Ogandrews

Especially with a 2.5” keitech easy shiner in a brown trout like color instead of a skirt. Those definitely don’t work at all for big browns in the streams around here

I don’t fish for pickerel but pike and musky are my main targets and are also Esox. My number 1 early season bait is a jerkbait hands down. Throw it on a 15-20 lbs titanium leader and you’ll be set. My other go to year round is a keitech. Mostly I’m throwing 4.8-6.8, but with pickerel being smaller I bet a 3.8 would be money. Perch colors are always good, as well as whatever forage there is in your lake.

It’s a similar situation with pike in this state. People always complain about catching a lot of hammer handles but any time hey get a pike 30-35” or over they keep it. If you want a good size structure your shooting yourself in the foot by throwing back the small stunted fish and killing the ones with good genetics that can pass those genes on and make more fish. Pike fishing is my bread and butter so nothing makes me angrier than to see a trophy fish go to waste because people want a mount and think they need a skin mount instead of a replica. There are some absolutely incredible trophy pike fisheries here in the south part of the state, and a large part of it has to due with the fact that my county has strict size slots and a one fish limit on pike. It’s amazing how the fish keep getting bigger when you don’t kill them.

I noticed a very similar thing when I lived in Iowa, and to an extent here in Minnesota too. It seems that the goal of every walleye fisherman in this state is to get their limit every time they are on the water. I don’t care how big the lake is that isn’t sustainable. Everyone wants to blame the low walleye numbers on musky eating them all but in reality it’s the people that are complaining about the muskies who are the ones destroying the populations. Every year or so they try to make new legislations to stop musky stocking in MN and change lakes that have them to have no limit on them to try to get them out of the lakes. Doesn’t matter that there are 20 or more lakes with walleye in them for every one lake with Muskies. I could go on for hours about how ridiculous of an idea this is.

Just because something looks good to a fisherman doesn’t mean it looks good to a fish. There’s countless lures that prove this, think about a cheap livetarget that to us looks identical to a Shad but a keitech which just has a fish profile and outfishes the live target by a huge amount. A jig has the profile and water displacement of a craw/fish/critter. Another thing about a jig that makes it so incredible is the skirt does things that non skirted baits can’t do. A skirt can imitate the subtle movements that bait makes like gills or fins moving on a fish or legs and little antennas on a crawfish. You can call this secondary action and it’s very hard to replicate without a skirt. Although it might not look like it out of the water, there is something magical about a jig that is impossible to beat in a lot of situations.

Lived in Ames for 2 years, brushy creek is an awesome lake I still make a trip down every spring before the mn season opens up. Right around now the musky should be turning on, prespawn and fat. Some great sized bass in that lake. If you do try to fish muskies right now focus on the northern part of the lake around the creeks coming in. Not Minnesota sized fish but there’s fish in the 40” range and numbers of them. Super pretty place as opposed to other parts of Iowa. Right now the walleye fishing should be pretty good on the Des Moines river and I would assume the other bigger rivers. I never had any luck in the Ames area ponds I really would not bother trying to fish them honestly.

Got out on the backwaters in Winona today with a buddy. Terrible weather, 37-41 with 15-25 mph winds and rain. Water temp was 40-41 so it’s getting close to prime time for pike. Fished a number of different spots close to prairie island. Got one bite in 6 hours but nothing else. Saw a good amount of Shad in a few spots so I know there have to be fish in there, with the terrible conditions I think the fish had a little lockjaw. Water was a lot higher, a lot of flooded woods which sounds great on paper but I’m reality makes it super hard to pinpoint where the fish are because there is so much good looking water. I’m going to get back out to pool 4 on Wednesday, hopefully with the weather in the 50’s we can get some water into the mid 40s and get some pike at least moving. I’ll let you guys know how I do, I always try to be one of the first guys on the water in the backwaters and it usually pays off when I find a good bite when nobody else is there.

I’ve had great luck using the lethal weapons but 3 different times I have snapped the hook in half on hooksets, not even on very big fish. Have you had this issue at all?

I know Wisconsin strain fish take longer to grow than a leech or gl strain fish so a 50” UP fish is crazy impressive. There’s nothing like musky, I’m lucky that my family has a place on lake vermilion so I get to spend a lot of time fishing for world record class fish. I’ve been wanting to make a trip and fish in the UP, driven through there 15-20 times on my way to the lower part of the state but never fished it it looks incredible.

Thanks for all the replies, gives me some baits to throw in my cart at some point. One thing I want to try a little more this year is more craw style swim jigs. A couple of the lakes I fish are pretty craw heavy so I’d assume they would do well. I’ve had success with using a rage craw as a trailer in a craw trailer but I’ll have to try out the zoom speed craw, looks like a great bait. Looks like a lot of you guys have issues with dirty jigs skirts, I’ve never had any issues with them even when I’m pike fishing. Anoth trailer I really want to try is the river2sea d walker, I just wish it came in a perch color.

