spring musky baits

[tomO]

Do you down size baits in early spring or not? What's a good bait.I'm in southern ohio if that makes a difference the waters in the mid 60's now. I'm just getting into musky fishin so any help is appreciated.

[Crazyhook]

I like to go a bit smaller in the spring and work my way up as the season moves along

[Rizzo]

That's the general rule I understand, but I've never put it into practise as almost all of my musky fishing is done in the fall with big honkin' lures

[GbayGiant]

Well I'm on Georgian Bay and by the time the season opens (end of June) the forage is already large anyway so I use the same baits right from the get go.

 

If the season opens early in Ohio than it might be a good idea to "match the hatch" as they say, and start smaller but I don't follow the so called rules.

 

I like to use bucktails and spinnerbaits all year long you can't go wrong, they account for more fish than any other lure and are the easiest to use if your just starting. Get some small ones big ones and huge ones and start casting or trolling and your bound to hook something.

[linweir]

I use big baits as usual. I prefer to cast in shallow bay.

[Marc Thorpe]

Hey Mudbutt,I have some friends that fish Ohio, Bagley Monster shads,6 inch jakes ,stalkers seem to produce well.Monster shads in the spring or even Rapala shad raps seem to be the ticket

 

marc

[tomO]

Ok thx guy's I'm off to Cabela's

[lew]

Smaller baits can indeed work well for muskies early in the season.

 

Opening day a few years ago I headed for the Tri-Lakes where I was gonna start in some shallow water filled with new weed growth and plenty of stumps so I clipped on a small #5 Mepps to make it easier to work around the structure, and got a fish on the 3rd cast of the season.

 

I decided to stay with the small bait and ended up getting 9 muskies in the next 2 ½ hours.......not a bad way to open the year.

 

I normally prefer bigger baits, but never rule out the smaller ones for certain applications.

Edited May 3, 2007 by lew

[Whopper]

mudbutt Tom Dietz has a website that might have some info that may be of some interest for you.

He is a manager of a local Gander Mountain and also guides on Leesville, Alum Creek and Ceasars Creek. He has given me some info on how to break my fishless streak at Ceasars.

Hope this helps

 

Whopper

[mattyk]

The 1 1/2 ounce (4 1/2 ") Super Rat-L-Traps are big down here in Kentucky for spring time muskies.

[tomO]

Ok thx again guys. I went to cabela's and got some lures (storm soft plastics and a jointed 9 inch believer) and a Cabela's extra large storm proof tackle bag. Now I can't afford gas to go to the lake

[lew]

mudbutt, those are a couple decent baits you bought, specially the Believer, but they're generally used as a slower presentaion, and you often need faster baits to trigger a strike, even in the cooler spring waters. That larger Believer makes an excellent trolling bait, specially on the deeper setting, and is also great for casting, but can be tiring after awhile because of the drag.

 

I'd suggest you may also want to get a couple bucktails and larger spinnerbaits

(1 ½ - 2 oz.......not bass size) in various colors.

 

Jerkbaits are excellent too, and can be used either fast or slow with pauses in between to entice a strike. 10" weighted Suicks are my personal choice, but similar baits will work as well.

 

As suggested by Marc, a few crankbaits are also a good investment and they too can be worked at varying speeds or even twitched or jerked at different depths.

 

Musky baits are very expensive, so you don't want to buy a bunch of stuff you don't need, but if you can get enuff to cover shallow, deep and somewhere in-between at varying speeds, with a few different colors of each, your off to a good start and can then build up your tackle box as you figure out what's working...........or what's not.

 

Nothing worse than $500 worth of baits that don't catch fish.

 

Best of luck and let us know how your makin out !!

Edited May 4, 2007 by lew

[jediangler]

Like Lew said, keep us posted. I would love to see some in season musky pics. One more month for us up here and then we can get into the action too.

[Guest Trophymuskie]

It's a completely different game down there. All the guys I know fish 4-6 inch baits which I don't have any for up here. 6 inch stalkers are big baits for down south. I would also look into getting some Tuff shads as they seem to catch more then their share of big ones and the rattle traps are hot in the spring.

[Squid]

I am surprised that no one mentioned the slopmasters!

[tomO]

Thx again. I'll be fishin an Ohio state park called saltfork it's the nearest musky waters to me except for a small river (little muskingum river) but I don't have a canoe or small boat to fish it. There's alot of musky in saltfork and some low to mid forty fish were taken last year,(thats inches not lbs) sad to say people seem to keep alot of what they catch there. I'll keep you guy's posted and if my daughter lets me use her camera and she posts them for me I'll show you guy's if I get lucky and catch one.