Different Strokes

Successful musky anglers are a unique bunch.  Most of them have developed unique tactics over years of fishing.  Whether they realize it or not, their tactics have been molded to match their own personalities and experiences.  Therefore, a musky angler’s tactics are as unique as the individual and no two are alike.  Two anglers may each be using the same lure, but that is where the similarities usually end.  Inevitably, many subtle nuances separate one angler’s technique from that of the other.  Knowing how an angler fishes and even watching them in action does not mean that another will be able to fish like them, or especially duplicate their success.  What a successful angler is doing may not seem complicated but there is much more going on than what meets the eye or than words can explain.  All the examination in the world will not allow another person to throw a football like Brett Favre or hit a golf ball like Tiger Woods.  These are extreme examples, but it is the same for any complex and advanced set of skills.  Such skill sets are usually made up of natural aptitudes developed through practice.  Learning from other musky anglers is a great way to gain knowledge, but only practice and experience builds skill.

As a young boy growing up on Lake Superior’s Chequamegon Bay in Ashland WI, my father would take me fishing at various shore spots along the lake.  In those days, many of the massive crumbling industrial docks (left over from Ashland’s boom days nearly a century before) still existed.  Today, most of these docks have been renovated, removed, or made off limits to the public.  One such dock was the pulp hoist dock which is now the Ashland Marina.  Today it is a modern marina with boat slips and services, but back in the day it was a beautiful derelict dock built of creosote pilings, cement, and rock falling apart into the lake.  By today’s standards, the dock would have been deemed unsafe, at that time though it was an angling paradise.  My memories of it are but brief glimpses into the past, but what I remember is an abundance of excellent wood and rock structure, steep breaklines, and fish.

I also remember fishermen and angling methods the likes of which I have never seen since.  In those days, one target specie of my father and I was yellow perch.  This was the target of many other anglers as well.  Our methods usually consisted of simple but effective live bait presentations.  But there were some old timers who used seemingly ridiculous tactics to put together long stringers of huge perch that put all others to shame.  I remember multiple stringers filled 5 and 6 feet apiece strung with jumbos.  Looking back, it is no wonder why our perch fisheries have all but collapsed.  These anglers used long flexible rods and home made lures that looked something like a Johnson silver minnow without the weed guard.  The spoon and its fixed single hook looked way too big for perch, but it worked.  The lure’s action and the bite of the perch were very subtle.  So much so, that was hard to tell exactly what was happening.  The only thing that was clear is that huge perch were being caught one after the next.  One time, one of these men took a break from his factory like production of perch to try (unsuccessfully) to show me how it was done.  The failed lesson consisted of him telling me I had a bite, me not realizing it, the lesson ending, and the old timer taking his rod back and resuming catching the beautiful delicious fish without end.  This is all I remember, but these images have haunted my mind ever since.  Looking back on it now, the memories seem surreal and dreamlike.  Nothing though was more real than the skill of those old timers who were masters of what now seems to be a lost art.  To say the least, they had “the touch” and I think their tactics would have been nearly impossible to mimic by an angler not raised in that angling tradition.  In the future I plan to research this style of fishing, but for now my memories will suffice as a shinning example of hard earned skill.

In May of 2009, I had the pleasure of fishing with my college friend Joe Pavilonis (of Muskies Inc Chapter #03) for the first time in over 6 years.  Joe and I went to school in DePere WI on the shores of the now famous musky factory known as the Fox River.  In those days, I partied more than I fished when I wasn’t in class.  It is shameful I didn’t fish more, but I suppose many of us loose our way sometimes.  Joe on the other hand, was learning the river the whole time, hitting it up whenever he could.  Since graduating, he has continued to fish the Fox regularly.  Watching Joe fish the Fox really opened my eyes to how many aspects of musky fishing I am unfamiliar with.  Joe proved his proficiency as a troller by pulling 6 lines around and amongst piers, bridge pilings, massive floating debris, and vast schools of large carp.  Each day, his expertise lead to multiple muskies.  To the untrained eye, he was just dragging lures through the water, but I could only imagine the disaster that would have ensued if I had taken the helm.  Even if I could keep everything straight, I didn’t know the river.  He knew exactly where to go and what passes to make.  Anybody who has fished the Fox and lower Green Bay knows there is a lot of water there, and that much of it looks exactly the same structurally, and that there is really no water clarity.  It is just the type of water I try to avoid, but the Fox has huge muskies.  I started to realize that Joe wasn’t making asinine passes through the river but had a plan of attack and a clear sense of where he was and where he was going without the use of a GPS.

He also proved to know locations and tactics to catch the Fox River muskies using casting presentations, which I know is very unique and unusual on that water.  As a part of the trolling team, I learned quickly, did well (I think), and caught fish.  When I tried to figure out my own casting patterns, the results were largely laughable.  On the last day we were joined by our friend Brian Zofkie (also of chapter #03) who is also a Fox River veteran and skilled trolling team member.  The three of us worked together well and had good results.  I learned a lot and began the process of developing several new skills.

