by Don Wittenberger, November 06, 2006

I learned musky fishing in the Midwest, where the sport is well established. The first time I fished Wisconsin’s famed Chippewa Flowage, where 50,000 anglers catch 3,000 muskies a year, I caught a musky within an hour. Perhaps that doesn’t make me an expert, but being a Wisconsin native entitles me to end sentences with "eh!"

A tiger musky is the offspring of a muskellunge and a northern pike. This hybrid occurs naturally, but Washington’s tiger muskies are hatchery-bred from eggs supplied by the Minnesota DNR. WDFW has planted them in Mayfield, Merwin, Tapps, Evergreen, Curlew, Newman, and Silver (Spokane County) lakes to control nuisance fish. Candidates for future stocking include Sprague and Wynoochee lakes. Being sterile, their population can be sustained only by continued stocking. Due to egg supply issues, WDFW recently considered rearing its own female broodstock muskellunge in Newman Lake, but has decided to continue relying on eastern sources for now.

As a gamefish tiger muskies are large, aggressive, and thrilling fighters. They make powerful runs, leap in the air, and spit hooks with violent head shakes. Never give ‘em slack line eh! They are fished like muskellunge, but are considered a little easier to catch. Compared to the Midwest our lakes are deeper, have clearer water, fewer weeds and less structure, and receive much less fishing pressure, but fishing techniques are similar.

WDFW biologists estimate our stocked lakes have about 0.5 tiger muskies per acre, and believe the populations are stable. Therefore WDFW hasn’t proposed more restrictive regulations than the current 36-inch minimum size and 1-fish daily bag limit. But tiger muskies aren’t plentiful and take several years to reach trophy size, so release ‘em eh! Otherwise we won’t have good fishing in the future.

In their native range, muskies prefer suckers but eat a variety of forage. Studies at Mayfield Lake indicated its tiger muskies ate mostly squawfish, but at Curlew Lake they also fed on rainbow trout in winter and spring. They apparently eat very few kokanee. According to WDFW, they’re not decimating squawfish populations, and if people see fewer squawfish it’s because they’re hiding and using cover more.

Locating Tiger Muskies

From an angler’s point of view, the most significant fact about tiger muskies is their scarcity. WDFW claims Mayfield and Merwin lakes have populations of 1,000 or more, but as an angler I’m skeptical of those numbers. In any case, locating them is a challenge and they seem to disappear at times. To eliminate "dead water" and figure out where they’re likely to be, let’s start with some general facts about them.

Tiger muskies make seasonal and daily movements, and their behavior is affected by weather, wind, water temperature, light, and other factors. In late spring they return from winter depths to warm shallow areas. During summer and fall they relate to structure and cover, cruise flats and dropoffs, and suspend in open water. They’re more likely to be shallow during warm weather and low light periods. On windy days, active fish may go to a windward shore to feed on prey pushed there by wind and current. They’re not a schooling fish and as a general rule are scattered but may congregate in particular areas because of forage or other reasons. Like all wild animals they’re wary of humans, but are very curious and will leave cover to investigate a boat or lure.

With this information we know to look for them where there’s baitfish and cover. But they’ll also hold in deep water near feeding areas, and cruise on dropoffs and the bottom. One time, fishing a Minnesota lake, I saw about 30 muskies in one small bay, and eventually caught one but not until dusk when they couldn’t see me anymore.

Anglers who catch muskies consistently don’t fish haphazardly. They methodically search areas where fish might be. Maps and depthfinders are useful but the best search tool is your eyes. Don’t gaze off into space while retrieving – look for follows. Some followers come to the boat, but others are deep and hard to spot. Polarized glasses make these fish easier to see. When you raise a fish note the depth, topography, and cover. These details may reveal a pattern you can use to find more fish.

"Fan casting" is the most efficient way to fish weedbeds and flats because you don’t have to reposition your boat every few casts. When drifting shorelines or dropoffs, space your casts about 20 feet apart. It’s not necessary to cast right to the fish because tiger muskies will chase lures. It’s more essential to keep moving and cover water. Boat positioning always is important, and musky anglers must be proficient at boat control.

