1/2 ounce spinnerbaits

[dfricke1010]

i have been fishing a lake for 5 years now with 1/2 ounce spinnerbaits catching many largemouth bass and pike. In the past 3 years i have caught 4 muskies ranging from 40" to 48" and my dad has caught 4 also in the same range. last year my uncle caught a 52" on the same 1/2 ounce lure. We have also had countless follows. I have tried throwing larger baits on this lake many times, but all they seem to hit on is these small spinnerbaits. the problem is ive lost a lot of fish because the hook isnt that big and there is only one hook. any ideas why this lake is like this? or any alternatives with more hooks?

[Nick Kuhn]

Earlier in the season smaller baits seem to be the ticket. A 1.2 ounce spinner bait also is close in size to quite a few of the gills in that lake, it may be that's what they've been eating.

If the lure works you should stick with it. You may want to consider going with a little heavier rod and a heavier braid to help with better hooksets. A single hook is all you need, all the other ones do are get gaught up in the net or end up rehooking the fish outside of the mouth (small pike love to hit suicks. It seems without fail I get the front hook in the mouth and the rearmost hook buried deep in the flesh somewhere behind the gill or in the underbelly.

[RK]

Hiya -

You know, some lakes are just like that. I know a couple lakes in Wisconsin (and a couple in MN) where you could throw a big muskie bait until your arms fall off and not have much but the occasional fish to show for it. But small baits can kick major butt. Same thing with lure speed - some lakes have fish full of speed freaks... Why? Cuz they're muskies...

As far as baits and hooking goes, as the other poster already said, looking at your tackle can help. For small baits like this I usually use a heavy bass flipping stick. They have a little less power than a muskie rod so you tend to pull smaller hooks out less often. Adding a trailer hook can help too. One small (by muskie standards) spinnerbait I really, really like is Northland's Reed Runner Magnum. It's a 3/4 oz bait with a trailer hook and closed eye (rather than an R-bend which is a pain with a leader). Small enough to still get bass, awesome pike bait, and muskies eat them too.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[cjac]

I did well with Candy Spins last year, a smaller double blade spinnerbait produced for me. Like others, I prefer a single blade on the bigger baits, but I like the double blades on smaller baits. It produced tigers, nice pike, and big bass, above all it was fun and easy to fish. I also like smaller ones with a small Colorado and a big Willow blade. Like RK said, the closed eye vs R bend is a must-have.

Going somewhat old-school, but on lakes like you described I like the standby Johnson Silver Minnow. I spent a week in Canada once fishing pike where the 1/2 or 3/4 oz was the ticket. Tipped with a trailer or not, it works well.

Chris

[delmuts]

something you can do with a open bend in a spinnerbait, so the leader stays in place; is to slide a small pc. of rubber tubing over the loop end. this will keep the leader in place!

HEY RK! weren't you working on a book about muskie fishing?? del

[RK]

Hiya -

Spoons catch muskies too...for sure.

Once, many moons ago when I was about 17, and therefore knew all there was to know about muskie fishing (and everything else ) I had a guide client pull out a big 5-of-Diamonds Husky Devle and snap it on. Wise old scout that I was, I told the guy that while they might be great pike lures, spoons didn't work all that well for muskies, and he'd be better off sticking with the bucktail he had been throwing without so much as a follow. He said he wanted to try the spoon for a little bit...

Of course you know what happened. His first cast - first freaking cast - a muskie does the center fielder thing and gobbles up the spoon. I swear the fish ate it before it even hit the water. Somewhere in my wreck of an office I have a photo of the fish jumping, with its side toward the boat and its head turning away from the camera. Through the gill opening, you can see the 5-of-Diamonds, plain as day. I kept the photo to remind me that when I say something about muskies with certainty, I'm bound to be proven wrong before long. It was a pretty good lesson...

Delmuts - pretty good trick for R-bend spinnerbaits. A split ring slid over the R-bend works ok too.

