Following not hitting.

[Tim Kelly]

Just read a post on the MHM board where people were complaining about the difficulty of getting fish to hit on Vermillion, as they get so much pressure. Sounds like people were still throwing the same kind of stuff in the same kind of ways and getting the same kind of results.

The pike over here can get extremely pressurized and become very difficult to tempt, either following a long way behind or a long way below and bolting as soon as they see the boat. What seems to work best is to go really subtle with them, rather than trying to speed up or give them erratic maneuvers. We fish a lot of soft plastic swimbaits, hard swimbaits, glidebaits fished pretty much on a straight retrieve or more recently flies fished with very very slow constant retrieves.

Obviously your musky and our pike are very different creatures, but I wondered whether you've found that going subtle - without going to small lures - has made a difference when you're musky fishing, or does it just not get them interested in the first place?

[Illinois Dennis]

Tim,
lots of folks reading your post, yet no reply. I think you have stumped them. I don't swim plastic so can't answer. Can you troll for pike over there and is that effective? How about electric trolling motor, so and stealthy?

Kings are biting over hear, when there arn't 10 footers rolling in on Lake MI.

[Tim Kelly]

We can troll in most places we can boat fish, but if the pike are in the structure, like July musky, trolling isn't an option.

I remember when Martin and I were over there in 2003 I had a black and glow mag dawg I was bringing in slow and steady, rather than pumping and jerking like most people seem to fish them, and had 2 reasonable 'skis follow at the same time.

My brother married into a rich American family and has just come back from 2 weeks at their family cottage on Michigan. The weather was a bit variable while they were there too. Certainly too windy for the boston whaler to be safe with the kids on board!

Marrying well is such a good idea. I can see what Mrs Bennett was getting so animated about now! (Pride and Prejudiced face)

[DSmith]

Nice Salmon. Lots of good eating right off the grill.

[fishwizard]

Well I know my natural tendency is to do something "more" to try and trigger them when they've followed but didn't strike. It always seems like, if you want them to do more, as in hit the bait, then you need to do more to make it happen. Of course the number of fish I've been able to trigger, versus the ones who continue to follow, or are never seen again, don't exactly stack up against each other numerically.

Although I will say that I've done ok the past couple years throwing 10" Believers more and more, and while they aren't exactly the most subtle bait they don't compare to an erratically twitched DD. The Believer has become my favorite bait in the South, where most guys throw gliders. Tim, I will certainly try the subtle approach more this fall, because even if it isn't necessarily more effective, it is certainly easier on the body and hands.

Thinking about it, a double ten could be considered subtle, at least in its movement through the water. It is definitely something to contemplate when the fish aren’t too interested. Of course, like everything muskie, the sample size and consistency is usually so small that you really need to evaluate entire seasons to notice what’s really going on.

Ryan

[Tim Kelly]

Be very interested to hear how you get on Ryan.

One of the best tactics I've found is the throw a glide bait and give it a slow steady retrieve, without jerking the rod. When it gets back about 3/4 of the way through the retrieve give the rod two or three light taps, then give the lure a good long pause. Seems like you pick up followers with the straight retrieve, then you can get them to hit when they're too far from the boat to freak out. Using an indelible marker on your line to give you an idea when you've got 10 or 15 yards of line out is handy, especially if you're fishing a deeply sunk bait.