Better Cast Angles - Nestor Falls Cup Deets - New Tech

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Cast Placement & Angles Matter!

When pickin’ instructors for Musky Insider PRO, we regularly ask members who they want to hear from. But we also ask our instructors who THEY would like to learn from.

When tournament hammers Dan Wojtusik and Nate Osfar both mentioned Phil Schweik, we knew we needed to get him involved. 👀

With 60+ top-ten finishes, 20+ tourney wins and three Team of the Year titles, the longtime Wisconsin guide and owner of Hooksetters Guide Service has a pile of experience to pull from.

And during his recent Musky Insider PRO Q&A with Josh Borovsky, he shared a couple reminders worth considering before diggin’ through the bait box for another magic bullet…

Where’s your cast landing?

When fishin’ wood, Phil wants that bait within SIX INCHES of the cover, preferably runnin’ parallel to it.

He’d rather go retrieve a snagged bait than watch clients miss the target by 10 feet.

He’s seen casts a few feet away get ignored, then watched a bait practically bounce off a log and pull a 50-inch musky out of less than a foot of water. 🤯

Sometimes, that fish needs the dinner bell rung right in its face.

Angles Matter Too 

But gettin’ close is only part of the equation. The direction you bring that bait through a spot can matter, too.

Phil shared a story about a tournament win where every fish they caught came on casts parallel to the shoreline.

Nearby anglers were castin’ toward shore. Phil and his partner were workin’ up and down it, castin’ parallel. And that change in angle definitely mattered.

They were fishin’ around other boats, but showin’ those muskies a different angle. And different angles equaled more bites.🔥

For the wood fishin’ crowd, Phil also shared he likes floating wooden jerkbaits around downed timber. They stay higher and rise away from branches where sinking rubber can get buried.

And don’t be afraid to let a dive-and-rise bait like a Suick take its sweet time. Phil described rippin’ it down, letting it float all the way up, pausing on the surface, then adding a little twitch.

So next time you’re hittin’ a promising stretch without success, consider whether a different cast placement or retrieve angle might do the trick before bailin’ on the spot or the bait. 😉

These were just a few gold nuggets from a Q&A session that was loaded with great intel.

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Musky Insider PRO Instructors Shine at Nestor Falls Musky Cup

Big congrats goes out to Musky Insider PRO instructor Joe Cooper and his partner Steve Theis on winning the 2026 Nestor Falls Musky Cup on Lake of the Woods!

And they weren’t the only PRO instructor team near the top. Danny Herbeck and his partner Dale Barker finished third. 🔥

For those not familiar with this event, it has one of the coolest Stanley Cup-inspired traveling trophies around, along with a unique format and fish-handling rules.

The two-day event scores the combined length of each team’s two biggest ‘skies each day. And with a limit of just 40 boats, it’s a small field for such big water.

The rules prohibit bringing fish into the boat except to verify whether they meet the 54-inch minimum legal length. Any musky brought into a competitor’s boat that measures less than 50 inches is disqualified.

So instead of the usual bump-board measurement and grab-and-grin photo, teams submit video through the FishDonkey app showing fish being measured in the water in a net or cradle, along with proof of a healthy release.

Here’s one of Joe and Steve’s fish waving goodbye after being measured. 👋

Sounds like the awards ceremony is pretty low-key, without much discussion of how the top teams caught their fish. Hearing those details is one of the best parts of a tournament! 🤷♂️

But with our PRO instructors and their partners finishing first and third, we were able to reach out and get some deets on what worked.

Spoiler alert… if you’re a PRO member, these patterns might sound familiar. 👀

Here’s what Joe had to say…

“In the days leading up to the tournament, I noticed the fish moving away from the shallow, weedy areas that had been consistently producing.

So we started working our favorite pattern for that time of the season… boulder shelves and rock extensions in the main basin areas. We picked them apart with crankbaits using rip stop retrieves with Jakes and we caught all of our fish doing that.

The bigger fish on each day crushed the bait mid-retrieve. And our second and smaller fish each day were caught in the 8. Both days, our second fish came on the final spots.”

#BuzzerBeater 🔥

Danny and Dale had a different program. On Day 1, they rifled through a mix of shallow rocks, weeds, and current areas, scoring a double with a 39” and a 35.5”. But they knew they’d need bigger fish on Day 2 to move up.

So they switched things up, fishing deeper than normal and targeting mud flats with a big walleye presence. They caught four fish on tubes, with a 44” and a 46” giving them enough to climb into third.

Here’s how the rest of the top ten shook out. 👇

The cool thing? We recently had both Joe and Danny on for PRO Q&As, and each talked about the very patterns that produced here.

