Live Bait for Muskies: Complete Sucker Tactics, Quick-Strike Rigs, and Cold-Water Strategy

Live Bait for Muskies Live Bait Tactics for Muskies

Fishing live bait for muskies has been part of the sport from its earliest days. Using live suckers, chubs, and panfish was the most effective way to catch muskies in the 1930s and 40s, because the lures of that era would, let’s just say, leave a modern-day musky angler in a state of wanting.

I have always enjoyed hearing stories from the bygone days of musky fishing, and most of them involve live bait in some form. One of my favorites is how, during the American Civil War, soldiers under the command of General Stonewall Jackson would on occasion catch what they referred to as jackfish or jacks on limb lines and trotlines. Hoping to catch anything that would constitute a source of protein, Civil War soldiers set out lines in hopes of catching anything that would qualify as a meal. On occasion, those soldiers hauled in what they referred to as jacks, or jackfish.

While the name jackfish is slightly uncommon in North America, it is commonly used as a name for northern pike in Europe. With so little time separating colonization and the Civil War, and with names traveling along with people, the tales of Stonewall Jackson’s troops catching jackfish are some of the earliest reports of muskie catches. The areas Jackson’s campaigns covered are well outside the habitat range of northern pike. During that era, sport fishing was not a serious pursuit, so I can only imagine the shock those soldiers felt as they hauled in a muskie. It must have been akin to hauling in a sea monster when your original intent was a bluegill to fill your frying pan.

While limb lining is largely a thing of the past, I have been regaled on more than one occasion by old timers with their tales of muskies caught during the Depression era. Again, when a source of protein was scarce, mountain folk set out trotlines and limb lines looking for anything that would constitute table fare. As one can imagine, a struggling bluegill on a trotline seems like an easy meal for a muskie in some backwater creek, and as they say, the rest is history.

While some modern-day muskie anglers might snub their nose or think live bait is a “less than” endeavor, I would beg to differ. Using live bait while musky fishing is in no way, shape, or form a guaranteed pathway to success. While using live bait doesn’t require the same skill it takes to make artificial lures come alive, it still requires forethought, game planning, and a bit of finesse to maximize its potential.

Live Musky Bait Acquisition

The most common live bait associated with muskies is the lowly sucker. One should note that sucker is a very general name, as there are numerous fish in the Catostomidae family. In most cases, anglers are referring to Catostomus commersonii, the common white sucker. The white sucker is the most prevalent live bait sold for muskies. In some areas, redhorse suckers are more common, but they are very similar to white suckers in most practical ways.

While many musky anglers in the northern range can walk into just about any bait shop in the fall and buy a sucker, this is simply not the case for some of us. While I must admit I would much rather shell out the cash for a sucker, on more than one occasion that option has not been available.

If buying suckers is not an option and you want to fish live bait for muskies, you will find yourself on a sucker hunt. Catching suckers in summer when you don’t need them is easy, as they’re often seen cruising and feeding in shallow creeks and streams. But when cold weather sets in and muskies are chomping at the bit for them, suckers seem to vanish right when you need them.

There are a few options to catch suckers, starting with hook and line. Suckers are bottom feeders that scour rivers and creek beds in search of food, allowing us to set lines in hopes of catching them. While suckers may not be apex predators, they are wary creatures, so lighter line and better hook concealment can help.

The easiest and generally most effective bait for catching suckers is live bait. A worm rigged on a small snelled hook and monofilament line in the eight-pound-test class will set you up for success. When trying to catch suckers on hook and line, I like to place lead sinkers about a foot above my hook and worm. This forces the worm to stay just on, or slightly above, the bottom. Adjust the amount of lead to compensate for current so your bait stays stationary. Suckers cannot be coaxed into striking. They must be allowed to find your bait, which is far less fun than musky fishing.

Suckers tend to hold in the deep pockets and holes of creeks and streams around the time of year you need them for musky fishing. In general, they’ll hold on the downstream changes of these pockets and pools, where current funnels food to them. If water temperatures are still moderate, suckers can be found on shallow flats and feeding in riffles and behind rocks.

While using hook and line for suckers isn’t action packed, hooking up with a sucker in the fifteen-to-twenty-inch range on a light spinning rod can be a bit of fun. It’s like riding a moped or taking a fat chick home: while it might be fun at the time, it’s probably not something you want your friends to see.

