Long Bomb Topwater Muskies! + Musky Topwater Tips!
Category: Cool Video
Apr 16th, 2019 by Keith Worrall 500
Modified Apr 16th, 2019 at 9:35 AM
Long Bomb Topwater Muskies! + Musky Topwater Tips!
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Fishing topwater lures for muskies is in many ways easy, but there are some very important things that you must do in order to increase your catching consistency. First, I always recommend to my customers that they keep their rod tip in a lower position. The main reason for this is to provide a little forgiveness for in the case that a sudden strike startles you, causing you to pull up on the rod tip and set the hook too early. This is probably the easiest mistake to make when fishing topwater lures but it can be avoided by lowering the position of your rod.
Another important tip for topwater musky fishing is, if you have a musky following your TR (you can see the telltale wake) keep the pace of the lure consistent and DO NOT slow the lure down. Some anglers mistakenly believe that by slowing the lure down the musky will essentially “run into the lure” and have to eat it. Experience has shown me that this is not the case. You must keep the pace of your retrieve consistent and in some cases, increasing your speed can help too.
It helps to think about this from an ecological point of view. The musky is a top predator and it feeds opportunistically on almost everything else that lives around it. When an animal is being chased by a predator generally speaking the “last thing” it is going to do is slow down! Instead the animal being chased will speed up and try to avoid being eaten. For this very reason I do not “slow” my retrieve speed down when cranking in a TopRaider because I it does not mimic the natural flow of the predator-prey relationship.
Lastly, and likely one of the most important tips to remember, is to ALWAYS finish every cast with a good figure-8 and to bring your topwater lure underwater during the figure-8. While some anglers have success figure-8’ing their topwater lure on the surface I have found a high level of success figure-8’ing my topwater lures underwater during the figure-8. I think this is very important for a number of reasons. First, the transition from the lure running on top of the surface to underwater can trigger strikes simply because it is a change. And secondly, I feel that underwater figure-8’s mimic the natural behavior of many different species that muskies feed on such as muskrats, ducks, loons and so forth. These prey species dive underwater as they eat and swim about the lake and I feel that this behavior should be replicated during the topwater figure-8.
Whether you are new to musky hunting or a veteran angler, topwater fishing for muskies is one of the most exciting things to experience and you can fish topwater lures from dawn till dusk and even throughout the entire day with high success. Try applying some of these tips on your next hunt and hopefully they will help you put a nice musky in the net.