PMTT Record Broken - LOW Tips - Remembering Two of Our Own

Breaking the Rules to Trigger Fish

Generally speaking, when you get a following musky, rule number one is don’t stop your retrieve.

With most presentations, that’s the precise moment a musky loses interest in your bait.

But like with many things in musky fishing, there always seem to be exceptions to the rules.

Believe it or not, sometimes the best thing you can do with a following musky is let your bait just sit there. 😳

During a recent Musky Insider PRO Live Q&A, Northwest Angle guide Joe Cooper shared one of his favorite tricks for turning reluctant followers into biters.

And if you throw crankbaits, dive-and-rise baits or anything else that dives and floats back toward the surface, this is one you’ll want to remember.

Rather than bringing the bait directly into the figure-8, Joe will stop it and let it float all the way to the surface.

If there’s a musky following several feet behind, the bait is no longer getting farther away from it. Instead, that fish can keep creepin’ closer as the bait slowly rises.

And that’s when things start getting interesting. 👀

If that musky tips up vertically underneath the bait and continues tracking it toward the surface, Joe likes to patiently wait…

Even if the bait reaches the surface.

Even if it’s been sitting there for several seconds.

Joe compared it to holding a tennis ball in front of a Lab that’s waiting for you to throw it. 😂

Your instinct is to move it.

Don’t.

Those fish may look painfully slow and deliberate as they rise underneath the bait, but when they finally decide to eat, the strike can be anything but subtle.

Two Snaps First

There’s one potential problem with simply stopping your crankbait…

What if the fish isn’t five or six feet behind it?

What if it’s right on your bait?

Hit the brakes on a hot fish and it can blow right past the lure, potentially ruining your opportunity.

Joe has a slick little solution. 👇

Immediately before starting the dead rise, he’ll give the bait two short, hard snaps.

If a musky is already tight to the bait, that sudden burst can trigger the strike. And if it eats on the first snap, the second one essentially has you pulling into the fish again as a hookset.

If the musky is farther behind, no problemo.

Kill the bait after those two snaps and let the dead rise begin.

Now the fish has a chance to close the gap as the lure slowly works its way toward the surface.

As long as that fish is still tracking the bait upward, give her a chance.

But if it starts leveling off, remains horizontal in the water or starts losing interest, it’s time to start makin’ that bait dance again before the figure-8.

It's Not Just Crankbaits

Josh was smiling and nodding as Joe shared the technique because he’s seen the same basic triggering mechanism work with other presentations on his home waters.

For Josh, it goes all the way back to the late ‘90s, when he started tinkering with weighted, deep-running Wade’s Wobblers.

The extra weight gave those baits a painfully slow rise, which turned out to be just what the doctor ordered for lazy muskies creepin’ along several feet behind the bait.

Instead of continuing to work the lure toward the boat and away from the fish, he’d simply let it rise.

“Often times you’ll watch the fish continue creeping forward underneath it. And you’ll also have a lot of fish magically appear underneath your bait that you had no idea were there.”

Then comes the really cool part…

Get that fish pointing up.

“It seems like if you can get the fish to almost stand on its tail vertically, there’s a tipping point where it’s almost like an involuntary reaction where they have to take a quick swipe at your bait.”

(Now Joe was the one smiling and nodding his head in agreement.)

Josh still leans on the same trick today, especially when he’s fishing the deep weed edges on metro lakes.

In recent years, Metal Heads have become one of his favorites for the job. The Wade’s still work too, but Metal Heads are a little less technical for clients to work and make it easier to achieve the depth he’s looking for.

Get ’em deep, let ’em rise slow, and give those lazy followers some time to catch up.

Joe also tweaks his Super Shad Raps with slightly larger, heavier hooks to slow down their rise and get them running a little deeper.

When Josh is fishing a little shallower, he’ll use the same trick with a weighted Suick. 

The common denominator with all three dive-and-rise baits is how they’re weighted … nose heavy with a more buoyant tail.

“When they’re weighted that way, you can actually get the baits to rise backward toward the fish if you give them enough slack. That seems to help get those fish standing on their tails and push ’em past that tipping point.”

✅ Joe’s favorite September baits

✅ Bluebird-day strategies in September

✅ How cool September nights affect his approach

✅ How to identify current when you can’t actually see it

✅ Wind-driven current vs. natural current vs. backflow

✅ September locational patterns

✅ Morning vs. afternoon location changes

✅ Dealing with Lake of the Woods algae blooms

✅ Joe’s tough-bite strategy

✅ Using maps to break down Lake of the Woods

✅ How Joe breaks LOTW into smaller, manageable sections

✅ Strategies for finding bigger fish when you’re catching numbers of smaller muskies

✅ How major wind events can change the equation and fish positioning

And plenty more.

If you’re headed to Lake of the Woods this fall (or fish it often), this would be a great Q&A to watch before you go. 👀

The full Joe Cooper Live Q&A is available now inside the Musky Insider PRO portal.

👉 [JOIN MUSKY INSIDER PRO / WATCH THE FULL Q&A] 

---

The Musky World Lost a Couple Good Ones

The musky community lost a couple good ones this year.

We were saddened to hear that longtime musky angler, guide, wood carver, and lure maker Hans Mann passed away earlier this month at just 46 years old after a long battle with serious health issues.

Hans’ passing also had us thinking about longtime Lake Vermilion angler and guide Jeremy Johnson, who unexpectedly passed away earlier this summer at age 53.

Both guys left a pretty big footprint on the musky community, so we wanted to take a minute to tip our caps to both of them.