Trapping Musky Suckers

While rod and line will provide a few suckers when needed during prime time, trapping, where permitted, is a far easier proposition and requires far less time dedicated to success. While there are numerous variations of traps available for baitfish, musky-sized suckers require something more robust than what can be purchased at the local tackle store.

From box traps to modified funnel traps, just about anything will suffice when trapping suckers. Readily available variations are sold at big retailers, but they usually require the entryways to be widened to accommodate suckers far larger than the intended purpose of trapping minnows. Cylinder traps can be modified by enlarging the entry hole to a diameter around four to five inches. Box traps should be altered to allow for the same general entry size.

Baiting a trap for suckers is easy. Anything from red worms to dog food will work. Dialing in which bait is most effective in your area will vary and requires experimentation. Regardless of what bait is most productive, consider the influence of current and the longevity of your bait choice.

Traps for suckers are best placed in the deep pockets and pools found in small creeks and moderately sized rivers. Deeper pools adjacent to swifter sections seem productive in larger systems. Small holes created by inside turns and washouts excel as sucker-trapping locations on creeks and streams. While the end intent for these suckers is grim, cruelty can and should be avoided by checking sucker traps regularly to prevent unnecessary stress on captured fish. This also allows for sorting and release of fish caught outside your target species.

Seining Musky Suckers

Seining is highly effective for catching suckers but requires a partner. Seines are nets stretched across a creek or stream and walked, generally upstream, herding and capturing fish in their path. While seines are indiscriminate, they have a far lower threshold for negative impact when compared to traps. Non-target species may be inconvenienced, but they suffer little to no harm and can be turned loose quickly.

Seining for suckers is best done in shallow creeks in the one-to-five-foot range. This water size allows for easy coverage. The narrower the section of water you target with a seine, the higher your yield will be. Hitting shallow feeding zones and dropping into adjacent deeper pools will maximize your seining efforts.

Keeping Musky Suckers Alive

While catching suckers presents its own unique challenges, keeping them alive is often the most frustrating part of fishing live suckers for muskies. I can attest that even when conditions seem perfect, suckers will die as if they had been clubbed over the head. During peak sucker season at The Musky Shop, it is not uncommon for the first employee through the door around 6 a.m. to find two or three dead suckers each day. Captivity and suckers are the furthest thing from a match made in heaven.

The best-case scenario when using suckers as live bait is to catch them and use them the same day, or within a short window. As a younger fellow, I can recall more than one Saturday afternoon targeting suckers that would be used on Sunday, because their shelf life is problematic.

To my wife’s absolute chagrin, I have worked over the years to maximize the shelf life of both purchased and caught suckers. Let me tell you, my lack of reluctance to Jodie digging and installing a koi pond in our backyard was filled with ulterior motives. While me and my sucker friends have since been evicted from the koi pond and moved to a holding tank, the process taught me numerous lessons. First, suckers demand extreme aeration. Even our koi pond, with a substantial waterfall and center fountain, was inadequate from an aeration standpoint.

Any holding tank for suckers must, first and foremost, have an overabundance of aeration, provided by sprayer bars and bubblers. I find a combination of sprayer bars and multiple bubblers is the best solution. While I’m unable to rattle off the maximum ratio of air to water suckers can tolerate, I’m sure it is insanely high. If you think you have enough aeration, add a little more.

Clean water is another huge component of keeping suckers alive in a holding tank for any duration. If you can pump creek or stream water into your system, this is less of a concern, but in most cases that’s a tall order. I have found a manual clean-out filtration system works for small holding ponds and stock tanks. This, combined with a bed of clean pea gravel on the bottom, helps keep the environment clean and extends their life span in their fishy prison. I also add a water treatment made for koi ponds that eliminates chlorine, fluoride, and other chemicals found in municipal water supplies. As we all know, the government’s water treatments are turning frogs gay, so just imagine their effects on your suckers.

While clean, unadulterated water and heavy aeration are key, it’s unarguable that water temperature is the most critical factor. Suckers quickly go belly up when water temps reach the sixties, and it’s shocking how fast it happens. I try to avoid storing suckers during warm periods, but winter warmups can be problematic. To save your precious live baits, add bags of ice once or twice a day to knock down water temperatures. While icing suckers down like a can of Pepsi works, routing your water aeration system through a deep freezer is a costly but far more regulated methodology.

