[6667supersport]

Casting bucktails over by selfridge 6-8' of water. Casted for 2 1/2 hours had 2 follows from 40" fish. Had big one on for about 20-30 seconds and it spit the lure

. Never saw the fish but U could tell what ever was on the end of the line was a heavyweight. I seem to hook the pike and the smaller musky. Is it common to have 3-4 good hits to each hookup ???? I was also told that I should be setting the hook 5-6 times really good. Is this normal practice??? I dont want to pull in a set of lips or rip the lure out of its mouth. ANY help would be greatly appreciated, I have yet to put a legal fish in the boat, but I have seen them follow after they hit the lure and know the real nice hits im getting arent all from small fish.

 

[little guy]

My advice FWIW would be to

1. use 50#-60# braided line with a 30" leader of 50-60# flouro. The braided line will help with hook-ups at the ends of long casts.

2. Do not set the hook 5-6 times. If he's not hooked after one or two, he's going to get off anyways.

3. Sharpen your hooks.

4. That's musky fishing. Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug.

 

[RaymondFox]

QUOTE(little guy @ Aug 1 2009, 08:41 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>My advice FWIW would be to

1. use 50#-60# braided line with a 30" leader of 50-60# mono.
Do most of you ski guys reccommend the mono as a leader versus running a steel leader. Maybe I'm not getting as many hits, since the steel leader stands out more.

 

[esoxfly]

80#-100# braid, 100#-120# flouro leader. I have to kindly disagree with little guy here. Mono is not Flourocarbon. Spend the $12 or so on a good FC leader or learn to make your own. I also use a much shoter one, like 12". Typically the 24"+ leaders are for trolling. Unless your line/leader connection easily comes through the guides, you're left with 24" of leader outside your guides at the end of a retrieve which makes fig 8's sloppy. And then at the start of the cast, you still have that same 24" hanging out. And trying to cast the big blades or soft plastics with two feet out of the rod tip is asking for an accident. That's all presupposing your leader won't fit in your rod tip, which if anyone has that figured out how to effectively do that in a muskie-worthy way, I'd honestly love to hear about it. That, and you really don't need that much leader casting. These fish aren't crashing the baits at 4 mph behind a boat in propwash. Most of them only might have the leader in their mouth. Now for jerks and WTD baits, you'd want to use single strand steel.

Set the hook ONCE! Unless you miss the hookset and just kinda come up tight when you feel her, then reel down and set it again. But once you set it, set it like your friggin life depends on it, and then leave it be. You're not going to tear her mouth off. If you think you set it hard enough, you probably didn't.

And yes, it's normal to see four fish for ever one you get in the boat.

 

[6667supersport]

I am by no means an expert, I just bought a boat this spring and have only been casting for them for since July 4th. I'm learning fast though, thanx to this site and trial & error (lots of error). I have been using the black musky leaders I bought years ago with ball bearing swievels 30" long. I have been getting lots of hits and follows and even caught a couple bass on the large bucktail lures. I have usually been fishing in stained water. Last night U could only see a foot or 2 MAX, I thought it might be too dirty, but had a nice follow within 30 minutes.

 

[little guy]

QUOTE(esoxfly @ Aug 1 2009, 10:03 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>80#-100# braid, 100#-120# flouro leader. I have to kindly disagree with little guy here. Mono is not Flourocarbon.

I meant Flouro. Not mono. Jeff's advise is good. Changed my post.

 

[esoxfly]

LOL, I was surprised to see you lay down that advice! Makes sense now.

 

[muskiebobsr]

Esox you are right about the short stiff leaders on the big Jerk Baits. I don't use leaders on most of my baits. Don't need them on BRs at all. I have my own ideas about hook sets and I really don't have a big problem with them as if the strike is right the fish will hook up under it's own power.

 

[RaymondFox]

Thanks for the tips guys! I will be out again today sometime around 5 pm, I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[mick]

Ok so i have to sound like a dumba$$ for a minute. but please keep in mind that I have NEVER gone out and targeted skis. I caught 1 about 5 years ago in a bass tourney off metro. It was tiny, had bigger smallies in the boat. now my question, what do I need as far as rods, reels and line to catch one of these HOGS that I have seen posted? good god does that look fun!

 

[BrokenWing]

Rod - Basic MH or H musky rod; stiffer than regular mh or H rod
Reel - Calcutta or pretty good reel
Line - 65lb Power Pro for the low end
Leader - 100lb min Floro leader

 

[gimmeteeth]

Fish might have been lightly hooked, and tore out. If so, that's just the breaks.

