How to Approach Muskie Fishing with a Partner

[$Ranger]

I'm a novice when it comes to fishing muskies and would appreciate some thoughts from more experienced musky fishermen on the best way to work water when fishing with a partner. If it is true that more aggressive fish will hit noisy top water baits and lesser so need a more finesse (at least to noisy prop baits) approach is it better for the first guy through to be throwing a quiet bait (bucktail or jerkbait) and the second to be throwing the more aggressive lures?

Thought being that if the fish are hesitant to bite, that by throwing a noisy lure you might turn them off?

Appreciate your thoughts.

[BreezyPoint]

We always ran a top water from the front and a bucktail or similar bait from the back. Also had a rod set aside with a Suick as the 'comeback' lure. The guy up front would get a lot of follows, but at least 60-70% of the fish were caught by the guy in the back. My son and I would always fish cooperatively to increase our catch rate and this worked very well.

When one guy got a follow, he would figure 8 the fish and the second guy would grab the Suick and pitch it where the fish came from after the fish left. We caught countless fish on the Suick on 'comeback' casts.

I can't explain why the guy in the back caught more fish than the guy in front when using the top water. All I can think is that top water drew fish into the area and the timing was right for the trailering lure to contact the fish.

One rule we had was only the person with the follow could figure 8 a fish. We tried two people figure eighting at the same time and it seemed to confuse the fish.

Hope this gives you some ideas.




Frank

[$Ranger]

Sounds like solid advice. Thanks

Kory

[AllenW]

Originally Posted by $Ranger

Sounds like solid advice. Thanks

Kory

x2
We had good luck also with the guy in back running some sort of jerk bait like a reef hawg and the guy up front running the speed/burning lures like a bucktail, many time a fish would hit the slower jerk bait after losing interest in the front guys bait.

Also running the slower baits give us old farts a chance to relax for a bit.

Variety is the spice of life, and how to catch stubborn fish.

Al