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Are you in a Musky Slump? How to change your bad luck.
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Get Back in the Game!

By Tom Dietz

Tips to help you work though mid-season “slumps” when everything seems to be going wrong on the water.

Fellow musky hunter and long time friend Steve Heiting and I worked our way along a mid-lake weed bar at first dark on a lake in Vilas County, Wisconsin. Working his Ranger Boat expertly along the weed edge, Steve opted to throw a jointed Bucher Depthraider while I stayed with a top water lure since Steve and I had each missed a fish on surface baits on this particular evening. My Super Topraider hit the water with a not so subtle “PLOOCH! The lure began it’s commotion in the darkness, a combination of chattering and popping that sounded awesome in the stillness of the early June night. Suddenly, the steady drone of the Super Topraider was interrupted by a huge slurp, and the battle was on. The fish immediately headed for deeper water, head shaking and bull dogging the whole time. I hollered “Steve! This is a good fish here! He proceeded to reel in promptly and get the Frabill net ready. After about a minute or so into the battle, she inexplicably threw the lure! I was very dejected afterwards, as this was the fifth fish I had hooked and lost this spring (though I had boated four other fish as well) and I realized I had been victimized by an early season “slump”. The purpose of this article is to talk about the times when no matter how sharp your hooks are, or how good your equipment is, or how good of a body of water you are on, you simply cannot buy a nice musky in the boat. As musky hunters, we all go through these on the water struggles and there are some things we can all do to change our angling success for the better.

The makings of a musky “slump”

A Major League Baseball player who is used to batting a particular average will sometimes, for no apparent reason, become mired in a mid-season batting slump. Sometimes his approach to the plate hasn’t changed at all. He can hit solid line drives and deep fly balls that just cannot seem to find the hole for a base hit. He becomes more and more frustrated, and eventually begins to change the things that have made him successful in the past. This change often deepens the slump, since he has gotten away from the things that ultimately have made him a successful hitter to begin with. It is no different for musky anglers. We can fish the same lakes, make the same casts, and choose the same lures that have brought us repeated success in the past. We musky fishermen must be very careful not to drastically change the basic things we do in order to be successful when a slump falls upon us. Instead, try mixing things up in your approach while utilizing the same basic techniques and fundamentals while fishing your time proven spots. One can also try new waters for a refreshing and potentially productive change of pace. This will be covered in more detail later in the article.

The slump I mentioned in the beginning of this article was the culmination of one of the worst weeks of musky fishing luck I have ever experienced in 2001! It all started innocently enough, as I had boated four good muskies to start the year up to forty-five inches and had been moving quality fish with regularity. I was fishing in the annual Spring Classic musky tournament held in Eagle River, Wisconsin with good friend Dick Heckel, owner of Heckel’s Marine in Eagle River. I had pre-fished the Eagle River Chain of Lakes on Monday prior to the event and moved four quality fish in my usual spots. Confident, Dick and I headed out Saturday morning ready to compete for the $15,000.00 first place prize. In the first hour of the tournament, I had a vicious strike on a Sledge jerk bait from a very good fish that simply hit the lure wrong. There were big tooth gashes in the very nose of the lure and my wire leader was bent at a ninety degree angle as well as a giant swirl to further rub in what might have been. Although I was very disappointed, I knew we had plenty of time left and plenty of other spots to fish. The day wore on and finally about 3:00 pm in the afternoon I got a strike on a straight model Shallowraider along a complex weed edge on Cranberry Lake. I shouted “Fish!” set the hooks hard and although I had the musky attached my lure, I could immediately tell that something was not quite right from the initial hook set on. I never felt the typical “dead weight” feel of a solidly hooked musky. Then the fish decided to charge the boat in a hurry. I frantically tried to reel up the line and keep good pressure on the fish, while Dick grabbed for my Frabill net. The fish then rose out of the gloom just to give us a good look at her size, and the forty plus inch musky promptly made a violent barrel roll and was off. I was defeated inside, having lost two legal fish for a shot at some serious prize money. Dick was as speechless as I was, and he said he had never seen someone lose two legal fish in a tournament in his life, and expressed his condolences. We both were feeling bad about the turn of events that fateful day, but there was nothing we could have done any differently. Like the first fish I lost that day, I am totally convinced that the second musky simply grabbed the lure funny, and I must have only had her skin hooked or had one hook in the far forward part of her jaw which is mainly bone. I am really fanatic about properly sharpened hooks, but it just was not meant to be. We obviously did not place in the tournament, even though I had another good musky blow up on a Topraider on Sunday morning during the event. My 2001 slump was worsening!