This can be achieved by pumping water out of your sucker tank into a length of hose that is coiled inside a deep freezer set just above freezing temperatures. The additional length of coiled hose slows the process, forcing water to gather and cool inside the freezer, significantly lowering its temperature before being returned to the tank.

While rigging a freezer to cool your sucker tank is work and requires a financial commitment or a fight with your spouse, it provides a long-term solution and reduces dead loss from unexpected temperature spikes.

While my beloved wife, being a lover of all animals, has asked on more than one occasion if we should feed the suckers waiting on death row in my holding tank, feeding suckers in a cold-water tank is not necessary. They can remain healthy and active without feeding for months as long as water temperatures remain low. If you are like me and have a wife that protests, a small amount of red worms as a final meal will keep the peace before their death sentence is carried out at the jaws of a muskie.

Transport and On the Water Keeping Musky Suckers Fresh

While most anglers purchase suckers, there should be no illusion that you skip the custodial role of caring for these notoriously death-prone creatures. I have heard countless stories from my friends at The Musky Shop about suckers purchased and doomed to die before the dust settled as the customer pulled out of the parking lot. Buying suckers is far easier, but you must be particular in how you store and transport them.

The kiss of death for countless suckers in the early fall is a dirty livewell. Pretty much every musky angler I have ever known uses their livewell as a catch-all for boat junk most of the season. Far too often, anglers clear it out, fill it with water, and dump newly purchased suckers in on the way to the water. What they forgot to account for is residue from sunscreen, bug spray, and the litany of contaminants introduced to that livewell. Suckers fresh from a bait tank are plunged into a chemical cocktail that will hasten their untimely demise.

With this in mind, I recommend portable bait coolers for transport and on-the-water storage. Engel and Frabill offer simple but highly effective bait coolers. Not only do these portable tanks have built-in aeration, they are far more thermally shielded than a typical livewell. If you insist on using your built-in livewell, make sure it has been cleaned to remove chemical residue. I also allow it to air dry completely to ensure it’s clean enough to not negatively affect live bait.

Regardless of how you transport or store live bait, keep a watchful eye on water temperature. A good rule of thumb is to ice down the water before introducing suckers. Colder is always better. If you’re using a portable bait cooler, I also recommend turning the water over mid-trip to ensure it stays clean for the duration of your day.

While catching muskies with suckers and other live bait options is far more fun than caring for them, you become a caretaker in some form when you commit to live bait. Keep things clean, cold, and highly oxygenated. And remember, if you don’t catch anything, suckers make great family pets, well at least the lone survivor who resides in our koi pond does.

Alternative Live Baits for Muskies

While suckers are the king of musky live baits, other options are available and highly viable. Before proceeding, read your local regulations. States, and even regions within them, can vary wildly regarding what is acceptable as live bait.

I have to say, I can hear the collective asses of thousands of Musky 360 Podcast listeners pucker when Steve Herbeck regaled the show with his exploits of using pike as live bait for muskies. While using small pike might seem like a sin to some, their effectiveness should not be underestimated. Pike are resilient, hardy, and stay active on a quick-strike rig. If suckers are not available, this may be an option if legal.

While we’re on the subject of live baits that will leave some clutching their pearls, walleyes are one of the most effective live baits for muskies. While I have witnessed muskies circle and inspect suckers, pike, and other baitfish endlessly, I have yet to see anything resembling hesitation when a walleye is on a quick-strike rig in front of a muskie.

Southern and open-water anglers are aware that shad are a prime target for muskies. Shad, while hard to store longer than a day, can be highly effective live bait. Acquiring shad is easily done by throwing a cast net over schools spotted on electronics. Due to the smaller size of most shad, anglers often need to downsize quick-strike rigs, allowing for a lighter setup that is less cumbersome and keeps the shad more natural in motion.

Bluegill, crappies, and perch also stand out as sucker alternatives. Bluegills are extremely hardy and handle transport and longer-term storage well. Crappies can be more finicky but handle being on a quick-strike rig rather well. The same can be said for perch. While these would not be my top tier live bait if other options are available, all three can be highly effective. When using bluegills and perch, I recommend trimming the sharp points off their dorsal fins. While it feels a bit barbaric, it helps prevent muskies from spitting them out after getting stuck by a sharp spine.

