Night Fishin’ Tips - Bait Bazooka - PMTT Deets

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Turn Off the Lights - and Turn On the Giants

Ever notice how many giant musky pics are taken under the cover of darkness?

The night bite can be hot from opener to ice-up, but summer is prime time. Cooler temps, fewer boats, and no jet ski circus. We checked in with resident night owl Josh Borovsky for a few tips.

The Headlamp You’ll Actually Miss

“I recently jumped in with some buddies for an all-nighter and forgot my trusty headlamp. No big deal — they had extras. But after tying knots, landing fish, and digging through gear and snacks all night, I really missed my one-button setup.

A good night-fishing headlamp needs three things:

• Red light mode (so you don’t spook fish)

• Bright light on first tap

• One big, easy-to-find button

Fumbling for the wrong button while your buddy hooks one at boatside is not ideal.”

Here’s one of Josh’s go-to’s: 👇

Navigation Tips

Josh also shared some insight on night driving with GPS:

• Run two screens if you’ve got them (one zoomed in tight to follow trails, the other zoomed out to see where you’re headed).

• Only got one screen? Use a split screen with one side zoomed in and one zoomed out.

• Create clean trails during the day. If you cut corners when the sun’s out, your night runs will be sketchy.

PRO Tips from the Vault

Night Boat Prep Must-Haves

• Tools ready (with backups)

• Clean deck equals safe deck

• Pre-planned netting strategy

• Headlamp and an extra light source from your boat partner

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Mapping = Catching

Kevin still uses some of his old track lines from 15-plus years ago and maps inside and deep weed edges, clumps, and rock structures in detail.

“I think mapping, that’s the one thing the muskie community got away from. For sure now it’s more focused on finding a fish than finding a spot.

You have to have a really good understanding of the composition of a spot, and from that perspective, you can determine where the fish is gonna be at… and then you can use your electronics to verify where the fish is at.”

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Mind Games on the Water 😈

Kevin’s sneaky strategy to mess with nearby boats:

“Back in the day we were smashing fish on pounders, but everyone behind us thought we were throwing blades. So I’d grab a Super Model, shake it around real loud, and let ’em think we were crushing with bucktails too. Worked like a charm.” 😂

If you’re a PRO member, this might be a good time to rewatch that session in the member portal.

Not a member yet? [Get on the waitlist here.]

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Bait Bazooka?!

(aka: The Shoulder Saver 9000)

Raise your hand if you’ve ever dreamed of launching pound-plus rubber baits without wrecking your shoulder and back in the process. 🙋

Turns out musky nuts aren’t the only ones thinking that way… Check out this bait cannon rig the Ultimate Fishing TV crew cooked up! 👇

Step 1: Load up the cannon, muzzleloader style.

Step 2: Match your rod angle to the cannon and open your bail.

Step 3: Ready… aim… 💥 FIRE!

Yup — it actually launched a cast that produced a fish.😲

Could also be the perfect defense system for jet skis and wake boats… just sayin’. 😉

Word on the street?

Sharpshooters who can’t land in the beam past 40 feet are already signing up for the waitlist. 😂

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PMTT Eagle River Event Deets

The Professional Musky Tournament Trail held its Mercury Marine Summer Challenge on the Three Lakes & Eagle River Chain of Lakes, WI, June 21–22. And while this area isn’t exactly known for giants, the number of fish caught was off the charts — 83 muskies were registered over the weekend! 👀

1st Place 🏆

Dick Heckel and Rory Tuff took home the first-place hardware with five fish, four of which came on Day 1.

These dudes focused on casting the wind-blown sides of the lakes with natural-colored spinnerbaits and crankbaits.

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2nd Place

Coming in hot on Day 2, Musky Insider PRO instructor Mark Lijewski and his partner Ryan Wallis stacked up four muskies on Sunday, bringing their total to five for the weekend.

They were working rubber aggressively and fast off deep breaklines.

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3rd Place

Matt Lang and Bill Janz put three fish in the bag, including a 46-incher that helped vault them past some four-fish teams.

They were tossing black bucktails over weeds and white rubber baits off the breaklines.

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4th Place

Chuck Smida and Brian Clepper landed four muskies — two casting and two trolling Baby DepthRaiders.

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5th Place

Richie Doyle and Kris Schlosser rounded out the top five with three muskies up to 41 inches, all caught trolling the river with copper-bladed spinnerbaits.

Here’s how the rest of the Top 10 shook out:

Half the Top 10 teams caught fish trolling. The other half were casting.💨 Wind-blown structure and breaklines were key for some teams, while others found fish in open water near bug hatches.

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Big Fish of the Event

 

PRO Instructors Representin’ 💪

#2 – Ezoko has some seriously tasty custom baits on their website right now, including these Scorpion Double-Jointed 10” Crankbaits. Clockwise from the top-left, you’ve got Fire Tiger, Shad (not in stock, but too juicy not to share), Orange Perch, and Walleye . Quantities are limited, so grab ’em while they’re hot! 🔥

#3 – This clip from Dark 30 Outdoors is a perfect reminder that few things in life beat catching your first musky. The pure stoke this kid shows? That’s exactly how it feels — and it just can’t be beat. Totally worth watching the whole thing here. Great job, little dude! 👊

#4 – Check out the first soft plastic in the Llungen line-up, the $ Maker! This bait brings the heat with an exaggerated body roll and a kickin’ tail that moves a ton of water. Bonus: Llungen offers a 20% Veterans Discount for those who’ve served. 🇺🇸

Where do you go from here? Elizabeth Koelsh, 14 years old, caught her first musky and it was ridiculously impressive. This mega-tanker measured in at an eye poppin’ 55 ⅞”. 😳 She was fishing with Jeremy Johnson out of Whispering Winds Resort on the famous Lake Vermilion.

Twenty minutes after seeing his daughter catch the fish of a lifetime, it was Dad’s turn! Adam Koelsh popped his very own leviathan and it didn’t disappoint. This beauty measured in at 52.” Way to go Dad! 

Jordan Piper crushed this 44” Northern Wisconsin tiger while checking out a new lake. She fooled it with a Spanky Baits bucktail on a shallow weed edge within the first hour.

Congrats to Tim Lund on his new personal best: a hefty 48.5” musky caught on an Angling Revolution prototype.

Only fifteen minutes into the outing, this bruiser showed up as a surprise Father’s Day gift. Word is, that bait’s been quietly racking up some serious fish lately… 🤫

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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