Rubber Fishing Tips – Mike Lazarus Stats – More PRO Updates
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The Window is Closing!
Just a quick reminder....
Registration for Musky Insider PRO is closing Tuesday night (April 30th) at midnight CST!
You won't want to miss what we have planned for this season!
Wild Laz Stats
We've surveyed our members and past instructors many times, asking which musky anglers they would like to learn from. Mike Lazarus is always on the top of the list. And we are SUPER excited to have him involved with Musky Insider PRO.
Check out this snippet we found on the Musky Tracker FB page:
"Inducted into the Muskies Canada Hall of Fame in 2012, Mike Lazarus is perhaps the most prolific guide/ producer of angling caught muskies of all-time. The numbers are staggering. He is responsible for the capture of over 9,000 total muskies in twenty-six years; more than 2,200 of which were over 50-inches; more than 300 were over 55-inches in length; 2 over 60-inches in length; more than 500 were over 40-pounds and more than 40 were over 50-pounds (all released except one)."
Those numbers are absolutely nuts.
And what's even crazier.... these stats are from over 10 years ago.
It's difficult to overstate how impressive Mike Lazarus's career has been. And we're looking at old data!
With a resume like that, even the most experienced musky commandos have a lot they can learn from Mike.
While we plan to focus on the X’s and O’s during Mike’s session, we also look forward to hearing the unique backstory of how he refined his musky game on a population of giant muskies with very little fishing pressure for an extended period of time.” #livinthedream
As much as we're looking forward to hearing more from Laz, we have an extremely impressive list of speakers lined up for this next year.
Over the past year, our members and current instructors have helped us dial-in how to select great instructors and also how to extract the juicy nuggets from them that will help you catch more muskies.
(We featured the full lineup of amazing speakers last week, but if you missed it, you can click here to read last week's newsletter 👍)
We'd love to help you catch more and bigger muskies this season:
Also, don't forget: All our Insider PRO members get 15% off at Thorne Brothers this year (2024), all year, whenever you need it! This discount includes musky lures, musky reels, and musky rods (excluding Thorne Custom or Pre-built).
Some Rubber/Hook Thoughts
The well-being of the musky is always our #1 priority whenever we're on the water.
That's why we are sharing this recent video from Darcy Cox:
Here's Darcy's take from the video: Forward facing sonar is changing how the masses fish for muskies. Rubber and tubes in particular are being utilized a much higher percentage of the time, and the hook configurations on many of these baits may be leading to more tongue hooked and deeply hooked muskies.
While everyone likes to point their finger at the sonar units. Darcy has some ideas on how to modify our baits to reduce injury and mortality of our favorite fish.
Instead of quoting & paraphrasing Darcy's 10 minute video here in the newsletter, you should just head over to his FB page and watch it. Here's a link 👈
Herbie Spring Tips
We've had Steve "Herbie" Herbeck on a couple times (a class and a Q&A session) for our PRO members, and he ALWAYS brings the heat! 🔥
One concept he's shared with us in the past is how livebait fishin' can actually be better in spring than fall 👀
And Herbie would know. He's one of the absolute best meat fishermen on the planet. #UndisputedChamp
Most folks haven't tried livebaitin' in spring, so we thought we'd pull a writeup together for ya with some A+ info on spring sucker draggin' with Herbie – enjoy!
Herbie: "In many parts of the country, fishing livebait for muskies is a long-standing traditional fall/cold water presentation option that greatly enhances success when used in conjunction with a casting presentation.... or vertical jigging if temps are well below freezing.
"What many don’t realize is the post-spawn period can actually be as good, many times even better than late fall – especially when it comes to later springs and cold fronts with lingering water temps in the 50's to low/mid-60's range.
"If colder than normal temps or a prolonged cold front stymies/drops typical spring rising water temps and you’re faced with clearer than normal water and a lack of new weed growth.... shallow movements can be very inconsistent until these conditions are reversed and a consistent rise in water temps occur. This is especially true on systems that lack a pelagic forage base that fish can move out over deep water and target, then recoup in depths that are cool and more stable than the shallows can be under these conditions.
