I'm a huge advocate of taking any bass fishing lure and super sizing it to a size that may be useful for musky fishing, good example is the squarebill crankbait such as the Strike King 8.0 or even a hard bait such as the Berkley Flicker Shad. When I'm bass fishing in the spring or early summer, occasionally I'll stumble across a bass lure that I catch a musky on, I'll take mental note of where I caught it location wise and what they musky may be attracted to, could be the color, frequency vibration the particular bait gives off, could even be the shape of the lure. And some anglers don't realize, just because they're attracted to one squarebill like the 8.0, doesn't mean that all the same squarebills will work in the same way like the 6th Sense Magnum or even the Megabass Grenade, I've tried those other squarebills they don't even work as half as good for musky. It gets down to schematics and numbers, the angle of the lip, shape of the squarebill and even the color. As the japanese have shown with the Megabass jerkbait, just the slight perfection with the angle of lip or even weight of this jerkbaits treble hooks, can make all the difference in the action of the lure and driving out hunting characteristics of bass, why some still can't replicate the design of the megabass jerkbait to this day, gets down to the numbers.
So if super sized bass baits work on musky, what if this same method could be applied to some saltwater lures?
The Mad Mac was developed specifically for speed when trolling for Bluefin Tuna, I heard it's the only artificial bait that will work incredibly well for these species of picky fish, so much so when these lipless hardbaits first came out they were completely sold out at Saltwater Fishing Shops all across the country especially in California, they worked so well. But since this bait was specifically made with speed in mind, what if this same design could work really well on musky, especially the aggressive subspecies such as barred musky, especially doing figure 8s? Could make a killer bait to try, no other way but to try it out at your local lake to see if the MadMac works for your particular type of ecosystem and strain of musky at your local lake. And remember, just because it doesn't work at one particular lake, doesn't mean it won't work at a different Lake or even River fishing for musky. Each different type of strain of musky and type of ecosystem always calls for a different type of bait that may work!
Shaped like a lipless crankbait or as some bass anglers might describe it Rattle Trap by Bill Lewis, this unique lure comes in three different sizesto choose from, 5" at 3 1/3 oz, 6" at 6oz, and even 10" at 14oz. Personally I'd try the 10" first for bigger musky especially in the Fall, but hey the smaller 6" might be better in the summer. Just be-careful where you buy this lure from, ya know I love ebay for certain things like shaft wire for spinnerbait and bucktail making, but with so many replice counterfits online of fishing line and lures, gotta be careful on that auction site, I'd rather buy from a reputable fishing dealer.
And here's the thing, there aren't many companies that make a lipless crankbait for musky fishing, there's the the H2O Tackle Barbarian, so it may be something that the musky haven't seen and may work well just for that main reason. Bill Lewis does make a super sized version, but those are hard to find at brick mortar stores and can only be found online primarily.
Some musky anglers do that same thing every year, like robots, troll all year long with bucktails and then just cast bulldawgs in the fall/winter, maybe think outside the box and try something different may give you an edge against other musky anglers in a tournament or even try trolling this bait when you're a musky guide to produce more catches. There's still many, mark my words many lures that haven't been devloped yet for musky fishing, probably even many bass and saltwater lures that are collecting dust sitting right on the market which could work really well on musky, but because many musky anglers are set in their ways, they'll never discover a unique lure that is right at their doorstep.
My main worry is that the Strike King 8.0 may be discontiued one day because bass anglers need to use a heavy duty rod and reel to cast that lure, otherwise they're not going to buy it or use it, so it's not really a hot seller. I think they've already discontiued the perch color that works so good. I have written to the company many times over, even a reperensentitive from the company commented once on one of my youtube videos saying that they might develop a line of bigger squarebill hard baits specifically for musky fishing, but year after year passes as nothing ever happens.
And as I emphasized up above, just because the MadMac doesn't work on spotted great lakes musky maybe at lake st clair in Michigan, doesn't mean it won't work effectively on barred or clear musky that may be more aggressive strain of musky in lakes such as Wisconsin or Minnesota. Each subspecies hunts differently, adapts differently to each ecosystem and type of prey it feeds on, they're appetite can change too on a monthly or yearly basis. Why you see some musky chase over and over again on the figure 8, while other subspecies of musky just strike baits from hiding underneath the boat like the great lakes spotted musky. Musky fishing is complex, not every bait works equally effective at different lakes, could be said the same for different subspecies too, even different hybrid species like the tiger musky or entirely different species like the big northern pike. When I started using the Bill Lewis super sized Rattle Traps, I was catching a lot of northern pike at Lake St. Clair.
Saltwater lures are built to withstand a punch, so if they're built to withstand catching Bluefin tuna and corrosion from saltwater, you know they'll work just as good in musky fishing, especially since they use those BKK hooks, which I use on my Strike King 8.0, the BKK hooks I use are coated with super slide technology and are pointed razor sharp for better hook sets, along with being forged making them stronger and even lighter. I had one musky angler tell me he just slap some standard heavy Gamakatsu hooks on the 8.0, afterwards I put the crankbait up on the scale which was much heavier and I felt how the hard hitting vibration was taken away when reeling, the heavier Gamaktsu hooks immediately took away from action, and since they were heavier the 8.0 also lost the buoncy floating action of the Strike King 8.0 when the lure stopped. Remind you musky will a lot of times bite the 8.0 on stop and go retrieve, that's why you can't go all Hillbilly and just slap any treble hook on this hard bait, even if it's the best super sharp treble hook which Gamakatsu brand is known for, it will change the action entirely.
These are single hooks so you might want to change them out to BKK trebles, just remember though, just like I said about the Japanese and Megabass tuning a lure down to even the weight of the hooks on their award winning 110 jerkbait, you change out a hook, that may change the action entirely, you may want to keep these same hooks, it's up to you... Have fun, think outside the box!
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