I will say it again: the legality of what live baits you can use falls on you. Ignorance of the law is not a defense, and it is incumbent on you to be well informed before you start using your cousin’s ferret as live bait.

Quick Strike Musky Rig for Live Bait Musky Fishing

Muskie Quick Strike Rigs

One of my favorite things about the old days of musky fishing are the stories about crusty guides and sucker fishing. One of my favorites is a guide who, when a muskie grabbed a sucker in the fall, said, “Don’t touch the rod. You have to let me smoke two cigarettes before you set the hook.” While I appreciate dedication to sparking up a long dart, I don’t think he had timing down for anything resembling conservation.

Before the late 80s and early 90s, killing muskies was the norm and live bait tactics were akin to murder. Guides and anglers would wait, sometimes as long as two heaters, before setting the hook. This guaranteed the muskie had turned and swallowed the bait, meaning the hook set happened somewhere between a muskie’s throat and stomach. Even if an angler wanted to do something so bizarre as letting a muskie go, the chances of it swimming away before rolling belly up were low.

With conservation at the forefront for modern musky anglers, live bait tactics improved with quick-strike rigs. Quick-strike rigs, as the name implies, allow us to set quickly, minimizing the chance of a muskie swallowing live bait and hooks.

Musky Float and Quick Strike Rig

Quick-strike rigs come in a variety of configurations. The two main variations are nose-clip and nose-hooked models. Nose rigs use a spring-style gripper inserted into either side of a sucker’s nasal cavity. The other style uses a single large bait hook placed in the mouth, often secured with a small piece of rubber to prevent the sucker from throwing the rig.

While both rigs are functional, I prefer to minimize the setup by using a custom rig. In most of my live bait fishing, I use a rig with only two 3/0 treble hooks. The first treble is inserted into the sucker’s mouth and secured by pushing a small piece of rubber over the hook past the barb, preventing the sucker from shaking it out. The second hook is placed just behind the dorsal fin by scratching off a few scales, pushing the hook through, and securing it on the other side with another small piece of rubber pushed past the barb.

These custom-built rigs eliminate excess components, and most importantly, put a treble hook on the head of a sucker. While muskies grab suckers in numerous ways, they often grab them head first, and this hook placement helps maintain a high percentage of sucker strikes and landed fish. While most sucker rigs are perfectly fine, I always land on the side of simplicity. Eliminate components and you eliminate points of failure. By making custom rigs, I can tailor each rig to the exact size of live bait I’m using that day.

Live Bait Musky Gear and Equipment

Fishing live bait for muskies can be done with just about any rod and reel, but to maximize success I recommend using gear that gives you an advantage. While long musky rods in the nine-foot to nine-foot-six range are the current standard, shorter can often be better for live bait. I recommend a rod in the eight-foot range. The Musky Shop 8’ Trolling and Live Bait Model Shield Rod is my go-to for trolling and live bait applications. This Shield Rod has a responsive tip that becomes a heavy backbone a few inches down, allowing for extremely powerful hook sets.

That Shield Rod paired with a line counter reel allows accurate placement. A line counter enables repeatable placement once a pattern is found, so you can be certain your live bait is exactly where you want it. A perk of line counter reels is loud clicker systems. A loud clicker lets you know instantly if a muskie has grabbed your live bait, allowing you to respond quickly.

Live bait fishing is generally best in conjunction with casting and jigging presentations regardless of season. With this in mind, you must consider rod holders and proper placement. Brands such as Scotty and Folbe offer high-quality rod holders that can withstand the rigors of musky fishing. More robust metal rod holders exist, but they can cause heavy wear to rods with cork handles, forcing you to accommodate potential damage.

Regardless of brand, rod holder placement is the most important part of the equation. While you might think placing live bait far away from casting efforts makes sense, that is not a truism. Rod holders dedicated for live bait should be placed in close proximity to casting, ideally on the outer edge of your figure-eight turning radius. This helps avoid tangles while allowing you to lead muskies to live bait, a subject we will unpack further.

A simple placement guide is spending a few minutes figure-eighting and noting where your rod’s outer sweep runs relative to the gunnel. This gives a general placement zone. Account for rod length, subsurface angle, and possible interference with the live bait line. Give yourself extra feet beyond the standard figure-eight path to allow the wider turns that happen when you know a muskie is following.

