How to Meet Muskies

Vernon Summerlin

Muskellunge, also known as the water wolf and the fish of ten thousand casts, is a cool-water species. The modern muskie is native to the Great Lakes, upper Mississippi, and Ohio River systems, southern Hudson Bay tributaries, and some northern Atlantic Coastal drainages. Stocking programs have extended the fish's range. Fossil records show ancestral muskies once lived in the western United States.

It is an aggressive predator of the highest order - the top of the freshwater piscatorial food chain. It has a mouthful of teeth, which means you must use a steel leader, and is a sight-feeder, which means night fishing for this one is a waste of time. Stout fishing gear is required to handle the water wolf. Plugs a foot-long are common bait but you need to make sure your use very strong hooks to prevent having them straightened.

Muskies live in pool areas that are three feet deep and have many laydowns, and they spawn when water temperatures are between 49 and 59 degrees. They tend to migrate up tributaries to spawn at the ends of pools, and then move downstream, sometimes many miles from their spawning area. They reach sexual maturity at age three and live about three more years in the South. In northern waters they may live 30 years.

Their diet consists mainly of fish but will eat ducklings, frogs, muskrats, mice, salamanders, crawfish, snakes, and just about anything that gets in front of it. It prefers large food items and its growth suffers if only small food items are available.

A report of the netting of a 102-pound muskie was supposed to have taken place in Lake Superior in the early 1900s. It is fairly accepted that muskie can grow this large but there is no documentation.

They are a valuable sport fish and only trophies are usually harvested. Its flesh is good to eat but so many other species offer better table fare.

Muskie Condos

Muskies like a nice home and you can build one. It's the same principle as placing crappie condos but a different construction. Muskie prefer a log home. Using four- to eight-inch diameter logs six to eight feet long, construct a crib; four walls two to three feet high with enough space between the logs for the fish is move in and out. Placing a top on the crib is a good idea. Adding some brush attracts smaller fish and helps to interest a muskie sooner.

Add concrete blocks to sink the condo and secure the logs and blocks with aluminum wire or nylon rope. Use hardwood logs for longevity under water.

You should place the crib in known muskie waters. The habitat they prefer includes shallow weedy shorelines, small weedy or rocky coves, near the mouths of small streams entering a lake, and slow water areas in rivers. Placing a crib in a river is a waste of time due to flooding condition moving it.

This is a large project that requires planning. Building it at lake's edge is best. You can't cut the logs needed from the shoreline unless you own the property or have permission. Once you get it built, placing it becomes a feat. In spite of the effort, you have a great reward in store. The fish of ten thousand casts may be yours with fewer attempts.

Baits

Muskie lures are often large. This fish will eat other fish half its length. If it swallows one that is too long to swallow at once, it will wait until the head digests before swallowing the rest of it. Imagine seeing a muskie with the tail of another fish sticking out its mouth.

In-line bucktail spinners, topwater baits, imitation minnows, crankbaits, spoons, and large plastic worms, or eels are common artificial baits. Saltwater and striper baits are good choices. The Cisco Kid and Creek Chub Pikie Minnow are long time favorites with muskie hunters. Spoons and spinners have been very popular and the old Bomber has been most effective.

Large lures catch big fish, but 1/2- to 1-ounce baits catch large and small muskies. Consider that a muskie will not waste energy chasing small bait.

A live eight- to 10-inch sucker or gizzard shad on a 5/0 hook under a large bobber can save your arm from casting big baits. You can slow troll live bait also, with or without a bobber.

How To Catch Muskie

Guide Dwayne Hickey (931-668-3008) of McMinnville, TN has been muskie fishing for 15 years on Great Falls and Center Hill Lakes.

Hickey concentrates on the feeder creeks, sloughs, any cuts, but primarily the larger creeks.

“From spring through the fall," he says, "one of my favorite techniques is to use live bait: suckers, gizzard shad, and bluegill. If they won’t hit artificial bait, they’ll attack live bait.

“The artificials I use in the summer and through the fall are topwater plugs, like Zara Spooks, and buzzbaits. The key to muskie fishing is being on the water during cloudy and rainy weather. Days like that are the absolute best times. You get multiple strikes on those days,” he says.

Anyone who fishes for muskie will see the fish follow your lure. Hickey says that’s common when he casts for them, but he has a trick for the curious fish.

“I have a live bait on the hook and hanging over in the water about 2 feet deep. I’ll be casting artificial lures and I’ll get several follows. They won’t hit the lure but they follow it to the boat out of curiosity. I make a figure eight with the bait at the boat and that works sometimes. But about 70 percent of the time they’ll hit the live bait hanging over the side. I set a loose drag on the reel.”

Hickey spools on 17- to 20-pound-test line on his Abu Garcia 6500 baitcasting reel. “I can handle about any muskie with that, using a steel leader of course. I use a 7-foot All Pro flipping stick and a 6-6 All Pro casting rod. You’ve got to have rods with backbone. And if your hooks are not needle-sharp, you might as well stay at the house.”

To meet more muskies, build them a home and then behave as if they were a guest in your BnB, serve them a delicious breakfast in bed. Happy Hooking!