Never used one. But I do indeed target families of geese when the little ones are little. I figure a muskie or two is always stalking in shallow near those baby geese. I throw a single-hook spinnerbait right onto shore in the middle of the family and bring it back fast thru the shallows. A topwater, like a Topraider, would be perfect, but you can't drag those off shore into the water and expect the bait to work right. See, my theory is that anything that hits the water in front of the geese is landing right on top of the hottest fish that are stalking the geese. So I gotta hit the shore, on land, and bring it out from there.

I live on a lake with no muskies and the geese families swim out up to 100 feet (or lots more) from shore, mostly to get past piers. I fish a local muskie lake and the geese famlies there rarely get further than 10 or 20 feet from shore, no matter what. On the local muskie lake the geese families usually walk on land to get around a pier; the parents don't take the little ones away from shore if possible.

I see geese with small goslings going wherever they want on Ovid. I haven't noticed any fear on the part of the geese to be out far from shore with their little ones.

That's because they don't have access to the stocking reports for the last couple years.

"hemichemi" said:
[quote="Chris Musselman"]

I see geese with small goslings going wherever they want on Ovid. I haven't noticed any fear on the part of the geese to be out far from shore with their little ones.

That's because they don't have access to the stocking reports for the last couple years.

Hah! Maybe. Or maybe the muskies don't like having to get goose down out from between their teeth. Or maybe the muskies haven't discovered how tasty they are, yet… Or maybe they're just stupid geese!

Or………………. There are no muskies in Ovid [smilie=bangtard.gif]

I've learned from what I see all the time and I'll stick by my opinion.

I don't think many people have gone in for the duck lure… My guess is any surface lure would be just as effective as the true match-the-hatch variety though. Actually, when ducklings are spooked and scooting for cover- merganser and goldeneye ducklings do this especially- they look & sound remarkably like little TopRaiders. Fishing with the duck lure might be fun, I don't know? But my gut says you could spend less and have a better made lure that is at least as effective

Ok, here's something more solid, I hope…..

Whatever you use you want it to "squeek" as you retrieve it to the boat.

For example, my very best TopRaider does a high-pitched "erk erk erk" with every turn of the tail. The shaft is kinda pocked and coroded. I was told by a couple of folks with whom I've fished and who know lots more than I that the squeek is not just desirable extra sensory attraction, but is in fact similar to the sound baby ducks use when they are scared and swimming fast toward safety. None of my other TopRaiders make that sound, BTW.

And, new to me, yesterday I watched an episode of North American Fishermen where Kevin Van Dam showed how he always tunes all of his buzz baits so they make an audible squeek all the way back to the boat. To do this he crimped the sleeve below the blade to the shaft, then he flattened and "roughed up" the mushroom-shaped "top" of the shaft. The goal was to create a sqeeking sound as the blade spun and he doesn't throw buzz baits that don't squeek.

I know I joke around too much and that much of my spouted-off humor isn't very funny. I appreciate folks' pantience with me in that area.

Here you go, the Coot. This has a proven track record for big fish in MN.

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Al lindner posted a video on his facebook news feed.

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Duck for dinner?

I met a guy up at Andy myers in canada that had a sea-gull bait!! it was insane, same size as a chicken and covered with feathers. It caught his p.b. with it. he said it didnt matter what time of year or weather or structure, just cast it out and slowly pull it, let it sit then twitch, rinse and repeat. there is a youtube of a guy catching a muskie on a chicken carkas, kind of amusing, chech it out.