Northwest Fishing Reports

Still a virgin.. No Muskie, is this a ok time of year or when would be better?? Was there for a day last week and had one fallower and one hit but no joy. Any suggestions on lure, area ect. Thank you....the gman

I reccommend throwing a bulldawg..a pounder would work great! Good luck up there!

Well about 5th cast had a good fish hit my fire tiger crank bait and after two good runs he showed me how to tie a better knot on a downed log . That evening my son caught his first tiger Muskie though and got it to the boat, 40 inch and heavy. I had two fallows that evening but no fish to the boat. Went out in the morning and hadthree fallows but no joy. Lots of weeds and there was a outfit logging the shoreline for weed spraying. A lot of alge clumps on the surface also.

I will be back....

It sounds like you had a good trip. One thing I would suggest; when getting follows without bites = change bait size. Up there if I get two or three follows without being hit I swap to another one of the three standard colors (firetiger, perch, rainbow) in a size smaller or bigger. If you have a partner, both of you change sizes (one up, one down). And, I can't believe I'm going to let this go, throw a topwater when getting follows on Curlew.
You can throw pounders until you are sore and tired (37 casts), then switch to a Jake or Rapala in perch and enjoy the trip.

okay..downsize to mag dawgs then. C'mon real musky fishermen throw dawgs! I dont throw pounders..bad shoulder..but they work..mags,econo,double dawgs and reg dawgs do the job as well. Something completely different than 6" swim baits and small bucks and the big girls love em'!
I read somewhere where guys bounce baits off their heads once or twice in the weeds and some how hook these fish in their mouth. How does that happen? Not a typical or common way to fish muskies that I am aware of, am I missing something?
See yah Esox catch a big one would ya?

i do agree with your topwater comment 100%..

Do they normally hit it when it hits the water or do you want to drag it by them

They are a fish, they do both.

If there is a little chop on the water it's even better. MH; you and Muskieguy are the only people who throw big bulldawgs! MG was always using the springdawgs and the regular in sucker and LOTW perch. Did you corrupt him with those monsterous things? I know he has a huge box full of that stuff (heck I used 99% of it the first time we went out I was so excited). I dig get a nice looking Dawg in perch from Musky Shop, justy haven't been up there since June.

Ha ha.. nope i was corrupted by a fellow musky chaser from Minoqua heck I think 8 years ago. He was throwing those 1 lb sponges down at Mayfield..for such a little guy he could chuck those things for days. Different fishery back in Wisconsin..super serious guys..big baits always produced big fish back there. And the species is way different than here. You can't park on a flat and bounce 6"swim baits off their noggins when they are not hungry. You'd get laughed off the water back in the midwest and Canada..Then a buddy from Chicago got me addicted to the dawgs.He has fished Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and the Hayward area with great success.he corrupted me actually! I did see MG throwing the suzy suckers and such at Silver and Newman..got me to think this guy is goood! And he is..best musky chaser and catcher over there on the dry side..plus he is a great guy to boot. Got Kendall to chuck them now hes got a pretty good stick along with Doug Wood also a good stick. If u can find a red body with black tail mag dawg let me know..killer bait over here on Tapps but its been destroyed by tigers and cannot find anymore..thanks for getting me in contact with MG..
Good luck out there Esox.

MG gave me a red and silver ducktail buck (one of three he had) a few years ago. It's my favorite by far and I think his too. I think the red/silver combo is underutilized, which is fine by me. Silver lake seems to be a place where purple gets noticed. I had a day trolling out there that was off the charts productive with a fire blade (#5 french)/purple maribou buck that had 1oz. weight in front of the 36" leader. And then I found a tree on the east side...No luck with the lure retriever on that one. Red and black tail dawg huh? Ok, beginning the search!