Muskie trolling

[longtimefisherman]

I have a place in CV out near Grenadier and Fox islands. A couple of years ago I took up chasing musky with many great suggestions from the guys in this forum. So far nothing in the boat yet but have had a couple on. I retired the beginning of May so time is no longer an excuse. I have a good boat ( 19 1/2 crestliner)  and most anything that might be needed out there. I also know the structure around here pretty well from chasing walleye. So..if anyone wants to jump in the boat let me know! This end of Lake Ontario is pretty volatile so days when all options are available are few and far between. Based on the theory that many of the slr lunge summer in the lake and move into the river in the fall I have a goal to spend some time out by charity shoal and pigeon island. Awesome structure out there. Just need the weather to cooperate. 

[longtimefisherman]

I have a place in CV out near Grenadier and Fox islands. A couple of years ago I took up chasing musky with many great suggestions from the guys in this forum. So far nothing in the boat yet but have had a couple on. I retired the beginning of May so time is no longer an excuse. I have a good boat ( 19 1/2 crestliner)  and most anything that might be needed out there. I also know the structure around here pretty well from chasing walleye. So..if anyone wants to jump in the boat let me know! This end of Lake Ontario is pretty volatile so days when all options are available are few and far between. Based on the theory that many of the slr lunge summer in the lake and move into the river in the fall I have a goal to spend some time out by charity shoal and pigeon island. Awesome structure out there. Just need the weather to cooperate. 

[nathaniel]

Any lure suggestions for casting and jigging???


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[FishnChef]

Ill keep it to readily available baits and assume you're a beginner

Casting..dive n rise suick thrillers, bondy baits, spinnerbaits/ bucktails, flaptail like lees, large rattle traps, glidebaits, large swimbaits

Jigging..tubes such as red October, large bucktail jigs, shumway fuzzy duzzit, bondy baits. Check out muskyshop.com for an idea of what's out there. The sky's the limit on what you can spend on a single bait but no need to get carried away like some of us...lol

Get yourself a couple bondy baits, a few suick thrillers in 7,9, 10 inch, couple large rapalas, big Rattle Trap, and a couple larger swimbaits, some prettied leaders and go from there. Most importantly arm yourself with proper release tools and watch a couple YouTube videos on responsible handling of musky which becomes even more critical when the water temps get warm like they are now. 

Oh and first things first, call your credit card company and see if they will give you a credit limit increase

[Chowdaire]

Yeah. Spending money on lures won't guarantee you fish. I dragged around a Mattlock and a Headlock to no avail last week. Even left the price tags on the lips so the musky would know I was serious but they didn't fall for it. Oh well.

 

Actually. In my short time musky fishing I've caught (hooked) them on my cheaper lures. A couple on a depth raider, one on a Tuff Shad, 2 on a big jointed Shad Rap (casting) and one on a Giant Flat Stick. Just getting started, obviously, but my big money baits haven't done anything for me yet. 

 

 

[FishnChef]

Crap, how did i forget depthraider/topraiders?? And bulldawgs? Get those too. 

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by FishnChef

[zach]

Dont forget about NYS baitmakers. NYS has some top wood crafters and just like local bait shops, if we dont support em they won't be around.

 

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[FishnChef]

Nathaniel,

No doubt about it, there are some phenomenal New York bait makers including the one who commented above. Problem is they can be hard to get and unless you can get them directly from the maker they go for grossly inflated prices generally speaking. If you're looking for info on specifics feel free to shoot me a p.m. but Baker's, wyss, Mr toothy, DK(though impossible to get)just to name a few.

On a side note, has anyone been out on the SLR recently wondering what water temps are. Guessing a bit too warm to responsibly Target musky, during the day anyways

[longtimefisherman]

Water temp in low 70s from CV to lake..

 

[gobyslayer]

we are in a holding pattern waiting for the fall to set in to start our search of the elusive musky...lol im thinking late sept we will start our search... 

 

[zach]

74 in clayton

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[FishnChef]

Hopefully dropping fast, cold nights up here lately...

[zach]

Katia bent a couple rods sunday.

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[Gobyslayer2]

I got on the wrong boat sunday.... son of a.....awesome fish, we picked up a bunch of small bass

[zach]

Lots of excitement up there with the bass since it got named top bass water by bassmasters.

