What is the deepest you've caught a musky?

[graf703]

There is a mystery fish ~65 ft where we fish in canada. Over two weeks 3 people hooked something trolling for trout and the fish ran two different reels empty and bit off a third.

The lake is trophy musky water and some are wondering if a musky is living super deep.

What is the deepest you've hooked a musky? The majority of my fish are inside of 8 ft, but that is where I fish. I've seen follows in 20 ft but I believe the fish were coming from shallower water.

[thatoneguy]

One of the two muskies I've caught (both while perch fishing) was in 23 feet of water - a 50 1/4" fish.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the big fish that spooled you was a big lake trout. They fight just as hard as - if not harder than - a muskie.

[not_nuf_time]

I often fish deep(15-25ft)in muskie terms, I'm talking right on the bottom of some of the structure and weed lines that drop into 15 to 25 feet. Caught a number of fish right on the bottom and tons of follows out of those depths. On the flip side I've never really pulled any fish out of deep water with no structure around.

[BEEFEATER]

I got one once on tonka in 70 feet of water trolling an ernie about 20 ft down. It was very hot then and im sure she was just lurkin about away from all the racket. also on another lake i fish ive boated numerous muskies in 35-40fow with baits running 1-12 feet under the surface.... I avoid the shallows like the plaque

[graf703]

Interesting. I almost exclusively fish shallow. I run the boat 90% of the time and try to fish the deep edge on a spot for a pass and then another pass through about 8 ft. When my dad takes a turn we fish down to 2 ft of water. All because he had a monster hit a top raider one time.

Beefeater, are you trolling mainly?

[10,000 Casts]

Spooled a reel??? They must have been using some light gear and had there drags loose. Was it walleye gear?

We open water troll over 90 feet quite a bit, the muskies can be 1 ft down or I'm pretty sure I've marked them in 40 ft. Our baits run 5ft to 18 ft when we troll an I suppose they could be coming from anywhere. I know the muskies in walker bay like the 30-40 ft humps but I can only guess if they down on the bottom or off suspended.

What lake? Manitou, crow, lotw? They all have 50-60lb muskies and huge lakers.

Now I want to go up there and Muskie season starts tomorrow!!!

[BEEFEATER]

I use to fish shallow mainly but on tonka with so much pressure the fish seem to be very leary. I mean im sure there are plenty of takers shallow as well as i see plenty of big fish shallow on tonka ive just become more fascinated with deeper structure the past several years. I Even like throwin cranks deep for bass these days to. Ive never tried open water fishing on millacs but a buddy of mine swears by it. Ive always found fish to very very structure related on millacs and have had most of my luck there under 12 feet. Although ive caught a couple in the 20ish depths aswell. I usually start mid depth maybe say 12 -18 feet on tonka and see what happens and make sum stops shallower and deeper throughout the day and see what i come up with. Ive always taken a very simplistic approach to muskie fishing tho, and dont mind doing a bit of open water trolling away from structure from time to time. Sometimes ya pop a couple often times ya dont.... With all the commotion out there on tonka ive caught sum muskies on sum very strange trolling runs

[RK]

I've caught muskies as deep as 35 feet down, though I avoid anything over 25 feet deep if I can. Bringing fish up from deep water is asking for trouble when it comes to releasing them. I've caught lots of fish over water from 35 to 100+ feet deep, but in the upper 20 feet of the water column, and most of them less than 10 feet down.

As far as the mystery fish...if you're talking about something that's down with the lakers, I'd be skeptical it's a muskie. That's awfully cold water, and far outside their preferred temperature range.

My guess, to be honest, is that it's trout slapping at a bait and getting snagged. Lakers will slash at a bait then come back to eat it. Snag one in the side or under the belly or in the tail, and there's no way to get leverage on it to turn it. They take off like a freight train and there isn't much you can do about it. I watched a 15 lb pike with a spoon in its back spool a guy in the blink of an eye when I was guiding in Alaska. No doubt a laker could do the same thing. They can boogie when they put their mind to it.

That's be my guess.

RK

[graf703]

It is eagle lake in Ontario. I'm not sure the condition or type of rods, but I imagine it wasn't a full blown trolling reel to spool it.

We've got a new boat this year and I found a great deal on downriggers for it. I've been thinking about creative new ways to fish the deep edges. My dad can't throw big baits for very long and I'm hoping to find a way to keep him fishing and use the new tackle effectively.

[eyebjim]

That funny you mentioned downriggers. I just rigged my boat with them for a trip out to lake michigan. I wanted to hit a local lake before hitting the big water to make sure everything worked well and to get a feel for them. The downriggers worked great and easy to fish. I fished them at 20 feet with 50 feet of line out behind the release and a 4 inch spoon. This was in 20-25 fow. I thought maybe I'd catch a northern or two. I Picked up a 42 inch musky in less than a hour. What a blast. It was my first musky. kept the fight short and immediately release her. Ended up doing good on lake michigan with many kings and bows. Great now I'm hooked on musky and salmon fishing. And I thought walleye fishing was expensive.