Let me preface this by saying I mean no disrespect to the lure manufacturers. 
 With that being said, why do musky hard baits look like they were made by a middle schooler in shop class? Especially when you compare them to bass hard baits. I’ve included two pictures below for context. 
 

 

Musky lures are designed to catch muskies. Bass lures are designed to catch fishermen. 

1 hour ago, Scott F said:

Musky lures are designed to catch muskies. Bass lures are designed to catch fishermen. 

Aren't most Muskies caught when fishing for other species?

2 hours ago, Scott F said:

Musky lures are designed to catch muskies. Bass lures are designed to catch fishermen. 

👆This. Muskie baits are still very much a cottage industry as well. A large percentage of them are handcrafted in small shops here in the USA and Canada. 

53 minutes ago, Tackleholic said:

Aren't most Muskies caught when fishing for other species?

Nah. Lots get caught while fishing for other species, but not in the numbers that muskie anglers catch them. 

Ha ha - I've caught a 37" musky on a 1/2 oz Aruku lipless, and a 13" LMB on a Detonator :)

You have to admire those bass ambitions sometimes. 😂 I caught a LM about 13" on a 9" Grandma last year, twitching it around deep laydowns. It even had the front hook. Crazy fish.

Most of my muskie lures are really good at catching northern pike.

 

So are my bass lures.

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

You have to admire those bass ambitions sometimes. 😂 I caught a LM about 13" on a 9" Grandma last year, twitching it around deep laydowns. It even had the front hook. Crazy fish.

We catch a lot of smallies on musky flies every year...most of them are big...

 

 

 

Both of these work on bass, pike, and muskies...

 

 

 

Beautiful flies @Further North! Love em  

3 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Beautiful flies @Further North! Love em  

Thanks.

Super easy to tie as well.

On 1/12/2025 at 7:08 AM, OHBuckets said:

Ha ha - I've caught a 37" musky on a 1/2 oz Aruku lipless, and a 13" LMB on a Detonator

I caught a 43" musky on a weightless Berkley Pit Boss. I have also caught some of t-rigged tubes. 

I have caught seven or eight Musky in my lifetime, all on bass lures.

 

Rattle trap, spinner bait, jerk-bait, and one lure that shocked me...

 

About 30 years ago I was fishing a 500+ acre lake in northeast Missouri...it had been stocked with Musky.

 

I was fishing some flooded timber in my belly boat. Pitched a pumpkin green jig with craw trailer next to a tree in 20' of water. Watched my new braided fishing line carefully.

 

Lure reached bottom and stopped....then I saw the line slowly move to the side..."hello Mr. Bass...." I set the hook and immediately cursed. It felt like I had set the hook right in to a log.

 

Then the log moved(!)

It was a good fight, with the big toothy predator spinning me around in that little belly boat. I managed to kick to shore and somehow got the jig out and the fish released. There was no way I was putting my fingers in that mouth. Good fun!

I have had the luck to catch many Musky in the Niagara River.  Most if not all were caught casting large jointed  hard baits and yes they did/do look rather archaic by todays standards. I guess they are more attracted by the movement than the high end graphic  meant to catch the fisherman's wallet.

I think it's because musky are so much of an apex predator that their curiosity gets the best of them sometimes. They see some gaudy, noisy thing in the water and the only way for them to determine if it's food or not is to bite it. 

 

Being that a lot of muskie baits are hand crafted one at a time also, it's extremely time consuming to make a bait that size with lots of details, and when you do, you end up with a very expensive lure (see large bass swimbaits). Musky have a tendency to trash baits, so having them be really expensive, and detailed works of art when it's not really necessary, is just not cost effective and likely wouldn't sell many. 

 

I've caught more muskie on bass lures than I have muskie baits, but none of them were particularly realistic baits. They've been on squarebills, T-rigged plastics, spinnerbaits, and frogs, none that looked a lot like anything real. 

On 2/3/2025 at 10:16 AM, Mdd71 said:

I have had the luck to catch many Musky in the Niagara River.  Most if not all were caught casting large jointed  hard baits and yes they did/do look rather archaic by todays standards. I guess they are more attracted by the movement than the high end graphic  meant to catch the fisherman's wallet.

100%.. I've caught mine on booyah spinnerbaits fishing for smallmouth.. Love the River..

Over the years I have learned that muskie and bass will go after the same baits.

2 hours ago, Bankbeater said:

Over the years I have learned that muskie and bass will go after the same baits.

I've even hooked them on a Ned Rig....