I am a primarily bass fisherman and I have some lakes local to me in NY/NJ area that have muskies.

My question is, from people with experience; what rigs and bait do you primarily use for muskies? What type of cover do you look for, and what times of year / conditions do they prefer? In the next year or so, I want to slam a big Muskie and I wanna do it without paying a guide service.

I have experience with chain pickerel, but otherwise I’ve never caught any Northerns or Redfins (which I imagine behave closer to the muskies as they are larger)

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by hugekitten223

Glad folks enjoyed the posting! I figured it was the best way to console myself on what I thought was going to be a "catching" day! The section I chose to fish get's a ton of pressure, because it is a pleasant wade and has fairly simple access that only requires about a half mile of walking to reach it by a well worn trail. The Boardman River does not have any catch and release areas, and it relies completely on natural spawning to keep the population up.

It was one of those classic mid sized streams that ended up with a series of 3 rather large power generation dams being put in place about 110 years ago. Over that time it remained "wild" and had also developed a unique eco system that had fish populations flourishing. The dams were recently taken out over a several year period, and in general, it is now re-connected directly to Lake Michigan.

In the process of removing the dams, there were a few unanticipated "foul ups" that pretty much decimated the majority of the insect food chain in the main branch and it is taking some time to heal. There was also one event (a dam burst) that took a heavy toll on the existing fish population.

It is a beautiful river that is simply in the process of a natural restoration now. In a few more years it should be getting back to where it was...hopefully!

The resident brown trout, which tend to be a little shy during broad daylight, also take a toll on their little brook trout cousins, but hey...that is life in the wild!

There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. There is an undercut bank, an overhanging willow, a logjam just ahead...your next stop...hopefully the brook trout zone.

Well, that just did not come to pass this afternoon on the Boardman River near Traverse City, MI. Spent 3 hours pounding the stream with an array of great streamer patterns, and could not scare up as much as a creek chub! It was like the trout rapture had occurred and I was the first fisherman to hit the river in the wake of it.

Kind of reminded me of that Peter, Paul and Mary song..."Where have all the flowers gone"...only substitute Brook trout for the word "flowers"!

It was too windy to kayak (36 mph at times), which is why I went to "plan B". Still ended up being very windy for fly casting but I deserved a day on the river after spending half of yesterday with a chainsaw in hand clearing brush thickets and medium sized trees.

Oh well, the sun was out and standing waist deep in a cold spring fed river had me mesmerised nonetheless for the effort expended.

Concluding with a few scenery snapshots from today as well as fish taken on a different day (sorry to reach back in my archive photos but a fish tale still deserves a photo of the quarry)!