july 11th report

[earlyretirement]

I have never been much for posting fishing information, but this site has helped me a lot. I just started musky fishing when I was up at RR resort in the second week of June. The weather was very cold, so the bluegills were off the beds and with the 2 walleye limit I had extra time on my hands. Caught two musky in June 45" and 37". Wow that was neat, thus a new musky fisherman is born.

On to the report.
July 11th 10:30 a.m. My 5 year old wants to go musky fishing with me, but I am not letting him use the baitcaster by himself. I came up with the plan to buy a pacemaker in town and throw the lure for him. He cranks it up while I cast a ghost tail. Go figure about cast number 15 I see a big wake following his lure. I managed to grab him and the rod in time to set the hook. He said the fish was to big and let me reel. That fish was about 45". So basically I am beeing outfished by the 5 year old, but hey I am new at this.

July 11th sunset- by myself this time had one follow, nose on the lure but never hit.
20 minutes later- Throwing the pace maker again and this time no submarine wake. Fish shoots straight up out of the water at about 90 degrees and clears about a foot of water. That fish was 46". So that fish nose was about 5 feet in the air. Good thing the fish hit about 40 feet from the boat or I probably would have stained my pants.

July 12th- fished hard for about 9 hours that day. One follow at dark on the pacemaker. Did not know he was there until I hit the trolling motor and then there was a big splash next to the boat, oops. This leads me to my dumb newbie question. Do you guys figure 8 with the pacemaker or what? I can figure 8 with a bucktail, but not real good with a pacemaker.

july 13th- morning, tried for some walleyes. Only ended up with a smallmouth bass and fed some panfish some leeches- should stick to musky fishing I guess. I am up at RR until Friday, will post again.

[earlyretirement]

Forgot to say that all of my fish came over weed beds close to deep water.

[ryanmitchell]

I would definitely atleast do an L with any prop style topwater lure. If the lure is coming in from your right at say 2 o clock, when it gets near the boat, swing it to the left, and run it out for 5-6 feet, always looking behind the lures path for a late striker. Same thing but opposite if the lure is coming in from the left, swing it right at boatside.

Some may say to do a complete figure 8, and some would say a large oval. If a big fish is chasing the lure sometimes a big oval makes it easier on the fish to turn and continue chasing the bait. Some might also suggest submerging the bait under the surface and completing a figure 8 or two. In my experience the bait has a tendency to roll once submerged, so I rarely submerge.

Sounds like you already have the muskie fever. Bait wise you are off to a good start. Pacemaker and a ghost tail can cover a lot of territory. Proceed cautiously!!

[Ty Sennett]

I usually like to make a wide turn and go into a figure eight and at least make the first turn of the figure eight to see if the fish is there. If the fish is there keep going with the bait on top. If the fish doesn't react then go underwater with the bait.

Sounds like you are off to a heck of a start. Congrats.

[earlyretirement]

thanks for the help it is very much appreciated

Also had a question, what is the best slop lure up here?
Would like to fish some areas that I can not get the pacemaker to go through.

+ What is considered slop up here? Solid weeds that a boat won't go through or just stuff that you can not run trebble hooks through?

[Ty Sennett]

I'd say spinnerbaits are the best slop lures out there. There are some that are more weedless but that usually means they are fishless also.