Beginner Tips – Ugly Muskies – Walleye Guys Should Want Musky Stocking
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Want Better Walleye Fishing???
In honor of MN's walleye opener this weekend and WI's last weekend, we had to share this fun little interview write-up from Kathy Johnson of Great Lakes Now, interviewing William Schultz, who's the founder of the non-profit advocacy group Michigan Muskie Alliance.
The title of the article: Want a healthy walleye fishery? Stock some muskie
Here's a couple quotes from the write-up:
"You look at Lake St. Clair. It’s got one of the best populations of muskies anywhere in North America. And it’s also an outstanding walleye fishery. It’s also outstanding for smallmouth and largemouth bass and pretty much everything you want to catch. You can look at that all throughout North America. The best walleye lakes are the best muskie lakes. There’s a reason for that. If you don’t have that apex predator, you don’t have a well-balanced fishery.
"People will say, ‘I’d love to not see muskie in Muskegon Lake because they’re going to eat all the perch and walleyes.’ We explain that’s actually not true. If you look at all the studies that have been done, muskie shows up in their diet just as much as the walleye."
Unfortunately, even today, there's still a lot of anti-musky sentiment out there, despite the OVERWHELMING evidence that walleye anglers actually should *want* them in their lakes.
Tips for Beginners
Musky huntin' is a hardcore, highly technical task, and if you don't have much experience/guidance, it's easy to make common rookie mistakes.
If you're new to the sport, make sure you watch these two free two videos from Joe Bucher and Todays Angler – both have a bunch of great tips. It's tough to give good universal advice that's applicable to everyone, but here's a few things we'd recommend:
1. Get in the boat with someone who knows what they're doing. That's the quickest "shortcut" to success. Hiring a guide and asking them a BUNCH of questions will save you years of trying to figure things out yourself.
2. Join your local Muskies Inc. chapter. Not only will you benefit from networking with other musky-heads, but you get access to their Lunge Log database, which has catch data for most musky waters in North America that can be sorted by lake, lures, date, conditions, structure, etc.
For those of you livin' north of the border, there’s Muskies Canada which has it's own database for members.
3. Start with smaller bodies of water that hold a good population of muskies. Big lakes get all the pub, but it's a lot easier to pick apart low acreage fisheries.
4. Don't go crazy with bait selection early on. Start with a small handful of easy to use lures like bucktails, swimbaits, crankbaits, and topwaters. Once you're comfortable and you've put a few fish in the boat, expand your arsenal into different categories that are more technical and challenging.
5. We truly believe we have the best catalog of informative musky fishing videos anywhere with our Musky Insider PRO program. Binge watching hours of highly educational musky content will shorten your learning curve immensely.
The deck is stacked against you, so you'll need to find ways to simplify the "game" and utilize high percentage strategies to put fish in the boat. The more time you spend on the water, the more you'll learn!
Ugly 'skies
All muskies are beautiful in our eyes, but some are a little *less* beautiful....
First up, I'd bet ya $100 Nick Poppler made sure not to touch the big ole nasty growth on the tail of this otherwise clean and healthy musky:
This skinny humpback from Matt Bartus sure as heck isn't winning any beauty pageants, that's for dang sure!
This nighttime snubber drilled Mitchell Engel's bait at the side of the boat 💪
This Week's Mashup:
Mashup time!
#1 – Ezoko has some Blue Water Baits in-stock, both the 9-inch Cisco and the 9-inch Herring profiles. They are pricey crankbaits, but the proof is in the pudding, and these baits catch 'skies!
Here's the baits pictured below from left-to-right: Zombie Chartreuse (9" Herring), Pale Face Perch (9" Herring), Hot Perch (9" Cisco), and St. Lawrence Walleye (9" Cisco)
#2 – Diggin' this shot from Chase Gibson of a hungry little 'skie straight-up lunchin' a Llungin Rattlin' Shad:
#3 – Really cool release shot from musky dude Dave Brown:
#4 – This quickie video from Bill Schwartz shares a few crankbait recommendation for chasing down early season muskies this year:
QUICK HITTERS:
– Spring muskies in Iowa w/ Ben Stone (video)
– Round nose vs. blunt nose jerkbaits w/ Jim Saric (video)
– Bigger vs. smaller lures w/ Joe Bucher (video)
– Interviewing top 2 Cave Run teams w/ Road Rules Podcast (video)
– More Canadian fishing action w/ Slime & Slay (video)
– Post spawn musky fishing action w/ AA (video)
THIS WEEK'S MONSTER MUSKIES:
Musky season opened last weekend in southern WI. Lots of folks got out, including the Taps & Tackle crew. Here's their report from opener:
"We found some active fish that were located by warm water creeks, assuming they were coming off spawn. The Conklyn Lures Pedigree was the star of the show catching both of our opening day fish."
And here's the pic of their nicer Wisco 'skie:
Alright, now let's head down to Illinois, where Mike Rudins put this dandy in the net. Some wicked markings on this one, too:
Iowa has treated Matt Vavroch well this spring. Whatcha think about the colors on this beat up Hawkeye!
Wanna be featured in Musky Insider? Send in your recent trophy musky photos by replying to this email. You might just see your pic in next week's newsletter. 🤙
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