Walleyes eat minnows and Musky eat Fish?

[bait size]

Is that the general idea one should keep in mind when trying to pick a proper sized lure? Also how do you match lures to a adult perch or cisco, ect. are fish bigger in fall or once a adult fish are they always this way?

[M.M.]

That's the general idea but nothing is 100%. Every spring there are several muskies (and sometimes incredibly large ones) caught on jigs and minnows by walleye anglers. Bass anglers also catch muskies on bass sized presentations, especially in the springtime.

Most musky anglers will use smaller baits at the beginning of the season and gradually increase the size of their baits as the season progresses, more or less matching the size of the baitfish.

There are however many musky anglers who use large baits from the first cast of the year right through to the last cast of season and they seem to catch as many muskies as anyone and usually pretty decent sized ones too. So the importance of bait size is more or less left up to conjecture.

Color and action of the baits is likely more important than the size of baits. One aspect of bait selection that is more or less universally accepted is slow in the early spring and again in late fall when the water temps are low. Faster sppeds are used in the warmer weather/water periods when fish metabolism is at it's higest.

Two other fairly common aspects of bait selection are to use natural colors in clear water and brighter colors in stained water conditions. Dark colors (black/brown, etc) offer the best silhouette when fishing low light periods.

Hope this helps some.

Cheers and tight lines,
Musky Mike

[Kingfisher]

I fish the 6.75 inch Talonz Little Claw all year. I just caught over 15 fish in Canada last week on this lure . Any lure between 4 and 12" can be effective if the forage is the same size. Lets face it 12" perch are 13 to 15 years old so they are in the water all the time. The same goes for suckers and bass,Walleyes and other Musky forage. If you are fishing Muskies in a lake full of 6 inch perch where its rare to catch a perch in the 8 to 10 inch range . The best lure would be a 6 to 10 inch perch pattern lure. If all they see is 6 inch perch all day an 8 inch perch is whacked almost as soon as its seen. We have proved this theory using perch as live bait in a Michigan lake in our Upper peninsula. My wife would catch 50 little dink 5 to 6 inch perch before catching one that was 7 to 9 inches. That was the one we put on for bait and they all got whacked. Our best Lures on this body of water were 6.75 to 8 inch natural perch patterns. If you have lake full of 20 inch lake trout and the Muskies are big and fat then I would say fish 12 to 15 inch lures in Lake trout patterns all year. Knowing the forage base determines bait selection. Kingfisher