First Fox River Musky

Knowledge of individual waters is as important as building and practicing skill sets.  Familiarity with the habits of individual populations of muskies is as import as the honed tactics used to catch them.  Knowing exactly how to apply a lure to certain fish is just as important as proficiency with the lure itself.

Often, I think back to the fall musky fishing I did living in northern WI before I moved to the west metro.  Fishing the deep clear water lakes in Bayfield County is much different than chasing Leech Lake muskies in the highly fertile waters of Southern MN.  MN muskies mostly stay shallow until and during freeze up, and maybe after as well, but I can’t be sure.  Northern WI muskies on the other hand, the ones living in clear deep lakes, are mostly deep come fall and have been there since mid-summer if not earlier.

In those days, I spent much of my time probing depths of 20’-40’ with massive sinking 12” Bobbies weighing 10-12 ounces.  I would cast them unless it was so cold that my tackle would ice up, in which case I would creep troll the Bobbies with powerful sweeps and long pauses.  Live bait was a good option, but often I was too poor and/or too lazy to drive to Hayward to purchase suckers.  I spent hundreds of hours working those chunks of wood, lead, and steel through the depths without anything but my knowledge of the water to guide me.  I had no sonar.  In those days, I went out in a 14’ utility boat with a small transom mount electric motor and oars for backup, and that was it.  I was well practiced though, and learned to make those Bobbies look very enticing, and I caught fish.  Days when nobody was out for whatever reason, I was out.  I caught my first 50 inch plus musky like that, and to this day it is still my only WI 50.

Even though it was only four years ago, it seems like it was much longer than that.  Sometimes I wonder if I could go back to fishing like that and be as successful as I was.  I really don’t know what I would do without my digital bow mount trolling motor and universal sonar.  I still don’t have GPS, but the GPS on my brother in law’s boat proves very useful when I fish with him.  Back in the day, all I had to concentrate on was the water, controlling my boat, and working my lure.  That concentration allowed me to develop a style that I fear I have lost, but hopefully I have just evolved into something better. The best I can describe it, is that I was feeling things out down there, and if I put in my time the muskies fell into place.   Looking back, success with such an approach seems unlikely, but I made it work and was regularly one of the more successful anglers on those waters.  I didn’t work much, I didn’t have much money, but I had a lot of time and I used it to learn how to make what I had work for me.  I had no problem telling anybody exactly what I was doing, because I didn’t think anyone would actually try it.  Most people thought I was at least a little “off”.  If others had gone out and tried it, I doubt it would have worked for them right away.  I think they would have had to put in some time to really learn the technique.

Any technique or pattern is like that though.  An angler cannot expect just to pick up the new hot lure and have it work for them right away.  They must learn that lure, and adapt its use to their own style of fishing before it will really work.  I am not saying that instant success never happens, but it is certainly the exception, not the rule.  A lure that feels foreign on the end of your line will seldom work, even if it is working for others.  To be successful with a lure, one must really get to know it.  The lure must feel like “a part of you”.  When I think back to when I first started chasing muskies, all of my tackle felt weird and foreign.  As such, I had very poor results even when fishing good spots at good times.  One thing I did notice though was that my success increased at the same rate as I became accustomed to my tackle.  My rod and reel felt great in my hands and I started to find some lures that I really liked and became more and more comfortable with.  Today, I know my lures so well that I don’t need to see them working to know if they are running correctly.  I can simply feel it.  A good running lure just feels right.  If a lure goes out of tune, it feels like a chipped tooth or new dental work.  All of my tackle is like a living part of my body, I have total control over it and am completely in tune with it.

This control and awareness has allowed me to be a successful musky angler, but it has also come at a price.  I am so in love with such a small handful of lures, that I haven’t broadened my horizons lure wise as much as I could have.  That is to say there are still some types of lures that I should be more comfortable with that I am not.  The lures I love and my tactics with them will cover almost any situation that I have ever encountered, but there are a couple of instances over the years that I can look back on and say, for instance, that I wish I knew how to “really” fish a bucktail well.  Of course, I can throw a bucktail with solid fundamentals and make it look like I know how to fish one, but I cannot “really” fish a bucktail well.  In fact, and readers may want to brace themselves for this one, of the hundreds of muskies I have caught, I have never caught a musky on a bucktail or a spinner of any type.  For years, I tied my own deer hair spinners as my go to lures for trout with great success, and one would think I would have made the connection, but no.  Call it weird.  Call it unbelievable.  Call it dumb.  Call it whatever you like, but it is true.  Check the Musky Inc. lunge log.  I developed great skill fishing spinners for trout, but none for muskies.  So therefore, I can’t “really” fish a bucktail.  I do not know Ken and Wesley Worel (two of Muskies Inc.’s more successful members when it comes to boating muskies) or anything about them really, and I hope they don’t mind me dropping their name.  I am just using them as an example of people who I think can “really” fish a bucktail.  They have designed them, had great success on them, fished them for hundreds if not thousands of hours, and thus “really” know how to fish them.