I proceeded to get as much sleep as possible Sunday night since I was pretty disgusted with my bad luck that weekend. I fished in the annual Monday Night Musky League also held in Eagle River and was very excited about the fact that I could get back out on the water to atone for the misfortune of the weekend. Well, fishing conditions could not have been better for trophy fish. We had an impending major storm front rapidly approaching from the west and hot, muggy conditions along with a Full Moon period to boot. I got to the lake immediately after work with my Monday Night League partner, Garth Darton, of Eagle River. I headed to a main lake weed bed that always has a good fish or two hanging around and we proceeded to start fishing, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the incoming storm front. I had a three footer come up and wake behind my Topraider, and I watched it take a pitiful little strike at the lure and miss, only to charge it aggressively right to the boat as if she was mad that she missed the lure or something! I desperately tried a figure eight maneuver in vain and the musky vanished. Disgusted with that missed opportunity (the League is based on total points from legal fish for the entire year), we continued to hit other favorite spots on the lake. I specifically saved one spot to fish just before all heck broke loose with the thunderstorm. As lightning and rain seemed imminent and thunder was booming ominously, I raced over to the weed bed I was saving and again put on a regular Topraider, while Garth threw a bucktail behind me. After about my fourth cast, an enormous wake appeared behind my lure, and for a split second I thought I was back on Lake of the Woods! When I could see her tail out of the water a good ways behind the wake I knew she was a good one. She was charging in so hard, I would have bet good money she would have swallowed the lure on the strike. Well, she kept charging, so I tried every strike trigger trick I know with top water lures, including several speed and directional changes to no avail. I finally ran out of room at boat side and did the obligatory figure-eight maneuver, but she turned away from the lure. I did get a good look at her though and she was an upper forty-inch fish pushing the thirty pound mark. I threw a Dancin’ Raider back on her as a throw back lure with no success, and just before we were forced off of the water, Garth raised her again on a Topraider but she was not as hot as the first time. Another missed opportunity, and my slump worsened, eventually culminating in losing the nice fish with Steve Heiting mentioned at the onset of this article. This string of missed fish or lost fish over a week’s time can be classified as a major slump, and one has to do their best to keep a positive mind set through the whole ordeal. There are plenty of chances to change your luck over the course of a given season, and you need to keep things in perspective and realize that the musky gods will eventually shine on you again. The old saying that “One makes their own luck through hard work and perseverance” holds true, especially while musky fishing. One needs to maintain confidence in their ability to catch muskies and stay versatile, at the same time understanding that streaks of bad luck on the water will end sooner or later.

Busting out of the slump!

When I am faced with bad luck situations like the one I wrote about in the beginning of this article, I find it helpful to keep a good sense of humor about it and maintain a “can and will do” attitude and stay focused. In 2002 I was once again mired in another mini-slump for about two weeks after my successful jaunt to Lake of the Woods. We had boated eighteen muskies up to forty-seven inches in length on that trip to Ontario, yet I just couldn’t buy a nice fish back home on my local waters of northern Wisconsin. My good friend Steve Heiting called me one evening to see if I wanted to go night fishing. I decided to try it, since it was mid-August and warm and I hadn’t done much of that all year and I always enjoyed my boat time with Steve and sharing some laughs together. That night, I caught a fat forty inch musky on a Depthraider, caught an eighteen inch walleye, and missed another high thirties inch fish in a span of two hours. My confidence was re-building, and since there was a full moon phase present I decided to duplicate this pattern at a different lake a few nights later. My boat partner for the evening was long time friend and well known football coach Kip Cramer of Grafton, Wisconsin. We boated three muskies that night up to forty-four inches all after dark. I caught two muskies on Depthraiders up to thirty-eight inches long and Kip banged the forty-four incher on a big black and silver bucktail. The next night, we were certainly chomping at the bit to hit the lake again! Kip and I went out and nailed two more nice fish utilizing the same night bite pattern and using bucktails with glow tape on the blades to allow us to execute proper figure eights at boat side. In a span of five days Coach and I finished up with eight nice muskies ranging in size from thirty-six inches long up to the forty-four inch beauty that Kip caught and released, and we were successful because I opted to try a completely different approach in my fishing tactics. Rather than staying on the deep weed edge and casting in as I usually fish after dark, I mixed things up and positioned my Ranger over the weeds and we cast our lures out over the actual break itself. You can break out of your slump by trying totally different fishing methods and being persistent. When you hit a hot fish catching pattern, take full advantage of it and fish as often as you can to maximize your results until a major weather change or similar event shuts the bite down. By capitalizing on these hot windows of action, you can really pad your fish numbers each season and change your luck for the better.