Bucktails are excellent search lures because they have tremendous flash and vibration that fish can detect from a long distance. This allows you to spread casts farther apart and cover more water. They also have the best hooking percentage of any lure. Spinnerbaits and crankbaits can be used as search lures.

If you’re not getting action, fish may be present but not showing themselves, or your presentation could be faulty. For example, once my party spent several days pounding shallow cover to no avail. Then I caught one deeper than we’d been fishing. This pattern subsequently produced most of our fish on that trip. If favorite spots or patterns aren’t producing try something else – don’t get stuck in a rut eh! Catching a fish doesn’t always mean you’ve discovered a "spot"; it may have been a roaming fish.

Catching Tiger Muskies

After you’ve located tiger muskies, you still must coax them to strike. Many times you can’t catch a fish the first time you see it, and one of the keys to successful musky angling is going back and working fish you’ve raised. It may take a while, as they can go up to three weeks between feedings, but they’ll often stay in the same place for several days, which gives you a chance at these fish.

Tiger muskies are most active in water above 64 degrees. Fishing under blue skies often is tough while cloudy weather with a surface ripple or chop can make a great fishing day! An approaching storm may trigger a bite, but periods after cold fronts are notoriously bad for fishing. There may be short "feeding windows" occurring only a couple of times a day. Dawn and dusk can be prime times during the dog days of summer. But tiger muskies are unpredictable, so my advice is to fish whenever you can.

Tiger muskies like to use ambush points and expend as little energy as possible to capture prey. Therefore, hiding places are key spots and a presentation resembling a weak or wounded prey fish is more likely to be struck. I try to avoid giving a fish too good a look at my lure, so he won’t realize it’s a fraud.

Don’t let affection for favorite lures dictate your tactics. Choose a lure with the correct depth, action, and retrieve speed for the situation. For example, to fish shallow weeds use an unweighted bucktail with a large blade. The blade’s lift will keep the lure above the weed tops. But if you’re repeatedly fouling, a single-hook spinnerbait is a better choice (though you’ll lose more fish because of its lesser hooking ability). Lure selection is more complicated than I can explain here, but experience on the water will give you a feel for whether you’re using the right lure. Here’s a rundown of popular musky lure types:

Bucktails. If there’s an all-purpose musky lure this is it. More muskies are caught on bucktails than all other lures combined. They fish faster than other lures because you simply reel them in. I’ve already discussed their role in search tactics. Give the rod tip a "pop" to start the blade revolving and don’t let it stop, even momentarily, as this will turn off the fish every time. There are a couple of tricks you should know about. One, "tick" weed tops with the blade. Two, change speed. These are triggering tactics. In general, fishing bucktails is easy and anyone with baitcasting skills can learn it in a few minutes.

Crankbaits. Shallow and diving crankbaits are fun to use but subtleties of depth, speed, and action will determine whether you catch fish on them. They’re not the best search lures because it takes longer to retrieve them, but they can go deeper than bucktails and resemble swimming baitfish. Stopping a crankbait and letting it rise can be a deadly tactic. I love to fish crankbaits because they offer scope for artistry.

Other lures. Surface lures (a.k.a. "topwaters") work best if the water isn’t flat calm and don’t work at all when the fish are deep. Jerkbaits, pull baits, and twitch baits can be worked slowly and in tight spots. "Ripping" minnow baits is an effective tactic. Jigs and reapers, creatures, and plastics can be fished ultra-slow, at any depth, and are the only practical option for cold water or very deep fish, inasmuch as WDFW doesn’t permit use of live fish bait. (Fishing live suckers accounts for many late-season muskies in the Midwest.)

It’s not necessary to "match the hatch." I used to believe Washington tiger muskies are color-finicky, but not anymore. Tony Rizzo, a Wisconsin guide, wrote in his books that he catches muskies on lures with the paint knocked off to bare wood. I think what happens is we catch fish on certain colors because that’s what we fish, then we conclude those are the only colors that catch fish. Don’t get worked up about lure colors eh! The key is visibility – that’s why I personally prefer bucktails with nickel blades and red or chartreuse tails.

The best way to learn how to fish various types of lures is by watching an experienced musky angler, but if that’s not possible videotapes are available that demonstrate techniques.

