By Steve Heiting, Managing Editor The air was cooler with less humidity, and the muskies had stopped chasing our bucktails a couple hours before. A cold front was upon us. I turned to my fishing partner and said, “Let’s switch to jerkbaits. Put on
By Steve Heiting, Managing Editor My eyes flashed back and forth from my GPS’ screen to the water behind my spinner. Twenty minutes earlier a big musky had followed my lure to the boat and spun off, its aggressive movements indicating it would f
By Steve Heiting, Managing Editor Whenever you’re faced with cold water, a cold day or a cold front, a crankbait is often the best lure choice you can make. In the hands of an angler who understands their applications, crankbaits can be tremendously ef
By Steve Heiting, Managing Editor We’ve reached my favorite part of the musky season — when waters begin to cool at the outset of fall. Fishing for muskies in extremely shallow water — at depths as shallow as six feet of water and less — is arguably th
By Luke Ronnestrand If you would have asked me 10 years ago what my five favorite lures were for catching big muskies, it’s likely all five lures would have been topwaters. A lot has changed since then, but topwater lures still catch muskies and big on
By Jim Saric, Editor It had been four hours since we had a sniff from a musky, and we were baked from the afternoon sun. Finally … a little relief, as the sun had settled low enough on the horizon to cool the air and increase the shadows. The water —
By Jim Saric: One of the most common questions I get asked is “When’s the best time to fish topwater?” If I had to pick, the time would be early fall. Specifically, this period can be narrowed down based upon water temperatures ranging from 65-58 de
Boatside tactics from Gregg Thomas SEAN OSTRUSZKA, Social Media Liaison It’s the most pressure-packed moment in our sport. You’ve been casting all day. Your muscles are sore and your mind is drifting off, when out of nowhere comes a hot fish right behi
By Kevin Schmidt When comparing musky catch log records for fish caught casting or trolling, one obvious difference is speed. Muskies caught while trolling are recorded with precise numbers such as 3.4 or 3.7 miles per hour, not just 3 or 31⁄2. The num
By Steve Heiting, Managing Editor Bucktails have long been the fastest presentation for the casting angler who is looking to contact and catch lots of muskies. Their effectiveness — especially for big fish — took a quantum leap in 2006 with the int