What should I be throwing for musky right now?

I only get to fish musky very occasionally these days and I’m going up to the Dairyland Reservoir (WI) for a couple days and have no idea what to be throwing. i have a little of everything in my musky box, so on a short trip what baits should I concentrate on….bucktails?

Stay with confidence baits, blades, cranks, jerks, & surface. I would use cranks and plastics on deep humps during the day if it is sunny. Blades for windy days. Surface in the evening & blades bulged near weeds. Try swithing sizes of baits from large to small versus worrying about color and remember don’t use it if the hooks are not razor sharp!!

FN

KwickStick:

I would second Sneaky’s assessment and add this:

Blades and topwaters been getting most of the action in my boat, but that is what I have been… Most muskies we have been encountering on natural lakes have been in the sparse outer cabbage and been all over smaller hot colored stuff. I know friends who are working the deepp breaks as well. Certain bodies of water are kicking them out pretty good, while others a fish here and there. Water temps are in the mid-70’s up here I would think would be similar in Ladysmith, just not sure how the riverine part of flowage changes that dynamic.

Good Luck and perhaps you will catch the albino!!!

Mark

Thanks, guys. I thought I’d go with smallish, bright bucktail on one rod, and then work surface, crankbaits, and plastics with the other two as the situations call. I missed a big one up there once on a Reef Hog. I was bringing it in and got distracted listening to a grouse drumming and must have changed my cadence slightly and he blew up on it right by the boat. Talk about a heart attack!

I second Mark’s comments. This last week we raised about 11 muskies in my boat (that we saw). One of which Mark caught. I was 6 for 9 on the week.
Here are some common factors:
Major time that coincided with the early morning produced all musky and nearly no pike.
Minor times produced the most pike

Denser weeds had much smaller fish – all fish were on cabbage weed that were outer edges or sporadic.

Top raider
Mud Puppy
Orange or Red Bucktails

TopRaiders, Cowgirls, Supermodels, and Medussas or Bulldawgs…Pounders.