Musky angling literature invariably exhorts you to figure-8 lures after every cast. This advice comes from Midwest anglers fishing stained water. In our clear water, you should see the follows and figure-eighting with no fish present just wastes time. In low light or waves when you can’t see underwater, then yes, do it. A figure-8, "J", or direction change is a triggering tactic. The fish thinks the "prey" has detected its presence and is trying to escape. Sometimes this works, but it’s not sure-fire. To execute a figure-8 put the rod tip in the water and make a smooth continuous sweeping motion without stopping the lure. Tiger muskies possess blazing speed but can’t turn on a dime, so make your figure-8s as wide as possible. You need a long rod for this.

If a follower loses interest and turns away, your partner should immediately cast a different lure in the direction it swam. If that doesn’t work, leave it alone and come back later. You have a good chance of catching that fish if you don’t overpressure it. Once I was fishing at Mayfield Lake with a friend who raised a tiger musky on a spinnerbait at 10:30 a.m. It chased several figure-8s but didn’t strike. I said, "Let’s rest it a while." We fished other areas, ate lunch, and returned at 2:30 p.m. He put on a different lure and the fish slammed his first cast! No one knows why a musky hits one lure but not another. Whatever the reason, you’ll improve your odds by showing a reticent fish a different lure. But don’t waste time changing lures aimlessly. I typically use only a couple of lures during a fishing day.

A tiger musky’s strike may be bone-jarring or undetectable. Many strikes feel like the lure is snagged. Often, I’m not sure it’s a fish – then I see a flash in the water as the fish turns. If you think you’ve got a strike, set the hook hard, and more than once! Tiger muskies have bony mouths, and it takes sharp hooks and a hard jerk to hook them. Use your arms and shoulders – that’s what God gave them to you for eh! Make that dude’s eyeballs rattle in his skull! This isn’t trout fishing! File hooks to a chisel point and always use a wire, hard mono, or fluorocarbon leader.

When a fish strikes, my partners and I instantly become a flurry of choreographed activity. The first thing we do is get our other lines out of the water. A net man is designated, and the odd man’s job is to stay out of the way. He may be assigned to get the release tools or raise the motors. Tiger muskies have a repertoire of tricks for spitting hooks. I try to make the fish fight near the surface so it can’t get into bottom junk. Frequently they’ll rush the boat. When they go under the keel the only thing you can do is stick the rod all the way under water and work it around to the other side. It’s risky to net them "green" but don’t play them to total exhaustion. Despite their spectacular antics, most throw in the towel after a couple of minutes, but don’t trust ‘em – they’ll often make a last-ditch effort at the boat. One repeatedly slammed its head against my boat trying to dislodge the lure. A boated tiger musky usually thrashes energetically, and if you don’t keep your boat tidy, prized cameras may go overboard and loose lures could end up in your leg or worse eh!

Netting tiger muskies requires skill and quick wits. Don’t dip the net in the water too soon or the fish may see it and go crazy. Always net a tiger musky head-first – or he may come flying out of the net! Sometimes the net man has to think and act fast. Mike Nielsen’s near-record 31.15-lb. tiger musky charged the boat and I netted it only 10 seconds into the fight. As we hoisted it aboard, the struggling fish began to fall out of the net, so I grabbed the tail with my free hand and pushed it back in. It was a close call and Mike was fortunate to have a quick-witted net man. After taking it to Speelyai Hatchery for weighing he released it in Speelyai Bay.

Releasing Tiger Muskies

A few anglers prefer landing muskies with a "cradle" but these require two people. I use a salmon net. Purists promote "water release" but if tiger muskies are handled properly 100% should survive. Some people believe holding a musky horizontally is better for the fish but a Wisconsin study indicated there’s no difference in survival rates. I use visegrips to extract hooks, and cut the hooks with a pair of boltcutters if necessary. Jaw spreaders can make this job easier. Gently place the fish in the water and hold it by the tail until it pulls free and swims away. In a few cases you may have to hold it upright with a hand under the belly until it revives.



Releasing a Tiger Muskie

General Tips

Physically and mentally, musky fishing is demanding. You stand up all day casting large lures with heavy gear, and going a long time between fish can rattle your nerves and shake your self-confidence. But that’s normal in this sport. If you’re doing it right – using the full power of your intellect to hunt down, outfox, and outfight the greatest freshwater predator – you’ll be too busy to get bored. And there’s always interesting things to see on the water. This game isn’t entirely about fishing.

