Hi Guys,

I have listed some of the notes that I took from the seminars that I attended at the 2008 Chicago Muskie show:

Chicago Musky Show 2008 Seminars

Shallow Water Muskies by Luke Ronnestrand (part owner or Musky Buster Lures)
Identify shallow structure:
-Inside break line
-Inside of the outside weed edge
-Tops of reefs

Why shallow water?
-Shallow water is the first to warm and cool
-Cover: weeds and rocks
-Lack of pressure
-Forage: most important in the Fall

Important things to consider:
-Boat control: Don’t step on the fish
-Use GPS
-Long casts and good 8’s
-Remember the casting angles

Inside structure:
-Look for healthy inside weed edges
-Look for pockets between inside and outside edges
-Look for large distance from shore to the breakline
-Docks and Rocks
-Sand is #1 giveaway
-Look behind emergent weeds
-Hit the base and top of large points

Tips:
-Pay attention to the direction that the fish are coming from on strikes and follows and use this when information with your casting angles and boat control
-Inside edges are the most important to mark with your GPS
-Don’t put a lot of pressure on fish in the shallows….come back later

Sand holds heat:
-Look for sand shores in bays
-Look at the sand between shore and the inside weedline
-Look for sand shores all alone
-Dirty sand is the best
-Bays are overlooked

Bays:
-Good in the Spring
-Good on sunny and calm days

Reef tops:
-Look for piles of boulders
-Look for flats of small rocks
-Fish ridges and steep break lines
-One of the best spots in windy weather
-They are best in the fall

Shallow muskies:
-Best baits are topwater and bucktails (he likes gawdy colors)
-Trigger them with speed
-He likes double showgirls, double Maribou, #4 Vibrax, Babygirls (he puts bells on them), LLungen reefers, Shumway flasher, Musky Buster low riders, Stompers (during the day), Pacemakers (at night), Musky Buster Super Humper and shallow raiders.

Steve Heiting: Muskie: Go with the flow

-Steve just came out with a DVD:
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Advantages of water movement that is wind generated
-Bad light penetration
-Concentrates plankton
-Makes swimming hard for baitfish

Look for:
-Fish will setup on waterflow and you should fish where water is striking a structure
-Wind blowing into weedbeds
-Stay upwind and fish upcurrent areas
-Land forms that constrict water
-Look at buoys to understand the current

General tips:
-Always fish dams
-Rivers are greatly overlooked

Special situations to always fish:
-Reverse current (seiche effect)
-Water “stacking up” in shallow bays
-Deep water on the inside turns

Boat control is critical and focus on:

-Never drift…ever
-Practice boat control when not fishing
-Use 31 series batteries if possible
-If the winds are heavy fill your boats gas tank to help control the boat
-Try to keep the boats center of gravity as low as possible
-Try to keep the skeg straight so you are not fighting the skeg

Joe Bucher: Color does it matter?

-Fish see colors 40x better than humans

Joe’s Flow chart of importance:
#1 Location
#2 and #3 Skills and Timing
#4,#5 and #6 Lure choice, lure placement and spot choice
#7 Color

Affect of water color:
-Most things they eat are white,silver and green
-Likes unnatural colors in darker water
-Likes natural colors in clear water

Tips:
-Your partner should always something opposite of what you are throwing to see what they are looking for
-When it’s darker out he goes brighter
-When it’s lighter out he tones it down
-Likes chartreuse just before dark
-Color at night is not that important and he holds the lure up and looks at the silhouette more than color
-Likes a white depthraider at night
-Feels that the topraider is the best bait he has ever made
-Says to use a log and keep record of the light, time of day, bait, conditions and water temps to establish patterns
-Likes Bucher chrome baits (one of his new baits) and uses them on sunny days and dark lakes and thinks they are good in coldwater and uses white/silver in cold water and greens in warmer water

Jim Saric: Tough tactics for rough conditions

When you have rough conditions:
-Recognize it and be safe
-Change your game plan
-Don’t quit unless it is unsafe conditions
-Stay focused
-Make an “emergency kit” that has small baits and “weird stuff” in it and use this if your confidence baits are failing

Wind:
-Plan your approach
-You can use a very controlled drift
-Take advantage of the commotion that wind generates
-Fish upwind side
-Fish all the back eddies
-Watch yesterdays wind and fish where it was because the fish may still be there

While in the wind:
-Don’t use any finesse baits
-Use baits that are large loud and fast
-He likes mag dawgs, DCG’s, BIG topwaters, and a big Helidawg with a #10 blade on it
-Bulldawg is your best friend in rough water and try the new Jimmy

When the fish disappear:
-Slow down and milk the good spots
-Focus hard on key spots
-Look for clues like baitfish and birds
-Slow down more than you think you need to
-Make multiple passes at key spots
-Fish it dark (at night)
-Change your casting angles by going inside and fishing out, fish parallel to a spot, go deep then try skinny and vary the angles of your retrieve
-Bet on the windows of opportunity and be on your best spot when there is going to be an environmental change

Best windows:
-Between moonrise and moonset
-Sunset and Sunrise
-Right when the weather changes
-First dark

Loves big bucktails:
-Fish them fast and slow
-Pulse them during your retrieve and this is done by reeling 4x and on the 5th turn crank reel hard (not a twitch or a jerk of the rod tip)

Mike Hulbert: Poolside demonstration (he covered the types of retrieves he uses for these baits:

Helidawg-Straight retrieve with a very occasional tug and puts a #10 blade on it

Bulldawg-Rips it hard then rips it up and fishes it erratic and aggressive

Jimmy-Fish it like a jerk bait

Big tubes-Very erratic

DC10’s-Make sure you keep the rod pointed at the bait and about 10’ from the boat switch the bait to the left an get prepared for the first turn

Pacemaker-He puts a 7/0 hook on the front and a 6/0 on the back and puts a long shank (7/0) hook in the middle but cuts off the hook so that the blade hits the shank and makes a different noise

Weagles-Works them very slow and loves them in 20’-25’ water not just shallow

SS Shad-In warm water work them slow like as a topwater bait and in cold he works them very slow and steady with an occasional pause