For line and leader, I use eighty-pound test Next Level Braid and a one-hundred-and-thirty-pound Musky Shop fluorocarbon leader for live bait. You can use one-hundred-pound braid, but I do not recommend line or leader below the eighty-pound threshold, as live bait hook sets are often vertical and high impact with little buffer for terminal tackle.

Musky Braid 80 lb

Musky Live Baits and Seasonality

Shocking to some, muskies eat live baits all year long. The majority of the time those live offerings are not tethered to a fisherman’s boat. Musky legend Russ “Smitty” Smith proved the point by catching a muskie on a live sucker every month of the season. But while live baits can always work, keeping them alive and the implications of the method are different matters.

In warm summer water, muskies at times waste no time and swallow live fish nearly instantly. That alone should be a red flag for live bait during summer months. Combine that with the nightmare of caring for live bait in the heat, and it should close the door on bright ideas about dragging a sucker while burning blades and topwater.

The traditional time frame for live bait starts around mid to late September, depending on water temps year to year. Muskies often move shallow during this period, and anglers have had success converting follows and contacting outlier deep-holding fish by dragging a sucker behind them while casting in early fall.

As temperatures continue to drop in the northern range, more anglers start using live bait. The effectiveness of live bait tends to climb higher as water temperatures fall further, seemingly due to muskies slowing down while also feeling the genetic urge to put on weight before winter takes control.

As muskies demand slower presentations, our lures face increased scrutiny. Slower retrieves and lower vibration afford muskies more time to judge, making live bait a needed backup plan at times.

If you are adding live bait to your musky plan, use it starting in early fall and through winter where applicable. While live bait is always viable, put conservation and environmental impact above personal angling goals. The more of them that are dead tends to make them harder and harder to catch for some reason.

Live Baits and Size

To maximize success, think of live bait as an additional element to a seasonally appropriate plan. Dropping a sucker overboard in the first wet spot you hit is not a sure thing. Effective live bait fishing requires consideration of seasonality, conditions, light penetration, and overall profile size.

The folks at The Musky Shop can attest the phone rings off the hook with daydreamers asking for twenty-two- and twenty-four-inch suckers. While monster suckers can catch muskies, I’m not sure they’re appropriate for many bodies of water. Much like lure selection, overall size matters with live bait.

If muskies are moving and striking eight-to-ten-inch crankbaits and rubber, you may be well served to purchase or trap suckers in that same size class. Suckers have the same size issue as lures: muskies might come look at a twenty-four-inch sucker, but not many are willing to take a swipe at it. Take a realistic approach. Mid-sized offerings are often the most productive. Unless you are fishing for the biggest muskies on a system that truly supports it, select live baits with a modicum of realism. Matching your live bait profile to what muskies are already willing to chase can play a major role in success.

Concepts for Placement

Using live bait is not a guarantee. Just like casting and trolling, live bait has times when it is more effective and scenarios where it should be avoided. In general, live bait excels when targeting first major break lines and deeper sections of lakes and rivers.

While live baits can be used shallow, in most cases they are unnecessary or a hindrance when muskies are active in the littoral zone. Shallow zones often have dead or dying vegetation, and in some regions timber and laydowns, which can hinder effectiveness. I’m not saying muskies won’t hit live bait shallow. My apprehension is practical. Snags, fouling, and dragging live bait over shallow cover can become a headache rather than a benefit.

When targeting first break and deeper water, consider both seasonality and current conditions when setting suckers. Much like determining running depth for casting presentations, set live baits below the level of light penetration on a given day. Bright skies call for deeper presentations. Dark days allow shallower placements.

Live bait fishing adheres to structure fishing fundamentals, seasonality, and in-the-moment adjustments. Do not assume a muskie will react to a live bait outside its visual or vibrational range. Proper depth placement is critical. While artificial baits can phase in and out of the level of light penetration with positive effects, live bait should continually reside below that threshold for maximum effectiveness.

