THINKING OUTSIDE AND INSIDE THE BOX
Decision making in fishing, especially musky fishing, can make or break a day. Make the right call on a bait and it’s zero to hero instantly. Make a bad call, and musky fishing will punish you like no other freshwater fish can.
MAKING THE RIGHT CALL
Fishing in general requires us to make a host of decisions. The easy ones are easy. What species are we fishing for? What body of water are we fishing? What tactic are we most likely to use on this trip? Trolling or casting? These are usually not the tough ones to make. Sometimes these decisions are based on seasonal or weather-related conditions. But we all plan to go fishing, so we already know what our ‘general’ plan will be.
What happens when you get to your favorite lake and all ‘your’ spots have boats on them? Now we have to make a tough decision. Do we try to fish the familiar spots, relying on past success, or do we go looking for new areas? This is a decision I face almost every time I go out musky fishing.
COMMUNITY SPOTS?
Every lake has them. The community spots, or milk-run spots. In the musky fishing world, these are the easy to fish areas. Easy to access, easy to locate. They hold fish, but they also see the most pressure. Bass fishing has these same areas. Walleye fishing hot spots such as Eagle Lake and Lac Seul are famous for well known hot spots.
ALWAYS SPEND TIME FINDING NEW SPOTS
It seems very easy to just go fish in another area. But… Most of us are familiar with, and comfortable with, these easy to fish areas. We have had success in the past here, we have confidence in these spots. Weekend anglers are notorious for fishing the same areas over and over. Guides will frequent the same areas throughout the day, but always give themselves time to explore new areas.
The easiest decision you can make when faced with boats on ‘your spot’, go find another hot spot. You’ll pick the wrong spot a few times, but trust me, you’ll become a better angler for searching out new water.
GOING FURTHER
On a recent fishing trip Dave and I were joined by his father. John had never caught a musky before, despite being on a few trips with us in the past. Fishing from the back of the boat, John was casting a top water musky lure. Easy to cast, easy to retrieve. After catching his first musky on our first spot, he missed the next few chances he had. Finishing up our evening on a community spot, albeit a good one, we made a crucial decision. We would keep the boat tight to the island and cast out onto a weed saddle. Everyone else fishes straight down the saddle casting to the islands on either side.
John hooked into his second fish of the evening, and a beauty at that. One decision paid off. Would he have caught the fish casting the same as everyone else? We will never know.
On community spots, look at how you can fish differently than the average angler. Make a decision to think outside the box.
YOUR GO TO BAIT IS NOT WORKING SO WELL
Any fishermen can tell you about the hot bait. The bait they caught the big one on, the bait they caught the most on. I can tell you the same stories. I also know it rarely remains the hot bait.
What I can’t tell you is how many times I’ve watched friends and guests get caught up in the hype of their own hot bait. Just because you caught a musky last week on it, that doesn’t make it the hot bait today.
We all must start with a bait we are comfortable with, the confidence bait. Give it some time, but when it’s not producing, it’s time to change up. Musky anglers hate change. We have baits that work year in and year out. It’s very hard to admit defeat. But even we know sometimes you must try something new. You can always go back to your ‘security blanket’ bait. However, you may find a change is all you need to turn your fortunes around.
THE NEW LURE IS NOT AS GOOD AS THE OLD ONE
I’m guilty of this one. I try a new bait, unwilling to give into failure. Wanting it to work, willing it to catch a musky. Finally, frustrated and defeated, I give up and take the new lure off. I dig out a familiar, confidence lure and things change rapidly.
This is a tough one, we all want the new lure we pick up to be the one. I wish it was that easy.
This summer I was fishing with Dave and trying a new lure I had sent to me. The company wanted some feedback, and I was giving it an honest go. I did raise some fish, but after an hour or two I just wasn’t feeling it. I made the decision to go back to a familiar lure I hadn’t thrown this year. The results? Two fish in the bag on two spots. Coincidence? Or confidence?
DON’T FORGET ABOUT YOUR OLD FRIEND
On a similar trip, with little success other than a bucktail fish Dave caught on our first spot, we struggled to put together a pattern. I tried a variety of lures, not sure what to throw in the second position in the boat. Pulling up to a spot we know well, but not a community spot, I made a decision. I told Dave I was going old school. I was going back to an old lure (relatively speaking), the Lake X Toad. I had great success with the toad in 2018 but have used it sparingly since then. The results? Two fish on three casts. Totally turning our day around, from a one fish grind to a three fish success!
WAY OUTSIDE THE BOX
Some days it does not matter what lure you use, the fish are just not biting. In musky fishing when you do not raise a fish, it feels like the fish have disappeared. They are there, you have to find them.
As anglers we are always guilty of ‘trying the same thing and expecting different results. We hear stories of guys casting all day and not seeing a single fish, yet another group trolled all afternoon and caught six fish. The difference? Knowing when and where to try a different technique.
THE HEAT IS ON
During the intense heat of July, weeds were growing at a crazy pace and were very hard to cast through. We were seeing active fish in weeds but had a hard time pinpointing which areas would pay off. We made the decision to short line troll small bucktails and spinnerbaits over the weed edge. Not only would we be able to learn the outer edges of the weedline, we could drop way points at any point we contact fish.
Shortline trolling, a technique we are not familiar with, is usually done with less than 20’ of line out. We ran baits out just barely behind the boat. We would hear the splash of the fish before we felt the hit. We netted one, got hit by three others and found the most productive areas of the weeds. Following our trolling run we focused on the best areas of the weeds and caught two more while casting.
For us, this was a left field decision that really paid off. As we get more confident with musky fishing, we are more comfortable making tough decisions such as this.
MAKING A TOUGH CALL
The hardest decision to make is to stick with a lure, despite your intuition. The day hasn’t gone your way, no fish, no follows. Yet, you ‘know’ your lure will work. I often tell guests and friends, “Don’t worry, they will come.”, meaning the muskies will show up. Having confidence is huge in musky fishing.
During a mid August trip, we caught a fish on our first spot, on a confidence bait. The Droptine Tackle Growler. Knowing that bait has been hot all summer makes it a ‘no-brainer’ of a choice. Despite that, I did not start throwing it alongside my fishing partner. I stuck with a jerkbait, the Dip Stick from Top Line Baits. Knowing we had some deep break lines to fish later in the day, I was confident it was going to catch fish. Three hours later I was losing hope.
Just ahead of sunset I got hit way out from the boat. A beauty. We released this fish and made a quick move for our last spot of the day. Ten casts later, I got hit way out from the boat again. After a short battle she hit the net and that capped a ‘hat trick’ for the day!
Sticking with the Dip Stick was the right decision. It didn’t always feel that way but knowing when to tough it out is a skill every musky angler will learn.
IN SUMMARY
Decision making in fishing can turn an average day into a spectacular day. Trust your instincts. Learn to read the water, the fish will tell you what will work. We don’t always make the right call, and that’s ok. We learn from mistakes. When things line up on the water, those are the days you talk about long after the day is over.