PA Best baits from 08

[HBmusky]

I have had good number in08 on a few good baits they may be ones you like or not but they had sold me on them. the first is bucher 700 S nickle and black with the hint of red in the tail and down sized hook tiped on one hook side not middle 2 inch mister twister or a crappie sized small one it sometimes the fine movement will sell a trailing musky. bucher 700 s sunset straight up. Super shad rap had the best luck on straight firtiger. other baits include bulldogs orange black , poes , In my books they prduced in 08 for the time spent lets hear from you what your good baits were for 08.......

[Joe M]

Mine were the same as the last few years
Trolling 1-Wileys 2-Tuff Shads 3-Legends
Casting 1-Hellhounds 2-Bobbie baits 3-Suicks 4-bucktails
This is the order of my success trolling and casting.

[Muskiekid]

I've been trolling (mostly, but do cast) Maryland reservoirs for Tiger Muskellunge for the last eleven years. My three most productive baits are as follows (in order of success):

1. 8", perch-colored Believer, staright model. I also took an 8 1/2 pound LM with this bait.
2. Super Shad Rap. Blk/Silver - actually a large Bass bait; great for casting and trolling (especially the prop wash) - blk/silver. About the size of a good-sized Shad
3. Partycrasher: what's a Partycrasher? This is the 8' version of a Hellbender of Waterdog. Very weedless and you troll this bait thru trees, etc. without getting hung up (not very often, but you want a good plugknocker). Will go to 25' with braid. Want to get some big bass while trolling for Muskies? This IS the bait for it. My favorite colors are skunk (black with a white stripe) and (of course) Perch.

The first two baits are available anywhere. The Partycrashers are hard to find and are advertised by Smokey's (most of the tme they don't have any) or Jackson Lures (they do have them and are reasonably priced).

[HBmusky]

some good baits diversafied taking large mouth that awsome good thrill .alot of tigers there ?

[Muskiekid]

Most of our water-supply reservoirs (all are electric only powered lakes for boats) have Tiger Muskellunge in them and no Natural Strain Muskies. Our fingerlings come from PA hatcheries in trade for Striper fingerlings. I've taken a couple of 44" fish and a ton of 36" to 40 " fish. Beautiful but ferocious looking. The big difference I see in Tigers Vs. Naturals is that Tigers are much deeper (generally speaking) than Naturals in the summer. Otherwise, things are pretty much the same for catching both species. I found a 50 1/2" dead in a local lake a couple of years ago and another lake had a 33 pounder found floating in it. The state record is 29# 4 ounces. Unfortunately, stocking has been stopped to prevent the spread of VHS disease. It is now against the law for PA to stock them in Maryland (PA law) and Maryland law also prevents it. Thus, the fishery will dry up in a couple of years as the Tigers (as you know, they don't reproduce) die off.

The Potomac River (above Seneca) has an excellent Natural Strain Musky population that just started appearing a few years ago. Some claim it was illegally stocked, but nobody knows for sure where the fish came from. The fish are reproducing with fish of 35# or so being CPR'd by local experts. The average fish I've seen are about 36" to 40" long with a really nice girth to them thanks to the abundant (soft finned) forage in the river.

There are no Naturals in the lakes at all in Maryland. There has been some recent talk of taking fish from the river and using them to rear fish to stock in the lakes (seems to make sense), but due to budget constraints and the fact that Naturals are much more expensive to rear (they only eat live minnows vs. pellets by Tigers), it may not happen. There's also the question of the fish themselves as to their "diversity!" In other words, if you take a Potomac fish and breed it to another Potomac fish are they "first cousins" resulting in a poor genetic quiality of fish. Kind of like marrying your first cousin (or mama) - in other words inbreeding results in poor quality fish!!

Of course, this has nothing to do with the original content of this thread: lures. I've followed Musky fishing since 1995 (had my own Tiger Muskellunge website/forum for eight years) and have fished exclusively for Tigers with the occasional catch of a pretty good LM now and then. IMHO, the same lures work for Tigers and Natural Strain Muskellunge.

Thanks to the great Musky fishery in PA (I"ve attended some great seminars by Red and Lee Snyder and have seen some great info. here about it on this forum), I've decided to start fishing the lower northeastern lakes (Marburg is one of them) and the "slackwater" areas (damn 5) of the Potomac River. Of course, I have to put a gas motor on my boat to do it! I guess you would say - I have the fever!!

[HBmusky]

intresting story, It does not matter if it was about the post or not I enjoyed it and was very intresting take on things. The patomic is known to have large muskies in it and might be a good choice. PA is a very good fishery and only gets better as the time passes.do to many anglers catch and release plays a big part in pas musky populations. It is being well known around the world for muskies and big ones.

[Muskiekid]

Yep - the great thing about Pennsyvlania is "it's in Pennsyvlania!" Nice place, nice people and you have the Steelers, great chicken wings, beer and polish sausage. On top of that, it's not too far from here.

I've been there a few times fishing and am amazed at the quality of your lakes, rivers and streams. On top of that you have Cabelas, Bass Pro, Gander Mountain, Harley Davidson, Martin Guitars and Sheetz stores!! Of course, if one were to visit the Harrisburg Sport Show, one would have to agree that you have some pretty darn good hunting too! On top of that you still have the small town atmosphere along with Ground Hog day! Awesome.

Thanks for your nice response. We can all learn from one another.