Depends in the situation. When I’m fishing rock rubble drop offs or reefs I will go for a 4” wacky rigged if I’m under 5ft, if I’m fishing deeper than I will usually throw a nail weight in it so a neko rig, then if I think that they want something more subtle or I’m just trying to find fish I’ll switch to the 3” on a drop shot. I rarely will t rig for smallies but if I’m fishing docks I’ll usually go to a weightless wacky rig or t rig if it’s weedy so it can skip better, usually go up to 5 for both wacky or T because theirs usually both smallmouth and largemouth under the docks I fish.

My 833 has 40lbs maxcuatro on it and I will use a 12-20lbs leader depending on the cover and clarity, sometimes a 60lbs floro or 15lbs titanium if there’s a lot of pike. For the heavy wire jigs on my heavier rods I use 65lbs maxcuatro, 20lbs mono if it’s just for bass and 60lbs floro if there’s pike around. If your fishing a heavy wire jig I think your really hindering yourself by not using braid. I know a lot of guys don’t trust leaders, but I have a lot of confidence in the blood knot and it gives you some stretch which is a good thing for fighting bigger fish.

Feels like I don’t see a lot of people talking about swim jigs here. They are absolutely one of my favorite baits for bass as well as pike and musky. They are so versatile and effective. I would like to know what brands/weights/colors/hook wire size/rods you use and trailers you guys like to use as well as where your favorite places to throw them is. I have use a bunch of different brands but I have settled into only using dirty jigs. If I could only pick 2 it would be the finesse swim jig and the no jack swim jig. The finesse I only throw in 1/4 oz, mostly in perch/ gill colors and always use a 3.8 keitech in sun gill. I usually throw this earlier in the season around emerging grass, or any time during the season I want a more subtle presentation in weeds. For the no jack I throw it mostly in 3/8 or 1/2 oz with a 4.8 inch keitech or rage swimmer as a trailer with a bit of the nose bit off. Mostly in perch color but I’ll use tactical shad if there’s shad or crappie around. I throw this everywhere, heavy grass sparse grass wood rocks whatever. Throw it once summer comes along for bass and all year long for the toothy guys. The thing I like so much about swim jigs is that i consistently get a bigger bite than I would if I was just throwing a plain keitech, and I can get away with throwing really heavy gear with the nojack. For the finesse jig I throw it on a Dobyns 833, and for the no jack I either throw it on a 7’10” heavy fast st croix swimbait rod with a tranx 300 or my frog rod if I’m just bass fishing. would like to hear how you guys throw these awesome baits

For actual Yamamoto Senkos I’m about 50/50 between 4 and 5. I really like the 4 for smallies, doesn’t seem like I get any bigger fish with a 5 and I get more per pack, 5’s I like better for wacky rigging for largemouth. I use 3” yum dingers a huge amount on a drop shot for smallmouth, killer lure. I don’t bother spending the money on a real Senko because I don’t think the action on the fall matters quite as much when it’s on drop shot. Any 3” Senko knockoff would work it’s more about profile imo. For t rigging I will sometimes use a 6” Senko but I prefer using a 7” gambler or a 10” magnum baits stick worm. If I’m trying to get numbers I’ll just throw a 5 but if I want to really go for bigger fish I would rather really upsize and weed out the smaller fish.

That’s an awesome musky in your bio man, gotta love how those Wisconsin strain fish look. Don’t get quite as big as the leech lake strain fish we have here in Minnesota but they are so cool looking.

I know some of the backwaters that are closer to the main river are already open and some guys I know have been getting into fish already. I’m going to try to head down to some of the winona backwaters on Sunday and see how those are, id assume that they are a little farther along with it being farther south. I’ll let you know how it is

Number 1 goal for me this season is to beat my northern pike pb of 44.5. If I do this successfully and go through all of the right paperwork I have really good shot at breaking the catch and release state record as I was about .5” off last season. number 2 is to break the 50” mark for musky. I have hooked into 3 in my life that I believe were over 50, now I just need to land one. number 3 would be I would really like to get a 6lbs or better largemouth. Not the easiest thing to do here in mn but it’s more than doable, bonus points if it’s on a frog. if I had to have another it would be to start guiding out of kayaks for pike. It’s what I know the best and I know people would get as much of a thrill out of it as I do

I very rarely get bite offs when throwing jerkbaits with a light leader. I guess the only time I use a 10-12lbs floro leader instead of 15lbs titanium is when I am fishing smallmouth in late spring and early summer, never really get pike in those spots I’m fishing. The coolest bite off i have ever had was when I was fishing a topwater walking bait over a weed flat and a low 40’s musky hit the bait and jumped a good 2-3 feet out of the water, line was bit off before he even hit the water and I could think about setting the hook. I don’t worry a huge amount about getting bit off, i guess I’m just lucky but if I can get a hook set without it breaking I can usually play them soft enough to land them. One other thing I wanted talk about is you guys talking about musky/pike following the bait. Both species will follow a bait but pike most of the time won’t stick around the boat nearly as much as musky. I honestly think that muskies like your boat because it gives them something to pin the bait against. I have had musky follow me around on a figure 8 for over 10 full rotations before. There isn’t anything cooler in freshwater fishing in my opinion than having a 50+ inch fish follow an inch behind your bait while you are making a giant 8 next to your boat and then eating it, if you haven’t experienced it you should really try to do it at some point.

