6 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I mean in Musky waters...okay, STRAIGHTBRAIDBRIGADE ?

Ironically enough, I've been bitten off a few times the last few weeks on straight 40# 832, so I was running a titanium leader on my chatterbait rod all night with a green pumpkin chatterbait, and a 30# mono leader on my lipless rod. I wasn't catching anything, so just as it started to get light, I picked up a rod with a white chatterbait on straight braid and caught the musky. I got lucky, it almost took it deep enough to bite me off. The blade and line tie were the only part of the bait outside it's mouth. 

@T-Billy, you catch more musky than……… musky fishermen 

57 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

@T-Billy, you catch more musky than……… musky fishermen 

I catch more on accident than alot of them do on purpose. LOL. Mostly spring and fall when the water's cold. The musky move to the wood and shallow flats. I catch 'em while chasing bass. Meanwhile most of the musky guys are trolling main lake basins, or they're elbow to elbow in the backs of a couple bays casting giant baits. I tell 'em I'm catching them on the wood, or seeing them cruising the banks up shallow, and the vast majority shrug me off and stick with what they're doing.

 I talk to one musky guy at the ramp when I see him, and we've discussed this. He fishes them pretty much the way I bass fish in the spring and fall, but with appropriate gear, and cleans up. I've mentioned him to a few other musky guys in ramp discussions, and it seems he's not very popular. They ask, black Lund? Yep. That's Dave. Seems he wins most of tournaments he enters. They all think he's a ****.  I have a different opinion of him. He's been very friendly and happy to share info with me, being I'm a bass guy he's not fishing against for $$$. 

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

I catch more on accident than alot of them do on purpose. LOL. Mostly spring and fall when the water's cold. The musky move to the wood and shallow flats. I catch 'em while chasing bass. Meanwhile most of the musky guys are trolling main lake basins, or they're elbow to elbow in the backs of a couple bays casting giant baits. I tell 'em I'm catching them on the wood, or seeing them cruising the banks up shallow, and the vast majority shrug me off and stick with what they're doing.

 I talk to one musky guy at the ramp when I see him, and we've discussed this. He fishes them pretty much the way I bass fish in the spring and fall, but with appropriate gear, and cleans up. I've mentioned him to a few other musky guys in ramp discussions, and it seems he's not very popular. They ask, black Lund? Yep. That's Dave. Seems he wins most of tournaments he enters. They all think he's a ****.  I have a different opinion of him. He's been very friendly and happy to share info with me, being I'm a bass guy he's not fishing against for $$$. 

I like this story, Tim.

 

Dave reminds me of the quote: "The opposite of courage isn't cowardice. It's conformity."

 

Dave excels because he doesn't conform.

Well the trend continues but the fish are getting smaller lol. Caught this tiny one on a drop shot in the river.

19 minutes ago, Jmurphy87 said:

Well the trend continues but the fish are getting smaller lol. Caught this tiny one on a drop shot in the river.

What river do you fish up there? I’ll be in upper michigan next summer, staying on the big lake but I’ve usually only got a canoe or my two feet. I’ve fished the platte and some on the betsie but everyone seems to be after salmon 

I got this one in clear water on a white swim jig.  I've been casting out past the coontail, letting the jig hit the bottom, and then bringing it back in toward the coontail just fast enough for the trailer to move.

24 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

What river do you fish up there? I’ll be in upper michigan next summer, staying on the big lake but I’ve usually only got a canoe or my two feet. I’ve fished the platte and some on the betsie but everyone seems to be after salmon 

I am in southwest Michigan, but I fish the Kalamazoo river quite a bit. Mainly in allegan but some in Kalamazoo also, the river has had a over abundance of pike this year for some reason or another. Comstock is supposed to be pretty decent also but nothing luck wise on my end. I mainly fish the river from the bank there’s a decent amount of spots to fish. There’s allegan dam also that’s supposed to be decent also, I have caught a couple there but nothing huge really. Then in otsego there’s a really decent looking spot to hit but you would need to float down the river to fish it, I have not had the luxury of fishing this particular spot but I definitely want to.

3 hours ago, T-Billy said:

I catch more on accident than alot of them do on purpose.

