Ogandrews

It’s funny how in bass fishing this is seen as a unique lure but glide baits like this are one of the most popular musky baits around, as well as lots of people using stuff like this in saltwater. I have caught fish on the sub walk but I have spent way more time throwing phantom softail gliders. The sub walk has a good action although I don’t think the small size is as good as the bigger one action wise. I use phantoms almost exclusively when I’m throwing glide baits, I think having that twister tail at the back helps a lot and phantoms have a waaay better action and a great a shimmy on the fall. Try out the 4” softail i have caught some great smallies on them, as well as some of the biggest pike of my life. One thing that helps with any glider is to work it on a slack line. When you pop the bait, the harder you hit it and the more slack in your line the farther it will travel from side to side so you have a huge amount of control over the action of the bait

I like a longer rod for punching, I generally use a 7’10 heavy or extra heavy. A musky rod is not great for most setups and a super short musky rod like that is extremely stout, more so than you would want for being able to detect bites. The other issue with a musky rod like that so that generally they have a much longer handle than your average bass rod which makes it much harder to work a frog effectively. Now I own many musky rods, I musky/pike fish more than i bass fish but I rarely will use a musky setup for bass unless I’m throwing a big single hook swimbait. Okuma travel rods are a good option, there are some good telescoping options. Another thing I have done is just ship the rods to wherever you are going and then ship them back, can cost a little more but in the long run using a one piece rod that is actually meant for the job you are using it for is worth it.

Bill dance for me, liked it so much as a kid that I wrote him a letter and he ended up sending me an autographed picture of that exact pic the guy above me posted. Any of the linders shows were a very close second for me, especially being that their from MN

Smithwick jerkbaits, I know they work because other people have success with them and I catch a huge number of fish each year on other jerkbaits, but something about smithwicks are impossible for me to buy a bite on

One more, this one was 41” even, there is nothing like catching big essox, I’m blessed to live in a place where I can target them

A couple of fish from the last month, that trout is my new pb at 22 inches out of a south east mn trout stream. Haven’t got any big pike lately but hoping to get at least one before the end of the month That musky and these pike are from November, musky was 40.5 and this northern was 44.5, just off the state record catch and release northern. These toothy critters are my true passion in fishing, bass are a close second

That’s awesome man, the fish I was talking about is from bellow the power dam, it’s my favorite fishery in southern mn. I spend most of my time musky fishing there or walleye fishing in the winter but there are some amazing smallies there too. Took a picture of a guy with his phone of a 22.75, really wish I had that picture. There’s also 55+ inch muskies in there, I’ve only got 40’s so far but saw a 54 and a 56 come out last year

My pb is a tie between two fish and both were out of rivers. First one was a summer fish out of pool 4 of the Mississippi at 20.5 inches. Got it in lake pepin itself, which for those of you who don’t know is a 20k acre lake that has been that way for thousands of years, so it’s not really a reservoir. Still has a river above and bellow it, so a lot of the fish will migrate in and out of the lake depending on time of year. My second 20.5 was out of the Zumbro river which is a much smaller tributary to the miss in southern mn. I caught this one in November out of the deepest hole in that stretch of river and it was way fatter than the one from the mighty miss

In rivers for me it is either a regular sized rage menace grub on a ball head jig with an exposed hook, 1/8 in slower shallower water 1/4 in deeper water, a 3.3 keitech In whatever color is similar to their forage on a ball head or small swimbait head like a DJ guppy head, or a smaller jerkbait. What makes a jerkbait so good in especially small rivers is that if a fish is sitting in a small current seam, like being a boulder or lay down, you can fish a jerkbait right around that current seam for longer than you could any other moving bait and still give the bait a lot of action. For lakes my go to baits are a 2.5 inch power tube in green pumpkin, usually on a 1/16th oz ball head or 1/8th if it’s windy. Next is going to be a 3.8 keitech in whatever color imitates the forage on a Matt Allen swimbait head or his new finesse head that I haven’t tried yet but I know it will be good looking at the design of it. The last one is going to be a shadow rap, seems I can call fish from so far to come hit that thing. A little bonus one I’ll add in there is I have caught an unbelievable amount of smallies in musky baits, including some of the biggest of my life. There have been times when I have been on a great smallie bite and grab either a musky glider like a 6” phantom softail or a bucktail like a smaller bite back baits trilogy or an Essox assault single 8. Might seem like a weird answer but I have had it happen waaaaay to many times for it to be a coincidence. If the fish are being obviously aggressive, it can pay off to throw a lot bigger meal at them.

