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I don't like bait fishing but I've kept hearing of people catching wipers on mussels so I gave it a try. Once I got it figured out it was hot fishing. In an hour and forty five minutes my buddy and I landed ten and missed a lot of hits. The fishing was still awesome when we left but I had to leave. We were fishing on the south side of the lake. Parked in the first pull off on the road that goes along the dike. the key was to cast a little farther than everyone else. I had my waders and would wade and then cast and that made the difference between catching fish and not. I had two poles and owuld try one shallow and wouldn't get any hits on it. The biggest was just over three pounds so nothing huge but they were all fun to catch. Also I want to say thanks to tubedude for sending me his info on willard which was great to study and helped.
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How did you have it rigged? Just resting on the bottom?
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yeah just rigged on the bottom with some split shots above it. I used size 1 hooks and they aren't picky, it didn't matter if the hooks were showing
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Where do you get mussels? Are they canned?
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dtatty spends a lot of time at the gym.
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Are you implying that after the trip is six-pack is now a four-pack?
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you can get them at wal mart. they are in the frozen seafood freezer. comes in a bag precooked in shell.
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There's Always Time For One More Cast
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haha I never go to the gym so I have no idea what hc is talking about. I just bought the ones from walmart that are cooked. They are $4 and you get quite a few. People say that uncooked ones work better but the cooked ones worked for me.
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Thanks for the info. I've been hearing from a few folks that they've been catching them on mussels, but didn't understand just how they were going about it.
I'm not much of a bait fisherman myself, but when I'm not getting it done with crank baits, I'll have to give the mussels a whirl.
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Soon as the weather gets better, I'm gonna have to try using mussel. But how do you keep the mussel on the hook? I usually use jigs and crank bait when fishing on the tube.
Now I will be fishing from a float tube, and if I use mussel as bait do I use it under a bobber or let it drop all the way to the bottom? Since I do not have an anchor, my tube will be drifting so will that tear off the mussel from the hook if I fish it on the bottom?
Any pointers would be appreciated.
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[quote Panfish]Soon as the weather gets better, I'm gonna have to try using mussel. But how do you keep the mussel on the hook? I usually use jigs and crank bait when fishing on the tube.
Now I will be fishing from a float tube, and if I use mussel as bait do I use it under a bobber or let it drop all the way to the bottom? Since I do not have an anchor, my tube will be drifting so will that tear off the mussel from the hook if I fish it on the bottom?
Any pointers would be appreciated.[/quote]
never tried them from my tube. guess you could vertical jig them just off the bottom. or use a slip bobber with bobber stopper set close to bottom.
I hook the muscle at the part that looks like a
. it seems to be the toughest part of the bait.
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There's Always Time For One More Cast
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Great post, thanks for the info.
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I tried on a tube at first and didn't have any luck. I tried just dropping one down and then I also tried one on a jig. No hits on either and I have no idea why. I tried for two hours and my buddy had one hit on shore I didn't have any so thats why I started fishing from shore and had non stop action. As far as keeping them on the hook you'll hear a lot of things. Some people use rubber bands, others say they need to be frozen. I found that mine stayed on the hook the best when thawed and it was best to just gently cast them. I tried the rubber band trick but it would just tear it up. If you're going to try anything I'd say a twist tie but honestly I don't think they need much help staying on. After trying to set the hook and you miss you'll have to reel in because it probably fell off.
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Trick is to open the mussels and let them sit out in the sun for an hour or more while your fishing. This will tuffun up the meat. Insert the hook through the black bean inside the mussel. You have to kind of toss it out or your bait will fly off.
They use rubber bands to be able to cast further when the fish are a little further out. Trick is to use small rubber bands and only place it over the hook and mussel one time, even if it is not tight it will still hold.
Other people have extra line coming from the hook that they use to wrap around the mussel and then loop it back through the hook hole and it helps but the rubber band works best. You will go through a whole bag of mussels until you figure it out but once you do FISH ON!!! was there from shore sunday and the people catching the most were the people casting the furthest but we all caught our limits.
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