Most muskie anglers use lures that are too big IMO. I have done this myself too, as I am an avid bass and muskie angler. Downsizing presentations has greatly helped me increase bites because it targets muskies of all sizes, rather than just the behemoths that eat the giant muskie lures. It’s very similar to bass fishing if you think about it. If you’re just using plus sized bass lures, you’re generally just targeting plus sized bass (which is perfectly fine if that’s how you prefer to fish).

 

I learned that lesson the hard way. I went 16.5 years without catching a muskie and seriously thought about selling my gear and giving it up. Since that drought ended in 2017, I have caught 28 of them, including 7 this season.

Persistence pays off with one dink per half day 

I also ran across a crazy school of fish but I think it was gizzard shad 

8 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I like this story, Tim.

 

Dave reminds me of the quote: "The opposite of courage isn't cowardice. It's conformity."

 

Dave excels because he doesn't conform.

Roger that. He's definitely more diversified than any other musky angler I've met. He's also a dedicated angler who spends a lot of time on the water, and crafts a lot of his own tackle. If the water isn't hard he's out there.

 He showed me a bait he made similar to a Little George tailspinner. His was a flattened teardrop shape chunk of lead about the size of a goose egg, with soft plastic molded around it to look like a shad, and a big ol honkin colorado blade on the tail. He said he strokes it like a blade bait over deep structure during the cold water months. Said he had a 17 fish day on it in Feb. a few years back. He told me he occasionally catches a giant smallie or saugeye on it too.

 I was more than a little suspicious of his claims until I talked to a couple other local musky guys who knew him. They told me, if he said he caught 17 in one day, then they had no doubts about it. He whoops them and takes their money on a regular basis.

Decided to start using spinnerbaits as I don't have much experience with em.  Was slow rolling on the bottom and managed to land this chunk.  Definitely heavier than a 5lb dumbbell.  Did not have my scale with me.  

Been trying out all the fancy lures I bought before I took a long break from fishing....these baits are from 2010 and before.    Anyway I had a pair of these $20 Jackall Girons.....just beautiful baits.   Today I decided to try one along some docks, and on the first cast a 2.3lb Spot all most gave me a bad day.  Just like pretty much every Jackall hardbait, the action is just out of this world, looks so realistic.  Jackall's erratic action on many of their baits is quite unique to them I'm finding.  

 

Ended up throwing it a little bit more, but no more fish.   Funny how that works....1 cast, 1 fish...then nothing.    Caught several more on the MiniMax w/ Armor Shad setup I've been having terrific luck with.   Biggest was that 2.3 that gave it's best effort to steal that pretty lure ?

 

 

 

8 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Been trying out all the fancy lures I bought before I took a long break from fishing....these baits are from 2010 and before.    Anyway I had a pair of these $20 Jackall Girons.....just beautiful baits.   Today I decided to try one along some docks, and on the first cast a 2.3lb Spot all most gave me a bad day.  Just like pretty much every Jackall hardbait, the action is just out of this world, looks so realistic.  Jackall's erratic action on many of their baits is quite unique to them I'm finding.  

 

Ended up throwing it a little bit more, but no more fish.   Funny how that works....1 cast, 1 fish...then nothing.    Caught several more on the MiniMax w/ Armor Shad setup I've been having terrific luck with.   Biggest was that 2.3 that gave it's best effort to steal that pretty lure ?

 

 

 

Love the video?? And as per usual you catch some of the prettiest bass I’ve ever seen. Keep up the great work.

6 minutes ago, Eric 26 said:

Love the video?? And as per usual you catch some of the prettiest bass I’ve ever seen. Keep up the great work.

Thanks for the very kind words Eric! 

4 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Thanks for the very kind words Eric! 

I also went out today for a couple hours. Nothing big but fun none the less? I hit one on a spinner bait bait casting combo but he wasn’t photo worthy and everything else came on my 6’-8” BPS ultralight/Piscifun combo that I absolutely love.  P.S thank you for understanding/laughing at my bait monkey content it was meant to be funny more than serious ? 