I’m a rapala guy as well and I find myself in the same situation except I’m that way with the bx brat. Still is made out of balsa so it has that unique action but it’s built way tougher than your average balsa bait. If your close enough to cover that you might touch it a couple times in the retrieve you should seriously give it a good try. You can get them in 3 ft or 6ft so similar depth to the dt6. Has become pretty much the only squarebill I buy, especially for smallies as its smaller than you average squarebill but still has plenty of weight with the epoxy on it. They just came out with a bigger size of it too that’s 3/4 oz that I haven’t tried yet but I’m sure it’ll get bit

I throw ploppers, poppers, frogs, but walking baits more than anything. Two favorite are the rapala skitter walk and the skitter v, walk has a tighter walk with a knock in it and the V has more of a rolling wider action and is a bigger profile. Both are good for different situations. Also any time I’m around grass I generally will walk a frog. Usually throw the smaller river2sea bullywa but jackal makes a great smaller frog too I’m blanking on the name of it but I can walk that one well too. Most treble hook topwaters I throw on my jerkbait rod which is a st croix 6’8” m xf mojo bass with a curado 70 with 20 lbs maxcuatro to a 8-12lbs mono leader depending on what I’m feeling. For frogs of any size I throw them on a dobyns 7’3” mag heavy Sierra with a curado k and 65lbs maxcuatro straight time the frog. Don’t be afraid of braid to a leader with topwaters, as long as your not using too heavy a rod then it will be fine.

Hey I’m looking to get a few setups clients as I’m trying to start guiding for pike and river musky. For my true big bait musky rods I have a couple 9ft xxh with okuma komodos on them which are d**n near indestructible. I want to get a couple smaller casting setups for pike and smaller baits, planning on getting a handful of st croix mojo bass 7’10” h swimbait rods as those make the perfect pike/ small musky bait setup. I’m wondering if anyone has experience with either the super duty 300 or the new beast x. I have read good reviews on them but I can’t get real information from my normal musky forum on them. I’m a die hard Shimano guy but I have had some lews reels that I loved, so I would naturally lean more toward the superduty but I’m always open to opinions seeing as I haven’t used either of these reels. I don’t really want to get the smaller Komodo as I think with smaller lures the non disengaging level wind would hurt casting distance too much. The other option is just fork over the cash and get a couple tranx 300’s which I already know I love. If anyone has experience with these reels I would appreciate it, longevity is pretty important to me seeing as I throw a lot of high resistance baits and trophy pike/musky are not easy on reels. Thanks

5.2 lbs Minnesota fish on a pounder bulldawg in walleye color, 16” 14oz musky lure hahaha. Quite the ambitious fish

I have not spent a lot of time throwing big Swimbaits but I do throw 7.8 keitechs as well as 6-7” osprey tournament talons a lot while musky and pike fishing and have had amazing success with them for bass as well. It might not always be your best option, don’t be afraid of big baits. I live in Minnesota and the two biggest largemouth of my life were on musky baits, one on a 9” weighted suick jerkbait and the other on a pounder bulldawg which is 14 oz and 16” long. If you guys are looking for a good jig hook swimbait rod for baits up to 7-8 oz look at the st Croix legend tournament musky big nasty, 9ft heavy but it’s a musky rod so a lot more power than a regular heavy swimbait rod but still really light weight wise. I have one with a tranx 500 I use for big blades for musky and it doubles as a swimbait rod when i feel like bass fishing. I also fish from a kayak a lot of the time and I have no issue throwing musky lures over a pound with a 9’ or 9’6” rod so don’t be afraid of throwing regular Swimbaits with an 8 footer, best piece of advice would be to throw over your shoulder as much as you can side arming it will rock your boat a lot more and you have to use a lot more effort to toss the big baits