I have yet to have a muskie come within 10 feet of the boat besides one that came from under the boat and nailed my buddies bucktail, but I have one question, most of the time when I watch figure 8's being performed its with a bucktail, and it seems like a lot of work to keep the blades spinning. when I fish a twitchbait/glider/anything that doesn't have blades! it seems that to keep the natural motion of the bait right that I shouldn't go too fast or the bait doesn't look right in the water…example when I use a talonz bait if I circle wide and slow, with somewhat of a pause and then speed it up the bait somewhat loses its action that I love and rolls. I can get it too look good by changing my grip on the rod and putting more of the tip in the water, but ive never seen that on tv…my question is does the appearance of the bait matter more to the fish, or the shear speed and to keep playing cat and mouse? I ask just because I don't feel very confident in using a figure 8 unless it has blades….
I don't ever stop on a figure 8, I speed up in the straight away, and slow a little in the turn. A slow down can make an aggressive fish that wants to eat disappear.
I don't worry about natural action when it comes to the 8, for the most part, with the exception of side to side glides(which an 8 fish is rare for me anyways) Certain baits definitely 8 better than others.
Here's a good discussion on the topic of getting fish to eat at the boat.
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As Scott mentioned, what the lure looks like in the eight isn't important. The goal should be to make the lure look different than it did during the retrieve. If it looks the same and doesn't appear to be a meal trying to get away then it's not going to trigger a strike.
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