Musky Fishing: Tips, Techniques, Gear & More

Among the freshwater fish of North America, muskellunge are in a class of their own. No fish requires more patience and dedication to catch, and no fish feels as rewarding when it is finally netted at the boatside. 

Ferocious fighters with wolf-like jaws, muskies are at the top of the food chain in any water they inhabit. Muskellunge commonly weigh 15 to 35 pounds and measure 30 to 45 inches in length. But trophy fish weighing over 50 pounds are caught every year, many of them by anglers who have dedicated decades of their lives to pursuing these giants. 

But beginners need not be intimidated. In my experience, musky fishing is neither complicated nor is it inaccessible. With the right gear and a little insight into the habits of this toothy predator, anyone has a fair shot at hooking and landing a muskellunge. They are just as likely to be caught from the back of a kayak on a lazy river as from the bow of a fishing boat on a massive reservoir. 

• Get the Right Gear for Musky Fishing
• Best Musky Fishing Lures
• Where to Find Muskies: Lakes vs. Rivers
• Seasonal Musky Patterns
• Musky Tactics: Casting vs. Trolling
• Safe Handling for Muskies

Get the Right Gear for Musky Fishing

Before you go musky fishing, it’s essential to have a rod, reel, line, and tackle that are up to the challenge. For trolling, 80-pound braided line with a 3-foot 100- to 200-pound seven-strand or solid stainless steel wire leader is standard. For casting, anglers have a broader range of options depending on their setup, but at least 50-pound braided line and a 150-pound solid wire, 12-inch leader are good places to start.

Most anglers choose sturdy baitcasting reels for musky fishing, and a model like the Piscifun® Chaos XS Round Baitcasting Reel offers the strength, smooth drag and line capacity to handle big fish. Baitcasting reels are good for both casting and trolling. 

For anglers who prefer a spinning combo for musky fishing, choose a tough, dependable spinning reel like the Piscifun® Viper X Spinning Reel Model 5000, and pair it with a 7” to 8” medium-heavy Piscifun® Carbon R1 Rod. The R1 Rod is available in both spinning and casting variations. 

Best Musky Fishing Lures

In-Line Spinners

Often called “bucktails” by musky aficionados, the in-line spinners used to target muskellunge are like larger, tougher versions of the spinners commonly used to catch bass and trout. Offering substantial flash and vibration, spinners are some of the most effective musky lures for casting and some of the most fun to fish. The Mepps Musky Killer and Mepps Aglia Tandem are classics in this style.

Crankbaits & Plugs

The terms “plug” and “crankbait” are used interchangeably in the musky world, and these hard-sided baitfish imitations are effective when cat or trolled. Most musky plugs are 6 to 10 inches long and armed with two to three large treble hooks, making them best for open water fishing away from snaggy weeds and cover. Classic musky plugs with a proven track record include Northland's Reef Runner Magnum, Suick’s Cisco Kid, and Musky Mania’s Jake. 

Muskie Glide Baits

Similar to the jerkbaits commonly used by bass anglers, glide baits are designed to entice muskellunge with their side-to-side movement. Some have jointed bodies and are meant to be fished with a stop-and-go retrieve. Depending on how much action you impart with the rod, a glide bait’s action may range from a subtle glide to a fast and erratic action that mimics a panicked baitfish.

Soft Plastic Baits

Soft plastics are the category of musky baits that has grown the most in recent years, encompassing a wide range of rubber swimbaits, giant tube jigs, and curl-tail lures. Soft plastics have the advantage of being relatively inexpensive, and they can be molded and colored to mimic any natural forage. Musky Innovations Bull Dawg is a perennial favorite. Many oversized swimbaits designed for trophy bass fishing, like PowerBait’s Cullshad and Z-Man’s HeroZ, are also effective.

Topwater Lures

Muskies are known to smash a topwater lure with explosive strikes, especially in summer. Surface lures might not be the highest producers in terms of numbers, but they can be the most exciting musky lures when conditions are right. Some of my favorites are rotating tail baits like the River2Sea Whopper Plopper and side-to-side gliding baits like the Joe Butcher Top Raider

Where to Find Muskies: Lakes vs. Rivers

Musky Lake Fishing

The lakes muskellunge inhabit are widely varied, from sprawling southern impoundments to small northern glacial lakes and the broad expanses of the Great Lakes. Musky lakes can be deep, clear and rocky, or they can be shallow, weedy and tannin-stained. Most muskies in most lakes are caught in 5 to 15 feet of water, and a few basic areas should be the first places you look for muskies when fishing an unfamiliar lake:

• Weed beds. Some of the best places to find muskies are weed beds. These fish regularly patrol the deep edges of beds of broadleaf cabbage, coontail, milfoil and bullrushes, especially in spots where shallow flats drop off into deeper basins. 

• Structure and cover. Muskies use cover to orient themselves and to lie in wait for passing prey. Target points, humps, reefs and submerged or standing timber. In man-made reservoirs, the inside turns on channel edges are often key spots. 

• Open water. Muskellunge occasionally suspend far from the bottom in open water, especially in summer when they follow schools of shad and other large baitfish on big lakes. 

Musky River Fishing

Muskellunge thrive in broad, slow-rolling rivers. They tend to avoid areas wth heavy current, but they are well-adapted to riverine environments, and musky fishing can often be excellent in surprisingly small rivers, as long as deep water and ample forage are available. These are the best places to start when approaching river muskies:

• Current breaks. Key areas include slack water below bridge pilings, boulders, log jams, and any other structures that give muskies a place to hide and a place to rest outside of the main current. 