Joe discussed the upcoming fall transition and how he focuses on rippin’ crankbaits across boulder shelves and rock extensions when it happens.

Danny shared how he was scoring in overlooked areas on Eagle Lake, including deeper mud flats right next to the walleye boats. He brought that show on the road and made it work on Lake of the Woods.

Two great examples of taking patterns discussed in our PRO Q&As and putting them to work as the season unfolds.

Congrats to our instructors, their partners, and everyone else who put fish on the board!

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Minn Kota Just Got Bigger 👀

Minn Kota just announced new fish finders. Yep, you read that right.

Johnson Outdoors is bringing Minn Kota and Humminbird together under the Minn Kota name, with Humminbird living on as “Humminbird Imaging,” the technology powering the sonar. The new X Series graphs come in 7-, 9-, 10-, 12-, and 16-inch sizes.

Apparently, the trolling motor wanted its name on the screens, too. 😂

But beyond the branding shuffle, what’s actually new?

One new feature is Draw & Navigate™. Draw a path with your finger on the chart, and a compatible trolling motor follows it.

For anglers who already use their electronics to fine-tune each casting pass, drawing a route ahead of time might not offer much advantage.

But we could see some potential for sketching a pass along an inside weedline using satellite imagery, if that’s supported. 👍

They’ve also added Intelligent Depth Control™, which detects shallow water, alerts you, and can automatically engage Spot-Lock® and deploy compatible shallow-water anchors.

For musky anglers already watching their depth and actively running the boat, this might not be a huge selling point. An automatic backup while you’re distracted handling a fish? That could have some value.

Minn Kota also claims up to a 50% tighter Spot-Lock hold on compatible new motors. That could be welcome news when you’re working on a fish in the net on a windy day near dangerous rocks.

Other changes include faster steering with a new foot pedal on compatible electric-steer brushless motors, plus wireless connections between compatible fish finders and trolling motors. One less cable to wrestle with during rigging. 🙌

We’re hopin’ these new motors bring back a few old features that seem to have been “forgotten” along the way.

Over 20 years ago, we had trolling motors with dimly lit directional arrows you could actually see at night. Now we’ve got GPS, automated navigation, and motors costing thousands of dollars… and we’re slapping glow tape on them just to see which way they’re pointed. 🤦♂️

Can we get the little glowing arrow back, too?

Here’s the part existing owners will want to hear.

Humminbird XPLORE, APEX, and SOLIX G3 owners can get the new navigation features through software updates when paired with compatible equipment. Wireless motor integration includes supported 2024-or-newer Minn Kota motors with Advanced GPS Navigation.

So, depending on your setup, getting the new tricks might involve a software update instead of another conversation with your spouse about the boat budget. 😂

MEGA Live 2 also gets an update with improved fish and bait tracking, down-mode performance, and the ability to run multiple MEGA Live 2 transducers simultaneously without interference between them. 

More is coming in early 2027, including A Series graphs, Minn Kota Live Sonar, and Minn Kota 360 Imaging. Details on those are still limited.

For now, the biggest story is more control over where your boat goes, with some upgrades for equipment anglers already own.

Check out the full announcement and existing-owner information to see what applies to your setup.

This Week's Mashup:

Mashup time!

#1 – This “Ope!” moment belongs to Overtime Angling! 😂 One second you’re working a bait, the next you’re going for an unexpected swim. Well, that escalated quickly! Pretty sure that wasn’t the boatside action he had in mind! 💦

#2 – We came across these Biwaa Whiper 300 Tubes while scrolling around the Ezoko website. Kind of a unique design with an adjustable weight system that lets you dial in your sink rate and action, along with built-in hook clips that keep those trebles tucked tight to the body.

#3 – Check out this figure-8 eat from Devoted Outdoors. 👀 You can watch the full clip right here. That camera angle is unreal! 🔥

#4 – Carl’s Shore Bird Decoys and Americana is kickin’ out some seriously cool oversized handmade art pieces that look like giant fishing lures! 🎣 And if you’ve got a wild idea, Carl’s up for the challenge with custom creations as big as your imagination. Talk about some serious wall candy!

Nathan Marshall put the September full moon to work on Georgian Bay, sticking this absolute slob of a 54 ¼” giant! Just look at the sheer mass of this fish. That’s a whole lotta musky! 👀

Jake Cornell shows off a sweet small river surprise from Wisconsin. Just goes to show, you don't need big water to find some serious teeth. 

JD Glamp put the rubber to work on Lake of the Woods and came away with this gorgeous 49 ¼” bruiser. Nice work! 👊

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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