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Muskie Fishing
Ontario Muskie Fishing
The Next
Bite
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  Learn
to Use those LURES!!
by Pete Maina
A BIG secret - that doesn’t involve a "secret"
lure; rather, increasing significantly, the
capability of your favorite lures – to become
secret weapons – as compared to other folks’
lures of the exact same kind. And actually, it’s
a great off-season project for folks who chase
muskie and pike where the water stays hard
and/or have a closed season to fish for the
species. What’s the big secret? Simply use all
your favorite lures in a clear water situation,
lots … without any concern for trying to catch a
fish - try everything possible until you learn
everything that can be learned about what looks
best – and the limits of the lure (i.e. depth,
speed, ect.).
It’s something I noticed consistently during
years of guiding, and that I still see from
time-to-time fishing with new anglers: no
practice with lures – not at all certain what
the lure is doing on a retrieve – nor
preparation to react to approaching critters (muskies
or pike).
Any place where clear water can be found (pool
is great) – to be able to see the lures
throughout a retrieve. (Bring those Oakley
polarized glasses to optimize, especially if
outside.) Try ‘em all. May sound silly to some,
initially, as it’s easy to think a spinner is a
spinner or a jerkbait a jerk bait. Spinners are
simple – just throw them out and reel them back,
right? Yeah, but. Spinners do likely require the
least amount of testing as they are fairly
simple, but certainly check the limits of speed
and depth. There’s a point where some baits’
blades stop spinning (how deep is it at that
lower limit?); baits will only handle so much
speed before blowing out. What’s the right
amount of line for the best-looking figure eight
or O? Know the baits limits – so you know which
one might be best for running over weeds 5 feet
down.
It’s really, really important for jerk baits,
crank baits, many plastics, topwaters … what do
they do best and what are their limits? For many
baits, the speed and severity of twitching – or
pulls – or pauses – causes very different
reactions from different lures, as well as in
most cases having a direct impact on the depth
the lures run. Very important to know! And, the
limits (i.e. twitch so hard – and the lure blows
out). The more of this you know, instinctively,
through practice, the more effective you will
be. You’ll be so much better at choosing the
right lures for the situation – and you’ll know
exactly what that lure is doing out there even
though you can’t see it (much of the time in
actual fishing situations).
 
Check out Petes Podcasts here!
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