Shhh Quiet

[QuickSet]

How easily are musky spooked? meaning do you pay a lot of attention to how your lure hits the water? Most of the time I am cranking that 3+ ounce plug out there as far as I can to cover as much water as possible, however a direct result of this is a massive "kerplunk" splash on the water surface. It is really hard to avoid with topwater plugs, but Ty, when you are throwing a bucktail is it best to try and time the landing and baitcast reeling to make your lure do a stealthy dive/slip silently into the water like an osprey? How do you avoid this with larger wide surface area lures?

[Snizz]

Long soft casts...

[Trav]

Lob it, but don't launch it. High enough that you aren't bulleting in there, but low enough that it isn't a mortar coming in.

Clear as mud. And I haven't been doing this long enough to be one to listen to. So maybe it doesn't matter that much.

Trav

[ryanmitchell]

You see the dudes on the shows and they are making short effortless casts. Not over exerting. When I first starting throwing I would launch as far as I could, but it wore me down quicker. I try and make efficient casts to good locations, medium exertion. Saves the stain on my lower back. I really find it hard not to make a splash with the bigger baits though, inevitable. I have been told that obnoxious splash sparks the fishes interest. I guess it could go either way. Osprey, ha!

[RobertTB]

It might matter if the water is flat calm, whereupon one might want to cast well beyond the target area then retrieve the lure through the zone, if possible. The splashdown could possibly arouse the curiosity of a predator fish in hiding and when the bait gets within striking distance, it might get eaten. This is good.

If the wind is blowing and the chop is somewhat robust, I don't think sound will make that much of a difference. It never ceases to amaze me that a muskie can hit the lure after about 3 cranks on the reel handle after the lure lands. It is precisely at such a moment that I, too, wonder if the sound mattered. I reckon it didn't hurt !

I get the feeling that a fair sized muskie is not too very fearful of other critters swimming in the waters, for the most part. Boats and human shadows, yes perhaps. However, it has been known to happen that hands and feet are fair game as far as some muskie are concerned. I think about that when I reach over the side of the boat to lip a largemouth, or pliar out the hook on a smaller pike for a water release. Whoa.

[Ty Sennett]

I think a loud splash is ok when the fish are really active but it goes against you when the fish are in a neutral state of mind. I try to land as soft as possible with every cast. I think there are times when the longer the cast the better also. There are also times when precise casts are more important than long casts. On thick weed edges precise casts are a must but on huge flats like Pete's bar type areas a long cast can be good.