Any fans of light musky rods and lures?

[Weeds]

Towards the end of last summer I sold off my musky rods and the majority of my lures. Fall rolled around and I realized how much I missed it so I've decided to re-equip myself with a decent set up. I made a conscious decision that this time around I'm going to stick with smaller lures and ONE rod that is appropriate for throwing them. I love a lure of that causes a near total eclipse of the sun with each cast as much as the next guy but this time around I'm just not going to do it. Anybody else ever go the same route? I figure the larger lures are harder on the rod, reel, line, wrist and wallet. By no means am I a musky pro, I catch a few a year and I have to work hard to get them. Just to be clear, I'm not advocating fishing musky with bass gear or light line, I'll still be using a dedicated musky rod with most likely 80 pound braid and heavy leader. Im just curious if anybody else has ever down sized and enjoyed the same success that they had previously or if the trend towards double tens and monster baits is justified because it flat out outperforms the smaller lures. Thoughts?

[outllaw]

here on l.st clair smaller lures actually catch more fish. 6 inch baits till fall time.. the theory bigger is better is not always the case.

[Old Ironmaker]

I'm not a Musky guy. I only landed 3 in close to 40 years of wetting lines. 2 were caught with a real deal guide in the West Arm. The first, a Tiger, was while trolling for Pics using a Mepps Black Fury without a leader on 8 pound mono. Ask me if that was fun. It hangs on a wall in the kitchen. That was long before catch and release was in vogue. I don't know how some of you guys can toss those bricks all day, day in and day out. Good for you but I will most likely never do that again thinking back. I think that tossing lighter lures will become very popular especially for those that were born before 1960 or even latter. I hope you the best Weeds, you are onto something here.

[lew]

You'll be just fine with smaller baits, specially in the Kawarthas.

 

Just be sure to still have heavy enough gear to get the fish into the boat quickly and you'll have no issues.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

When Lew speaks of Musky we should all listen closely. What lures would you use Lew?

[mike rousseau]

I've only caught 1 musky EVER on lures over 10 inches... and it was a tiny musky

 

For me the 8-10" range has been the best

 

This fall I truly tried the big bait deal and I didn't get anything on baits over 10".... I had a big bait on at least one rod everyday once I hit November

 

I just sold every lure I owned that was over 10"

 

And some of the biggest musky to grace my boat were on 3-4" walleye cranks

[mike rousseau]

For 8" cranks I recommend jakes and depth raiders

8" hellhound glide baits work well

Top raiders prop baits

Storm giant flatstick is great crankbait

 

The kawartha boys will likely have a longer list and st Clair trollers I hear like 4-8" baits

[captpierre]

Caught most of my Muskies on Pigeon this past year on jigs targeting eyes with 10 lb nanofil

Lucky that none broke off.

For plugs -6-8 inches -stalkers and believers

80 lb Powerpro on 7 ft rod. Not too big and heavy.

My biggest (52 inch on Scugog) on 6 inch Stalker.

Not sure big lures necessary in Kawarthas like Lew says.

[esoxansteel]

For smaller offerings ie Bomber Long A Mags, smaller Bucktails, shallow raiders reapers, etc I use a 1 pc G Loomis GL2 swimbait rod model 956C SWR it was designed for throwing those big Castaic rubber baits for Big California Bass, it is rated for 3 to 8 oz lures, and i run a 200 Curado with 65 pound braid, it cast like a bullet, and is extremely light,

[Tjames09]

St Croix make lighter musky rods for 3/4-3oz lures. About 7'6" I think. I think even a small mepps #5 is about 3/4 Oz or near that. A small jake is about 2oz. Could use a 50 size real. I'd imagine you could get away with 60lb line but I'm a rookie. Most reels only have max 20lb drag so the drag should work more than the line. I've reeled muskies in by accident on spinning gear with 20lb line.

[OhioFisherman]

Thoughts? Not a muskie fisherman, although I have fished for them and it didn't go well. They will hit small baits, but most smaller baits, unless made for hard fighting fish have smaller, weaker hooks? Putting out sized hooks on smaller baits can kill the intended action of them?

 

A bigger bait might discourage some smaller fish, especially those you aren't targeting to keep from hitting it? A smaller bait doesn't seem to do that?

 

All of my reels would have probably handled a moderate sized muskie fairly well, maybe not on a daily basis fishing with muskie sized lures for long. The rods were open water muskie rods, hope you don't have to try to turn them or stop them?

 

Our bass club used to fish a few lakes that had muskie in them, them hitting lures meant for bass was a problem, we didn't gear up for bass fishing with muskie tackle.

 

If you are using a heavy enough rod, reel, line, leader? Lure size is debatable? I personally have hooked 40+ inch skis on a 5/8 jig and pig and a 1/8 ounce spinnerbait, needless to say I wasn't equipped properly, and had 0 luck with it!

[mistaredone]

I bought into the go big thing a few years ago and it never worked for me. When I started out I'd throw small baits and muskies were far between but I'd fill my day with bass and pike. 6-8" baits have always been put me on fish. Game changer for me was going from a double 8 bucktaill to a double 10 Handlebarz bucktaill. If I was going with one set up it would be for throwing bucktails.