Yeah, the book... It's called Pro Tactics: Muskie. (It's part of a series- there's Pro Tactics: Panfish, Bass, walleye and who knows what else - so we didn't pick the title. "Pro" anything when it comes to muskies is silly I think.) I wrote it along with Jack Burns, who was my fellow editor at Esox Angler. The publisher got behind on the series a little bit so it's been delayed, but we signed off on the final galley proof about 2 weeks ago, which is the last step before it goes to the printer pretty much. Supposed to be out by March - hopefully in time for the Blaine show. I hadn't looked at it for close to a year when we got the galley proofs, so it was pretty fresh to me when I read the proof. Obvious bias, but I think it turned out pretty well.

I'll let folks know when it's out.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[dfricke1010]

Thanks for the info guys! Another question for you... I am going to get my first musky set up this year probably at the expo, but I am wondering how to set it up. I have been reading a lot of previous posts and what I got out of it was to put mono on as a base for the heavy line to catch then tie on the heavy braided line over it? I am most likely going to go with the abu c3 6500 and a 7 or 7 1/2 foot rod.

[Nick Kuhn]

You really just need something underneath to prevent the braid from slipping (slipping line is like having your drag set way to light and not being able to tighten it. Made that mistake first time I used braid and lost a number of fish). Any number of things work. I tend to use enough mono to get the right amount of braid on the reel. For smaller spinning setups this is typically only about 6 feet (I just use the mono as a "leader" for the braid, works quite well), whereas on a large baitcaster you may use quite a bit of mono to help fill the reel. I don't know what the rest of you do but a good end to end knot from the mono to the braid has always been my best way of keeping the line from slipping.

[delmuts]

this has been coverd but! the mono will tighten down on the spool ,where braid won't.i also use mono for a filler. ( some reels hold alot of line and braid gets expensive!)i learned that lesson when braid first came out!( bought a reel from a guy;hooked a nice northern, and watched as he pulled out all of my line! had to bring him in hand over hand!)

a little trick with braid; when you think the line needs to be changed.tie off the end to something, and let the line out til you come to the mono. then cut it off. walk back to the tied off end. tie that end on the mono and reel back on.( that part of the line hasn't been used yet!)

another trick to help the braid lay on a reel is to tie it to a barrel swivle that is attached to a tree or something. walk away pulling the line out.when you reach the mono, start reeling and walking back to the tree or what ever, keeping a good bow in your rod( applying tension to the line). the swivle will help with any line twist, and by keeping tension on it the line will lay on the reel very nicely! i do this often. del

[cjac]

Hey del,

Yep, works great.....until the neighbors see you taking the fishing rod for a walk down the street then trying to reel in a tree! They send their kids inside the house pretty quickly!

I've done this and it's a great way to cut costs. It's essentially new line down there...

I use the mono to fill up enough and then use a uni to uni knot to join the braid to the mono.

Chris

[dfricke1010]

thanks for the help guys!

[SnipeZilla]

Well, Dfrick, I'll show you how to do the back to back uni with the mono filler. only because i kind of know you though. it's pretty easy, but if you dont know what you're doing it can sometimes cause trouble with the knot being too big and twisting and what not.

[delmuts]

i know the feeling! i always get static from neighbors, and even people driving bye!!but not as bad as when people see me out on the football field behind my house when i let the line out off my spinning reels to relieve the twist in it! del

[Nick Kuhn]

delmuts,

on the spinning rods just throw something that casts well on, throw it out, reel until you can barely hold the lure out of the water and let it spin for a bit. Repeat this several times and it takes a good amount of the twist out of the line.

[slipperybob]

maybe these bass lures are just way more productive for toothy rockets.

I've caught way more northerns than bass on spinnerbaits, yet it's not my first choice of lure for pikes. And it's the smaller a 3/8 oz chartreuse.

[dfricke1010]

yea i do catch a lot of pike with the spinnerbaits and only a few bass. i want to get more into muskies now and i might end up using those half the time.

sounds good snipe when are you gonna be home next?

[delmuts]

Vahn. i do that when in a boat, but i shore fish a lot, so the football field is my other option! del