Bet u had a blast!

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[FishnChef]

That is a true bucket mouth, not a bass guy but I would not be upset about catching that. Nice work

[zach]

We were thrilled with the accidental bass! Biggest bass I've had in the boat in a long time. To prove she still had it she got back to muskies quickly.

 

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[White Wolf]

Anyone have experience running baits close to the boat? Like 15 to 30 back? I know most "shortline" trolling is done with blades or generally smaller baits at high speed for a reaction. My question is, is it a waste of time to run larger profiles slower that close to the boat? Slow is what goes most of the time on my home turf, and I would like to target some shallower edges with some bigger deep hard pulling baits I have that match the hatch really well (carp, walleye, suckers)

[FishnChef]

Yeah run one right down the Chute on a short line just make sure the ride is far enough back that you won't catch your line in turns whether it be on the main or the kicker since the line will be nearly vertical on a deep diver

[White Wolf]

1 hour ago, FishnChef said:

Yeah run one right down the Chute on a short line just make sure the ride is far enough back that you won't catch your line in turns whether it be on the main or the kicker since the line will be nearly vertical on a deep diver

So speed isn't much of an issue and fish will still snap close to the boat around 2.5 to 3.5mph? All the success I hear about is using decent speed. Only 1 rod per person and fishing solo, average 10-15 effort hours between fish is the norm here so messing with unproductive tactics can really waste a lot of time before realizing you're wasting your time. And I don't get a ton of time on the water lol 8hrs a week, with luck of the draw weather, if I'm lucky. 

 

[gobyslayer]

trolling in the past for walleye , pike, bass etc I would troll long lines when I didn't  have to make any quick turns, the advantage was away from the noise of the boat.. if I am following the weed line I would run short lines for quicker turns. atleast that has been my experience... we are still a little warm in the 1000 islands to start trolling for musky but getting closer with the cooler evenings

 

[FishnChef]

Just match the bait to the speed you want to run. I'm a big fan of running BR supertankers in the prop wash as I get good action out of them at lower speeds and they are very buoyant so you get erratic action when making even small heading adjustments. has produced one fish for me but I don't get out to fish that often and I honestly haven't been Musky fishing for that long so one fish using that method represents a decent success rate with it. Was further Downriver on Monday, surface temps were 73, pulled one mid-forties fish casting a deep running glide bait(8" 705) on a current seam. Didn't bother trolling, current in the river is wicked right now with all the dams open

[White Wolf]

Nice. That's exactly what I'm trying to do. Very buoyant but hard diving bait running at just the right speed where there's a fight between floating and diving making it act all erratic. Or at least that's how it's working in my head..

[zach]

To me running short lines is just bc I'm targeting fish in shallower water . I fish maybe a lil slower when running short ( less than 10' line)

Spring time is my short lining time when I'm trying to present baits over emerging weeds and only have a few feet of water above the weeds ie, the reason for only letting out a few feet of line.

 

I do want to mention the best big fish angler I know of says his best line length on super clear water is 100' back and 100' out to the side on a plane board. Simply to disassociate the lures with the boat.

 

My only double this year came fishing 11 fow with lines at 6' and 8' but that was in dirty water with 1' visibility .

 

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[White Wolf]

On 8/24/2019 at 11:02 AM, zach said:

To me running short lines is just bc I'm targeting fish in shallower water . I fish maybe a lil slower when running short ( less than 10' line)

Spring time is my short lining time when I'm trying to present baits over emerging weeds and only have a few feet of water above the weeds ie, the reason for only letting out a few feet of line.

 

I do want to mention the best big fish angler I know of says his best line length on super clear water is 100' back and 100' out to the side on a plane board. Simply to disassociate the lures with the boat.

 

My only double this year came fishing 11 fow with lines at 6' and 8' but that was in dirty water with 1' visibility .

 

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So what would you do if you were targeting fish hugging bottom, just outside of the weed edge in very clear 7 to 14 fow. Having to be super accurate with bait placement (within a couple feet of fish). Just cast at them? Lol that's what I want to do, but Im trying to gain as much trolling experience possible before the fall feed is on