Got a Red Horse from the river today so that will go on a hook tomorrow. I think I'll call her Jasmine. Also the local bait shop is going to try and get me some larger suckers (15-18 inch). They don't normally carry them except for the spearing season and come spring whats left dies. Shes going to try and get me a couple a week but if more people are interested maybe I can get her to carry them in the fall regularly.
"Burglar34" said:
Got a Red Horse from the river today so that will go on a hook tomorrow.
I am almost positive you cannot use that red horse unless you are fishing on the river in which the red horse was caught. With the threat of VHS around there are laws in place that state you cannot transport game fish from one body of water to another. If you caught the red horse from river 'A' then you can only use the red horse as bait on river 'A' and cannot use it on lake 'B'.
True and there is most likely no exceptions to that rule….but I wonder, like on many river systems, if the sucker was caught above the damned water if it could still be used. If it was below Sanford and then you brought it up, I would have to say no. And probably no any other way also, it's just not worth it.
Also be aware that the river redhorse is on the states list of threatened animals. I am not sure if there are other types of redhorse, mostly because we seem to see what appears to be redhorse on a limited but consistent basis on the muskegon river. but justa heads up, its not legal to keep the river redhorse sucker…
I'll have to check with the DNR on what I can use and where I can use it. I did believe if you caught a sucker out of the Tit you could use it on the Tit and it's adjoined bodies. On another note I did feed Jasmine to about a 45in ski. I got I great fight but never got a hook in. The 1st time she grabbed the sucker and ran with it so I set the hook and thought I had her until she let go at the boat. The second time I put the sucker back in the water to catch my breath 😯. and when I stated reeling in to check the damage I realized the musky was on again so a wait for about 5 min and set the hook again and thought I had her until she let go at the boat. Any advice when using live bait? I was using a quick strike rig with a hook though the nose and a treble in front of the dosal fin and behind. On the first strike the muskie had a hold just behind the gill plate and the second time was behind the dorsal fin but that hook had come out some where along the lines. Thanks Guys
It's called a quick strike rig for a reason. 5 minutes is waaaaay to long to wait for the hookset, man. As soon as the muskie grabs it, as long as it's not screaming out line, you can set it. Ideally, you want to be over top of the fish with the line going out at a little angle. That way, you set the hook into the corner of its mouth. Did you have one hook up high, and one down lower? One should be high and toward the tail, the other should be lower and more in front of the dorsal. Also, on your hookset, you should try to break your rod in half. It takes a LOT of force to pull a big sucker out of a muskies hundreds of teeth and jab a 5/0 hook through their jaw.
Remember that you are not trying to move the sucker in the musky's mouth, but rather you need to break the hooks free from the sucker. If the hooks break free cleanly, and if you set AS SOON AS you've got a good angle on the musky most of the time you will hook up. Use your trolling motor quickly to create a good angle as soon as the musky picks it up. As you have seen- once that musky tastes sucker, you are not going to scare them off very easily !
It sounds like your quick-strike hooks did not break free from the sucker, so make sure the nose hook and the 2 trebles are only barely skin hooked. The nose hook probably really can't go through the nostrils- even with the Incredible Hulk hookset you should be attempting- its not going to work real well. Just slide the nose hook under the skin on the nose instead and good luck.
Good job finding a big fish, now just make sure you can land her, release her successfully and catch her again someday when she's even bigger!
Thanks Duke, great advice and yes the hooks didn't break free except the one. I didn't know they were suppose to come out on the hook set so good to know. I also have a quick strike rig with safety pins so it seems like that might be easier to use for a newbie like me. Has anyone ever used that type of rig and do you like them?
Good advice so far.
The best thing you can have is a rig that functions correctly. This means, as Duke mentioned, a rig that breaks free of the sucker when you set the hook.
The rig below is a very good rig from Stealth. It is simple to rig and hooks up very well because everything comes free. You don't have to worry about breaking a rubberband because that little aberdeen hook will straighten if it doesn't tear free. The straightened treble should be hooked just below the skin and through no more than 1/2" of skin.
"><url url="[Permission to view this media is denied]<url url="[Permission to view this media is denied]
">[Permission to view this media is denied]
” alt=”
">[Permission to view this media is denied]
” />
"><url url="[Permission to view this media is denied]<url url="[Permission to view this media is denied]
">[Permission to view this media is denied]
” alt=”
">[Permission to view this media is denied]
” />
This is the rig I'll use for suckers in the 10-13" range and will position the boat directly over the fish to set the hook.
For larger suckers 13-20" it is the same rig but with a second treble inline with the first that is hooked on the top of the sucker at the back of or just behind the dorsal. With a two hook rig I will lift on a fish that has grabbed the sucker to get the fish moving away from the boat. Some fish will allow you to lift them all the way to the boat so that you can see how they have the sucker in their mouth.
You want 7 strand 90-135# for the rig.
If you are building your own don't copy the stealth exactly. Make the 7 strand 6" longer and connect to the flouro with a solid ring/split ring connection.
The flouro isn't for invisibility but for wear and tear on those fall fish that love to roll in the line.
368
17
1 Guest(s)