Drive-By Muskies - Herbie Tips - PMTT Deets

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🏆 PMTT Champs Crowned!

After three tournaments, it all came down to one final three-day brawl to decide the PMTT Champions and the Top Gun Team of the Year. The finale landed on Clear Lake, Iowa, and boy oh boy did it burp up a pile of muskies. A record 126 fish hit the nets during the three-day window! 👀

Pretty much every trick in the musky playbook was in play. Teams were trolling, working sand, pounding shallow weeds, probing deep weeds, and even catching fish 50 feet off structure. The bait lineup looked like a full-blown musky buffet: Bulldawgs, Medusas, tubes, spinnerbaits, bucktails, dive-and-rise baits… you name it. If you put something in front of a fish, there was a good chance it got chewed.

Ty Sennett and Ethan Smith — 2025 PMTT Champions.

After boating a pile of fish, Musky Insider PRO instructor Ty Sennett and Ethan Smith took home a boatload of money plus a brand-new ride.

The duo put on an absolute clinic, sticking nine silver bullets over the weekend. Sitting in sixth going into the final day, they bagged four more fish when it mattered most to lock up the championship.

Early in the event, they worked outside weed edges with tubes, keying on pods of fish that fired up in short, furious windows. And when crunch time hit, it was a perch-pattern Bulldawg that did the damage. Congrats to Ty and Ethan! This marks Ty’s third PMTT Championship title. 💪

Scott Popowski with a 44-inch tournament tanker on Day 1.

Scott Popowski and Chris Reibe locked down second place with eight fish, trolling super shallow in just 2.8 to 3.6 feet of water and keeping their Angry Dragons just outside the prop wash. They also boated one of the biggest fish of the tournament — a 44-incher that topped Day 1. Talk about running the gauntlet.

Rounding out the top three, Michael Gorman and Jason Stock made all the right adjustments as conditions shifted. They set up camp on a two-mile stretch, mixing it up shallow, deep, and mid-lake to stay on the bite. Dive-and-rise baits got the call in the morning before switching to rubber later in the day.

Gregg Thomas and Rick Hoover — 2025 PMTT Top Gun Team of the Year.

And finally, a big shout-out to Gregg Thomas and Rick Hoover on taking home the Top Gun Team of the Year title. They stacked up 584 points on this year’s trail and were the only team to boat fish at every event. It’s also Gregg’s fourth time claiming this title. 🔥 

Congrats to all the teams for an epic finale. Clear Lake did not disappoint!

 

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Drive-By-Muskies

One of the reasons we love muskies is because of the wild visual interactions we get with them. They’re curious, unpredictable, and sometimes downright strange. And it’s not always when they’re chasing our baits either. Sometimes they just give us a drive-by.

Most of the time these drive-bys don’t turn into catches. And yeah, sometimes it feels like their way of flipping us the fin.

Like this giant doing a drive-by at an actual coffee shop drive-thru that flooded earlier this year in Brookfield, WI, captured by Clara Kostock. 

Next up, we’ve got this air-gulping St. Clair porpoiser captured by @Extreme.Outdoorsmen. This drive-by turned into more of a collision course. If they’d had a ramp on the side of the boat, that one might’ve swam aboard! 😂

Remember this one? You’ve got a zero percent chance of catching a ‘skie cruisin’ by when it’s already got a mouthful of muskrat it’s working on. 

Ever feel like they’re checking you out more than your bait? This fish actually comes right up to the side of the boat and gives Noa Oliveira-Hill a look while his lure’s nowhere near it.

But every once in a while, we get a drive-by story with a happy ending. This fish hung around long enough near the boat for Noa to seal the deal with some smooth boatside glide bait maneuvers.

Got any good footage of a musky drive-by? Send it our way by replying to this email and maybe we’ll feature it in a future issue.

 

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Herbie on Fall Transitions & Turnover Time

We were diggin’ through the Musky Insider archives and stumbled on a few golden nuggets from Musky Insider PRO instructor Steve Herbeck that hit us right in the feels.

Why? Because it shines a light on a trap even the best musky heads can fall into.

The trap? When things start shifting seasonally, nobody wants to be that guy still chuckin’ baits that are “over with” for the year. So we get the itch to jump ahead, tossing the new “hot” presentations with the mindset that it’s better to be ahead of the game than behind. After all, even if you’re wrong, you’ll eventually be right once things change… right?

Well, not always. Sometimes you end up waiting a long time for that switch to flip, when in reality, the fish are still munchin’ the same stuff you just put away in anticipation of the transition.

Here’s a few of Herbie’s thoughts on chasin’ muskies around turnover time. And when Herbie talks, we should all be listenin’!

“After turnover, the muskies can be anywhere. They can go wherever they want, whatever spots have the right light penetration, cover, and food.

“It’s a very big misconception that blades and topwaters quit being effective after certain colder temps and turnover, especially blades in clear water (but don’t discount any type — let the fish tell you yay or nay). In some cases, you might want to slow down a bit and roll ’em a bit deeper, but that’s not always true either.

“Clear water fish are chasers and love the flash. I very rarely don’t have blades or heavy spinnerbaits like a Musky Mayhem or CJ’s in the lineup right until ice-up on clear lake trout type lakes. Just be ready at the boat — a high percent are caught on the turns as they chase it in or as you bring ’em up.”

Moral of the story: Let the ’skies tell you when it’s time to put away the blades and topwater lures! Great stuff as always from Mr. Herbeck. 💪

Bonus Tip: We’ve got a full class with Herbie and Josh Borovsky on Late Fall Musky Tactics that covers everything from turnover to ice-up and it’s packed with A+ next-level insights. If you’re a Musky Insider PRO member, you can stream it anytime in your member portal. Not a member? You can still grab the class as a stand-alone right here. 

#2 – Baik Baits just landed at Ezoko. Designed by predator-fishing ace Ludovic Pinchede, the K-Swim (9”)  is an unweighted swimbait with a smooth, natural action that pushes water and grabs attention. Check out the lineup.

#3 – Introducing Muskie Madness Energy Drink from the legends at Wisco3 Ice Fishing Co. The only energy drink that hits harder than a boatside eat. “One sip and you’ll fight for hours.”

#4 – Watching these musky metal wall art pieces come to life at County Customs Fabrications is straight-up hypnotic. Sparks fly, steel bends, and muskies are born.

Prime time for slime! Bryon Sturch bagged this 51.75” Ontario porker that crushed a topwater right after sunset.

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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