While I don’t regularly use a Secchi disc, dropping a sinking lure boatside and noting where it escapes your top-down visual range can get you in the ballpark of light penetration. I’m more liberal with depth estimates for artificials, but live bait demands higher accuracy. Waves, wind, and boat control can change where your live bait actually rides. I add at minimum one meter, roughly three feet, to my estimated light penetration depth when setting live baits. This is a season-to-taste equation, and depth should be cross-referenced against a three-point bait check. You must also adjust live bait depth in relation to forage placement. I have seen baitfish make vertical shallow movements in fall that supersede light penetration, often in response to approaching weather fronts. Fish know what’s coming earlier than humans, even those with a smartphone in hand. Reference nature’s clues, and consult electronics regularly. Stay informed on what is, not what you think should be.

Once we determine a basic depth setting, we must decide how much rope to give them. Shallow scenarios may allow setting a sucker a few feet down on a loose, non-weighted line. Brighter or post-frontal conditions may demand weights just above the live bait to keep it in the zone.

In most scenarios I use one to two ounces of lead roughly two feet above the live bait. This gives the bait a short leash, allowing natural movement while keeping it from straying outside target depth. Live imaging has shown the benefits of this placement repeatedly. Every day requires tweaks, but a short leash is often sufficient to keep live bait active yet in the right zone.

You will hear wildly varying opinions about whether to free-spool with a clicker or fish with a loose drag. Here is my clear-cut method. If you’re using a line counter, engage the clicker as an early strike indicator. I do not leave the reel in free-spool. Once the bait is set to depth, I engage the reel and rely on the drag from that point forward.

Wind, current, and other factors influence this, but I set drag at a middle setting. I don’t want line to peel easily, but I also don’t want significant force required. From the rod tip you should feel resistance, not reluctance. This allows hard-hit muskies to pull drag while minimizing the gap you must cover when it’s time to set the hook.

Live Bait Musky Tactics

When live baits are properly set, we can maximize effectiveness by leading following muskies to them. When casting artificials in conjunction with live bait, I focus on presenting so my lure crosses paths with the live bait in the last few feet of the retrieve. Whether big rubber, cranks, or something else, my intent is to guide a following muskie into contact with the live bait.

Most days you can achieve the crossing of paths by pointing the rod toward the live bait around the midway point of the retrieve, while ensuring lure action is not impeded. Nature throws curve balls when a muskie is following. If wind, waves, or current make intersecting paths problematic without ruining lure action, compensate during the figure-eight.

Current might require leaning into one side of the figure-eight to maintain speed and turning radius while leading the fish toward the live bait. Wind drift can be more problematic. A wind shift can push your live bait under the boat and change running depth. That requires fast reaction times and may require figure-eighting around bow or stern to lead a muskie to a sucker that is now on the unintended side. There are endless ways this can play out. Success requires immediate adjustment to offer that live bait on a silver platter.

The opposite can play out with live imaging. When fishing live bait I often keep one of my Panoptix units on the live bait. It helps gauge activity and provides early warning when a muskie checks it out. Some muskies rise to inspect briefly. Others lock in and follow for an extended time.

When a muskie is seen on live imaging following a sucker but hasn’t struck, introducing an artificial can trigger a bite. In shallow water, a lure worked near the sucker with a figure-eight can be the catalyst. In deeper water, casting a sinking lure or jigging a sinking presentation above the live bait can convert.

If muskies are exceptionally finicky and you can run multiple live baits, a second option can be a game changer. If I’m seeing muskies repeatedly scope out live bait, I will pre-rig a second bait and keep it ready. If a muskie is even with or below the live bait and hasn’t made an aggressive move, I drop a second live bait to shake things up.

In that scenario I rig the second bait with enough weight to sink. I lower it a foot or so away from the bait being stalked. Then I free-spool it so it drops past the muskie quickly. Once I’m a foot or two below the muskie on live imaging, I start reeling the second bait upward. This bait-and-switch has been phenomenal for turning lookers into eaters. If possible, I’ll use a slightly smaller live bait as the follow-up, as size can be a determining factor based on seasonality and conditions.

Since the advent of live imaging, my thoughts on sucker tactics changed dramatically. In years past we were unaware of muskies engaging with live baits out of visual range. Before live imaging I can recall feeling excitement when the rod tip would start bouncing, thinking a muskie was eyeing the bait. Now, with a live feed, I can attest that more often than not when a muskie is near the live bait, the bait goes nearly catatonic.

