Maiden Muskie Voyage

[Guest]

Went out Muskie fishing,not catching for the first time this morning.I had one swirl behind the bait about 10 yards behind the boat,nice fish.So,I stay in the area and used 3 different topwaters and 3 different bucktails and worked the area for 1 hour with no results.Is there something else I could have done,or was it just my bad luck? I saw the back 10-12 inches of the fish and the tail fin was on the large size.

[Scoot]

The standard approach for this situation would be to hit the spot with a follow up lure or two right away. Try something really slow or blazing fast- something different that might trigger a strike. Then, the next suggestion would be to leave the area and come back when something has changed- light conditions, wind direction, cloud cover, etc.

Anyone else have any other suggestions that might be effective?

[MuskyBrian]

Nothing different to suggest at all. All I can say is that if you fish Muskies you are going to have many a fish you see and will not catch, thats just the nature of the sport

[FishinPunk]

Scoot said it all. You can never go wrong w/a figure 8 on any follow.As far as a throwback lure, one that you have confidence in. For me, I go towards soft plastic baits like Bulldogs, Kilreels,and swimbaits. If you don't have any try one out.

[Random guy]

Scoot covered that one nicely, the only other thing I could think of is a differant attack angle. Sometimes if you reposition the boat to change the angle of lure travel it may trigger a fish. A good example is a small weed bed that is holding a fish, it has chased you out and left you fustrated try gently going around the other side and casting over the fish pulling the bait towards it. This is not always possible due to many reasons but when you can pull it off it can make a huge differance in triggering that fish. It may fit there ambush set-up better.