Summertime Musky Hunters, many here?

[Fry Flier]

Musky is the name of the game for me, I fish all species but I normally target a fish. In my order of fish stalking, spring crappie, early summer walleye and pike, spring and summer with a fly rod would be trout and bass,  early summer and fall MUSKY MUSKY MUSKY and in case you were not sure I said MUSKY. Here is what I plan on feeding them this year so far. All baits homemade .....

[Missileman]

My favorite fish. Never really fished for them until I met a older gentleman at a sports show where I had a booth for my tackle company. His kids were worried about him fishing for bigger fish and wanted him to switch to panfish. He had 3-4 huge tackle boxes full of everything from buck tails to suicks. I traded him for whatever he wanted and he walked away completely set up for pan fishing and I became hooked on Muskie fishing. We make a few trips a year up to vermillion in Minnesota every year but have actually caught more out of a lake near home. Hooked for life

[Fry Flier]

63 years old here and only started musky fishing 4 years ago and it is now my fish of choice. It is a big mean fish in the circle of fish but yet it is fragile. A lot of fisher people do not realize just how fragile that apex predator is. Build my own bucktails with either tinsel or deer, not much with the maribou. Use rubber(plastics) to make baits as well, buy them do not pour my own.

[esox_xtm]

Now you've done it.



You've opened the box...

So short answer to you question is: No, not many. BUT you got me and Missileman. How many more ya want?

I got started in the late '70's, before C&R was very popular. Had some pretty heavy bass tackle and used that until I couldn't throw what I wanted on it. Now, well, it's all 8 - 9 foot rods, some that can launch 3/4 pound of rubber all day or pull those double 10s (the equivalent of retrieving a dead muskrat) you're makin' with relative ease. Beware! Lure addiction is a virtual certainty and four years has your foot firmly inside the room.

When i started looking at musky baits as a newly married guy on a single factory income the sticker shock just about made me quit. Fortunately my maternal grand-dad was a dedicated tackle tinkerer. I'd had all of hie stuff for years and never did anything with it but I learned. Now anything in bent wire, cast lead and tied dressings is fair game for my replication. I tied hundreds, maybe thousands of bucktail for sale and used the proceeds to purchase whatever I couldn't make. Finally quit the business because it was all I was doing in my spare time. Not enough time for fun 

Here's some tease for ya:







The top lure in the last image (paddletail on a spinner) has been my "secret weapon". Built specifically for speed, the body is very heavy with a Vibrax style rotating bell/hex bead, led by an .040 turtleback blade followed with a 6/0 or 7/0 Trokar weighted swimbait hook. This combo let's me swap tails with ease, provides excellent hookups and crank as fast as I physical can with a 6.3:1 reel without blowing out. Plus it doesn't tire me out like those dang double 10s. After all, I'm not 26 anymore  It accounted for this critter (among others) on a figure eight.



That's probably enough for now 

[Missileman]

Know how you feel Esox in the business end. I used to fish at least 20 hours a week until I got into the tackle mfg. business. Then I barely ever got out while I had it. Finally quit the business about 15 years ago. I get out a lot more now but no where near what I would like. Retirement is getting closer and we’re starting to look for a 2nd home up north. Definitely has to have musky in it. My wife never understood my obsession with that fish until she had about a 30-40 lb musky grab a walleye she was reeling in. Scared her so bad she dropped her pole. After that she understood

[esox_xtm]

@Missileman:

You making anything I'd be familiar with? Probably. Spent a good amount of my adolescence (late 60s/early 70s) in the Hawkeye State: Humboldt and Forest City. Worked for Winnebago in the heyday. Brother still lives in Ft.Dodge. Couldn't have been too far from you.

If you're gonna move north for muskies MN is a better bet than WI, as much as I love it here. Target rich and better size structure to the fish.

[Missileman]

We made mostly walleye and panfish and ice fishing stuff. It was called Fish Tek. We had stuff in in fisherman mag a few times.

[Unclegillhunter]

You guys rock! As in anything else some folks do it some folks live it! Y’all have a great season whatever you fish for!
Keep it safe! JDL

[Missileman]

Thanks gill hunter. Unfortunately my job keeps me working 6 days a week from may to October. Try and go on my days off but the wife likes to see me occasionally. Fortunately she likes to fish. But once fall hits I can hit it a lot more often. Going to try and get into ice fishing again. I have tons of equipment except a auger and and flip over which burned up a few years back. Still have everything else

[Fry Flier]

Funny the way one's path in this is very similar to others. Started out as a no not a thing fisher in my twenties, progressed to a more developed self-taught fisher in my forties. Took up fly fishing in my mid-thirties, heavy into fly tying, then into furled leaders as a hobby business. Eyes just got too bad to tie those # 20 #22 and #24 flies. Sold off my fly tying gear but now kicking my own arse 6-7 years later for what I gave up and away. Back to tying but now it is all musky, pike, walleye and similar. Small now is a #12 hook and going all the way to 7/0. Take the 2 swimbaits above 17-18 inches in length one is deep and one is shallow although they look similar they are very different. 1 swims 3-5 feet below the and the other 12 feet plus below. One is beaded with only 3/4 ounces of weight while the other has 3 ounces of powder-coated weight behind the blades.

[Missileman]

I got started making my own tackle when I was around 12-13 years old. A friend of mines dad was a federal game warden and he gave me my first fly rod and taught me to tie lead heads with kip tails and buck tails. I sold those and nite crawlers out of our garage to tourists coming to fish the local lake and cleaned bullheads by the bucket. A nickel apiece. Can’t remember how many times I got horned by those nasty *****s. To this day I won’t touch or eat one.

[slipperybob]

I fish for them muskies now and then.  Haven't since the divorce and raising two kids.  But I started with heavy spinning gear still have it.  Have a few bait casting gear, heavy bass gear but light for musky gear.    Actually basically my pike gear.