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Muskie Fishing
Ontario Muskie Fishing
The Next
Bite
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  Return
by Pete Maina
A real common question from muskie anglers is:
“What do I do when I’ve located a big one?” Of
course questions on triggering and wondering why
figure eights didn’t work are common too. The
hard thing for folks like me, is that there
really are no certain answers. I’ve certainly
never figured out how to catch ‘em all. All that
can honestly be offered for consumption – are
things that have worked for us before at times.
If you’ve located any muskie, and especially if
so – a big one – you’ve accomplished quite a
bit, actually.
And to be honest, some of the success that you
are likely to experience later because of it,
often, isn’t with the same fish you originally
located. (It’s easy to learn not to let that
bother you.) There is no doubt at all, that
rumors of
 muskies
strictly being loners is false. A good feeding
area is a good feeding area – and they don’t
necessarily take turns. It’s a good spot. When a
big fish follows but doesn’t trigger, there are
several things to try, and to a certain extent,
it depends on the amount of fishing pressure on
the water. A fish that followed and didn’t hit
is tough to trigger. Each additional time it
follows and doesn’t hit … it generally gets
tougher.
I know of success stories from repeated
badgering … not moving on at all … just
continuing to cast at the same spot. It works
sometimes, especially with fish located in thick
weeds. I prefer the return method though,
whenever there isn’t a lot of competition from
other anglers. Try to avoid putting another bait
in front of it. Move on. Come back on any
weather change, wind-direction change and or
light-level change; anything different. Also, at
times fish activity just seems to pick up for no
apparent reason. Get back there! If possible,
change the angle that you approach the fish from
as well. Most likely, there was something the
fish liked about the presentation it followed;
normally, I won’t go for “too” much change in
that department. I’ve had a lot of success with
keeping the same lure type, and maybe tweaking
color or size a bit
 
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