Northwest Fishing Reports

I am the Muskyhunter therefore I will be the 1st to post in this forum...Thanks for kicking this into motion Rosann G. you are awesome!! Come forward fellow Musky fisherpersons...lets fill up this forum with good info for the uninformed. I am willing to give any help I can give. Thanks, Todd=d>

can you fish for muskie on evergreen from shore just wondering never been there. what would you use if you were me

I really want to hit Lake Tapps but dont really know what to throw at them. I figure a bait fish lure that looks like the local forage like a 3/4 perch diver. Is there a reliable lure that they just cant resist? thanks

trout wrote:can you fish for muskie on evergreen from shore just wondering never been there. what would you use if you were me

yes in fact you can target these muskies from shore on evergreen...they like to come up to shore and hunt down the smaller fishes, i have caught 2 from shore with a softlure before

baits for muskies usually is based on their mood if there hungry or not because they will basically bite anything in front of their noses if they are hungry but recomennded baits

flash,vibrate,big baits

bucktails
roostertails works too but harder because they're smaller
bulldawg

Holy cow, that was fast! I posted a request for this yesterday and it's here. That's great, I commend this site's operators for being so resonsive to the anglers.
I have only fished Evergreen a few times, I only saw small fish. I'm not really after the little guys but I love catching any musky. I had fallows on swimbaits and caught a little guy on a large tube close to the bank. Has anyone been to Redrock Lake down there?

yea there are lots of the small ones but theres also thoe 40 inchers in there too

In reply to bank fishing at Evergreen (or any lake), while an angler may occasionally catch a tiger muskies from a dock or bank, that's not an effective way to fish for them. The population density is very low, less than 1 fish per surface acre, so you have to get on the water and search for them. The key to catching TMs is covering lots of water.

This doesn't mean people who don't own expensive boats can't fish for TMs. Years ago, I bought a used plywood cartopper from the want ads for $50, and a used 5 hp motor from the want ads for another $150. That was my only fishing boat for over 20 years, which works out to a cost of under $10 a year.

John Detloff, noted Wisconsin musky author and guide, and owner of Indian Trail Resort on Wisconsin's Chippewa Flowage (which is THE hard core musky camp on the Flowage), takes his guide clients out in a Shell Lake Guide Boat, which is a small fiberglass rowboat equipped with oars and a 25 hp motor. The Chip is 25,000 acres, about the size of Potholes, but John doesn't own a big boat (to him, anything over 15 feet is "big").

But you do need some sort of boat to get at the TMs. In Evergreen, most of them are in the weed beds, and you need to fish over those beds and along the outer edges. You can't reach most of those areas from shore. Also, when playing a fish of decent size, you want to try to pull it out to deeper water, because several things can happen if the fish reaches the bottom -- none of which are good. If you have to land a fish from the bank, you'll have to bring him in where he can get leverage against the bottom with his tail, which gives the fish an excellent opportunity to pry the hook out against the bottom rocks or do a lure-throwing somersault into the air.

So, my strong advice is to get some sort of boat. If you can't get a boat any other way, search the internet for free plans, and build one out of plywood. I've personally built several small cartoppers, and believe me, it's cheap and easy. It'll also give you something to do, to keep from going stir crazy, while waiting for the fishing to start. The TMs won't turn on until mid or late June, so you've got some time.

Muskie guy, I hope that's not a dead muskie you've got there on your patio! I won't help you guys if you're gonna kill 'em. There's only about 3,000 to 5,000 tiger muskies in the entire state of Washington, and the game department surveys indicate at least 16,000 people are fishing for them, so you do the math. We can't kill 'em, guys, if you want to have a fishery. Especially in view of the fact there will be NO tiger muskies stocked in 2008 because of problems with the egg supply.

Yes, I'm familiar with Red Rock Lake. There's nothing in there, my friend. WDFW quit stocking it because the outlet pipe doesn't have a screen to keep them from escaping the lake, and it would cost too much money to install one. The tiger muskies that were stocked there have either been caught or died of old age by now. Maybe 1 or 2 left, at best, but even that is doubtful. You are wasting your time there.

I won't comment on Tapps because I don't fish there and am not familiar with that lake.

I don't have much to say about lures. I have my preferences, but different things work for different people. Most of us tend to use what gives us confidence. There's no magic lure, and if there was, I wouldn't tell you what it was -- I want some of those fish for myself! The most important thing is to use a lure that will run at the right depth and speed for the fishing conditions. Warmer water = faster retrieve; slower retrieve = deeper down. For the weed beds at Evergreen I would recommend a musky-size single-hook spinnerbait because you'll never get treble hooks through that slop. But spinnerbaits have poor hooking qualities, so I use lures with treble hooks when I can. It's tough to beat a standard bucktail because you can retrieve them fast, search a lot of water quickly, they have excellent hooking qualities because there's no lure body for the fish to grab onto, and their flash and vibration attract fish from farther away than any other lure. Remember that muskies are sight feeders and it is the flash and vibration, not so much lure color, that gets their attention. Crankbaits are fun to fish but bucktails catch the vast majority of muskies and they're what you'll use in most situations.

Don't forget to release those fish!

The best selection and prices on muskie tackle is Rollie and Helen's Musky Shop in Minocqua, Wisconsin. They'll send you a catalog if you request one, and they also have an on-line store. (Rollie and Helen don't own it anymore; they sold it a couple years ago.) Another source is Thorne Brothers in Fridley, Minnesota, who also have an on-line store. They're a good source if Rollie's is out of something you want. Much smaller than those two, is Just Musky in Eagle River, Wisconsin, which is the online storefront of Eagle Sports, a tackle store specializing in muskie gear. Eagle Sports is owned by one of the local guides and he's a good guy, and good to do business with.

With all these midwestern tackle stores, remember they're geared to midwest fishermen, where the forage base is much more variegated, so a lot of the lures they sell aren't applicable here. All you need is some bucktails, a couple of spinnerbaits, and you can throw in a handful of diving crankbaits just for fun, if you like. Lures will get banged up and lost, so make sure you have some backups. If a lure is catching fish for you, own several of it. That last thing you want is to be out on the lake with the fish biting your favorite lure like crazy, then you break it on a rock or a big fish breaks the line and takes off with it, and there you are sitting there without another one.

Hey bud go to Wal-mart and get a few of the $1.00 white spinnerbaits. and a couple of the Storm swimming jigs perch colors. Cover water with a pole and reel you can cast all day accurately. I fished a long time before catching my first, now I'm around 30 in Tapps where I fish mostly because I live close.
Bill

Don;

Yes, I'm sorry to say that muskie died. It was caught on a very hot day in the middle of summer. The fish took a spinnerbait on the drop and was hooked fataly internaly in the gills on her left side. I tried for 30 minutes to revive her but she would not stay down. After 3 releases, she floated belly up after a minute or 2 submerged on each, she just wouldn't swim off any more. I was fishing from shore so I didn't have many options for release. But the stress of damaged gills, hot weather and high water temps did her in. I have never kept a muskie before or since then and I don't intend to. Should I have left that muskie to rot at the side of the lake? I'm well educated on the benefits of catch and release. In the future, you could trouble yourself with a personal reply first to find out some information before reprimanding a fellow angler and threatening to no longer "help" other anglers.
I really hope to meet you in the future and hope this won't spoil that and am sorry if it has.