Hans Mann

Some of you might remember Hans from a Musky Insider story we shared last year while he was undergoing medical treatment.

And plenty more probably recognize the absolutely gargantuan Buffalo Harbor musky pictured above. 👀

Hans was a fixture in the Western New York fishing community and an especially influential member of the musky world.

He was an accomplished musky angler and guide, a longtime member of the Niagara Musky Association and twice finished first in the club’s annual standings.

Hans was also one of the founders of Red October Baits, whose Monster Tubes helped make giant tubes a staple in musky boats across the country.

And there was a reason many people knew him as “Hans the Carver.”

Hans was an incredibly talented wood carver who created beautiful musky replicas and carved his own musky baits, including the bait that caught that giant Buffalo Harbor fish.

But one thing that comes up over and over again in the remembrances of Hans is his willingness to share what he knew.

He loved teaching, talking fishing and helping other anglers put fish in the boat.

Hans was also a man of strong Christian faith, and that faith was an important part of how he lived, served others and faced the challenges of his illness.

Hans leaves behind his wife Elizabeth, son William and daughter Cordelia.

Jeremy Johnson

Jeremy Johnson releasing a giant 57” Lake Vermilion musky.

Here in Minnesota, we also lost longtime Lake Vermilion angler and guide Jeremy Johnson earlier this summer.

Jeremy grew up fishing and hunting on the Iron Range and eventually became an integral part of his family’s Whispering Winds Resort on Lake Vermilion.

He loved musky fishing, competed in tournaments with his brother Brian and spent countless hours helping resort guests make their own memories on the lake.

But Jeremy’s impact stretched well beyond fishing.

He had a passion for helping others and became heavily involved in hosting veterans through Hometown Hero Outdoors.

Friends recalled Jeremy paying for replica musky mounts for others, donating resort stays and guide trips, and quietly helping people who were going through difficult times.

Jeremy’s strong Christian faith was also central to his life and helped shape the way he treated people. His faith was reflected in the generosity, humility and compassion he showed to others.

In fact, Jeremy was guiding veterans on Lake Vermilion when he passed away on May 12.

His family summed up his approach to helping others with a pretty simple motto:

“If I have it and you need it, it’s yours.”

That’s a pretty darn good legacy to leave behind.

Two Good Ones

Hans and Jeremy made their marks on the musky world in different ways and in different places.

But reading what friends and family have shared about both guys, there’s a pretty obvious common denominator.

They loved fishing, they loved sharing it with other people even more, and both lived out a strong Christian faith through the way they served and cared for others.

Our condolences go out to the Mann and Johnson families and all of their friends throughout the fishing community.

🎩 Tip of the cap to two good ones. They’ll both be missed.

---

---

This Week's Mashup:

Mashup time!

#1 – Feast your eyes on this boatside behemoth eat for Colton Hines. 👀 Huge flared gills, violent headshakes, and pure chaos right at the boat. What a show!

#2 – Check out these glide baits we found over on the Ezoko website. 👀

The BL8NKT Striker 9 is a handmade 9-inch glider with a quick, snappy side-to-side action. According to the maker, they’re tuned and ready to fish right out of the box.

Clockwise from top left: Perch, Shiner, ODG, Gill.

#3 – Slingshot, engage! Jace’s fish comes out of the unseen depths and hits turbo mode on the turn. That burst at boatside will take your breath away.

#4 – The making of this Charles Weiss piece, shared by Musky Innovations, captures the moment every Dawg thrower dreams about. Milliseconds away from getting absolutely inhaled.

---

---

QUICK HITTERS:

– Full Moon July Muskie Fishing! - 2026 (video) w/ Todays Angler

– THE PATTERN CHANGED! | A Late July Musky Fishing Film (video) w/ 54 or Bust

– A Week on Lake of the Woods! (Landing a 50" GIANT on the Final Day) | FINALE (video) w/ Musky Mastery

– Thorne Bros | 4 Muskies on Lake Vermilion! (video) w/ Thorne Bros. Custom Rod & Tackle

– The Reality of Muskie Fishing - FULL EPISODE (video) w/ John Gillespie’s Waters & Woods

– 50" EAGLE LAKE MUSKY!! - A Day of Numbers and Size for Canadian Muskies (video) w/ Angling Anarchy

– FISHING EAGLE RIVER WI WITH GUS MANTEY (video) w/ Smith’s Fishing Outdoors

---

---

This Week's Monster Muskies:

How ’bout we kick this off with a Pink Day 56.5” Green Bay GIANT! Brendon Rurak absolutely smashed his PB when this beast crushed one of his own Big Action Baits, appropriately named the Double Nickel. And to make the moment even better, Dad was right there to share it with him. 🔥

Nicholas Francesco capped off the final day on Rowan in a BIG way, popping this 50”+ giant for a new PB and his first ever 50! Dad was there to take it all in with him too, the same guy he’s been chasing muskies with since he was 10 years old. That’s a memory bigger than the fish.

Aurora Kramer picked off this super cool PIT-tagged musky during league night on Clear Lake, IA. She was targeting the end of a dock with a custom-made bucktail when this tagged beauty decided to play along. At 12 years old, it was the first time the fish had ever been caught by an angler. Pretty cool catch with a little history attached!

Pat Karpinski shows off this St. Clair leopard that absolutely munched his custom-colored Medusa. Safe to say she approved. 😎

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. 🤙

---

---

Want to see more from Musky Insider? Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram for bonus content throughout the week!