Get the heck out of town!

Another way to change your luck is to travel out of town to get a whole new change of scenery. A perfect example of this working to perfection happened in 1999, when my friend Tom Hammerbeck and I headed up to Lake of the Woods in late July. We had both been struggling for a lengthy stretch in northern Wisconsin. Well, when the dust settled, we had boated fourteen muskies with a forty-three inch average in six days! The momentum gained in that memorable trip carried through the remainder of the year for me, and I had a great late summer and fall on the water that year in Wisconsin. Another good example of getting out of dodge when times are tough occurred in 2001 when Todd Hess and I headed up to Lake of the Woods for a brief four day trip. Even though we were faced with tough fishing conditions (intense heat, flat calm water, terrible biting flies, and a severe algae bloom), we boated ten nice muskies up to forty-six inches. When I returned home, my frustrating fishing excursions that had taken place prior to my trip were long forgotten. Sometimes the change of scenery on quality musky waters such as Lake of the Woods can be just the therapy you need to rebuild your confidence and add to your photo album. If your vacation time is limited, or simply used up, try fishing waters close to home you have never fished before. You will learn new spots and have a good chance at catching fish by trying something different and mixing up your routine. A little quality time spent on these new waters might pay off big dividends and you can add this given lake into your arsenal of future hotspots.

Change your lure selection or approach

Another good suggestion when you are struggling is to throw lures that you do not typically use very often. If you primarily use top water lures or bucktails on your favorite lakes, then throw jerk baits and/or crank baits. If you mainly use jerk baits or twitch baits, try a Bulldawg or an eight inch reaper on a swimming jig head. My point here is that when you are stuck in a rut, mix things up to try to find a presentation that the muskies want. Another tactic that has worked well for me is to totally change my angling approach. If you are fishing weed edges and nothing is happening, head out to open water to search for suspended fish or try the inside edge of the weeds. I recall a particular mid-summer outing where my friend Tom Hammerbeck and I had some sluggish follows while fishing along the deep weed edge, but nothing else to show for our efforts. On a hunch, I cruised out to open water and watched the graph for baitfish. We headed to a hard bottom, mid-lake hump that topped off at ten feet of water I had stored into my GPS, and my graph simply lit up with suspended baitfish that were located high up in the water column. I immediately shut my motor down, and tied on a Depthraider. In just ten minutes I boated two nice muskies on two consecutive drifts through the baitfish schools over thirty five feet of water! Mix things up and do not be afraid to experiment with new tactics or locations. Get out of the rut and be willing to try new things by keeping an open mind. Another great tactic is to change up lure sizes, particularly under brutally tough cold front conditions. For example, if you have been casting a large bucktail like a Double Cowgirl, downshift to a Buchertail 700, or if you are casting a jointed full sized Depthraider, drop down to a Baby Depthraider to improve your luck. Many times in today’s world of oversized lures, this is an overlooked option by a good number of anglers. Just make sure you select smaller musky lures that are built and designed to hold large muskies, or you will have issues when you hook trophy sized fish. I have also seen the opposite tactic improve my success, where going to the oversized bucktail sensation like the Double Cowgirl would catch and move muskies when smaller, standard sized bucktails wouldn’t even get a second look! I want to emphasize here once again to mix it up and do not be afraid to go against the grain to bust out of the funk you might be in. When you get something that works, be sure to stay with the pattern and maximize your chances for catching muskies.

Musky fishing has certainly never had the reputation of being easy, and the best memories truly come from a lot of hard effort on the water over the years. Understand that like in any sport, slumps and bad luck are part of the game. There will be stretches of time for you on the water where nothing seems to be working. How you deal with this adversity will make or break your trip, vacation, or even your entire season. If you are in a musky catching slump and follow some of the tips mentioned here, you eventually will turn things around and break out of the ordeal. Stay focused, improvise where necessary, capitalize on hot patterns or even travel to different waters, and make the most out of your season. Don’t throw in the towel when the musky gods put you through you a bad luck streak. We all have those from time to time! The main thing is to still have fun, deal with the situation and in no time you will happen upon improved fishing success!

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