Musky tackle isn’t available locally, but there are good mail order sources, including Rollie and Helen’s Musky Shop, Thorne Brothers, Pastika’s, and Just Musky, who have retail stores in Wisconsin or Minnesota, web sites, and on-line ordering.

Tackle tips. Long rods make casting large lures less fatiguing, hooksets easier, and wider figure-8s. They’re also better for fighting heavy fish. Your first musky rod should be a 7-foot to 7½-foot medium-heavy, fast-action bucktail rod. Add specialized rods later if desired. I like Garcia 5000-series reels because they’re durable and inexpensive. Superline in 65# to 80# test is popular in the Midwest, but I prefer Cortland’s Musky Mono in 25# test for our clear water because it won’t spook line-shy fish. Essential tools include a hook file, pliers, jaw spreaders, and fish-handling gloves. My collapsible 12-foot boat pole from Cabela’s cost $30 and probably has rescued $1,000 worth of lures. I carry a first aid kit in my boat because handling muskies can be dangerous – that’s also the primary reason why I keep boltcutters handy when landing fish.

An excellent source of information for new musky anglers is, "The Complete Guide to Musky Hunting" by Saric and Heiting, which is available from Rollie’s or Musky Hunter Magazine for $16.95. In my opinion, this is the best introductory book available.

A Fish Story
I arrived at the Chippewa Flowage late in the day and didn’t feel like fishing, but another musky angler prodded me, so I motored a little ways from the dock to a channel between two islands. There’s an old Indian cemetery on one of these islands. (If you’ve fished "The Chip" you know where I’m talking about.) I noticed there was a dead tree in the channel in about 12 feet of water. I figured if muskies moved through the channel to get to feeding areas a fish might be resting there. For that depth, I chose a weighted bucktail with a willowleaf blade because it sinks quickly, that had a chartreuse blade and tail which would be visible in the fading light and the Flowage’s dark-stained water. I made a couple of practice casts wide of the tree to get the range, then cast a few feet beyond the tree, "popped" my rod tip to start the blade revolving, and began a slow retrieve. After 3 or 4 turns of the reel handle I felt a solid hit and saw a bronze flash in the water as the fish turned. I set the hook hard, twice, and – fish on! After an exciting fight during which the fish leaped several times and dived under the boat I landed my first Chippewa Flowage musky. (I didn’t have a net with me, so I got a firm grip on the lure and hauled the fish aboard. I’d done this before. I don’t recommend it. It’s dangerous. I use a net now because I’m going soft in my old age.)

I tell you this story to illustrate how I evaluated a situation, chose an appropriate lure, and employed the right tactics. When the pieces came together it was very gratifying to be proved right! This was the first musky caught in my new boat. Even better, I caught it at the same spot where Louis Spray hooked the world record muskellunge in 1949. Since then, my boat and I have had many adventures together. I departed Wisconsin on June 24, 2003 and drove into a huge storm out on the Great Plains. During that incredible night there were 67 tornadoes on the ground in South Dakota alone, and one of them almost got me! But that’s a story for another time eh!

Parting Thoughts

I said above, "This game isn’t entirely about fishing." Actually, for me, it’s more about friends. Mike and Tony, especially, and Vince in Portland who lost his wife recently but is out there inventing cold season tactics and Tom, Greg, and Rick in Wisconsin and Steve in Indiana and a long list of others. They’re guys who served in our wars and as cops and business people and a computer expert and a veterinarian and a lawyer like me so on. Ordinary folks doing extraordinary things. Thanks, guys – without you, I’d have to fish alone.

Sure, there are frustrations in this game – missed strikes, mistakes, lost fish. Not to mention jet skis and water skiers! But there also are places to go, things to see – and magical moments and unforgettable memories. In the end, it’s how we’ve chosen to enjoy some of the limited time that God gives us here.

One more thing. These magnificent fish are His creatures. Please take good care of them.



Don with tiger musky. Note the cloudy skies and surface chop.

Copyright © 2006 by Don Wittenberger; all rights reserved. This article may not be copied, distributed, or republished without permission of the author.