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Musky Help On Detroit Lake/Melissa/Sallie


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I recently moved up to Moorhead and have done some musky fishing on Big Detroit and surrounding muskie lakes. I am just looking for some tips, not family secret spots or the "special lure". Just a little advice would be wonderful! I have been out there numerous times the past 3 weeks and haven't even had a follow. I was there last fall on a trip and saw numerous big fish and now I can't move the small ones either...any tips would be appreciated!

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Try coming to a FM Muskies Inc meeting. Fourth Monday of every month at the West Fargo VFW on Sheyenne St at 7:00pm. We have a round table discussion every meeting in the summer and discuss what's been hot on the local lakes and other area reports. This will greatly shorten any learning curve on the local bodies of water.

Not many going to give up info online though.

Good Fishin!!

Brett Waldera

VP Fargo-Moorhead Muskies Inc.

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I think I might come do that. I've always wanted to check out Muskies Inc and now would be a good time to do that to meet some new fishing buddies.

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Hiya -

Welcome to God's Country smile

Take Brett's advice and go join up with that MI chapter. Because of what I do I get to know a lot of MI guys from all over the country, and the FM chapter is a model for what MI is supposed to be. Great group of people, and some tremendous anglers. Learned a lot from them all over the years.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

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When you are trying to visualize what is underwater compared to what the Navionics chip shows... old google earth is nice. Spent alot of time looking at my lakes during the frozen months. Hopefully get up north for a 24 hour stint on Monday.

hotmapsexplorer.jpg

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John....that is a tremendous idea! I look at Google Earth for many other things...just not lakes...hmmm...I wonder if I could take the GPS coordinates off of that and put them right on the ol' Lawrence? With WiFi I might just make it a day in the boat plotting out DL. Thanks for the tips! And seeing your pics on here from a few weeks ago only made it worse when going out there and not seeing a thing wink Congrats on that fish...what a hawg!

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I use a program called navionics hotmaps explorer that was under twenty bucks. It has a free plug in for google earth. You can export to Lowrance,at least I did to the H20 and H20c. Have not tried exporting to the Humminbird 997 which was rigged on my current boat but the nmea protocol is the same. I have remapped a lot of the bars and weed edges just because the navionics information for our area is old and sometimes way off in terms of actual location. It is a good project for the days they just aren't cooperating. See you on the water soon.

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Maybe I'll see you out there Monday...I'll be in a black/tan Crestliner 1850 FishHawk w 150 Opti and hopefully the wife sitting copilot. There should be a Teal F-150 with logos in the back window at the public access on the south end of the lake.

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I only moved one muskie this morning pre-moonset, but it was the largest I have personally ever seen. It hit a DCG. As I was asking for the net, the fish made a hard 90 degree turn at the boat and we watched the rear hook pull out of the corner of her mouth. This fish was an honest mid 50s. It certainly dwarfed the 48-50 inch fish we have caught. The fish didn't even rocket off, but rather slowly meandered away parallel to the boat. It made for a good show for my partner who had never seen a muskie up close. So close...

Anyone else seeing anything?

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Nice to hear that you were able to get a monster to hit. I am on Pelican Lake this week and part of next. I had one lazy follow of a 40" musky this morning. Headed out in 5 minutes to try the evening bite.

CopterJohn,

Were you fishing on DL? I think we are planning on going up there tomorrow or Wednesday.

Seth Larson

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Evening bite was better, but could not raise the monster from this morning. Did catch a 46"x22. Nice and fat. Put on quite an display with multiple jumps. Hopefully get back out and try some overnight action under the bright moon. Have to head back tomorrow evening.

8_18_08.jpg

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Nice work! We went out tonight and were not able to get anything to move. Back out in the mornining.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Seth

Congrats on you guys boating not one, but THREE muskies last night.

Your hard work paid off.

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My father and I will be out there tomorrow afternoon/evening for a little while...feel free to stop buy if you see a 1850 Crestliner Fish Hawk Black/Tan with a Opti on the back. (Took some notes off Google Maps John...Thanks!

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Hopefully Seth will post a photo or two. They busted their hump for several days then finally hit some nice fish before the storms arrived.

I will be back up to DL on Saturday unless I get the short straw and have to head to the Gulf Coast for Hurricane assistance. Were you guys on Sallie a few weeks back? Saw a Crestliner with a Optimax by the point. I run a black Lund with a 75 Merc tiller. IA registration. Trying to get a week off around the 13th. Probably hit Island or Big C for smallies.

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I was up in the area chasing Musky and northern for 10 days. We arrived on Sunday, Aug. 17th and we left on Wed, Aug 27th. We were having a really hard time finding any Musky. We had one follow on the second day on Big Pelican. In the next days we fished early morning and late evening with a couple mid days for musky. We hit Little Pelican(that is where we stayed), Big Pelican, Lake Sallie, and Big Detroit trying to get something to hit with nothing, until our last night. Tuesday evening as the storm was moving in and the sun was setting we broke our slump. We were on Big Pelican when my brother caught 3 musky in an hour on one small spot. The first was 45 inches, the second came 7-8 casts later and was 46 inches and the 3rd came 30-40 minutes later and was 39 inches. Those fish made the trip worth it. Thanks to CopterJohn for the encouragement to keep at it.

Rob45inchfish1.jpg

Rob's first Fish. 45 inches.

Rob46inchfish2.jpg

Rob's second Fish. 46 inches.

Rob39inchfish3.jpg

Rob's third Fish. 39 inches.

Congratulations Rob on your 3 best musky. Number 8, 9, and 10 Lifetime!!

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We were out on Thursday evening and caught a low 30's Tiger Musky on Detroit Lake. That was a surprise and fun! Blew around Mille Lacs today and didn't see much at all. Was a beautiful day though!

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