Dick Pearson Suick Tips – Maina Topwater Tips – Underwater Views
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Suick Tips
The Suick Thriller has been around for a LONG time.... and it still catches 'em.
And one guy who's been crushin' fish on them longer than just about anyone is Lake of the Woods legend Dick Pearson.
Here's a few Suick fishin' tips we dug up from Dick via an In-Fish article on how to work 'em:
"I work a Suick in one of three ways.... In clear water, I give it fairly long pulls, then pause. It’s sort of a mini sweep of the rod. Don’t forget to pause. Pauses can be one of the keys to provoking strikes with this bait.
"In shallow water, I think shorter pulls and pumps—especially in weeds—get fish more jazzed up. Pump-pause. Pump-pause. My friend Mark Windels cranks it up a notch—and he’s a master with a Suick. Whap-whap-whap. Make short fast pulls with a brief pause between each sequence. Do this right, and muskies eat you up."
It's funny that someone can say "whap-whap-whap" and you know EXACTLY what they are talking about.... 😂
"A third retrieve works best in the evening. Pump the Suick 12 to 14 inches. Pause until it breaks the surface, then pump it again. Fish sometimes like to eat it right on top.
"With all these approaches, working a Suick is a feel thing. And it takes practice. Pump—feel the lure with your hands and rod tip as it swims and dives. Feel the line as the lure rises. It’s a subtle swimming-diving-rising action that lots of anglers today don’t understand. But it’s always clicked with muskies."
The article also had some A+ tips from Jeremy Smith on using Suicks in the weeds:
"I make short casts, visually picking out lanes through which I can work the bait. I use shorter pulls to make the nose dive down and don’t let the bait rise too much.
"When the nose hits a stalk, I lightly pull on the rod to move the cabbage a little. I’m pretty sure this is the movement that compels a muskie to swim over and find out what caused the plant to move, because it’s exactly what happens when a preyfish flees the area. If the lure doesn’t shake free on the initial pull, give it one snap, which is when it often gets eaten."
The true peak of #SuickSZN is coming – get out there and put these tips to use!
Topper Tips
Another A+ summertime musky-catchin' tactic is topwater fishing.
Pete Maina just dropped a video on his YT channel, featuring some good topper tips and some cool action scenes:
This first point that Pete stresses in the video is retrieve:
"The speed of the retrieve is extremely important to get the right sound, and then to a certain extent, triggering the fish after you see one coming."
Specifically, Pete is talkin' about running his Walking Boss bait at a speed that produces both a plop-plop and a click-click noise to entice 'skies.
On that same topic.... He also mentioned one of the biggest mistakes he would see during his guiding days was folks failing to adjust the speed of their retrieve to the movement of the boat.
In other words, speeding up your retrieve when the boat is drifting towards your bait and slowing down if the boat is moving the other way.
Next, Pete shared some of his retrieve strategies for closer-to-the-boat encounters:
"With this lure, I'm going to keep my pace exactly the same at first when I see a fish coming up. As I get closer to the boat, I'm going to try a zig-zag first before I actually speed-up...."
Here's a look at his zig-zaggin' moves:
"When you're 30 feet away, you can usually change the direction of the bait pretty well with the long rods we use these days. If a fish doesn't bite on that first zig-zag, I may speed up my retrieve a little bit."
He also talked briefly about some of his boatside topwater strategies that lead to strikes like this:
Make sure to check out the full video on Pete's page for more deets 👍
Underwater Views
We somehow stumbled upon this video from Below Blue Water Diver featuring some amazing Great Lakes underwater musky views.
Here's a few that caught our eye.
First, we have a spotted Lake Huron bruiser, taking a lamprey for a ride.
And here's a small natural tiger musky swimming along some cover:
Check out the belly on this big river mama 🐖 #porker
According to the diver....
"Muskies generally want nothing to do with scuba divers and flee at the first opportunity. Stay still, chase them, try to get close – they'll 'run' away no matter what you do."
That's why he was so surprised by the behavior of this musky during a recent nighttime encounter:
Interesting stuff – it's always cool seeing underwater musky views, especially in crystal clear Great Lakes waters.
This Week's Mashup:
Mashup time!
#1 – Anyone else notice the cost of owning a boat has gone up a teeny-tiny bit the last few years.... 😅
#2 – Was watchin' Matt Vavroch's video when I saw this clip of his buddy Taylor danglin' a Medussa in the water while he was on a phone call – a short moment later, this happened:
#3 – Diggin' this B-25 Bomber paint job from @plm_uistin 🔥
#4 – How sick is this water release head-shot from Justin Richter??
QUICK HITTERS:
– Musky catchin’ action in July w/ Todays Angler (video)
– 50 inch musky on Eagle Lake w/ AA (video)
– Bucktail basics w/ Ryan McMahon on Musky Road Rules (video)
– Lac Seul musky fishing w/ Greg Attard (video)
– Waterville, MN hatchery gets $20M for renovations (link)
THIS WEEK'S MONSTER MUSKIES:
Congrats to Brian on boating this sunset New Moon flaptail-eater while fishin' with Sugs Guide Service. Thanks for sharing, guys!
Props to Julie Paquette on poppin' her first musky with guide Jean Laprise:
@laurendiiixon is officially a member of the coveted 50 Club. She caught this big beauty on the Upper French River fishin' with Ethan Godreau:
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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