To an observer, it may seem like I could “really” fish a bucktail.  I am probably skilled enough to put on a good looking facade, but it would be nothing more than a charade.  I could not fool myself though.  I would know it in my heart and therefore it would be so.  The difference between fishing a lure and “really” fishing a lure is in the confident mindset of the user.  The ability to “really” fish a lure comes from practice, experience, and success.

The reason different anglers have different lure preferences is that they have individual personalities and different experiences.  Had I fallen in love with bucktails instead of jerkbaits, things might be different today.  I don’t consider myself a fatalist, but I don’t think it could have happened any other way, and if my lack of diversity has me hurting, at least I love every moment  I am on the water and I am never disappointed with a day of fishing.

There is an interesting phenomenon that often exists between anglers who regularly employ very different techniques.  It occurs when they are fishing the same body of water at the same time and the muskies are biting.  For example, I would be using a Manta Hang 10, and another angler a Double Cowgirl or Bulldawg for instance (not that that ever happens!).  Both of us are likely catching muskies, but if we were to switch lures, it is very likely that our action would stop, unless the other is proficient with the new lure and has confidence in it.  However, this is rarely the case, because there is a reason for the individual’s lure choice.  An unexpected unwanted lure switch would be a total monkey wrench thrown in the system of a musky angler, even if the lure was working for another in the same situation.

Many experienced musky fishermen think a tackle box should be treated like a carpenter’s tool box, and that every on the water situation has but one tool that will do the job right.  If they decide that fishing a bucktail best suites the given scenario, throwing a crankbait would be like pounding a nail with a screw driver.  However, I disagree with this mentality.  Musky fishing is not black and white.  Much like life, it consists mostly of a large gray area with very small margins of clear cut black and white, which by the way is just one of the many reasons I love musky fishing so much.  Getting back to my point, what all of this means is that when you become proficient with a single lure, you can cross boundaries with it and adapt its use to many different on the water situations.  That is why when a rookie musky angler asks me how they can shorten their learning curve to successful musky fishing, I tell them not to buy more than a few lures at first.  Unfortunately, it is usually already too late at that point, but I digress.  I recommend they pick a few they like the look of, have seen a demo and like the action of, or have watched a buddy use and/or catch muskies on.  I don’t think blind recommendations are as good.  Seeing is believing, and confidence starts with believing.  The individual is usually drawn to the lures they like, and they must make up their own mind.  If a tackle store employee is doing their job, they will tell the newbie that they need a wide range of lures.  However, I disagree.  The fewer expensive lures you have to buy, the less you have to work, and that frees up time to be out on the water learning how to fish.  All musky lures will catch muskies if one takes the time to learn any one lure as an individual.  Obviously, maximum proficiency with all types of lures is ideal, but that takes a lot of time.

I have spent enough time on the water to be proficient with all types of lures, but I am not because I haven’t tried to be.  I have not tried to be, because I just don’t enjoy using some types of lures.  In the past, my limited selection of lures I enjoy fishing (and there are very few) have made it tough for me to tackle some situations.  A few years ago though, I began to make sure that if I encountered a situation I couldn’t adapt my favorite lures to, I would find one that did, become proficient with it, and learn to like it.  Now, a few years later, I can honestly say that I have adapted a technique for every new situation I have encountered since.  I can adapt to almost any situation, but I still haven’t caught a musky on a spinner or soft plastic lure of any type.  For most situations, I have little desire to learn either of these lures.  This obviously has more to do with me as a head case, rather than the effectiveness of these lures.  Of course, they are very effective lures for many anglers.  I do want to develop some bucktail confidence for speed triggering, covering water quickly, night fishing situations, and some low water clarity situations; but I have no desire to ever use the large soft plastic lures and creatures that have become so popular, and I hope I never have to.  I am in the process of learning smaller jig and plastic combos for finesse presentations, but I put those in a separate category.

In order to be successful, I think I have to enjoy fishing the lure I am fishing.  I have to be into what I am throwing in order to fish well.  If I am not enjoying how I am fishing, it tends to defeat the purpose of being out on the water in the first place.  The goal is to catch muskies, but ultimately it is to have a good time.  So therefore I have adapted the lures I like and my presentations of them to fit most any circumstance.  Obviously, there are many who would disagree with my approach to the sport, and some of those I am sure even catch more and bigger muskies than me for less time spent on the water.  Maybe they are right, maybe not.  The point is, I don’t care.  I enjoy the way I fish and that is what matters to me the most.

Stadler Says "Do Your Own Thing"

If you enjoy the way you fish, don’t let others criticize your approach.  If you want to make a change that will help you enjoy your fishing more, do it.  If you want to catch more muskies, try adapting your presentations to really fit the individual set of circumstances you encounter every time out on the water.  This can be done by learning new lures, but it can also be done by learning an old favorite better.  Time on the water is always the key.  Fishing is a very natural sport.  It is in our very nature to try and capture living things.  Therefore, increasing angling skill and advancing as an overall fisherman should be a very natural progression.  Do what feels right, not necessarily what another suggests you do.  If a piece of advice or information seems solid, go with it; if not, don’t.  In that way, you will develop skill sets and methods that are completely unique and individual, and thus lead to greater success and more overall enjoyment of the sport.