• Seams. The boundary lines between fast and slow waters are important places for muskellunge to hunt in rivers. They often wait along seams to ambush baitfish that have become disoriented by the current. 

• Deep holes. Deep holes often form at the outside of a river bend, and muskellunge seek out these areas because the deep water is often cool and comfortable, with relatively mild current. The best holes have additional cover, like downed trees, stumps or rip-rap banks.

Seasonal Musky Patterns

Spring

Musky fishing can be excellent in spring, but the most important thing to know about this season is that it’s really several seasons in one. Think of early spring as pre-spawn—the time after ice-out when shallows gradually warm up, drawing muskies up from their deep winter holes. Some of the best fishing happens as soon as water temps hit the 50°F mark and fish are feeding actively to store up energy for the spawn.

Spawning occurs when the water is 55-65°F. Muskies are virtually impossible to catch when they are spawning, but keep in mind that not all of the fish will be spawning at the same time. Muskies tend to experience a post-spawn lull of a week or two, during which they are slow and lethargic as they recuperate from the ordeal of spawning. Soon after, they will feed voraciously to get their energy back during the late spring post-spawn period, which offers some of the best fishing of the year. 

Summer

Muskies stay active as water temperatures continue to warm up into the low 70s. In northern lakes, early summer often feels like a continuation of spring, with lots of musky activity. A tipping point occurs as water temperatures continue to warm above 75°F, driving muskies to deeper structure and cooler, open waters. Fish can be hard to find this time of year, but the best bite will be around dawn and dusk. For the safety of the fish, avoid targeting muskellunge when the water is above 80°F.

Fall

Cooling waters in fall start to attract muskellunge back toward shallower habitats, but it happens in stages. Early fall is a good time to fish weedy flats and weed edges. In lakes that experience turnover—a mixing of deep, cold water with warm, shallow water that occurs in fall—the fishing can become very challenging for a week or two. But muskellunge often emerge from turnover hungrier than ever, and they are especially on the lookout for a big, easy meal at this time. 

Winter

Muskies’ metabolism drops significantly as temperatures drop, and they become quite inactive during the winter months. Fish retreat to deep main lake basins and structural edges in 20-plus feet of water. They may eat a baitfish that presents an easy meal, but are unlikely to chase a lure. Ice fishing with live suckers below a tip-up is popular on frozen northern lakes, and anglers can find fish on southern reservoirs by locating schools of shad or herring in deep water and fishing slowly with diving crankbaits or jigging soft plastics.

Musky Tactics: Casting vs. Trolling

Trolling

Trolling is often the method of choice when fishing an unfamiliar lake, allowing anglers to cover more water quickly and put more baits in front of the fish, while also giving the fish more time to pursue a lure. You can run multiple baits on several rods at a variety of depths to explore multiple levels of the water column. 

Trolling is often thought of as a summer tactic, but it can also be effective in other seasons. Higher trolling speeds—often as high as 5 mph or more—are great when waters are warm and fish are active, while slower speeds around 2 mph work better in colder conditions. 

Pull your lures along channel edges and the outside boundaries of weed beds, above main-lake rock piles and humps, and across long, sloping points. Muskies often follow before striking, so longer runs offer more opportunities for a hookset. 

Casting

While trolling may be more efficient, casting also offers some practical advantages. It allows you to be more methodical in your fishing, working individual structure areas piece by piece. Casting also allows for more precision, and you may catch fish other anglers miss by placing spinners, topwaters or glidebaits directly alongside logs, weeds and rocks.

And speaking from experience, casting lures for muskellunge is simply more fun. You really get to feel the impact of every strike, set the hook with your own two hands, and experience the heart-stopping moment when you see a big fish following your bait—experiences that make muskie fishing infinitely more exciting. 

Casting for muskies is at its best in spring and fall when fish are in relatively shallow water. It’s also the method of choice on rivers, especially when fishing from the bank or in a small boat like a canoe or kayak, casting to individual pieces of cover as you work your way downriver. 

Understanding the “Figure 8”

If there’s one thing anglers need to know when casting for muskellunge, it’s how to finish your cast with a figure-8. Muskellunge are notorious for following a lure all the way back to the boat without committing to a strike, and running your lure in a sweeping figure-8 motion alongside the boat gives them a final opportunity to grab the bait.

Not every fish will take that opportunity, but I’ve seen many muskies caught by the figure-8 that would otherwise have been missed. If you catch a glimpse of a muskellunge following your lure, always finish your retrieve by circling the lure around in a figure-8 motion before pulling it out of the water. 

Safe Handling for Muskies

Lastly, muskellunge are rare and precious. They are also surprisingly susceptible to post-catch mortality if they are mishandled, and the biggest fish are often the most vulnerable. Keep a few tips in mind for safely catching and releasing muskellunge: 

• Carry the right tools. Make sure you have a large coated landing net designed for muskies, long-nose pliers like the Piscifun® Ⅲ Aluminum Fishing Pliers, and hook cutters for hooks that are difficult to remove, and jaw-spreaders to help remove deep hooks. 

• Fight the fish quickly. The shorter the battle, the less likely it is that the fish will be critically exhausted. That’s part of the reason why heavy rods, reels and line are so important.

• Minimize time out of the water. Keep the fish’s time out of the water to 30 seconds or less—just enough for a quick picture and measurement.

• Handle muskies gently. Hold the muskellunge gently but firmly, with one hand under the gill plate and the other under its belly. Better yet, unhook the fish while still in the net without lifting it fully out of the water. Never hold a muskellunge vertically. 

• Release slowly. Hold the fish in the water until it is ready to swim away on its own power. For fish that have been landed and handled properly, this usually takes a minute or less.