OVERVIEW: In the last blog post, I shared my belief that musky fatigue, combined with the aging process, causes me to fish fewer hours. This is more than likely the main reason that I am catching fewer muskies. I firmly believe that spending more time on the water will increase my success in catching muskies. So, to combat musky fatigue and gain time on the water, I chose 7 strategies. In the last post I discussed the first two, #1 Downsizing and #2 Trolling. This post details two more strategies: #3 Taking Breaks, #4 Changing Baits.

#3 TAKING BREAKS: The musky hunters I know are loathe to take many, if any, breaks. They are intense, fish relentlessly, and have no quit or stop in them. For them, a break is the time it takes to take a bite out of a sandwich and set it on the gunnel. I want to take a break so I can stay on the water longer, but they want to not take breaks and still stay on the water longer. They all are younger than I am, too. But there are a number of ways to take a break, some less intrusive than others. Here are a few.

*Troll: Trolling was discussed in the previous section, but it deserves to be repeated here. Take a break from casting and troll. This is my favorite way to take a break, and I do it every time that I fish more than four hours.

*Stop for Lunch: Take a 15 or 20 minute lunch break. Find a safe place to just stop for a bit. Discuss the morning’s results and figure out how to approach the rest of the day. Call it a planning session. When I am by myself, I always find a cove and hit the spot lock. I usually agree with myself during the planning session, too.

My father always carried a full lunch when we went fishing. He always stopped fishing when he ate, and he always ate. He never fished for muskies, but he loved fishing for anything else that would eat a worm. We always joked and planned during lunch. It was a lines-out time. I have the bonus of some memories, as well as getting a rest. I look forward to doing that with my grand children.

*Take a Nap: It is unheard of, almost sacrilegious, I understand. But a 15-minute cat nap will do wonders for you. I know because I have practiced napping so much that I can cat nap anywhere, anytime. Just close your eyes and relax for a few minutes. Do it after your lunch planning session. Or let your partner drive for 10 minutes while you close your eyes. One of the reasons why I troll for short periods of time is that I can actually nap while trolling, even if I am driving.

*Get out of the boat: Stretch your legs and take a break. Find a picnic table or the nearest launch, dock the boat and get out for a short walk. Or sit on the tail gate of your truck to eat. You can get out of the boat to go to the bathroom. Use the port-a-john at the park or find a good peeing tree.

There was a time when Jim, my son Chris, and I were fishing on Kahle Lake and I really needed a restroom. There is nothing on that lake, not even good tress, so we found the only stand of brush on the lake. Chris headed toward it, but he could not beach the boat there. Time was running out, so I jumped out of the boat and high stepped through the last 20 feet of water to get to that brush. In the meantime, Chris found a spot to beach the boat about 30 yards down. But when I came out, I immediately retraced my steps until I could reach down and pull my tennis shoe out of the mud. Maybe a tree is not a great idea.

*Get gas: Pull into a marina and get gas. And get out of the boat. It is a very short break, but a break non-the-less. Even so, you probably had a 20 minute rest from “lines in” to” get them out there”.

*Take a day off: This is the hardest one to do. I know, I said time on the water equals more fish, lines in the water catch fish. I know. If you are young, strong, and high on energy, do not take a break. You probably do not need it. But there are times when I do.

I stay in if the lake is rough. In rough water, my body takes a beating. My legs are not what they used to be. Keeping my balance in a rocking boat can wear me out pretty quickly. My back does not hold up to the constant bouncing of the boat. Even trolling is hard. Just walking to a rod to check it just might require a walker. Kidding, I am not that far down the road yet, but nobody likes getting beat up by a rough sea. I think it is better for me to take the day off and still take that nap. I usually sharpen hooks, change line, or do something with the boat.

Taking a day off in the middle of a fishing trip can be very helpful. My buddy Charlie, a.k.a. Lucky Chucky, and I like to take a fishing trip or two each year. We started taking 4-day trips because you often lose a day to weather. We actually hope for that to happen. We have pulled big Red October tubes on the St. Lawrence, and we just cannot handle 4 days of that anymore. (L.C. has a harder time because he is older than I am. By a couple of weeks or so.)

If the weather does not give us a day off, we go back to strategy #2 and ask the guide to troll, at least for a large portion of the day.

Sometimes during a weeklong Canada trip, I just take a day in the middle of the week and stay in. I know that I need the rest. But sometimes I cannot stay in., I traveled a long way to go fishing and I want to go fishing. So, I go bass fishing that day.

Most days when I am at fish camp, I split the day. I fish from 6 until lunch with my son or grandson, or both. Then I fish after supper with my daughter or grandson, or both. The day will come when I just go along to watch them fish and spend time with them, but not yet.

Summary for Strategy # 3: Taking breaks: There are a lot of ways to take a break. I hope you do not need to take a break. But as we get older, fishing intensely all day gets harder. We can power through the day for as long as we can, or we can find some ways to take a break and fish an extra hour or two.

#4 CHANGE BAITS: Although I am known to frequently change baits, often it is just for color. But I also will spend hours throwing a Red October tube or a Suick. These two lures are in my top 5 bait choices, but they tend to wear me out after a while. The body rotation and arm work needed to give action to these lures takes its toll on me.

Changing lures is a massive help. When I am getting worn out, I switch to a twitch bait, a spinner, or a deer hair bucktail. Slammer baits, Bucher shallow raiders, slop masters, and Wooly Bullies are some of my favorite go-to baits when I need a rest. These lures can be pretty much reeled straight in with little resistance. If you want to give them a little variety, it can be done by changing reel speed or pausing. They also cast much easier. No matter how you fish them, they can give you a break.

Basically, when you change lure types, you change the muscles you are using and the effort required to use them effectively. The tired muscles get some relief and fresher muscles go to work. Often, less energy is expended as well. If I do not wear out as quickly, I can fish longer.

An Example: My buddy Lee got me started chasing muskies over four decades ago. Young and full of ourselves, we would cast constantly all day. Sunup to after supper, we were on the water. Never trolled, never. And Lee was relentless. At that time, he was one of the bite-between- casts guys. I remember him locking his elbows to his side to rotate and work a Suick, because he was too worn out to hold his arms up. His hand would swell up until he could not close it. He would do this every day for a week at a time when we went to Chautauqua. Fortunately, some beer, supper, and a tiny bit of sleep seemed to heal him.

I just talked to Lee. We agree. There is not a chance that we could do that now. Trolling suddenly is appealing. Actually, taking any of the breaks above seems appealing. The fact is that at our age, we just do not have the strength, endurance, or ability to fish all day like we did when we were younger. Truth be told, we should have taken breaks when we were younger, too. We could not have put more time on the water, but we could have hurt a lot less.

CONCLUSIONS:

*As we age, we lose endurance, strength, and balance.

*It gets physically difficult to spend hours on the water.

*Taking a break can allow us to fish more hours in a day or week.

* There are many ways to take a break.

*Changing the lure type that you are using can let you use fresh muscles and rest those you just wore out.

*You may not need to take breaks in order to stay on the water, but you will feel better if you do.

COMING UP: Next is a blog on the final strategies to beat muskie fatigue. After that, look for blogs on taking Dad fishing, the importance of big fish, our angling obligations, terminal tackle for trolling, and the start of steelhead fishing in steelhead alley. Please share your thoughts on this post, or any of the upcoming topics.

I hope you come back. Whether you do or do not, please, Have fun. Go Fishing.