Musky report-No pics

[Weeds]

Hi all, it's been a while since I had anything to report, though not for lack of trying. Must've been at least a couple of months since my last musky. Well, just managed a nice one, probably around 3 feet with nice markings, lean but strong. I tried a new spot (from shore) on a lake I'm familliar with. He hit maybe 10 feet from shore on my first cast, not sure if he came out from under the dock I was standing on or the weedbed right by it. I had an audience too for the first time (folks feeding the ducks/carp) and wouldn't you know it I bungle extracting the hook. Damn those trebles. I had to cut a few hook points off. It was a Super Vibrax Musky buck, fortunately he hadn't swallowed it deep or anything but he did have some moderate bleeding in his mouth, having managed to get hooked on several hook points. It's gills were fine, like I say, just cuts to the mouth. He was out of the water a few minutes longer than I would have liked while I clumsily performed the emergency dental work but revived quickly, gone within a minute or two. I skipped the pic in order to get him in the water quick. Still....I feel kinda bummed out. I'm wishing I'd been using a big spinnerbait, one hook has got to make for less trauma to the fish. Anybody ever convert their inline spinners, bucktails, etc, to single hooks? Does it work or does it completely ruin the lures action and your chances of a hook-up? I'm also thinking maybe super sizing the treble might make for easier removal. Any thoughts?

[lew]

Congrats on the musky, weeds, and good to hear you did everything you could to get her back in the water fast.

 

Get yerself a good pair of bolt cutters and cut those treble points off, rather that trying to jerk them back out. Hooks are about the cheapest thing in your tackle box and only take seconds to replace.

 

I cut the hooks all the time, unless they can come out very easily without doing any more damage to the fish. I've probably got 100 spare trebles in varying sizes in the boat.

 

Changing the trebles to single hooks won't affect the action of your bait at all though, infact sometimes the single hooks seem to grab better anyways, and if your working your bait thru the weeds, it's the best way to go .

Edited October 10, 2007 by lew

[Weeds]

Thanks Lew, I'll definately splurge for a set of bolt cutters. I used the cutters on the pliers; pretty tough work. I'll experiment with the single hooks then; I seem to be always fishing in the weeds.

Edited October 10, 2007 by Weeds

[silveradosheriff]

A pair of Knipex are critical for Musky fishing.

 

:-)

[trapshooter]

The last time I fished all single hooks in place of trebles I was surprised that the hook up (and fish landed) ratio was so high. It's so much easier to remove single hooks too. Something to think about.

[ecxstriper]

I don't fish musky but have found that I have a better hook up rate and hook penitration with single hooks.

[SlowPoke]

I have a few big inlines with single hooks. I like running a big grub under the bucktails and they rip right through the weeds as a spinnerbait would.