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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To Net Muskies or Not to Net Muskies?

Hand  Land versus Net Land

I’ve been a serious muskie angler spending many weekends traveling Minnesota and Wisconsin and occasionally Ontario in search of and landing muskies. I never netted a muskie. To be fair I fish muskies mostly with jigs and smaller baits making it easier to hand land them. I understand netting them. It’s generally more safe for people to land muskie in a net and handle them. Some say it’s better for the muskie too. I get it. But for me part of the thrill of muskie fishing is fighting the fish and hand landing it. In many instances this did lead to unhooking and releasing the fish in the water thus no photo of a muskie in my arms or my angling partner and I’m ok with that. An many other times upon unhooking them muskie were mello long enough to hold them and get a quick snap shot.

Hand landing a muskie takes skill and care and it can be done with no accidents or damage to the muskie. Tools of the trade as we called them, bolt cutters, long nose pliers and jaw spreaders were on the ready. Sometimes it takes two anglers to carefully unhook the fish while it’s in the water. It’s true that hand-landing muskie takes longer to land the fish. And I know some think this leads to stressing out the fish but does it really stress them out more than trashing in a net seconds after being hooked? I don’t know the answer but I have my opinion. In my experience…guessing over 100 muskies hand-landed that all of them were released basically unharmed and healthy. I’ve seen a zillion muskie videos on social media and it’s hard for an old angler like me to understand hooking a muskie and netting it as quickly as possible. Much of the tussle is done in the net. I’ve seen a muskie netted literally within 5 seconds of being hooked. I get it.

Now back in the day…the 80’s, 90’s muskie anglers as I remember fought the fish and either hand landed it (not many but some) or netted the fish after it had tired a bit during a battle that lasted 30 seconds, maybe a minute. Some muskie anglers had muskie cradles in their boat and they would guide the fish into the cradle and in most cases would unhook the fish in the cradle while it was in the water. 

Times Change or do they?

I’m not here to hammer netting fish immediately. I get it. Muskie anglers value these fish immensely. But I am here to ask; is this tactic best for the fish?  I am aware it’s probably best for the angler. Maybe I’m cynical but what I see in todays world of social media is many folks want the muskie in the boat fast. Videos and photos are highlights captured and I understand that when it comes down to it many anglers like to have their muskies acknowledged. I have hours of videos and many photos. I get it. I’m under the belief and maybe I’m wrong but back in the day fighting muskies was the fun part. Along with successfully and carefully landing the fish and releasing it as unharmed as possible. Have times changed when it comes to landing muskies? Did we always get them in the net as fast as possible?

Netting muskies is ok and smart. It’s safer for the angler. And since I don’t really have experience with it I’m assuming that in most instances the fish is basically unharmed. What still baffles me though is how fast I see muskies go in the net.

I’ll be muskie fishing this fall. I’ll be fishing a jig. Most likely with a big plastic trailer…a 7 inch black reaper or a lizard. I’ll get bit. I’ll lose a fish and I’ll land some…without a net. But for me that’s part of the game.

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