NEW Can't-Miss Musky Lure – Crazy Anti-Musky Nonsense – Spencer Berman Castin' Tips
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LEGIT New Rubber Bait
And we can FINALLY talk about it....
It’s called the Whale Tail, and it’s a serious fish-catcher.
Josh Borovsky had the opportunity to use it last year, and here’s what he had to say:
“At first glance, you might think it just looks like a big grub – so what? That was my first impression as well when I got to play with the prototype last year.
“The bait itself has an internal harness, a wide grub-shaped tail, and comes with screw-in weights to adjust the depth to your liking. If you look closely, you’ll notice a small cup at the end of the tail – this is responsible for the bait's erratic kicking action.
“I got the bait in November, so I threw in a couple heavy weights to get it down deep, and it didn’t take long to put my first Whale Tail musky in the bag. We caught 7 fish on the prototype over the next few days. Not only was it catching fish, but it was doing it from the back of the boat behind other dominant baits I typically lean on that time of year, during what many on the lake were calling a “tough bite”.
“Musky #8 grabbed the tail and didn’t get any hooks, then proceeded to play a surprisingly long game of tug-of-war before finally tearing off. The prototype was out of commission and the fun was over. Unfortunately, I was not able to get another one before the lake froze over (despite begging).”
Here’s a quick look at the big, wide tail in action:
New baits come out every year, but we wouldn’t put this at the top of our newsletter if we didn’t think it was going to be a big deal in the musky world.
The Whale Tail is a keeper, at least in Josh's opinion.
Castin' Tips with Spencer Berman
Lake St. Clair is an absolute musky factory, and quite honestly, we haven’t covered it much this year. To help fix this problem, we called up one of the best guides on the lake, Spencer Berman, to talk about the bite right now:
“June is a trollers paradise on Lake St. Clair thanks to minimal mid-lake weed growth and lack of annoying “floaters” getting caught up on your bait. You can keep your lures running clean all day long without much worry.
“But June is behind us and the casting bite is starting to heat up.
“These longer summer days have lead to mid-lake weed growth, and while trolling will catch ’em all year long, casting is now viable and it's also a lot of fun."
Like Spencer said, trolling works great on LSC all year. In fact, some guides will troll exclusively the entire season. That said, casting offers a few advantages in certain situations:
Advantage #1 – "If the fish are buried in the weeds or relating tight to them it can be difficult to impossible to troll those fish up without constantly fouling your baits with weeds. Casting allows you to pick apart the weeds more effectively."
Advantage #2 – "Casting allows for a wider variety of baits including ones with more erratic pull/ pause retrieves such as Bull Dawgs and Medussas which at times will trigger more bites than a straight retrieved (or trolled) bait."
Advantage #3 – "New weeds often sprout up in patches and casters can work these isolated patches much more precisely and completely than a bait simply trolled by."
Spencer also mentioned that these points would be even MORE important on other bodies of water in the musky range.
The moral of the story: Casting and trolling both catch a lot of muskies. Try to learn both, but catch 'em the way you want and have fun!
Wicked Underwater Figure-8 Clips
Ran into this awesome clip poking around YouTube:
This was part of a longer video on MuskyFrenzy's channel highlighting some cool catches on their bucktails.
Not sure how many guys are utilizing this camera angle, but this is the first we've seen it. Pretty dang cool.
More Anti-Musky Nonsense....
"Fred Manuel is afraid for his granddaughter’s toes; 'I’m almost scared to let her swim off the dock.'”
^ That's literally the opening line of a recent article in MSP Magazine titled: "What is Killing the Walleye of Ottertail County"
For those of you unfamiliar with the anti-musky battle in MN, Pelican Lake/Ottertail County is the epicenter of the fight, and this article does a good job highlighting a few of the key characters.
Some decent journalism by the author, but couldn't help but laugh at some of the quotes from Pelican Lake property owners Fred Manuel and Dave Majkrzak:
Manuel on Pelican Lake panfishing:
“Lately it’s been difficult to bring home panfish big enough to clean. And we know why. We know exactly why.”
I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that every time someone catches a pannie, it goes right into the bucket/livewell...
Majkrzak talkin' bout before the 54" rule:
“The unofficial policy was ‘keep a hammer in your boat, and if you catch one, kill it.’”
Manuel on the kinds of people who musky fish:
"Many of them seem to be partial to 'backwards hats and tattoos.'”
Majkrzak on the "quality" of lakeshore owners:
“These aren’t a bunch of people who fell out of Walmart”
The article states that Majkrzak believes, "it’s more difficult than ever to catch walleye or crappie of any real size."
DNR netting data and local tournament results show that walleye populations are thriving on Pelican Lake, yet anti-musky guys complain about how muskies are eating all the walleye.
Maybe they're right – or maybe they're just bad at walleye fishing....
There's no place like home....
Saw this shot floating around the socials and thought we'd share:
Lots of speculation about species and how it got there, but we're not into guessing games. We'll let you be the judge. 😉
I do know ONE thing, not many birds get to grow up in the mouth of a giant dead fish! #LifeExperiences
QUICK HITTERS:
– Garmin unveils new trolling motor (link)
– New Kramer Bros bucktail (photo)
– More reasons to like coach Bud Grant, he's a musky guy (link)
– Antique musky lure recreation (video)
– Half of MN resorts have gone out of business since 1985 (link)
– Pennsylvania pit tag results (link)
THIS WEEK'S MONSTER MUSKIES:
This 55" porker was minding her own business, gobbling cisco before she fell for John Imm's Supernatural. The open water bite is wrapping up in most places, but it left us with some amazing catches this season.
Wanna get your kid hooked on musky fishing? Get him hooked up with a 54" Lake of the Woods mega-monster, and he'll never look back! Even better, he got to watch it blow up on a Lake X Fat Bastard topwater.
Congrats to 12-year-old Zach Waldera on a PB that's going to take a LONG time to top.
Say what you will about fly fishing – you can't deny those guys and gals take the BEST musky photos. Check out this beauty from Nathan Bender in Wisconsin. 🔥
How 'bout this big bodied Lake of the Woods muskie from Riley Peattie. The fish is a solid B+, but the facial hair gets a perfect 100/100.
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