"These are the conditions (especially if you're in a state where you can use multiple lines) where running livebait rigs slightly off the break in conjunction with your typical early season presentations up shallower can be deadly."
Now that you know which conditions are most conducive to livebaiting success, let's talk a little bit about presentation:
"This time of year, you should down-size your baits a bit and keep your rigs small. I like baits that are 11-14” long, paired with 60# wire and one 1/0 or 2/0 2x hardened wire treble. Finish it off with a #1-3 gold Colorado tail-gunner for a bit of flash."
Here's a look at Herbie's setup:
"Use a float if you're running the bait in shallow water, otherwise you can use a planer board in deeper water off the break behind you.
"The term “quick-set” really and absolutely applies here. With metabolisms on the rise and the use of generally smaller bait sizes, muskies will turn a bait much quicker than in the fall."
Excellent info from Herbie per usual! 🔥
This Week's Mashup:
Mashup time!
#1 – We have several thoughts on this 👇 but we'll limit ourselves to two quickies.
First, it's sad to see a beautiful fish being handled like that – weighing the fish (especially when it's out of season) and holding it vertically. Secondly, obviously we don't know if his scale is perfectly accurate, but bottoming-out a 60 pound scale is wild regardless!
#2 – The MN-FISH crew is doing a big fundraiser. For sure worth a look if you want to hop in the boat with some great anglers, and support an angler advocacy group in the process.
#3 – MN musky-head Jace Loge has been doing some work on his trailer. What do you all think about going carpet-less on your bunks??
#4 – Yes, very sad.
QUICK HITTERS:
– Early season musky fishing w/ Devoted Outdoors (video)
– Medussa advice w/ Smith's Fishing (video)
– Lipless crankbait tips w/ Joe Bucher (video)
– Jim Saric's go-to rod for throwing big baits (video)
– Canadian musky fishing trip w/ Slime & Slay (video)
THIS WEEK'S MONSTER MUSKIES:
Okay, let's do a "Pink Day" takeover!
Our original plan was to share a bunch of testimonials from our Insider PRO members who caught giant fish last season using the big fish analytics and pink day data we gave them.
But we did an interesting experiment instead. We actually posted last year‘s Pink Days and asked people to check their camera rolls to see if they caught any giants on these dates.
Pink Days are all about the biggest fish in the system being more vulnerable to being caught, and the responses to our inquiry did not disappoint!
You can visit our Facebook and Instagram posts to read all the comments, but here's a quick laundry list of how many big 'skies were shared:
- 35 muskies over 50”
- 15 - 50-52
- 13 - 52-53.75
- 7 - 54-59.5
Note: There were several more really big ones where people posted a photo, but not the measurement. And we know of several more 55+ fish that were also caught on Pink Days that weren’t posted in the responses.
More importantly, if you want to use the Pink Days to your advantage in 2024, you should get signed up for Musky Insider PRO before we close the doors Tuesday night.
Not only do we give you the Pink Days, but we also give you analytics and make predictions about what bodies of water the giants are gonna come from.... 🔥
Alright, let's share a few pictures!
First up, check out this enormous beast sent in by Matthew Guarascio, one of our Musky Insider PRO members:
Here’s the story in his own words:
"I caught my personal best in December while fishing with Pat Briere. I changed my trip to cover the Pink Days and worked a Red October tube ultra slow as was discussed on the Spencer Berman episode. 54.5” x 24”. Thank you for your hard work on the insider pro!"
Next, we have an absolute beauty of a 'skie from Tyler Herman. She hit the net during the late July pink days.
Next up, we have a seriously massive 54+ incher sent in by Jason Broome, caught during the late September window.
Alex McLean shared a number of awesome photos of giant muskies caught on Pink Days in his boat. He also left this note on our FB page:
"Pink days pay off. There were a number of real big ones caught within 1-2 days of the pink dates as well. Definitely dates folks should consider planning muskie trips around."
Last but not least, feast your eyes on this brute of a 'skie from Eric Beck during the June pink days.
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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