Basic musky fishing tactics for catching fish throughout the year.
In musky fishing, there are three seasons: the late spring, summer and fall. Being successful in each of the three seasons requires a slightly different approach. Changes in water temperature, available forage fish, weed growth and metabolism all affect how the musky angler should be fishing. Here are the basic things you need to know about catching musky in these three distinct seasons.
Late Spring—The Giants Wake Up
The musky fishing season in Wisconsin begins in May. In the southern part of the Wisconsin, the musky season opens with the regular spring gamefish opener, which is the first Saturday in May. In the northern half of the state, the season begins on the Saturday nearest Memorial Day. The dividing line between north and south is Highway 10.
In the first days of the musky season, everything is just waking up. Water temperature becomes the key to finding the best places to fish for musky. Look for shallow bays and areas where the bottom substrate is dark-colored. These will be the places where the sun warms the water more quickly than other parts of the lake. Baitfish, insects and hungry panfish will all be attracted to these warm areas. And, where you find active fish, you’ll find muskies.
For the musky angler targeting these shallow areas during the spring, the go-to bait should be the bucktail spinner, commonly referred to as simply bucktails.
Bucktails are the simplest musky bait you can use. Simply cast and retrieve. If you want the bait to run high in the water, right up near the surface, start your retrieve the very instant the lure hits the water. If you want the bucktail to run a bit deeper, let the lure sink for just an instant and then begin the retrieve. As the water temperature continues to warm, you can speed up your retrieve, letting the blade of the bucktail break the surface occasionally, causing a ruckus that should pique a hungry musky’s attention.
Another good spring bait is the crankbait. Musky crankbaits are minnow-shaped and made of either wood or plastic. They have a metal or plastic lip on the front end of them that causes them to wobble and dive as they are retrieved. Generally, the longer the lip on the crankbait, the deeper the bait will dive.
During the spring, you should fish crankbaits slow and steady. You want the bait to be easy for the musky to get a good look at it. Some variation in retrieval speed can help induce a strike. As the water warms in the late spring, you can increase the speed of your retrieve and add more pauses and accelerations. The crankbaits you use in the spring should be relatively small, from six to nine inches. Like the bucktail, the crankbait is a good lure for the beginning musky angler.
The best rods for casting light bucktails and crankbaits are seven-and-a-half- to eight foot rods with medium/heavy action. The longer rods give you some extra leverage when casting and are comfortable to fish with.
Summer—Awesome Action
Summer is when the water is warm and every fish is feeding heavily—including musky. The best musky baits to use are the same as in spring—bucktails and crankbaits. However, in the summer, when the water is at its highest temperature of the year, you should be using bigger lures and retrieving them faster and with more action.
Summer is also a good time to use baits known as “swimbaits.” These versatile musky baits can be fished like jigs, crankbaits or jerkbaits. These sinking baits have the special advantage of allowing you to really control how deep you are fishing the lure. For enticing muskies suspended over deep water, nothing beats a swimbait.
Big bucktails can be as long as 14 inches. Jumbo crankbaits can top one foot in length. Swimbaits weigh a ton. Casting these giant musky baits can give you a good workout. Use an eight-foot, heavy action rod. The long rod will give you good casting power and the heavy action will help with retrieving the big, beefy baits.
Fall—Trophy Time
Fall is jerkbait time. A jerkbait is a wooden bait weighted with lead so that it has just a tiny amount of buoyancy or no buoyancy at all. This allows the lure to just “hang” in the water when at rest. During the fall, you should stick to very large jerkbaits—larger than ten inches would be appropriate for most waters. Fishing a jerkbait can be done in several ways. The simplest way is by retrieving the bait slowly, then pausing the retrieve every few feet, which allows the bait to suspend or slowly rise, teasing hungry muskies. Often, the strike comes right at the end of the pause, just as you are about to turn the crank again.
Another way to fish a jerkbait is to use a technique widely known as “walking the dog.” This involves dropping and lifting the rod as you retrieve the bait so as to impart a side to side gliding action on the jerkbait. This technique takes practice, but it’s not rocket science either. Just watch the lure and closely and you’ll eventually get the action. Watching an experienced musky angler do the technique is useful too.
Live suckers can be an outstanding musky bait to use in fall, as well as the early season. The best way to fish a live sucker is using a quick-strike rig. There are several types of quick-strike rigs, but they all have one thing in common: they are designed for a quick hook up. The old style of using suckers involved waiting anywhere from a minute to several minutes before setting the hook. Often, the musky was hooked so deeply that it was impossible for a live release. The quick strike set up allows you to set the hook quickly and generally hooks the fish in the mouth. That means the best possible chance releasing the musky to fight another day.
There are several ways to fish the live sucker rig. One way is to simple fish the sucker over the side of the boat, letting the sucker move freely in the water column to attract musky to the boat. The other way is to fish the sucker under a very large bobber. This technique has the advantage of being incredibly exciting—seeing that bobber go kerplunk when the musky strikes is a heart-stopping experience.
There are two distinct periods in the fall—pre-turnover and post-turnover. Turnover refers to the deep, oxygen-poor water mixing with the oxygen-rich surface water. This generally occurs when the air temperature is in the 40s. The actual turnover process lasts several days and fishing can be slowed somewhat for the next week. After turnover, fish tend to be more scattered throughout the lake. Post-turnover is true trophy time. The chance at a true trophy continues to increase right up until ice up.
