Fisherman Eric Peterson with a Minnetonka Muskie

The Forgotten Muskie Tactic: Jigs

It’s late October and it’s time to jig for muskies.

I’d like to say since I’m a jig fisherman at heart and I decided on my own to jig for muskie but I can not claim this fame. Jigging for muskie goes back quite a long time. The first time I remember it mentioned was before I even fished for muskies. I did some research and the tactic was briefly covered muskie guy Spence Petros in the late 70’s. And other Chicago area anglers make a claim to start the muskie jigging revolution in the 60’s. But the revolution got lost somewhere for me until I started working at Muskie Fever in 1992. Muskie Fever was a Thorne Bros mail order outfit specializing in muskie gear. This is when I was introduced to the revolution. This tactic, as far as I know, was perfected by a highly respected muskie angler and friend Gene Mahs. Gene taught this tactic to Chris Munchow who was also a Muskie Fever guy. Chris and I decided to modify the jigging tactic to fit our style of fishing and we caught muskies. Sometimes catching 3 or more muskie in a single morning. Just not as many fish as Gene did. I can remember a day meeting Gene at the boat landing of a favored muskie lake on a late fall morning. Chris and I had a great morning with 4 muskies landed on jigs. Gene is his ever subdued manner plainly told us nice day fellas. Of course we had to ask Gene how’d you do? In a simple matter of fact tone Gene said 8.

Chris Munchow and a Jig Muskie

This tactic was fairly popular in the late 80’s into the 90’s but it still works as I can vouch for it having jigged up a few muskies in recent years. And I know what your thinking…big muskies want big baits in the fall. Maybe, but I’ve witnessed numerous muskies over 45 inches caught on jigs.

Muskie jigging for me begins in the fall when the weeds begin to die. In the Twin Cities metro about October 15. The later in fall it gets the more I find fish in shallow weeds. Both green and fallen to the bottom. I also like rock bars. It isn’t uncommon to catch multiple muskie on a single rock bar or small weedbed.

Outlining the Method to Jig Muskie

7 inch Reaper

I fish a 1/2oz swim jig or bass jig tipped with a soft plastic. Large Reapers, Lizards, Mogambos are some popular plastics I carry to this day. I still have some older Nylostrand leaders and they still work as intended but in todays world I make muskie jigs with a product named Surflon Micro Supreme. This is a tie-able nylon coated stainless steel leader material. I use 40# in lengths of 24 inches or so. This product ties well. Tie the jig on one end and tie a quality ball bearing swivel to the other. You can make these quickly and I’d make 4 or 5 of them with a variety of jig styles and weights. I have a custom muskie jig rod, but a flippin’stick works well. On most occasions my reel is spooled with 14 pound mono. I favor Gamma but use what you like. You can use a superline but your drag setting becomes even more critical. My experience with superline is you get a great hookset. The downside is, with no stretch line the fish could pull a power move on you and rip the hook out. So, in that instance you need to free-spool or have a perfect drag setting. If you’re using superline be prepared to go to free-spool mode fast. Trust me on that.

Locations

Mike Fudali Deer Lake Muskie

Pockets of green weeds and flats of fallen weeds hold muskies. Work your jig really slow on or near the bottom just like walleye fishing. This method has produced many nice muskies for me up to 48 inches. I like the jig-n-pig type with a skirt, swim jigs and plain 1/2 ounce jigs with stout hooks.  Jigs are tipped with big plastic or a 5-7 inch sucker. Weedlines are a good starting point focusing on inside turns. Typically weedlines that are close to deep water produce the best.  An effective way to team jig fish is to have the angler in front cast the weedline and deeper and the angler in the rear casts over and through the weedline. Fish can come from 2 feet of water or 15-20 feet of water. Fish as slow as you can hopping and crawling the jig through the weeds and off the weedline. I do find that as you get water temps near 40 many muskie are in the shallow weed flats. This seems to be especially true on warm November days. I’ve witnessed muskie chasing panfish on a 55 degree mid-November day numerous times.

Most bites are subtle. If you can’t feel the bait, set the hook.

Rock bars can also hold muskies. I’ve caught muskies on shallow areas of rocks 6-7 feet and in deeper rock bars 15-20 feet. The rock bars we’ve been successful fishing have fist sized rocks. You can feel them while working your jig slowly. On one particular day jigging muskies with Munch we caught 5 muskies on a single rock bar in less than 2 hours! Of those 3 of them were almost back to back to back.

Weather conditions don’t seem to effect the fish much at this time of the year. These muskie have the feed-bag on. Jig fishing is fun. Good luck and as always release all muskie.

