Night Fishing Tips – A Delicious Musky – Big Fish Baits
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Knutson Tidbits
Just got done watchin' this seminar that Ben Knutson did over at Thorne Bros earlier this year:
.... and here's a few tidbits that stuck out. The topic of the seminar is fall musky fishing, but I think you'll still find this info interesting/useful:
#1 – Some guys like to wait for a major/minor to re-visit a musky they encountered earlier in the day, but another option is to wait until cloak of darkness.
"That’s the thing about September, I catch a lot of the bigger fish after dark. It’s nice to fish during the day so you can locate where the fish might be. I like to locate the fish, leave them alone, then come back to it after dark."
If you're willing to fish a few hours past sunset, you're probably gonna catch more fish – honestly, this holds true all year long.
#2 – The save-'em-for-later strategy changes for Ben on highly-pressured lakes:
"In the metro, when you see a fish, it’s tough to come back on it later because the lakes are so pressured. If I see a good fish, I will spend time and work that fish for a while and try to get it to bite. When I try to come back during a moon time, it's going to be gone 9 times out of 10."
#3 – Ben breaks down a number of his big musky catches from the 2020 season, including the big gal above that went 55.5 x 24" #supertanker
"My favorite go-to baits for after-dark fishing are the classic Super Model 13's. When I'm fishing full moons, I like bright flashy colors. With new moons, I usually stick with black. During the day, I pretty much only fish black variation regardless of the season (spring, summer or fall)."
The behemoth above lunched a Super Model after Ben had spent 16 hours grinding it out in western MN.
#4 – Seems like most anglers prefer the no-frills approach to color choice when it comes to Beavers – white, black, gray, etc. But Ben's best color last year was "Yellow Walleye" which is a Thorne Bros exclusive:
#5 – We're a LONG ways from sucker draggin' season, but we're going to drop some of Ben's thoughts on livebait fishin' anyway....
– He likes switching over to meat once water temps hit 55 degrees in fall, going with 15-18 inch suckers rigged on a Stealth GT Quick Strike Rig.
– Green weeds are critical in fall – they don't need to be amazing, as long as they are green and standing.
– He'll run the baits around 1.0 mph, always keeping them moving. Sometimes he’ll play with the sucker, jigging it a bit to try and get the fish to commit.
Nighttime Board Mod
Back to the topic of night fishing....
What's your best strategy for keeping track of your planer boards when you're night trolling for 'skies?
Here's one option from Jason Kahler:
And then there's a battery operated option from Matthew Kemeny:
We've seen some guys use glow tape, too....
If you have any unique strategies for lighting up your planer board or just night fishing in general, reply to this email and send us some pics!
MuskyBuzz
Look who stopped by to guest-host AnglingBuzz TV this week:
That's Musky Insider co-owner Josh Borovsky (right) talkin' muskies with Troy Lindner (left).
There was a lot of info packed into this one with Josh sharing some early summer musky chasin' tips, Toby Kvalevog talking about targeting muskies on Leech Lake, and Doug Wegner sharing his top 5 must-have lures.
A couple fun things that stuck out:
#1 – During the Leech Lake segment, we got to see some old school photos from the Muskie Rampage back in July, 1955:
#2 – They also had a nice mix of information, underwater footage, and musky fishin' action (perfect GIF material), including Jeremy Smith losing this hyped-up 'skie at boatside 😉
#3 – Josh mentioned that he keeps his eyes out for birds when he's chasin' open water muskies (turns out that's not just a saltwater thing 😂) – here's the quote:
"A lot of this bite centers around the mayfly hatch, so I'll be looking for mayfly carcasses on the surface as I'm driving from spot-to-spot. Especially in the mornings and evenings you'll see them popping up everywhere.
"I will also be watching for birds – seagulls, ospreys bald eagles – especially if they are hovering over the water. That's going to tip me off to possible areas where those hatches are happening or where there's suspended baitfish riding high in the water column, which is usually going to equal muskies."
Eating Muskies
.... is only acceptable when it's in birthday cake form!
Lovin' this musky-themed birthday cake from Maryglenn Warnock:
Amazing!
Props to "Baked in Nashville" for cookin' up the coolest birthday grub a musky angler could ever hope for.... 💪
Here's another look at the cake:
Looks a little short to be a keeper, but I think the DNR will give ya a pass because it's your birthday.... 😂
QUICK HITTERS:
– PMTT on Eagle River this weekend (link)
– Matt Seifert on the Backlash Podcast (link)
– Wisconsin musky fishin’ w/ Todays Angler (video)
– Kentucky meeting to discuss slot/size limits, June 24th (link)
– Last light topwater musky w/ Joe Bucher (video)
THIS WEEK'S MONSTER MUSKIES:
First up, we've got a pair of dandy Lake of the Woods muskies from Joel Alvestad north of the border. These big girls are as clean as a whistle, too!
Big congrats to Andy Hutter on smackin' a few nice Metro muskies, including this big long beauty queen 🔥
Feast your musky-lovin' eyes on this 51 inch fly-muchin' river monster from the crew at Black Water Musky – great fish!
Wanna be featured on 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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