Never fished big Mckenzie for ‘eyes but it is a good bass lake. I primarly fish it for ‘skis. the lake can be tricky to fish, lots of structure and the fish seem to appear and dispear quite quickly. Like I said I haven’t had much experience with walleyes on the lake but I know I have caught some from time to time muskie lures.
most definitley a bigmouth. smallmouth have downward pointing mouths – the bigmouth have the forward pointing mouths that this fish has. They are also more likely to feed on baitfish due to the forward mouth instead of the downward one. Black buffalo have a body like a bigmouth but a downward mouth and are very rare.
Got out this morning and caught a couple small eyes swimming 1/4 oz jigs and 4″ twisters from shore. Carp.. huh? i might have to grab my fly rod and try nymphing for them. Any suggestions on locations for freshwater bonefish? thanks.
not only do people need to respect game fish (like pike) but people need to respect non-gamefish. Gar, Bowfin,sheepshead, sucker, etc all have an important place in the ecosystem just like pike, walleye, bass, and muskie. It is no more wasteful to toss a pike on the shore than a walleye or a sucker. I have fishedd for almost every species in the areas that i fish and they are all worthy of pursuit. alright i will get off my rant for now.
I frequently shore fish esp. at night. If you can find fish it is often more productive (for me at least) you dont have to worry about boat control (simple is better at night) If you are not picky and can be flexible you can normally catch something from shore. I usally catch smallmouth and walleye using crankbaits (husky jerks, shad raps, floating raps are personal favorites) or jigs (1/4 oz or less w/ a 4″ twister tail). I would say just go out and try everything you can as you never know what will happen.
p.s. shore fishermen are not inferior just a little less mobile.
Fireflicks fish is definetly a muskie- the spotted stain stocked commonly by the MN DNR. Muskies are pretty rare below the twin cities. I believe most muskie caught below that are fish that wash in from connected waters. For example muskies that turn up in pool 5 usually came from lake zumbro- which has a very small population of muskie. Pickeral are usually found in the eastern and southern states and look basically like small pike.
Leinieman,
I’m from prescott. As for accessbility I have a small duck skiff and a pair of waders so I can get just about anywhere. We will have to try and go fishing when I get to menonimee at the end of the month
I used 30lb power pro for skis once. Too many baits lost when line that thin digs in on a backlash and pop.. the bait goes sailing. With superbraids it is best to pick the line by diameter not strengh (80lb. is 17lb. dia. I think)Plus as the other guys said give a big fish an inch in heavy cover and its over. I use 50lb. for heavy cover largemouth bass.
Nope no jet drive- I wish. I trailer it at 16ft(and very wide) it is too big for the bed of my truck. Still only draws 3-4″ of water and have ran the outboard through some hairy areas in the mississippi backwaters but it can be slow going with the motor tilted half way up. If the rivers are really that bad maybe I should bring our duck skiff instead- 14″ long sits a couple inches out of the water and stable as can be that can be tossed in the truck. Yep I hunt and am definitely up for a float, for any fish, but especially cats and skis-(muskies that is not jetskis although they fight pretty good too). Tony
80lb. power pro on my muskie rod. Didn’t want to risk a good sized fish wrapping me up in a snag.
Hey, leinieman you ever chase big toothy critters on the Chippewea River. What about cats. I am coming in Sept. to go to school at Stout. I have a place to store my jon boat so that is coming along. I’m up for heading out sometime. Tony
While we are at it anybody know anything about the Chippewea near by or lake tainter or menomin. Thanks
Anybody know how far north these fish have made it so far? The article says they make up 90% of the biomass in some areas, this could easily be much worse than zeebra mussels.
Never fished the Apple but that is also where I am headed for the muskie openner tommarrow. I am heading for the flowage area near Amery. I will also post my results. good luck
Those “perals” are called otholiths (sp?) and are the ear bones of the fish. All fish have them but Sheepshead have really big ones.
As far as frenzys go I owned two. I caught a couple pike and bass on the big deep divers but both cracked when they hit some rocks and now they sink. They caught fish but broke way too quickly.
Like many lures the opinions seem split, sounds a bit like discussions on the muskie boards about pigs, a lot of people don’t like them but a few do. I have never used them (pigs that is) I know I have done fairly well with the #5 ristos for just about everything and have caught a couple pike trolling the #9’s. I know one guy who catches walleye trolling the 8’s and 9’s on some lakes near spooner but I have never had any success don’t that myself. They discontinued the floating husky raps too
and some people really like them. Oh well more for me
Why the bad press? I have done well with them, it is kinda like a shad rap only you can actually cast a risto more than a couple feet. When I saw they were discontinued I got a bunch for 2-3 $ a piece.
It is illegal to target a species until the season is open so you can not target smallmouth on the croix until may 25th.
I have never used spinning reels for muskie but if I had to I would probably use one of the larger penn reels. They are designed for saltwater so they would probably work for muskies.
Pool 2 is where lots of left over muskie fry and fingerlings from stocking are dumped. I don’t think the survival rate is as good in pool 2 as it is farther north. However those numbers of stocked fish are much higher than most bogies of water and I know the DNR has found adult muskie in pool 2 during shocking surveys.
The Mississippi River is not classified as a ‘musky water’ by the DNR. There are a few in there but muskie fishing is to hard to handicap yourself by fishing a body of water with a low population. However from L&D #3 up there is a fishable population and pool 2 is stocked regularly.
I don’t tip blade baits. Like rivereyes said the fish don’t inspect the bait much. The most important thing about blade baits is all the vibration they make, also they sink like rocks which makes it easy to keep them verticle.
Most people in this world don’t dislike America but only the minority who do (who are usally violent) get mentioned by the media because that makes better news. Yes America is under-appiecated but it is the price we pay for being the worlds most powerful nation, it is our place to mantain peace in the world.
Great lures, I have never used the jointed models but I like the straight models enough to use swimwizz as my handle on the internet. I can’t think of any other places that beaver didn’t mention.
Try shrink tubeing if they make it small enough. Some muskie baits have shrink tubing to hold the hook away from the bait to prevent tangling, might work for you. I don’t know if the hook noise matters, but try it.
Try extremes burning bucktails or slow twiching minnow baits in shallow or Or working Bulldawg and jigs in deeper water. But for the most part if a muskie wants to eat you just have to be in the right place at the right time and if they don’t want to eat it’s hard to convince them otherwise.
Don’t assume that walleyes won’t take mayflys off the surface. I once read an article about a guy who caught walleyes in a lake in off the surface with a fly rod, so if you see fish coming to the surface try it. I have caught walleyes on topwater bass and muskie baits at night.
I have had good success with circle hooks. The first ones I tried were the gamakatsu, they were worthless. When Looking for circle hooks buy ONLY non-offset hooks. The offset point makes the hook not work as they should.
