Musky America Magazine August 2022 Edition

Over Coming The Musky's Blind Spot By Craig Sandell © 2015 There is nothing like the excitement of seeing a Musky rise just behind your surface bait and begin to stalk what he hopes will be a tasty meal. I have had that excitement; however, more often than not, the Musky turns off the bait apparently loosing interest. If that has happened to you, you probably found yourself wondering what you could have done differently that might have encouraged a violent attack rather than a passive "swim-by". When the Musky is 20 or 25 feet from the boat, there is no way to to execute a direction change that might trigger a Musky to attack. So what the hell can you do in that situation? I have been fishing with guides that encourage a slight twitch of the lure during a retrieve but there is another possible presentation approach. As you will see from reading further in this article, Musky have a blind spot right in front of their snout. I have found that varying the speed of the retrieve at irregular intervals during the retrieve can be useful when trying to trigger a Musky attack. Yes, this type of presentation approach is contrary to the age old wisdom that the best approach is a slow steady retrieve. Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, there is no way that you can pull the lure through the water fast enough and have it escape a determined Musky. By starting out with a normal retrieve speed and then speeding it up and then slowing it down, you are encouraging the interest of the unseen Musky following your and you are overcoming the Musky's blind spot problem should he get too close to the lure.

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