Metro Musky

Hi Everyone

Wanted to see if any of you had some advice. This year I have been able to get out on a couple of the metro lakes about once or twice a week. This year has been great so far with seeing fish. I have been lucky enough to raise 1-2 almost every trip. The only thing with these fish though is they are just lazy follows. They will follow the bait to the boat reel slow and maybe follow around the figure 8, but after that they will just swim off slow. I have been using tiny bucktails up to #10’s and everything from cranks to rubber. I was even surprised last night as my buddy and I were out fishing and there were about 6 other boats fishing for musky within a casts length and we still managed to raise 2 fish. Just wanted to get your take on if any of you are seeing the same thing, or what you do to usually get these pressured fish to go.

Thank you.

Nathan:

Have you considered trying to be out there when the moon phases are in their prime??? Here is my favorite solunar website: http://www.solunarforecast.com/solunarcalendar.aspx

All you do is put your zip code into the top and select the month you want and hit the create link to the lower left of the info tabs. I included a screen shot of the last day of June. If you create the month of July, you will see that we are coming into the new moon phase and things should get better. Moon under and over are related to the majors and set and rise are related to the minors, so you get all your information here.

Putting these times to use will not insure that you catch a fish, but it will help to keep in mind when you should try to go after the ones you are seeing. Combine these times with a weather change and you can get some dynamite action for most any species. Of course fish when you have time to fish, but take into consideration that you might want to be on your best spots when these times occur and see what happens…

My boss is one of the better musky guides in our northern WI area and when he comes in he reports that they catch the majority of their fish in one of these periods.

Mark

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Nathan:

so with the two attachments I hope I have here… We should both be fishing, we are in the middle of the major and have weather moving in, even though by the star at the bottom, its maybe not the best fishing of days. Again, always fish when you can get out!!! I put a red box around the major time and you know where you are on the radar. I am on the east side of the map with the same stuff moving in. I will be fishing musky league tonight with the boss and will find out if they did well during the time period this a.m.

Mark

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I definitely get out when I can, but I have read quite a few articles on the solunar calendar and how it works. I have been out on a full moon and a major and have not seen a fish, and sometimes at noon and lots of boat traffic have moved a few fish. I think it plays a factor for sure.

Thank you for information and good luck tonight in the league. Hope one finds its way into the net.

What about live bait rigs? Maybe slow down the presentation if they are not being so aggressive? Drag jigs with swim-baits?

Speed up your retrieve . Pull their trigger somehow make your bait move in a different direction buy sweeping your rod one way or the other.bigger bass crank baits
work well this time of year
on pressured fish. Clearwater pressured lake I would fish at night.
DK.

Nathan:

They did pretty well during the day and we went back to the same lake and same spots to see if we could get fish to commit that didn’t during his day trip. Saw three fish during our almost 5 hours in the boat and we had to wait for the last set of storms to move through… we figured that slowed down any opportunities that may have existed along with not being to be out with the minor. We threw rubber for the first 3 hours in open water over sand grass and worked a weed flat during the last two stopping back to see if that one open water fish might be interested again. Nope…

BTW, catmando has an excellent idea for pressured clear water!!!

Mark

Thank you for the advise everyone. My buddy and I worked Minnetonka yesterday evening and into the minor. Water temps varied from bay to bay but overall action was slow. I did get to work on burning the blades and tuning the figure 8. We did catch 1 pike and had 1 hit on topwater right at dusk. This weekend taking a trip to Wisconsin with my brother to work some lakes and hopefully get some action. At this time of year, would you ever consider throwing gliders and suicks, or is speed the name of the game?

Thanks!

You bet a big reef hawg is a great bait this time of year, me I like to throw a top water if they will go for it. Here’s a tip for top water at night. When you get a strike, sweep your rod sidewise, if you don’t connect with the fish your bait will likely stay in the water and get hit a second time
Set the hook upwards you might get a hawg wobbler in the face. DK.

My buddies dad is the original maker of the Reef Hawg. It is my go to lure in Canada for giant walleyes.
Nathan, I agree with speeding up your retrieve. Last week on Waconia it seemed the faster my retrieve was the more aggressive the fish were. In 6 hours I had a giant chase my figure 8 at the boat, had another smaller one on but he shook off because he was hooked only by the rear treble hook and then I had another hand full of muskie and pike follows.

I will have to give the reef hawg another shot this weekend with the high skies. Sometimes I want to fish with one lure until I catch a fish on it, but I always get the inkling to cast blades. We will see how the fish react this weekend.

I have always had better luck with the reef hawg when there is a little wind.

well this weekend was a success. after the 10,000th cast finally hooked up. Didn’t catch any on the reef hawg but finally did get the bigger gal on the figure 8 next to the boat. Couldn’t have been happier to catch these two.

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well way to go on the fish!

I do have to add dont be afraid to downsize to even a mepps musky or giant killer. You can move those things fast and get that reaction strike a lot more. Also try some deeper stuff as well. I know out on forest I always see a few big schools of bait out in 18-21 ftw. try blades, big rubber, gliders, or even top waters through these schools and there will be fish to be caught!

thanks for the info Carter. Funny thing was I caught that little one on an 8″ glider and the bigger one on a smaller spinnerbait. funny how those things play out.