Help with the Muskies

Hi all I am looking for a place to go over the 4th of July weekend. Last year I started fishing for muskies with limited success. My dad now wants to start as well and I was hoping someone could tell me a couple good lakes where a couple of rookies would have a decent chance of catching a few. also what techniques should we be using one person tells me to put on bucktail spinners, the next tells me top water is the way to go, and others tell me to use a bobber and a big sucker. Any help would be great thanks.

Any idea what part of the state you want to travel to?
How big is your boat? Can you handle Mille Lacs, Leech, Minnetonka?

If your are coming up from the southern part of the state.
1st stop would probably be French Lake in Faribault.
2nd would be Minnetonka, Independence, White Bear, Bald Eagle, Waconia, plus about 100 more metro lakes that host quality fish.

If you are willing to go further north from there, Mille Lacs………But then there are about a dozen quality muskie lakes around Bemidji area.

Get yourself a good map book found at Gander Mountain, Fleet Farm, even Walmart that has 100 lakes on there, all directly about muskies. It has maps and hints/clues as to what/where/when to fish these lakes. Sorry, can’t remember the name of the map book. It has a picture of Bob Mesikomer on the front. It is a binder book of maps.

As for presentation:
Well, that all depends on what the fish want.

Typically, early and late day call for top water.
Later mornings may call for slow bucktails and jerks. Even cranks.

Later in the day, when things warm up and the fish become more agressive will call for faster bucktails, or much more agressive jerking.

Good boat team playing generally calls for the bow man to run “search lures” (like bucktails or fast top water). This hits the agressive fish.

The back deck guy gets to pick up the left overs, by running more “finesse” baits, such as jerks/gliders/twitched cranks. This presentation goes after the more lethargic fish or fish that have been “triggered” by the bow man’s presentation and won’t chew on his bait.

Does this help????

Go to Bone Lake in Polk Cty, WI and fish for bass, you’re guaranteed at least 5 muskies a day

Where are you located? If you are in minneapolis there are many spots to go. The probmlem will be boat traffic. I don’t spend much time chasing ski’s any more. But I always had great success on tonka! This would have to be an early morning fish due to all the tune boats that will be out that weekend!

If you are looking for a getaway. Lake of the woods, the big pond, and winne are my favorite get aways. If you head to LOW or Winne you should be able to get away from some of the traffic. Plus these three lakes hold much more than big Ski’s.

Here is my take on presentation. Remember “Opinions are like evry body has one!” Early in the AM I like to throw top water. Mostly because it’s fun! As the day wears on and the water temp rises I begin to go deep. Starting with buck tails then heading to plugs. I am not a fan of drowning sucker minnows unless I know the exact location of a PIG.

Hope this helps! Happy hunting.

Quote:

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Go to Bone Lake in Polk Cty, WI and fish for bass, you’re guaranteed at least 5 muskies a day

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Bomber,
This is exactly how I caught my one and only muskie!

Okauchee Lake (in Waukesha County, Wisconsin)is really HOT right now. During the last 3 days 3 fish over 52 inches have been boated as well as ALOT of 40+ fish too.