I mainly troll, but have lost a very high percentage of fish using braid earlier this year, especially on smaller lures with smaller hooks, as opposed to mono last year, in which I hardly lost any toothy critters at all. That certainly suggests hooks tearing out. Have taken to putting 20ft of mono on the end of the main line for trolling as a compromise between feel (to see if lures are clear and if I want to cast when I've located fish) and shock absorption.

Casting's obviously a different ballgame, and the advice above looks good. Are you keeping the rod low most of the time when reeling in? If not, or if you're doing a slashing retrieve, that 2nd hook set may be necessary.

 

[esoxfly]

QUOTE(BrokenWing @ Aug 1 2009, 08:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Rod - Basic MH or H musky rod; stiffer than regular mh or H rod
Reel - Calcutta or pretty good reel
Line - 65lb Power Pro for the low end
Leader - 100lb min Floro leader

Agreed. Using your heaviest bass rod is not muskie gear.

 

[BrokenWing]

The mono gives so much that may help with keeping the tension on the fish which will help keep the fish from throwing the lures. The downside is that mono is so thick that you can not cast it very well.

Rich

 

[mick]

QUOTE(BrokenWing @ Aug 1 2009, 08:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Rod - Basic MH or H musky rod; stiffer than regular mh or H rod
Reel - Calcutta or pretty good reel
Line - 65lb Power Pro for the low end
Leader - 100lb min Floro leader

thanks, sounds good.

 

[Zib]

QUOTE(6667supersport @ Aug 1 2009, 08:20 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Casting bucktails over by selfridge 6-8' of water. Casted for 2 1/2 hours had 2 follows from 40" fish. Had big one on for about 20-30 seconds and it spit the lure

. Never saw the fish but U could tell what ever was on the end of the line was a heavyweight. I seem to hook the pike and the smaller musky. Is it common to have 3-4 good hits to each hookup ???? I was also told that I should be setting the hook 5-6 times really good. Is this normal practice??? I dont want to pull in a set of lips or rip the lure out of its mouth. ANY help would be greatly appreciated, I have yet to put a legal fish in the boat, but I have seen them follow after they hit the lure and know the real nice hits im getting arent all from small fish.

I think that's a little overkill & most likely will rip a bigger hole in the fish's mouth. Most bucktails come with cheap a$$ Eagle Claw or Mustad hooks, which both suck. They need to be sharpened when you take them out of the package & sharpened often during use. That's one reason why I make my own bucktails is so that I can have a quality hook. You can always upgrade the hooks. So far I like the VMC cone cut hooks that I've put on my bucktails.

When setting the hook you should sweep the rod to the side (left or right) & not up. I've lost too many musky by setting the hook by setting upward with the rod & I have pulled the lure right out of the mouths doing it.

 

[BrokenWing]

Plus the sweep helps in keeping the misky in the water and not jumping and throwing the hooks. Or at least that is what I have read, now if I could put that into practice...

 

[Jim tenHaaf]

QUOTE(esoxfly @ Aug 1 2009, 09:03 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>80#-100# braid, 100#-120# flouro leader. I have to kindly disagree with little guy here. Mono is not Flourocarbon. Spend the $12 or so on a good FC leader or learn to make your own. I also use a much shoter one, like 12". Typically the 24"+ leaders are for trolling. Unless your line/leader connection easily comes through the guides, you're left with 24" of leader outside your guides at the end of a retrieve which makes fig 8's sloppy. And then at the start of the cast, you still have that same 24" hanging out. And trying to cast the big blades or soft plastics with two feet out of the rod tip is asking for an accident. That's all presupposing your leader won't fit in your rod tip, which if anyone has that figured out how to effectively do that in a muskie-worthy way, I'd honestly love to hear about it. That, and you really don't need that much leader casting. These fish aren't crashing the baits at 4 mph behind a boat in propwash. Most of them only might have the leader in their mouth. Now for jerks and WTD baits, you'd want to use single strand steel.

Set the hook ONCE! Unless you miss the hookset and just kinda come up tight when you feel her, then reel down and set it again. But once you set it, set it like your friggin life depends on it, and then leave it be. You're not going to tear her mouth off. If you think you set it hard enough, you probably didn't.

And yes, it's normal to see four fish for ever one you get in the boat.

Very good advise!!