Otisco Tiger Musky Tournament - May 11

[muskiedreams]

If you have a fishfinder, they will show up as clusters.  Very often they are suspended but they can also be at the bottom.  If your fishfinder has a fish ID feature, which gives fish icons on the screen, you have to turn that off because it will make a pod of bait look like a school of fish.  Once you find the bait, you have to make sure your lures are running at the right depth (at or slightly above or below the bait) and keep running through the area.  If you don't get any strikes, try changing lure depth, speed or the lure you are using to try to get results.  You can also look for other bait pods or try trolling just to one side of them.  If you see fish hooks near the bait it is a good sign.  If you see that, make sure your lures are running at or above the level of the fish.  To check your lure depth (if you are not sure what it is) troll into shalower water until the lure ticks bottom.  With level wind reels, if you don't have a line counter, you can count the number of times the line guide goes across to get an idea on how much line you have out to achieve that depth.  With spinning reels, the only way to know how much line you have out is to mark the line.  Very often, a fish will follow and not strike but making a turn (or zig zag), changing speed or pulling the rod to impart a change in action can trigger a strike.

 

Good luck

 

Steve

[mostlymuskies]

Early in the season your looking for warmer water to hold bait fish schools.This will usualy mean shallow water, creek mouths, sun warmed surface water that may get pushed to one area by wind and sand beach areas where the sun heated sand carries heat into the water.Sometimes you have to search for awhile to find the bait fish schools.Broken up bait fish schools that are in many smaller pods with bigger fish hooks in and around are places you camp on and troll or cast changing up your presentation until you trigger a strike.Water temps of 55 to 60 degrees troll at 3.2 to 3.5 mph for best action.Best casting option is chop style jerkbaits, Phantoms 6", Reefhawg 6", Leo Jerk 6" etc.

[Nalod]

Well, it took 2 days to figure out if I had wind-burn or sunburn on my face...it was sun!  I had a really great time fishing with Mike (Ronix 51) and Jenelle.

 

I was lucky enough to get a bite late in the day on Saturday.  We were fishing in the north in around 15 feet of water.  I was casting my Lunge Lumber Prowler (copper perch color) and never saw the follow.  When I started to pull the lure out of the water for the next cast, I saw the fish come vertically out of the water (her head was completely out of the water when it struck...I think it was hugging bottom for the follow which caused me not to see the follow or even a flash) and hit my back hook.  I did a quick back-set and started the fight.  Know the fish was barely hooked, Mike netted the fish the first time it came back to the surface...a perfect net job!

 

I am still impressed with how fat it was.  We did not get a girth measurement, but it was a fattie!  At 41", this was the biggest tiger musky I have ever seen in real-life...and was luckily caught in a tourney.

 

Big congrats to Bob for setting up a perfect pattern on the lake.  We were fishing near him for most of the day, so I got to watch him stay with the bait and really perfectlly implement his plan.  Again, great job!

 

--Joe

[Tigerhunter]

Thanks for the tips/advice, gonna give it another go today.

Awesome fish Joe!

[mostlymuskies]

Tigerhunter, Good luck today!

[zach]

Great time and Bobby boy/Kevin earned their win. The area where the tourney was won was 2.5-3 degrees colder than the north end so that throws the warmer water theory out the door for early season tigers. Only got a 26" tiger myself trolling a firetiger bait I made but we had a couple more hits and Brad got one chucking a Suick. Beautiful lake that coughed up some fish for us as a group and cant knock the lake at all. Good time seeing everyone and would post pics but dumb a$$ here is having issues. Congrats to those who smoked my punk a$$ last Saturday, really looking forward to summer now. BTY- Larry, you wouldnt have had any issues imo launching as their was a big old Trophy that didnt seem to have any issues. IMO Otisco is a cooler lake than Conesus and wouldnt mind going back sometime. Thanks for organizing this event, good times.

[mostlymuskies]

Tigerhunter,How did your fishing trip go?

[Tigerhunter]

I was just about to post about it, had a great time.... But didn't see a single fish-haha. I am more of a shallow water fisherman which is where I think we went wrong, that and from Friday to Tuesday the water dropped 10 degrees.

We fished from 6'-17', throwing jerk baits, crank baits, gliders, spoons, spinnerbaits, tubes, and even a top raider for a little bit. The weeds we were fishing looked great but not even a looker. We only fished for a few hours and took my boat out for probably the season.

Next trip will be to Paradox Lake for pike and Waneta/Lamoka for the opener.

[muskiedreams]

Tigerhunter.  If you see an 18' Grumman at Waneta on opening day with NMA stickers on the side, say hay.  It will be me.  I'm prety sure I will be there that day.

 

Steve

[mostlymuskies]

Tigerhunter,Good luck at Waneta for the opener,I will get to Conesus a couple more times then off to Chautauqua Lake for the opener!

 

Capt. Larry

[solgrande]

Tigerhunter......i was able to fish paradox a few years back and loved it!!awesome lake and some big northerns reside there as i`m sure you`re aware.I had that lake among others(ie:cranberry etc)on my have to get there some day list of big northern waters.I stayed at the campground and hopefully they have fixed that damn launch-was rough to say the least.If your thinking of using live bait you can catch it off that little island but watchout for that shallow rock with a shine on it....it`s aluminum from my lwr end lol...that shallow cut between the two basins  produced well for me.I would like to get back there someday just a long drive from williamson.

Thanks joe....found`em and we just stayed on them-cudos to kevin for hanging in there and sticking with it.That bait must have been easy prey for those tigers `cause we got them dizzy.lol

sol

[Tigerhunter]

Sol,

Thanks for the tips! One of my good buddies lives about an hour south of Paradox, my wife and I are visiting for Memorial Day weekend and will go up Sunday morning to fish.

I've been there on the ice once and in a boat once in late summer. We will be in a 14' fiberglass boat with a 10 hp and my buddy has been there quite a bit so hopefully we won't find your rock.

I have seen/heard of big northerns there and my buddy's cousin got a nice upper 30"er and he had a ridiculous hit on a big daredevle (no leader). Now we are prepared with proper lures and equipment so hopefully we will put a hurtin' on those toothy fish!

BTW Chad, I love the app, this makes it so much easier than using safari on the iPhone!

[mostlymuskies]

Off to Otisco in the am,maybe we will get lucky!

[NitroMusky]

Official tournament results are on the MI website nymusky.com

[justtracytrolling]

Im biased as Otisco is my home lake, but the lake has excellent tigers and walleye.  Was a slow bite all weekend but caught 4 nice walleyes up to 27.5" and 4 tigers to 38".  All caught 30' down in 50-60 all at 1.5 to 1.7 on perch deep cranks.  Sorry I missed everyone last weekend but Tracy had to work and I had nobody to fish with. 

justin and tracy