Need some advice from you musky guys

Hi folks. I live on a river over in WI. The primary fish is smallies but pike and musky are around. Just this week I’ve lost two lures. One that I think was a bite through from an ok size northern, a second on about a 36″ musky that broke the line at the boat when I was trying to get him into the net.

Obviously I’m not setup right. You guys know these freshwater sharks better than I. I know you use heavier setups when trying for them but what would you use if you weren’t targeting them specifically? Would you go with a certain test, or specific line style/brand, etc? I know I need a bigger net just in case lol.

Thanks!

Most bass rods can handle muskies just fine, I’d suggest a 7’0-7’4 medium heavy baitcasting rod and any sort of Daiwa or Shimano baitcasting reel. As far as line goes, you’re not really safe from getting bitten off unless you use a leader. Personally I’d just run 30 pound braid and hope for the best.

brandmoney wrote:

Most bass rods can handle muskies just fine, I’d suggest a 7’0-7’4 medium heavy baitcasting rod and any sort of Daiwa or Shimano baitcasting reel. As far as line goes, you’re not really safe from getting bitten off unless you use a leader. Personally I’d just run 30 pound braid and hope for the best.

I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that. It really kind of depends on how big of fish you are getting into. When I target tiger muskies, they generally do not grow as big as a pure strain muskie so MH bass gear is generally fine, like it would be for northern pike around here. If you’re fishing in waters with big pure strains, you will need to upsize your gear big time. 8 or 9 foot heavy action rods with big bait casting reels and 80 pound braid are the norm. Always use some kind of leader whether that be steel, titanium, or fluorocarbon. I have been using some hand tied Seaguar Blue Label leaders in 30 pound test on some of my bass lure presentations to prevent bite offs from pike and muskies and its working well. Haven’t been bit off once yet.

Straight 30 pound braid isn’t enough. They’ll slice right through that. I didn’t think they could, but they can. 40 isn’t enough either. 50 pound straight braid might be enough.

If you are not trying to target them than add a leader to your setup. A 12″ 20lb titanium leader will help keep your bass lures from being stolen. This won’t do much for the bigger muskies. You don’t want to go too heavy with your small bass lures or it will affect the action of the bait. I would agree with gimruis if you plan on going after them.

Rodwork wrote:

If you are not trying to target them than add a leader to your setup. A 12″ 20lb titanium leader will help keep your bass lures from being stolen.

^^^Exactly – you just need to add some bite protection and everything else is fine. 49 strand wire would be my choice, but the tieable titanium is good too. You can land any size musky on bass gear no problem if you have bite protection. The 400 size reels, 3-8 oz rated rods, and 80 lb braid are for the baits not the fish.

Great thanks guys. I ordered some 30lb braided and some new leaders as I didn’t have a lot to start with. I might target musky at some point, I bought a heavy rod just for trying it, as well as maybe for sturgeon, but right now I’ve been focusing on learning this river better. Between the two lost lures, the follow I had this morning (jebus he looked big) I figured I better do something soon. haha

I guess I misunderstood your post. If you want to target pike or muskies a leader is a must.

But if you intend to keep targetting the green carp, then using a leader is less than desireable. Similar to me trying to use my muskie gear to target walleyes. I might lose a lure while walleye fishing but I’m still not going to use a leader and I’m not going to use my muskie rods.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Rodwork wrote:</div>
If you are not trying to target them than add a leader to your setup. A 12″ 20lb titanium leader will help keep your bass lures from being stolen.

^^^Exactly – you just need to add some bite protection and everything else is fine. 49 strand wire would be my choice, but the tieable titanium is good too. You can land any size musky on bass gear no problem if you have bite protection. The 400 size reels, 3-8 oz rated rods, and 80 lb braid are for the baits not the fish.

Yup, what these guys said. Even a higher test flouro leader would probably work without impacting your bass bait action too much.

bzzsaw wrote:

But if you intend to keep targetting the green carp, then using a leader is less than desireable

Yes, I agree. The majority of my bass lures get directly tied. In clearer, more pressured waters, a steel or wire leader will absolutely reduce the number of bites you get while bass fishing. Its just part of doing business with pike around if you’re specifically targeting bass.

As I previously stated though, I have been using hand tied Seaguar Blue Label flurocarbon leaders on some of my bass presentations (mainly my moving lures like spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, jerkbaits, crankbaits, etc) to avoid getting bit off. Gets pretty old when you start to lose $15 lures. A fluoro leader has eliminated that this season and it blends in well with the water column so bass won’t see it in pressured waters either.

X2 on a 20 or 30lb titanium or 7 strand leader.

I use homemade single strand 20 or 30lb titanium using figure 8 knots. 20lb allows use of action sensitive lures such as bass sized husky jerks. Fluoro same lb tests not so much. Fine if you’re using something like an inline spinner where you can’t really limit lure action