Old Outdoor News Article

[lawman]

Looking for some help. A couple years ago someone wrote a good article about musky trolling on Leech lake. It was in Outdoor News. I wanted to read this article again but of course I had tossed the paper. Called Outdoor News. They said if I could identify the issue this article was printed in they could find a copy for me. Any chance one of you die hard musky guys kept this article. If I had the date, volume and issue info I can maybe get it from the Outdoor News.

[O.T.C.]

Better yet do you subscribe to musky hunter magazine ? 2 issues ago Al Maas has a leech lake trolling piece in one of his articles. Here's my advice, of the couple dozen muskies I've caught trolling the critical component in getting those fish to strike was to impart action into your trolling runs the way I do my crankbaits for walleyes, give it a rip, try different speeds, I literally make the bait porpoise out of the lake, lands and speeds away not all the time just here and there with the thinking if I have one following along I need to try to do a triggering maneuver to get it to strike and the kicker is I can see if my bait is fouled up or has weeds. My buddies with rods in the rod holders I think I'm outfishing them 25 to 2 during trolling runs with the same bait even, it's the erratic things I do to it that get the strikes,................I think.

[lawman]

I do subscribe to MHM. I vaguely remember the Maas article. For some reason I catch more muskies in open water over 40 feet deep than trolling over areas say 15 feet or less. I am always looking for that key to locating the fish that muskies feed on but have not figured out that puzzle. I see more people pulling baits over the abyss than I used to.

[leechlake]

I remember that article in Outdoor News...the guy scoured the lake with his sonar and at some point those suspended fish went from resting mode to searching for food mode around sundown and he could see it on the sonar for some reason I can't recall.  I can't find it but it was pretty cool.

[O.T.C.]

When I get home I'll try to remember to check my MHM's and see what issue it exactly was but yes in my eyes June is a great trolling the abyss month as they roam around often times they are suspended fairly high in the water column as the water temps aren't into the 70's yet but that depends, check your temp gauge and if you see 60's and aren't having much happen casting troll the abyss, best news is you'll likely run clean no weeds then go back to casting at the slightest hint of a weather change or moon event etc. Save some wear and tear on yourself re-fuel a bit and hit em again deal.

[O.T.C.]

OK, it's the Dec 2015/Jan 2016 issue and it's on page 56 and it's Jim Murphy's article, there's about 2-3 paragraphs on trolling and I think it's spot on. Not sure what I was thinking saying Al Maas I don't think he's wrote in MHM for years now. My last bit of advice is if you're casting and not having much of anything going on in that surface to 4 feet down I'd say don't expect much trolling in those same depths, disadvantage is they are not up and cruising, advantage is wet bait constantly and with a lake the size of Leech picking off a random fish is possible. One final piece I'd rather not have everyone read but those toward dark evenings when it's kinda windy and hard to control the boat, you worry the fish would have to be 2 feet from bait to hear it or see it, don't be afraid then to troll a big double and churn up some water to get it noticed vs. bobbing around and getting pushed off and on and off and on the structure. Use GPS to chart that trolling run before you need it in that weather condition.

[leechlake]

When I was a teenager I fished with Guide Keith Ogle on Leech quite a bit.  He loved throwing Mud Puppies and always told me he thought they worked as good if not better when there was pretty good wave action.  Those fish can find the bait.

[O.T.C.]

Yo leech did he mention like at or near darkness like that last hour or less in decent wave action they find the bait because we have trouble that they are not finding the bait then again staying on course is more the challenge maybe ? My thoughts are it shrinks the strike zone down considerably so my thinking is in that hour how many casts can I get in trying to control the boat seems not worthwhile vs. being able to run with the bigger motor and troll my baits through the best spot on the spots along the run and I guess it's worked pretty good for a bunch of years now so stay the course I figure.