How to Get Out of a Summer Muskie Drought: Part 6 of 6: Fishing Lures

This is part six of a quick six-pack of fishing solutions that often work for myself and others. Part five touched on fishing muskie with speed trolling. Check out the links to the other five fishing solutions at the end of each segment at the bottom of this article.

NEW FISHING LURES:

The realm of lures is ever-expanding, and especially so on heavily pressured waters (and summer is nearly always the busiest for fishing, too).This is a good thing for muskie anglers.

No one knows for certain as to whether muskies think at all, or just react eventually to negative experiences by not repeating them. But there is no doubt that fish learn to avoid certain things after a while.

Show them something they haven’t seen – something that looks like something pretty good to eat and easy to catch – and the attitude is much more positive.

I’ve had a lot of luck the past few years with Sebile’s lures -- truly some innovative and different designs in a variety of lures. The Stick Shadd and Bonga Jerk incorporate rudders and weighting systems that offer very different actions. Swimbaits like the Magic Swimmer are something quite new to muskies. When it comes to soft plastics, there’s all kinds of new stuff on the market these days: different sizes, colors and those with unique-looking tails that definitely look like something new and that are easy to grab. When things are tough, it’s tough to beat the soft plastics.

Understand that old can be new, too. Be aware of watching the trends of what others are using, and when fish aren’t showing, try something different. With all of these new lures coming out, and folks quickly reacting to what the hot lure(s) is on the Internet, sometimes the newest thing may be an old reliable that caught lots of fish in the past, but got booted out of the tackle box or was just forgotten. Odds are, the fish forgot, too.

Part 1: Summer Muskie Drought: Night Fishing

Part 2: Summer Muskie Drought: Windy Conditions

Part 3: Summer Muskie Drought: Fishing the Open Water

Part 4: Summer Muskie Drought: Topwater Presentations

Part 5: Summer Muskie Drought: Speed Trolling