Chautauqua musky Trip

[billyp]

Hello Im making my first trip to Chautauqua lake in mid october. I plan on trolling over bait in the nothern basin in deeper water and also casting the weedline . I have many jakes grandmas and musky rockets as well as spoons. I would like to know if any one has had success using downriggers and dipsy divers while trolling the deeper portions of Chautaugua lake . Thanks for any advice in advance. Billy

[Stinky Finger]

Billy I wish you luck on your trip. I'm planning a Chautauqua muskie mission myself for Oct 22nd on the full moon.

My best advice for you regarding Chautauqua is to get ahold of Capt. Larry D. Jones (MostlyMuskiesCharters) and ask for some pointers, he will do you right and make sure you aren't going out there blind.

I suggest for everyone interested in muskies to join the Niagara Musky Association. Even if you are nowhere near the Niagara River, Buffalo / Tonawanda area and can never actually attend the meetings you will learn a lot from the newsletters and hook up with some very seasoned muskie hunters and learn a ton of how-to.

Those getting into muskie fishing for the first time should seek out proper handling / release methods and the tools required. It means everything.

[fishkillr16]

I have caught a lot of muskies out of chautauqua my prefered method is fishing the northern basin, casting large bucktail spinners over the weedbeds. I usually just drop the bow mounted trolling motor help keep me positioned and drift along.

[NitroMusky]

I've heard of people using riggers, but not dipsies, however most just flatline with diving cranks.

[zach]

feel free to put those rockets on riggers and send them down to where you see bait fish. my guess is 20-25' down. ever try a bucktail on a rigger? i have only thought of that but never tried it. don't forget that chautauqua has 2 basins that hold muskies. the north end has been getting fished the most but believe me you can do just as well in the south end. good luck and i am sure all of us fishing the tournament will post about where we found the most fish. solgrande, nitro, gustofson and myself are all leaving thursday to get a day or two in before it counts on saturday. i know most of those guys are gonna be fishing up north so i am going down south and we will talk about what we see and then make a plan for saturday. i feel that the north and south end both have there times. i did 6 fish in the first tourney in the north end just to get beat by huge (52.5", 51" and a 49.5") fish all caught in the south end. my thinking is the clearer water at the north end is more effected by the light conditions than the south end which is usually more stained water where i believe the day time bite would be better imo. so my plan is at night and low light conditions go up north to the cleaner water and during the day when the sun is out go fish the dirty water down south w/ some ugly colors. good luck.

[NitroMusky]

There is some pretty cool video of Muskies chasing spinners pulled directly behind the ball. Pretty sure you can find some on youtube and I think the guy has a DVD out as well.

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[zach]

i got a fish on a trainwreck last year at waneta trolling. shhhhhh, i plan on breaking it out again sometime soon also but thats between you and i okay.

[billyp]

Thanks for all the info I will let you know how it goes Billy