Water temp, suckers, and Muskies

So this weekend I am headed musky fishing around the Brainerd area. My buddy is headed up today. Last weekend the water temp was around 62 degrees. With that water temp I prefer to cast for muskies rather than troll suckers. But it has been a cool week and I am sure the water temps have drop. When I think of trolling suckers for muskies I think of water temperature 55 degrees and lower. What water temperature do you look for when you start to think suckers?

I consider my boss (Rob Manthie) at the resort to be one of the very best sucker fisherman in the Midwest… I am not sure what he uses to start his sucker fishing… if its the date for photoperiodism or water temp, but I know that he had caught 7 sucker fish through last Sat. He also hosted the St. Germain musky tourney, so he didn’t really fish a lot during last weekend. I do know his clients caught two fish last Sat. in the rain, not sure on what.

I typically wouldn’t fish suckers until after turnover, which would be in the 55* and under type of water. But then I never really had much success on them and recently never used them between the cost and my time available…

Mark

I have done very little sucker fishing, but I think that bite just gets better and better until ice up. I don’t think I would count on it being better than casting until sub 50 degree water temperatures. I’m sure that if you’re a master at it you can catch fish doing it during any time of the year though.

Not sure what lake my buddy was fishing but the water temp was 57degrees and he picked up 4 muskies trolling suckers yesterday. Does anyone know of a place in the Brainerd area that carries large suckers? I know of spots on the way up but nothing near that area. I don’t have a good way to transport large suckers for a long distance.

Suckers will catch fish all year , but they are hard to keep alive in warm water temps . In wis , I start using suckers in mid to late oct til ice up . I usually have one hanging about 6 ft below the boat while casting . My theory is they will follow the baits , and if they don’t hit , they see the sucker . I’ve had good success using this method.

I wish we could do that in MN but we are only allowed one line per person. I think I will do this approach with one of us casting and the other trolling a sucker.

Tuma wrote:

Not sure what lake my buddy was fishing but the water temp was 57degrees and he picked up 4 <em class=”ido-tag-em”>muskies trolling suckers yesterday. Does anyone know of a place in the Brainerd area that carries large suckers? I know of spots on the way up but nothing near that area. I don’t have a good way to transport large suckers for a long distance.

Don’t know if you can do this in MN or not. Can you fill your live well with clear well/tap water and run your aerator to transport if you have your bait store receipt? You have more water volume to help keep them alive that way.

Tuma wrote:

I wish we could do that in MN but we are only allowed one line per person. I think I will do this approach with one of us casting and the other trolling a sucker.

isn’t mn two lines per angler ?

Mike Martine wrote:

isn’t mn two lines per angler ?

Don’t tease us! I think only on border waters like the st croix etc.

mxskeeter wrote:

Can you fill your live well with clear well/tap water and run your aerator to transport if you have your bait store receipt?

Suckers cannot be transported in your live well. They have to be removed and placed in a different container. (from what I understand)
We did the one two punch with him trolling a sucker and me casting a 12” 17.5oz jerkbait. The only fish that ate the sucker was the one that came on my jerkbait and followed into a 8 about 20 times. Than went straight for his sucker. Another fish ate the whole jerkbait and first inch of the leader. After cutting hooks and getting the lure out, she swam away (unharmed and not even bleeding) soaking me with a tail kick. I missed 2 other fish on the jerkbait and there were many lazy follows with the sucker.

I developed a free fishing app for this exact reason. I broke down the majority of species by their location based on the water temperature. Its called FishIQ (All one word). Check it out!

What temperature should I cook sheepshead at? Also what temp do they bite the best?