Northwest Fishing Reports

Well, here it goes. Typically muskie anglers (around here, Spokane) have been reluctant to mention their favorite bait for tricking ole' toothy. It's only my opinion, and no one has to agree but, if we have more successful muskie anglers; then we'll have a larger voice to ask that more lakes be stocked with these critters.
Besides, lures are only a tiny portion of the whole picture involved. Favorite Lures:
Charlie swinbait- trout. Careful, these guys can handle 1 or 2 fish then they are toast.

Bulldawg, spring 6"- black and natural sucker. Worked with stop and go retrieve, deep or shallow.

Musky Candy spinner bait- yellow/nickel and black/nickel blades in clear water. White/nickel and chart/nickle in dark water. Small and heavy enough to cast a mile.

Buchertail 500 and 700 bucktails- yellow/nickel, black/nickel, white/nickel, rust/orange. 500's work great in clear water and cast very well, 700's have bigger blade and profile for darker water. Buchertail willow leaf bucktails for deeper water- black/nick for clear, black/chart and black/orange blade for dark.

Suicks- perch & yellow perch. Caught my first muskie on one of these so they always see action and do get hit.

Gliders-the Phantom (6" model), just started using it but it has awsome action that I think will be popular.

Trolling- I don't do a lot of this, I prefer to cast.
I always set-up a milk run and hit that with my first choice arsenal. Of course it changes as the season progresses and spring lures are the smallest of the season for me. I start with windblown shore line structure and work my way out.
Pretty standard stuff, I think.

yeah i've never understood why some people want to be so secretive about what they use to catch these great fish. unless of coarse it's at a tournament in which case mums the word.

i have had the most success with bucktails. i've tried some other things but when it gets slow i always come back to old faithful, a grimreaper bucktail. and wouldn't you know it they stopped making the one i have the best luck with! good thing i have two. anything black with red seems to get a good response at merwin and mayfield. but i'm sure if i tried some other dark combo color i'd get some action too.

I'm also primarily a bucktail guy and I happen to like Musky Busters because they have thick blades which enable me to fish them deep. If you are using baits with soft plastic tails, yes, they will get chewed up. The cement that sticks to that plastic is PVC pipe cement used by plumbers which you can get at any hardware story. I carry a can of it in my tackle box and it repairs the tails good enough to extend their life for a couple or three more fish. But yeah, you gotta buy several extra tails for those lures, unless you're not catching any fish, in which case it's not a problem. ;-) (wink)

Gotta put in a nod for the Ducktail Lures spinnerbaits and the Bikini Bait Co Turmoil. My "go to" baits the last couple of years.

Almost forgot about the Baby Bucher Depthraider.

muskey guy

Which lakes are you fishing and what time of year. I live in the spokane valley and fished newman a few times last year for muskey but never got a bite. I bought an idaho liscense and I hear houser is a great lake so i was wondering if you ever fish there and are there any more words of wisdom you want to give up.

Jay;
I fish Silver, Newman and Curlew the most often as I live in liberty Lake; where there are no muskies. I start with Silver and Newman in the second week of April. I fish in 2-5 feet of water on the north ends of these lakes primarily, looking for structure and old or greening weeds that have good sun exposure. I fish the docks at Newman along the east side all year but they are usually good this time of year as they help warm up the water close to them. I just pound the shore starting a few hundred yards east of the boat launch with swim baits, crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Newman is not an easy lake to fish, there are way too many pleasure boaters out there during the summer, it kills the fishing. It is better in the spring and fall, for me anyway. I use brighter colors and larger baits on Newman because the water is dark. Spinnerbaits are my favorite to cast into weeds. My pal caught a huge muskie out of there 2 years ago while using one of my set-ups and he's been hooked every since. That fish was 47 - 48 inches long and released, I think it's still on the reports page for newman. I haven't tried trolling newman, I'm a caster set in my ways.
Silver is nice and clear this time of year. So I use smaller, natural colored baits. Black is my favorite, followed by trout and perch colored cranks and swimbaits. If your not fishing with swimbaits, you've really got to start. There fantastic on this lake. My favorite is the Charlie Bait. BUT these little guys don't hold up to muskies well. Check them carefully after each hook-up or strike. I work the north and south ends of Silver equally so I don't really favor one over the other. But I did just nab a near 40" fish out of the south end so I might spend more time down there. Silver has a little bit more activity on it because the fish have a larger strike window in the clear water. I use a 7' medium/hvy set-up with 12 or 15 lb. florocarbon line and a 15 or 30 lb. terminator leader. When I use the 15 lb. leader I am extra careful when pulling in fish. I let them run a bit first. On Newman I use heavy action 7' & 7 1/2' rods with 50 lb. leaders.
I always have a yellow or white bucktail spinnerbait ready, both are good producers for me.
I'm sorry you spent that money on an Idaho license though, Hauser is a lost cause. The run off from the houses and development have ruined this lake. In addition several A-holes were spear fishing as many tiger muskies as they could out of Hauser a few years ago. They proudly proclaimed "we killed all the big ones in that lake". I called the fish and game dept. on them when I saw them at the boat launch while night fishing. I don't know what ever happened to them, but they did a hell of a job on that lake. Maybe in several years it will rebound, I caught my first and biggest muskies out of there too.
Sorry, that's pretty long winded. I'll keep it short and simple in the future.

muskie guy,

The more the marry. Thanks for the info that is some good stuff. I live about five minutes from newman next to east valley so I will be doing a lot more fishing there this year. I do understand how it can be a tough lake to fish have never had great sucsess on this lake. Thats to bad to hear about houser however thats not the only place in Idaho I fish so not to dissapointed about buying the liscense. I think i might go out this week or weekend and try for them I have started to fish swim baits but need to add some to the arsonal. Thanks for the info again and keep it comming. P.S. If your ever intrested in showing some of your tricks let me know sounds like we are a stones throw away from each other.

Hey kids,
All time favorite lure is a yellow bucktail. A #5 mepps gold spinner with a modified (hand tied) yellow feathers. And a sodered single trailer hook. Thats my and my fathers' secret for hooking and landing these critters. Second favorite is an original Bobbie Bait. My pops knew and fished with the maker of these fantastic lures for several years. An old dependable...have a great day!
The photo in my profile is actually my 18 year old son, caught his first legal musky. At Lake Tapps. In Sept of 2006.....YELLOW BUCKTAIL!! A 40 inch beast...Can't wait for Tapps to get filled.

I am the whimp. My arms are two messed up to throw the 2 and 3 oz stuff all day. I bat behind Mark and Todd with my small light baits. They probably out fish me 8 out of 10 trips, but I'm old and it don't take a lot to make me happy.
Any way my wife says size don't matter.
Bill

MH; I love yellow bucktails too! My favorite at Newman and Curlew lakes. I really like Shumway's little funky chicken spinnerbait too. I have never used a Bobbi bait in all the years I've been buying lures. Which size do you prefer there? I prefer the 7" weighted Suick for my jerkbaits.