Photo by Matthew Curatolo

Sun comes up, sun goes down; muskies come up, muskies go down. The differences between night and day during summer are extreme because the sun stays higher in the sky than at any other time of year.

These longer daylight hours have a noticeable effect on muskie habits, making these already-challenging fish even tougher to find, but jerkbaits and jigs can provide muskie anglers with the necessary extremes in lure presentation.

NO DOLDRUMS HERE
Forget any notion you might have about muskies being less active during summertime. In truth, this is the time of year when food is most abundant and muskies take full advantage of it. Muskies feed more now than at any other time of year.

Being at the top of the aquatic food chain, muskies react to virtually everything in the water. They will try to eat just about any other fish (or duckling or turtle) that is big enough to be worth the effort.

During spring and fall, fish tend to concentrate in relatively small, easily defined areas. During summer, however, muskies, like most freshwater fish, disperse through their home lakes and streams. Finding them now is not so easy. For this reason, trolling is popular during summer because the technique helps anglers cover a lot of water. But trolling is not allowed in many places. Also, many muskie anglers believe that casting is more sporting (and more productive).

Casting muskie lures requires more effort than casting for smaller fish, therefore it is important for muskie anglers to find ways to minimize wasted effort. One way to do this is by fishing with lures that are not so hard on the shoulders after a long day on the water.

The popular jerkbaits are hunks of wood that weigh upward of 3 ounces and usually generate some serious resistance when they are pulled through the water. Plastic stick baits generally weigh less and can be jerked with much less effort. You can make a lot more casts per day using them and thus cover more water with more enthusiasm.

The major drawback with stick baits is that they often do not have the same side-to-side darting action as some of the bulkier jerkbaits. However, some of them can be tuned to do this. Try bending the line eyes down and the rear hook eyes up (if doing so does not destroy the lures). You might have to go through a few lures to get one that runs properly, but it is worth the effort.

A secondary benefit to lighter stick baits is that they can be used with lighter rods, further reducing fatigue. A fast-action 6 1/2- or 7-foot graphite rod rated for 1-ounce lures and 20-pound-test line is perfect for jerking stick baits.

The same tackle can be used with jigs. However, levelwind reels are normally used with jerkbaits. Spinning reels have a distinct advantage when using jigs. When a jig hits the water, it will drop straight down on a slack line. But a jig will swing back like a pendulum on a tight line, significantly reducing the retrieve distance. With levelwind reels, line must be hand fed to keep the jig sinking straight. All that is necessary to accomplish the same thing with spinning reels is to keep the bail open.