Got any advice for a fellow freshwater angler?

My family and I are about to embark on our annual fishing trip up on Women Lake in Minnesota. My goal this year: to catch a Musky. My dad and my bro (who consider themselves the "ultimate fishermen") even get skunked quite often on this fish! I've been trying since I was about 5, and 20 years later, I STILL haven't caught the illusive one in 10,000 casts Muskellunge.....I'm beginning to think that it's my fate to keep on missing out! I've caught pleanty of Pike and Walleye, but not the coveted Musky. Anyone got any advice?

Lots of jigs.

Musky? Keep casting big bucktail spinnerbaits and trolling traditional musky baits.

on the way up.......we usually troll with Daredevil spinners of various colors, but I only catch Pike on those (not that Pike aren't fun to catch)....my dad found these great jigs that are plyable and easier to unsnag, so we're ready on that end.

difficult to catch......you have to outsmart them......fish late at night.....discuise yourself as a Carp.....soak your lure in Jack Daniels.....it takes much patience and a lot of luck but I am confident that you will nab one by the time you are 40.

Usually I'M the one drinking the JD, I didn't think to share! :P

Bummer! Maybe I'll hit the "Crazy about Musky" blogs? :D

1. How big is the lake? How deep is it? The fish are holding in certain areas depending upon a bunch of factors, mostly where there is forage (what they eat) and cover (weeds, logs, rocks, etc), the wind, the water temp.. Get a detailed chart of the lake. Look for areas with submerged structure=ledges and rock piles. Look for isolated areas that other fisherman might not hit.

2. Do you have a boat? Is it fast? Does it have a depth finder with a water temp gauge. Live bait or lures?
Look for changes in water temp, look for baitfish schools, look for ledges and dropoffs. If you do hook up, make note of the conditions in which you did so

3. Run and Gun=and cast your ass off. This means scout various places on the map you might want to fish, hit these areas and cast about. Cast as far as you can and work your lures hard, musky are aggresive. Drift over or around structure, keep moving. If you dont get any bites or follow-ups, move to another spot. If you get a follow-up, but no bite, hit that spot again tomorrow.

4. Run and gun, said it again, because it won my buddy 80K in the lake vermillion tourney last year. Keep moving, keep casting

5. make sure your line is nick free and your hooks are sharp. dont want to lose a fish if he bites and you dont want the line to break either. Keep your rod tip up and dont horse the fish play him out

6. Get a good picture and post it on DU :) Good Luck!

Right-run and gun! We do all of that for the most part.....I think that we spend too much time fishing for pan fish to stock the cooler vs. trolling.....I'm gonna try to get my dad to commit to more days trolling this year to up our chances. We go fishin' all the time here in Iowa, but there isn't much of a chance to catch a Musky down here, so I try to take advantage every time we get up in Northern Minnesota to try for the "big ones". And I will be takin' tons of pics and I for sure will post them!

In the first place, I'm getting jealous here,so good on you :)

OK trolling for muskeys.

1. Speed in trolling is key. Too slow is most often the problem. Fish can swim faster than we think (especially if we're thinking with JD on the brain)
The trolling bait has to resemble a fleeing baitfish, so speed it up, and change it up. Go slower, then faster. Work the structure like we talked about before. Watch the depth finder. work edges of anything

2. Depth in trolling is key. Keep lures at different depths. A spoon on the top, a middle depth plug and then a diver (write this down: the biggest perch colored "lazy ike" you can find at Cabelas) Lazy Ike

3. Bigger lures work better for musky.

All things considered, I'd go for the panfish, but if you are bound and determined for the musky, it takes work.

My family nickname is the "rock bass queen".....I somehow end up catching the biggest and the most! Things are gonna be a lot more interesting this year cuz my dad just got a new boat-we finally convinced him to stop buying tiller motors and get a boat with a steering wheel-yee haw! Although I fear we will now be spending some of our afternoons hauling people around on ski tubes instead of fishing....which is fun too I guess, but I've gotten the fever for fishin' lately (thus posting a fishing thread on the DU) so that sounds less appealing ! I think my dad just picked up some Lazy Ikes a few weeks ago, I'll be sure to give them a try...you're right about the swiming fast thing! I always do a figure-eight before I pull my line up to cast again and sometimes those damn fish seem to come out of nowhere and hit right by the boat! So fun!