topwater and big rubber.

That’s odd not having success with the jerk-baits that is. But I only fish a very limited body of waters here in NY and on rare occasion up north in Canada. Maybe it imitates the alewives or something? I usually out fish the guys tossing spinner baits, big in line buck tail type spinners like Mepps giant killer or straight crankbaits.
I have never used plastics for toothy critters nor have i ever seen anybody else do so. About the closest I come to that is to use a Phantom that has a twister tail. Never heard about this type of fishing for Essox. Thank you for the information. Fishing is a nonstop learning experience. Do you guys have a You-Tube or vidoe on using plastics for toothy critters?

Do yourself a huge favor, pick up a few of the double #10 buck tails in your favorite colors, and a few Medussas by Chaos tackle….you may be living large out there. Trust me.

I remember the days in Minnesota before they became pretty mainstream, my god, it was the off the hook. Nowadays all you hear at night is what I like to call “the dinner bells”, the sound of #10’s clanging in the air and people still light them up.

A softail Phantom is one of my go to jerk baits also. We don’t have a muskie plastic video specific to bulldawgs or Medussas but we have one fishing dunwright plastics, which have some awesome baits..It was from season 3 I believe.

IDO Season 3 – Muskies

Hi Ben,
Thanks for the info. I’ve tried the big Bucktails spinners. Without much success. These Medusa’s however look really cool and when I talked to the Musky Shop they highly recommended them. When my budget permits I will get a few. They worry me being all plastic I don’t think you can catch to many toothy critters on a single Medusa and they are $15/each and up.
I just got one of my Stradic reels fixed ~ $60. Bought a St Croix Rod $160 and got some Phantom refills so the budget is maxed out for a couple of months.” I wish I had a sponsor”. One lure that does me justice is Rapala’s Salt water X-Rap in silver (@ max size = 1.5 oz). Just big enough to be a bit meaty and really has a nice iridescent flash. I also get a fair amount on the old tried and true HJ14 in Firetiger.

I will eventually try these Medusa’s they look great and the Musky shop told me to work them like a jerk bait.

Thanks I really like hearing from you guys. I’m actually the sorta expert with my small group so it’s good to get input that’s outside the box.

Thank you for the input and may you catch a lot of toothy critters,
JOC

Good luck with the dussas. They are fun baits. Be sure when you fish them to really rip on them big long rod sweeps, fast! Rip pause rip pause. In my experience you often times can’t rip them hard enough.

Good luck!

Thanks Ben,

I’ll let you know how things go. I tried a Mepps Giant Killer in fire-tiger with no luck if this count as a big bucktail, I would think so, or are you referring more to one of these Cowbell type lures?

The pike are always a bit tougher in mid summer here, but it seems the Tiger – Muskys aren’t as effected y the heat.

I’ve caught a few 20 to 25 pound pike “very few like 3” in the last 15 years, but man those Muskys on the video wow.

Thanks for all the tips,

Jim