Open water trolling for muskies

As many of you already know, I spend a lot of time trolling for walleyes in the open basin of Mille Lacs via crankbaits, line counter reels and planer boards. Every year we catch 2-5 muskies out there by accident. Last one was a thick 47 incher that James Holst caught on a leadcore set up trolling in 35 feet of water with no structure around for a mile. I’m going to try to target muskies specifically and want to know what type of crankbaits and/or muskie lures mimick a walleye and/or a tullibee and would be good for open water trolling? If I have 4 people in the boat, I would also want to use a couple of planer boards if possible. My plan is to stack these lures throughout the water column at various depths depending on what my sonar is showing for baitfish/arcs. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I would run perch and sucker pattern Jakes out there. You don’t need line counters really or to run them really deep. I found when I used my sealines for musky baits they got worn pretty fast. Your walleye boards will work fine they will just hang back a little bit further. Always run a rod short in your prop wash. That one gets hit a lot. You can also run a top water 5-10 feet behind your boards and they get blasted sometimes pretty dramatically. I’m also a fan of the deep husky those come in a lot of colors. I usually run 5 baits. Two boards, two deeper long lined and one in the wash. Big tubes work pretty well in the wash.

It doesn’t mimic walleye or tulibee, but I personally would use a rainbow trout pattern it might not work (why should it? how many rainbow trout does the average muskie see?) but it is worth a shot.

Shallow=Shallow Invaders, Shallow Raiders, SS Shads, Big Fork Twitch Darter, Slammer 6″ Minnows.
Medium=Grandmas, Slammers, Kraves, Depth Raiders, Big Game Twitch Baits.
Deep!= Big Fork Reef Diggers, Slammer Deep Minnows, Hookers.
I think you could be onto something out there with the crazy amount of baitfish the last few years. I’ve tried trolling the abyss a few times over the last couple years with no results, although my results are probably due to lack of effort…Only done it for a few hours here and there. I’ve always thought some of the biggest, baddest fish in the lake never even venture near shore during the summer. They just sit out there and eat, eat, eat! If you are ever looking for someone who has baits to tag along for a day let me know. It would be nice to get out there with someone with more trolling patience than myself. Good Luck!

Most lakes have an open water bite. Some do better with small baits, others better with big baits.

My choices include 10″ jakes, depth raiders, slammmer cranks, ERC’s DDD, and cisco kids. If you experiment with snap on weights, Cow Girls and Bull Dawgs can be trolled well. The 1# and 2# bull dawgs could be great, especially if you’re holding the rod in your hand to impart some stop-go action on the bait (which works well with any bait, by the way).

From my understanding, there aren’t many open water muskie trollers on Mille Lacs. Perhaps that is changing these days. A walleye guy who is experienced at finding bait schools might fare better than a muskie guy who is just roaming around.

Let us know how it goes!

This is something that I was thinking about trying this year as well. Does anyone have any suggestions on trolling speed?

2.25-4mph is common.

I open water troll muskies quite often (not on Mille Lacs).

Jakes, Jakes and more Jakes. Throw a Bull Dawg in there too.

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From my understanding, there aren’t many open water muskie trollers on Mille Lacs.

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There was one out on Sunday and we watched him haul one in.

It appeared he was doing about 3-5 mph.

When I’m trolling weed edges, I like to use baits that dive between 6 – 8 feet. My go to bait for this is a Sledge. These would be similar to a Suick. Another decent bait to troll with is the Kickn Minnow by Storm. They have decent action and are also easy on the pocket book.

Trolling is an awesome way to fish with those that aren’t used to hucking baits. All they have to know is how to open the cooler.

Thanks everyone for your input! OK – I’m off to Thorne Bros. – hopefully they provide financing too!

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Thanks everyone for your input! OK – I’m off to Thorne Bros. – hopefully they provide financing too!

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Financing you say

Happy hunting Bro, I hope that open water trolling is a winner for you. If its anything like the walleyes your gonna come back with that state record.

Let me know if you need a body in the boat…on a calm day that is

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Trolling is an awesome way to fish with those that aren’t used to hucking baits. All they have to know is how to open the cooler.

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I’m with you.

I love trolling There’s no better way to contact active fish

Not to mention it’s always miller time

If you want to really add excitement to your line up, drag one line with a camera attached. Video trolling is a new twist that offers that opportunity to capture some pretty neat clips…..even if they don’t eat it!