I caught a 35 inch musky this past Friday while bass fishing (using a half-ounce spinnerbait).  (No pics as I wanted to get it back in the water quickly).  This is my third musky while bass fishing (and none when actually targeting musky and/or big pike).  I thought about buying a musky rod/reel and specifically targeting them but I think it would ruin my "streak."  It seems to me that "smaller" musky (25 to 35 inches) are as apt to bite bass lures as the larger offerings.  If I'm "happy" with the smaller musky, would I be too far off to stick with my bass baits and just target high percentage musky areas?

 

 

Sweet! A pic would have been great, but kudos

for getting it back quickly and alive. Yeah, once 

you spend the $$$$ for a specific rig, fergeddaboudit.

 

I caught a mess of big pickerel on crappie gear,

8lb test, 1/16oz minnow. When I tried to target

pickerel, nada. LOL

Not that I get to fish in lakes that have muskie often, but of the 11 I've caught in my life, 9 of them were while fishing for bass. A majority have been on spinnerbaits or crankbaits, but I've caught a few on plastics also. 

I fish the musky capital of the south regularly (cave run) another great musky lake is 20 minutes away and a awesome musky river is in my front yard. One thing that I've learned is musky love big soft plastics! 15" worms big creatures, lizards,big stick baits, and big paddle tail swimbaits(check out salt shakers or j-macs). Any of these would work well on bass gear and catch musky anywhere. I would not reccomend musky hardbaits or spinners on bass size geared they will overpower it and possibly break your gear and deffiantely shorten the life of your reels. Musky lures have a lot of pull, especially double 10's.