Just got home from my first trip to the backwaters of the year. Fished a big flat way on the bottom end of pool 4 called Peterson lake. I had to break through about 20 yards of ice to get my kayak into the open water. Water temp was 35-37 and about 1foot of vis. Got one little bite and saw some shad schooled up so I know fish are moving in there. Hoping to get out this Sunday and again next Wednesday in the winona area, been hearing reports that they are a lot farther along in that area. Should be getting into some pike in the next week or two hopefully, wouldn’t expect a good bass bite until the water has gone up another 8-10 degrees. I’ll give a report next time I get out

Was in a mini trout tourney that I ended up winning today and I’m going to make my first open water pike trip of the year to the pool 4 backwaters on Wednesday. I’m so excited to be casting in open water for big fish again I can’t wait, should be good with the water not being super high like it was this year and all the ice being gone already. Got a new pike setup that I want to break in too, 7’10 heavy st croix mojo bass swimbait rod with a tranx 300 and 65lbs maxcuatro braid, should be perfect for the big swimbaits/bucktails/spinnerbaits/glidebaits I throw. I really want it to be Wednesday already

Seems like everyone around me is loosing their feces about every possible thing they can worry about. I’m a plumber by trade and although my company is still working our work load has been cut in 1/4 because nobody wants people in their house unless absolutely necessary. If stuff really goes sideways I’m not worried. 20 mins to my north I have a river full of eater sized walleye/sauger/northerns and 20 mins to my south I have about 100 streams with amazing populations of wild brown trout so if I need food it is going to be available. I don’t want to take advantage of that unless absolutely necessary because all the fish I mentioned are out of season but if I have to put food on the table than that’s what I have to do.

I will only fish braid. For cranks it gives me a way better feel. I know if I’m on rocks, wood, gravel, mud etc. if I’m in weeds it’s lack of stretch makes it super easy to rip the baits through weeds, and the better feel let’s me back the baits up out of the weeds when I start to touch them. Hard to describe backing up a crank but it’s an old musky technique that really helps fishing a floating crank in weeds. Also when I’m fishing a squarebill it really helps when I’m burning and pausing and popping the bait to keep the action erratic instead of the line absorbing part of it. There are a huge amount of benefits of braid, I think most of the reason it gets a bad rep is because people either haven’t given it a fair shot or are not tieing proper knots and using it correctly

Honestly I could get away with 65 lbs maxcuatro for all my setups but if i was strictly bass fishing I would just use 50. Generally I use 30 for cranks to get extra depth, 30 for jerkbaits and other finesse tactics for extra distance with generally light weights. 40 or 50 for my medium heavy all use sticks. 65 for my frog/punch/ light swimbait rods I use for pike and small musky baits and 80lbs for my musky rods, 100lbs if I’m using baits over 10 oz. don’t overthink it, just make sure if your frogging or punching your using 50 minimum I like 65 also make sure you spool your braid on super tight. I like to fill my spool, go out on the water and tie on a double 10 musky bucktail, cast it out and then drive the boat out until I have almost all my braid off the spool and then burn the bait back to the boat. The really high resistance of the giant blades will pack the line on super tight which helps with it not back lashing and makes it so the line won’t dig in on itself

I will admit that a jig is definitely not my go to presentation for smallmouth I do still throw them quite often. In a situation where I am fishing an offshore reef or rocky drop off coming off the shore I will usually grab a tube/ned/rage menace on a ball head if I want a bottom presentation, but if the fish are really eating those and I want to get a better bite than I will switch over to a finesse football jig with a rage menace trailer and almost always will get less but bigger bites. Same if I’m fishing docks, I’ll throw a light pitching jig and get bigger bites. If I’m fishing around wood/weeds/ other snags and want a good moving presentation I throw a finesse swim jig very often, usually 1/4 oz dirty jigs finesse swim jig and have caught some monsters on it. There’s always a way to catch a bass on a jig

I actually just purchased my first e6x a few days ago. Can’t remember the model number but it’s the 7’1” medium xf Jwr spinning rod. 8lbs suffix 832 to a 6lbs floro leader. Just broke it in yesterday with a 24” brown trout and I was blown away by how sensitive and light it was for the money. If an e6x is in your price range and your on the fence than give it a try your not going to be disappointed not trying to hijack the thread I’m still a little to jacked up about catching this thing. The pond I was at had about 20ft of open water by a beach while the rest of the lake still had 10 inches of ice on it. Caught this in that tiny pool 5th cast on an x rap