Wiley Trollin' Tips - Champlain 'Skies - Fiery Debate

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 Wiley Speed Trolling Nuggets

We had legendary speed troller and bait maker Dale Wiley on for a Live Q&A last week… and yeah… it was loaded.

Dale and his partner Todd Young stormed onto the Professional Musky Tournament Trail back in 2001 with a high-speed trolling program that turned heads and won them Top Gun. Ever since… Dale’s name has basically been synonymous with going fast and catchin’ giants.

Not gonna give it all away here (that’s what PRO is for 😉)… but here are a few nuggets that stood out:

Nugget #1

✅ “A musky is a musky.” (No matter where you are)

Dale’s whole system is built on this.

Doesn’t matter if it’s Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Ontario, or Kentucky… he’s runnin’ the same high-speed program.

Why?

Because he believes most bites are reaction strikes, not feeding. The faster the bait moves… the less time they have to think.

More speed = more “trigger.”

Nugget #2

✅ Start at 4.5… then step on the gas.

Dale’s starting baseline when he trolls is about 4.5 mph

But here’s the key… once he gets action, he speeds UP instead of staying at 4.5.

His mindset:

“I want to cover as much water as I can while the window is open and see what I can get away with.”

Nugget #3

✅ Don’t leave fish to find fish

Dale talked about spending 9 hours in two small bays… just trolling them over and over.

Why?

He knew there were fish + bait there… and just needed to trigger one.

Dale’s rule:

If you know they’re there… keep working the area, cycling baits and alternating speeds until one snaps.

Nugget #4

✅ Diversify your spread… but with baits that can all handle the speed.

Dale is not a big fan of runnin’ all one style.

If he has three baits in, it will often look something like this:

• Straight bait = thump/roll
• Jointed = louder/wilder
• Fat body = different depth and trigger entirely

And he almost always has one of his fat boys in the mix (Dale said they’ll eat that when they won’t touch anything else). 

✅ Big fish love the prop wash 🤔

Dale insists on always running a bait right in the prop wash.

He doesn’t fully know why… but after decades of doing it… he’s not arguing with the results.

There’s a LOT more Dale covered in this session including:

• How to tune and modify baits for speed
• Drag settings most folks mess up
• Why snap type and shape can kill lure action
• His “haystack” bait ball theory (🔥)
And plenty more.

If you’re a Musky Insider PRO member and missed the live version, the full recording of the Q&A is live now inside the Musky Insider PRO portal.

PRO Members

Be sure to check out the member portal for lots of other cool updates. 😎

We just added custom colored Kramer Bros #9 Woodticks with the special baby body build in our custom Insider PRO “Night Stalker” color to the member portal.

We also just added an exclusive members only run of 135 of the new (and very hard to get) Angling Revolution Squiddy Tubes to the portal.

👉 Once they’re gone… they’re gone.

And we have some more exciting news to share soon on ways we’re planning to continue to level up PRO and most importantly our members. Stay tuned!

Not a member yet? Get on the waitlist and be the first to know when an opportunity to join becomes available.

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Could Lake Champlain be the next big thing? 

📸 Photo courtesy of Cayden Graham (via Vermont Fish & Wildlife)

Lake Champlain recently popped up on our feed… and yeah… it definitely made us do a double take.

We’re talking 49.25” and 23” girth… pulled through an 8-inch ice hole. That’s… not a lot of wiggle room. Literally.

Wait… hasn’t Champlain been quiet for muskies?

Short answer... Yes.

Longer answer... Champlain actually used to have a native musky population, but things went sideways in the late 1970s. Between habitat issues and a chemical spill in the Missisquoi River, the population basically got wiped out by the early 80s.

For a long time after that, muskies in Champlain were more rumor than reality.

Fast forward… to now and the rebuild is underway.

Around 2008–2010, Vermont Fish & Wildlife kicked off a serious restoration push, focusing on the Missisquoi River and Bay. They’ve stocked 60,000+ fingerlings since the start.

📸 Photo credit Tom Wiggins, Vermont Fish & Wildlife

The one caveat is they have been mostly stocking smaller fingerlings in the 6 inch range which doesn’t have anywhere near the survival rates of 12 inch or bigger sizes used in places like Minnesota.

Here’s where it gets interesting...  Genetics.

The strain they’re stocking?

👉 Chautauqua strain fish out of New York.

Same lineage that has done VERY well in systems like the St. Lawrence River… and we all know what kind of size those fish are capable of.

So even if survival isn’t perfect… the ones that do make it?

They’ve got legit upside.

And then there’s the wildcard…

There’s still a lingering question that makes this whole thing way more intriguing:

👉 Did any of the original native fish survive?

And if you know anything about that deal… you know those genetics are responsible for the biggest freaks that exist on planet earth.

Speaking of big ones…

📸 Photo credit Vermont Fish & Wildlife

So while Cayden’s fish is getting headlines… it’s not actually the biggest ever.

BUT…

It is one of the clearest signs yet that the recent stocking efforts are starting to show up in a big way.

An even better sign…

Fisheries biologists have already captured and tagged 46–47.5” class fish and better yet found young-of-year fish in surveys.

👉 Translation... some of these fish are not just surviving… they may actually be reproducing.

So… what are we looking at here?

Let’s connect the dots:

You don’t need to squint too hard to see where this could go.

The big question is, is this just a cool one-off… Or are we watching the early stages of something legit?

Because if even a small percentage of those stocked fish make it… and reproduction starts to stick…