Plan on doing some fishing this fall for em, being a complete newb I’m curious to what u fellas do after a follow with no bite.
Being mostly walleye smallmouth guy, if i keep getting bites with no hookups ur assessing bite marks on bait, seeing if jig color is off, maybe weight, perhaps plastic change from paddle to ringworm etc. A musky follow seems to me like a soft bite, something was there it liked, but not entirely….
What do you change if anything?
I keep a second and third setup rigged with a different lure and immediately throw a new lure at the fish when one follows. For example, if the muskie followed an in line spinner, I’ll throw back with something completely different like a slash bait instead. I do the exact same thing when I’m smallmouth fishing too. If they miss a topwater, toss back with a tube.
It’s easy to throw back with that exact same lure you just had a follow with, but your odds of getting that fish to bite are better with something else.
You could also mark the spot with a waypoint and come back later too.
I assume we’re talking pure strains here. Tigers don’t tend to follow nearly as much.
Throw back something like a jerk bait and sit and twitch it and give it big sporadic pulls
I agree with Gimruis when he says “waypoint” it and come back later.
Have a tube or a suick ready for a cast back. Otherwise come back later.
Yep definitely throw back a different type of lure to see if that triggers a bite. Like others said, mark the spot, come back at peak fish activity moon underfoot, overhead sunrise/sunset.
Figure 8 until you are sure it isn’t following anymore. Then throw back as others have mentioned and mark the spot and come back later.
Have a medium-heavy or heavy rod set up with whatever line you like and a wire or fluoro leader with a long shank, heavy duty jig head and some kind of creature/lizard plastic.
When they follow it in and then slink away, cast back over them. A lot of times something smaller than what they followed will trigger them.
Good luck and report back
Don’t have another rod setup for this other than possible my spinning flathead rod. Suppose that may work
Do you have any medium heavy baitcaster or spinning setups at all? Any of them will work if youre able to cast a 1/2-3/4 oz jig with it.
Yeah who knows, your cat setup could possibly work. I’m assuming that’s a fiberglass rod? May not be ideal but work with what u got. Main thing is just not stressing the fish too much and being as nice as possible to them 
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