If you want to chat more about jigging for fall muskies reach me at pete@outsidepwr.com of PM me on Facebook.

Muskie on a Jig. This tactic still works in 2024.

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Fishing Minnesota Bass Shallow in September

Both largemouth and smallmouth will use shallow weed pockets in the fall.

It’s fall and time to get psyched for fall bass fishing. The one thing that tells me to move shallow in fall is a steep drop in water temperatures. When the water temp goes down 8-10 degrees it’s time to think about going to shallow weeds for bass. By going shallow I’m talking 4-8 feet and I look for areas with pockets of weeds. I avoid weedlines and flats of weeds. This might mean putting your trolling motor in high and looking for these areas.

I like to fish light gear with jig worms, it’s fun and effective. In the video you see below I am casting jig worms into pockets of weeds. These pockets can be very small…barely bigger than my boat and both largemouth bass and smallmouth bass use these areas after the water drops to the low 60’s. There are many lakes in central Minnesota that offer this opportunity as well as Western Wisconsin and both of the Dakotas. So if you are looking to catch many bass on light gear the days after a good cold front can be the best time to give it a try.

Smallmouth and largemouth in the same habitat.

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Understanding Fish Behavior

I had a made a deal to rig an underwater camera to the RCA input on my 8mm camcorder and I recorded this.

So you see fish on your flasher but they don’t seem interested? That was the truth on this day back in the early 2000’s. Fish were tough to come by and because I could see fish on the flasher I wasn’t giving up easily. So after trying the numerous lures, baits, altering presentation speeds, using low diameter line etc etc it was time to use my contraption to get the scoop. I lowered the camera and I found visual truth that these fish didn’t give one rats behind about eating with the exception of one bluegill who did give a minnow a slight kiss before wandering off. Even the pike didn’t want the  minnow! Sometimes the fishing doesn’t work out but an underwater camera can provide some action nonetheless.

The Reluctant Fish

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Basin Smallmouth Bass in Summer

I know what you’re thinking? Fishing smallmouth bass in a deep basin is just plain a wacky idea in canoe country. Nope. Let me explain a few things. First of all smallmouth bass are voracious predators and they quite simply go where the food is. If this means deep basins so be it. Next question; how does one find smallies in a basin? Basins are deep and typically big or super big so defining where to start can be so easy it’s not funny or it can be a search mission.

Lets start with the easy part, sight fishing. Yep you can see smallies in 40-80 foot basins with the naked eye. How you say? Just notice the surface. Do you see fish exploding on the surface over basins? If so I’m betting these are smallmouth bass chasing bait to the surface. This could be a few blow ups or an entire couple acre area with hundreds of fish blasting away at bait right under the surface! And this is the most fun you’ll ever have in a canoe. Typically this occurs in light wind situations so you can see this a long way off. See the surface blowing up? Start paddling immediately because these fish will eat swim baits hard. Really hard! Some of my favorites swimbaits are Keitech and Zoom. I prefer lighter colors and the larger sizes. Put them on a 1/8 or 1/16 jig head and cast ’em into the boiling water. Start reeling as soon as the bait hits the water and rip it fast just under the surface. Rip it all the way back to the canoe many will eat right in front of you, usually in packs of many. You’ll be amazed! I have witnessed this many times. Two particular adventures had us catching big smallies hand over fist for over an hour using this method and a few other times we had 5-15 minutes of non-stop action on fish over 18 inches.

So that was easy and almost dumb. To find them deeper fish basins attached to weed beds and points. This tactic is a little more methodical but when you find the smallmouth they eat in volumes. Typically I’d start at the first break, say 15-20 feet and work towards deeper water casting the same rig mentioned above only let the bait hit the bottom then start snap jigging it back to the canoe. These fish are on the prowl in schools. Playing keep away is what works best and the bites are take no prisoners.

Want to know more? Feel free to comment and I’ll get back to you. Or shoot me an email.

This is one of the smallies we caught inches under the surface in about 65 feet of water. You gotta see the tail walk!

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Big Pike in Quetico

Big Pike Eat Plastic Worms

This 40 inch pike was caught while fishing for smallmouth bass in 10 feet of water. Shield lakes often produce large northern pike and are often hooked and landed while casting jigs for smallmouth bass and walleye tipped with soft plastics…Culprit Worms, Kalin’s Grubs, Keitech Swim Baits etc etc.

It may sound crazy but we catch more pike over 36 inches while fishing for smallies and walleyes than when we cast lures specifically targeting big northern pike. That said I mostly fish for smallies and walleyes.

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