If a muskie is mere feet or inches away, suckers often stop moving. When I first witnessed this, I was surprised by how often it happened. Muskies would swim inches away, then lose interest as the sucker sat perfectly still. On my home waters, the obvious action of snapping the sucker rod up a few times to force motion has alleviated this.

Live imaging can elevate success, but it is not mandatory. If you do not have, or are opposed to, live imaging, periodically force your live bait to move if it seems too still. A few light tugs or rod pops can yield results. In years past I used down scan sonar to monitor suckers with similar benefits. A live bait placed in the down scan cone creates a return and can aid in precision depth placement and keeping the bait out of snags. Muskies can also be seen, providing early warning. On most boats, down scan transducers are on the transom or trolling motor, which can make

placement tricky. If you use down scan, ensure your line remains clear of motors and mounts.

Live Bait Musky Hook Sets

As noted, I set my line counter reels with a middle-of-the-road drag setting. This gives play for muskies that grab and go, but minimizes the hurdle when setting the hook. For years I have heard anglers talk about following, turning, and getting over the top of muskies when they hit live bait. I’ll give credence to plenty of things I don’t agree with in musky fishing, but giving them time with live bait is one matter I call absolute horse shit.

The name of the rigs we use in the name of conservation is quick-strike rigs, not moderate-strike rigs. For all the hot water heroes and bump board bashing banditos in the musky world, some really like to let muskies munch on live bait for a duration that wouldn’t be defined as quick unless you were a brain-damaged sloth.

As the name implies, set the hook quick. If a sucker is rigged properly, the direction a muskie is facing should matter little when the hook set is done properly.

With a strike, we must act immediately. The first step I take is to lower the rod toward the water, creating slack if possible. With tension reduced, I crank the drag down to max tightness as quickly as possible, then aggressively set the hook upward.

From grabbing the rod from the holder, creating slack, tightening the drag, and delivering a powerful hook set should happen in five to six seconds. If that sounds rushed or unachievable, practice these steps on the water to get the feel. Fishing is called a sport, but it’s the only sport I’m aware of that no one truly practices for. Take the pressure and excitement out of the equation and do a few rehearsal runs so you’re dialed in when it matters.

In the hook set itself, my goal is maximum power in a fluid motion. In most instances, your live bait will be t-boned or engulfed. This demands not only ripping the hooks from the baitfish but following through to bury them in a muskie’s mouth.

When I drop the rod tip while cranking down the drag, I do so in a crouching motion. This allows power transfer from legs and upper body to drive hooks home. While it should be one fluid movement, you can break it into three components. First, assume a slightly crouched position with the rod lowered. Second, spring upward using legs to generate speed and power. Third, follow through with the rod into a high angle to finish the hook set.

Field Notes on Live Bait for Muskies

Live bait fishing for muskies will always be part of the sport. While the use of live bait can increase catch rates significantly, conservation must remain the priority. While I’m not your mother and have no interest in telling you what to do, I strongly encourage reserving live bait for colder water periods whenever possible. Cold water reduces mortality, slows feeding behavior, and allows quick-strike rigs to do what they were designed to do—hook fish cleanly and efficiently.

Regardless of season, live bait demands discipline. Set the hook quickly. Avoid prolonged runs. Pay attention to depth, placement, and bait behavior. Live bait is not a “set it and forget it” tactic; it is an active, hands-on presentation that requires awareness and intent. When used carelessly, it can be damaging. When used thoughtfully, it can be one of the most precise and effective tools available to musky anglers.

Always check and adhere to state, provincial, and local regulations regarding the acquisition, transport, and use of live bait. Ignorance of the law is not a defense, and many invasive species issues stem directly from improper live bait practices. Respect the resource, respect the fish, and respect the waters you fish.

While some anglers view live bait as a shortcut or even cheating, others see it as the purest expression of musky fishing. I fall somewhere in the middle. Live bait is neither a crutch nor a guarantee. It is simply another tool—one that, when applied with restraint, strategy, and proper technique, can solve problems that artificials sometimes cannot.

Used responsibly, live bait can elevate your musky fishing, not cheapen it. Combined with sound seasonal strategy, precise placement, and disciplined hook sets, it can produce unforgettable moments and truly giant fish. Fish it with intention, fish it ethically, and let the results speak for themselves.

Steven Paul

Professional Tennessee Musky Guide • Lure Designer • Author of Next Level Musky Fishing