2 minutes ago, Eric 26 said:

I also went out today for a couple hours. Nothing big but fun none the less? I hit one on a spinner bait bait casting combo but he wasn’t photo worthy and everything else came on my 6’-8” BPS ultralight/Piscifun combo that I absolutely love.  P.S thank you for understanding/laughing at my bait monkey content it was meant to be funny more than serious ? 

Beautiful fish friend!   I love the panfish finesse stuff, and have been carrying at least one setup but it's a whole artform unto itself.    Sheesh catching panfish is harder than Bass ?

 

Looks like you're fishing some super clear water.....something very foreign to me.   

The drought here finally ended after 5 straight days of rain capped off by a nice thunderstorm last Wednesday afternoon. A decent rain returned Friday night into Saturday morning which was an added bonus. Late this afternoon I stopped down at one of my spots most affected by the drought to check things out, and was thrilled to find it at full pool once again. The water has come up over 2 feet which filled the bone dry creeks, and the mud flats are mud no more. Joy!

 

Wading in I found the water to be much colder than last week. All the new runoff and constant northern winds shocked the once stained water clear. I dropped my thermometer into a 6ft deep spot and found the temps fell 9 degrees in 9 days, from 63 to a cruel 54. Where certain sections of shoreline were loaded with bait last week, I found none. A nice SW breeze was blowing today though, so I hit the eastern shoreline where the sun was still beaming down.

 

I couldn't get anything going near the shoreline in the weed beds though, but got a few weak bites on a Bitsy Bug chucked way out there. Tied on the reliable Livingston Bullnose wake, chucked it to were I got jig nibbles earlier, and got a healthy little guy to play.

 

Darkness fell quickly, the wind disappeared, and a blaring full moon was rising fast over the eastern shoreline. A good sized angry pickerel hit next, and the front treble hook pinned its mouth shut while the rear treble was buried in its face. What a mess, and this thing was charged up. With no way to use my grippers, I needed to grab this slimy nut case to avoid getting impaled. Not fun in the least. Got one more midget bassling on a different colored wake, and with the moon now high I skated on outta there. We have 3 days of sunshine on the way before it rains this coming Thursday. The water should stabilize nicely by Wednesday afternoon, and the bite should be fire on Wednesday night. I'm readying myself for a marathon grind. We'll see.

 

Got to be the boat captain for a high school tournament this past weekend. Running the boat for @HaydenS and Gavin. Had lots of battery issues Saturday that cost them over 2 hours of fishing and left them stuck to fishing a small area close to the ramp, but they fished hard and put 3 keepers in the boat and had a chance to fill out a limit if a couple other bites would have converted. Fishing was tough and they got 6th out of 45 teams. Sunday was bluebird skies and very little wind. It was even tougher with Gavin catching one very skinny keeper largemouth early on a Super Spook Jr and having a big smallmouth miss it shortly after. That was pretty much it for the day. Ran around and just never could make them bite. Had a good time and it was a fun experience getting to do the boat captain thing for the first time. I even got to fish a little bit at the lake we were staying by with Gavin's dad and showed off my drum fishing skills. I think I caught 6 of them in the hour we had to fish Saturday night after dinner. 

The crew.

 

Drum are never picture worthy.

 

                                                       

2 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

Drum are never picture worthy.

 

                                                       

I like catching fish, any fish, and any fish over 10lbs on a ML spinning rod is a fun fight.

21 hours ago, PhishLI said:

The water has come up over 2 feet which filled the bone dry creeks, and the mud flats are mud no more. Joy!

You lucky dog you. We could use a monsoon of rain here.

46 minutes ago, gimruis said:

You lucky dog you. We could use a monsoon of rain here.

Or two - most of Hennepin County and all of Carver County is in D3 (Extreme Drought) conditions

https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?MN

54 minutes ago, gimruis said:

You lucky dog you. We could use a monsoon of rain here.

My local pit is the lowest I've seen in 21 years. Really sucks.

9 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Or two - most of Hennepin County and all of Carver County is in D3 (Extreme Drought) conditions

I heard Lake Minnetonka is down 16 inches since June 1. Lowest level since 2012.

 

I’m afraid that a heavy snow pack this winter, followed by frequent spring rain is the only solution to this now.