Presured Muskie's

[topraider]

I love to fish for muskie durring the fall but my lake is heavly hit all year long i am talking okiboji. you see alot of nice fish but they act like they have seen everything under the sun. the sad thing about this lake is that nobody throws topwater's because of the rumor that muskie dont hit topwater on heavly fish lakes so what do you think what would be a better way to get another nice fish to my boat because i have begun to not like okboji for this reason

[Dynasty]

Im not a big musky guy, but if I knew lots of people didnt use topwaters I would give one a try.

[Corey Bechtold]

Try throwing smaller bass type baits. It might just be something they haven't seen and might take a whack at it. Works for me, hope it works for you. Let me know how it works if you give it a try.

Good Luck

Corey Bechtold

[delmuts]

don't be afraid to throw a top water either ! muskies are opportunistic feeders. the bass lures would be a possibility and or using a smaller spinner like a mepps #5 in place of the regular musky buck tails! del

[ARMAN-21]

Topwater works. I'd have to say that 70% of my fish have come off of topwater this year.

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ARMAN-21

[Stratosman]

Another thing to think about is in fall, as the water temps drop, alot of the muskies that spend thier summers in the depths and suspened over the depths will make thier way onto some sort of structure. These fish have not seen nearly the lures that the other fish have or the amount of pressure. I would not be afraid to throw topwater, especially if it's true what you said about everyone else not throwing it.

[topraider]

I was down there this morning for 3 hours and saw 3 fish. i was trying topwater's. since i make my own baits i was throwing a 10" plop plop bait all black. well you all where right i saw three fish all in differant areas and 1 of them blew up. wow nice to see that at 7am. still not getting the size i would like. you know state record. LOL

[Corey Bechtold]

You're not getting the state record, I AM!!!

And I m going to catch it fishing sunfish on 4 lb test and a 1-64 oz jighead.lol

Corey Bechtold

[690VS]

Topraider, I live in Milford i fish West Lake at least 3 days a week I have a green 690 ranger with gold stripes. I been fishing the okoboji's for muskies for 25 years there not the lakes they use to be in the mid 80's but they're on there way back. There's alot of mid 30" to mid 40" fish on these lakes we just have to take care of them because in a few years look out we're going to have some big fish. Next time your on the lake keep an eye out for me i'll help you as much as i can.

[topraider]

hey 690 vs i have seen you out there on emerson alot and some times in smith bay. I was turned on to west lake about 5 years ago by dayral krogman we fish down there quite a bit during the year and have minimal sucess to date. i will be fishing spirit lake tomorrow by the pump house had a very large skie pound my jake a few days ago. she riped my rod darn near out of my hands. maybe a 55+ fish or state record maybe. this morning on boji i stayed by triboji near the methodist camp and saw the weeds where still in good condition. but no luck there. I was wondering if pounding the docks around smith and millers would be a better bet never done that before until today. thats when that skie broke water on my bait. should i hit the docks more or should i go deep and throw bucktails around pikes point.

[RK]

Hiya,
Yeah, isn't pressured water fun?

Lots of different tacks to take on pressured fish. My general tendancy (which is a result of experience + how my head works) is to fish faster moving baits, and a lot of the time, smaller baits. BUT, on a lake like Okoboji where small crankbaits have been the popular technique for a long time, that may change things up some. Sometimes it can be wild color combinations, or baits that fish just don't see very often (that line of reasoning can lead a guy to throw some off the wall stuff sometimes ).

Big (or small for that matter) plastics are another tactic with pressured fish, any time of year really, but especially in cold water. Something about plastics just pushes different buttons I think. There has been some research done with bass that showed they could become conditioned to 'hard' baits with one negative experience, but would hit soft plastics over and over again. Not sure how far you can carry that over to muskies, but it's sure interesting. Doesn't have to be an all plastic bait either - some of the hard baits out there with rubber butts do seem to get a different reaction from pressured fish - sure seemed that way on Mille Lacs late this past summer.

About topwaters and the idea that the fish are so pressured they won't hit them. I couldn't disagree more. In fact, I think it's exactly backwards. My friend and longtime fishing partner Dan Craven (Dan is one of the best fisherman I've ever known, period...) has had the theory for years that fish just don't seem to get as conditioned to topwaters, or at least don't get conditioned to them to the same degree they can other baits. I think part of it is where they work - they're on the surface, breaking up the surface film, and it makes for a somewhat indistinct picture of what exactly is up there. The other factor, I think anyhow, is what it represents to a fish. It's a pure target of opportunity, and it's a non-specific immitation of who knows what. Feeding off the surface is something muskies have done since they were fry, and it's hard-wired into them. Even on some very heavily pressured MN lakes like Leech and Mille Lacs, topwaters are consistent producers. Sometimes the loud 'pop-pop' topwaters can get less of a response on pressured lakes, but more subtle baits like walk the dog baits, small prop baits like Topper Stoppers (one of my standby baits) or buzzbaits are great pressured water topwaters.

Bottome line for me when fishign pressured water is be aware of what everyone else is doing. Standard local techniques become traditional for a reason - there's something about them that works. Then from there, vary things and experiment. If everyone's throwing inline bucktails, try spinnerbaits. If everyone's using natural perch pattern crankbaits, try one with a perch pattern but with flourescent colors, or the natural perch colors in a different scheme - green back and black belly vs. vertical bars, etc. To try to show the fish something they don't see, or show them something they DO see a lot in a new way - larger, smaller, faster, wild colors, etc...

Pressured fish are a challenge, but man it's fun figuring out new ways to skin a well worn cat

Cheers,
RK