Pull-pause, pull-pause, pull-pause, pull-pause, pull-pause…
October 19, 2022
At first look, it seems to be an countless, repetitive course of. Additional examination reveals an artwork type of fixed variations within the lengths of pulls and pauses, and modifications in speeds. It’s about establishing a cadence, modifying the form and look of baits, and breaking from a prescribed rhythm. To achieve success, anglers should manipulate the style by which baits transfer via the water and behave all through the figure-eight, imparting rips, pops, stalls, and accelerations on lures the dimensions of small rodents—all to set off among the largest bites of the 12 months.
The cold-water season is primetime for working “pull-pause” baits, and in case you’re not within the recreation, you’re lacking out on one of many 12 months’s most constant big-fish bites. Captain Luke Swanson operates Livin’ the Dream Information Service in northern Minnesota and has gained a mastery of pull-pause baits. “As soon as turnover happens, we’re feeding muskies a gentle food regimen of massive rubber and hair baits,” he says. “That features Pink October tubes, Child Beavers, Bull Dawgs, Medussas, and swimbaits. “We’re typically searching for the coldest water we are able to discover that holds bait. I’ve every angler within the boat throw a special model of bait till we discover the suitable presentation for the day.
“With water temperatures nonetheless within the 50°F vary throughout late September and early October, lures can typically be labored extra rapidly. It’s extra of a rip-n-reel than a pull-pause approach then. Since we’re primarily focusing on weedbeds in 10 to 18 ft of water, I place the boat 20 to 30 ft off the deep edge, the place baits will be labored each over the tops of the flats and down the break. Hits can come wherever all through the retrieve.”
Throughout early fall, Swanson favors mid-weighted Pink October Baits 7.5-inch Ninja Tubes and 10-inch Monster Tubes. With cabbage beds nonetheless lush and inexperienced, these glossy tube baits create much less drag within the water and will be labored erratically close to the floor and thru the vegetation. Upward rips with an extended rod maintain Pink October Tubes dancing in a frenzied method. The tentacles increase straight with every rip of the rod and pulsate with every pause of the reel. A high-speed-retrieve reel helps to govern the motion of those baits as they’re labored rapidly via the water column. Swanson favors the Abu Garcia Beast 7.3:1 for that reason. Because the water cools, he works baits barely slower and deeper and upsizes to 12-inch Huge Attractive Tubes and Beaver’s Baits Child Beavers.
Reasonably sized tubes and swimbaits are particularly efficient in lakes and rivers the place the predominant prey species are bluegills, crappies, perch, and suckers. Colour preferences embrace pure brown, black, and inexperienced hues in clear-water settings. Swanson suggests, nonetheless, often throwing a brightly coloured bait which may in any other case appear misplaced. That is very true when the water cools into the lower-40°F vary and ciscoes transfer shallow to spawn.
“When ciscoes and whitefish get into spawning mode, there are actually 1000’s of them holding on rocky factors, breaks, and gravel humps. You need to make your lure stand out from the baitfish pods. Lures with vivid colour accents resembling orange, yellow, chartreuse, and even white present up effectively within the water,” Swanson says. To make fast colour modifications to baits, pack a jar of Spike-It dye within the boat and dip a portion of the tube’s tentacles within the dye to present them a customized look.
“Take note of the dimensions of prey obtainable to the muskies you’re focusing on and select lure sizes accordingly,” he says. “We’ve some inland lakes the place ciscoes are solely 7 to 9 inches lengthy. It doesn’t make a lot sense to throw a large 18-inch rubber bait in these lakes, whereas a 10-inch tube is right. I additionally consider muskies get conditioned in the event that they maintain seeing a bait again and again. Or in the event that they had been just lately caught on a sure bait, they’re much less more likely to chew it once more within the brief time period. Experiment with lures that don’t get as a lot play on your property waters. New ones all the time catch extra fish the primary a number of years after they arrive out.
“For me, Beaver’s Baits have been standouts lately. The artificial body-construction materials strikes via the water in another way than rubber does. I consider this performs into how muskies sense this bait with their lateral line. Based mostly on their multi-jointed our bodies, Child Beavers have a special motion with every pull and pause. In addition they have a novel hover and gradual fall to them, nearly like a glidebait. The objective is to create a swimming and dying motion. By altering the insert weights amongst 3/4, 1, and 1.5 ounces, you may as well get totally different actions from a single bait. Plus, as proof of their unimaginable sturdiness, final 12 months we caught 29 fish on a single bait.”
Swanson is a agency believer that each fish has its personal “tick”—one thing that triggers its curiosity. Maybe that merely leads to a comply with on an particularly powerful day, or a flare of gills at boatside. However most of the time, you get fish to chew as soon as you understand their tick. Throughout the Chillywater Interval, pull-pause baits end in a good proportion of fish presenting themselves on the boat. Which means having endurance and perseverance all through the figure-eight course of. Swanson suggests giving a number of “up rips” with the rod when the bait will get inside 15 to twenty ft of the boat. This brings the bait up within the water column and triggers following fish earlier than the bait is on a brief line.
Video That Could Curiosity You
Experiment with tempo and motion all through the figure-eight. Which will imply maintaining a gradual regular tempo into the primary flip, accelerating into the nook, rushing up within the center, after which giving the bait a number of twitches within the subsequent flip. Watch how fish react to every change in bait motion, and repeat these components to construct on the fish’s pleasure degree. Swanson remembers working a fish final fall in mid-30°F water temperatures for almost two minutes earlier than the fish was triggered to strike.
“In late fall, there could solely be a brief chew window obtainable every day,” Swanson says. “Fish are torpid and feeding much less as ice-up nears. Which means grinding it out for under few alternatives and slowing down displays. With water temps within the 30s, we go to greater and heavier Lake Version Child Beavers and work them on extra sweeping pulls and lengthy pauses. We could begin by counting the bait down 8 to 10 seconds over 18 to 30 ft of water. Pop the rod as soon as after which do an extended pull, adopted by a five-second pause, one other pull, and a three-second pause, adopted by a shorter pull and a six-second pause. At all times one thing totally different to get the bait rising within the water column, gliding, falling, and rising once more in a barely erratic trend. You simply want to determine what that large queen of the lake desires as her last meal of the open-water season.”
Swanson favors pull-pause baits in most each setting come late fall. He does effectively with them on a mixture of each giant and mid-size lakes, in addition to rivers. “We fish the identical lures almost identically in rivers,” he says. “For areas, search for ‘deep’ wintering holes. In shallow rivers, which may be 6 to eight ft of water. In large rivers, deep may imply 15 to twenty ft. Water must be flowing at a strolling tempo.” Muskies don’t need to battle in heavy present in the course of the winter, as they might expend to a lot power and fats reserves within the course of. As a last consideration, the perfect holes are these in shut proximity to spring spawning grounds. Work pull-pause baits in the identical trend as you’d in lakes. Retrieve speeds must be accelerated and made extra erratic throughout warming tendencies and slowed throughout chilly fronts.
Huge Water Dawgs
On big-water fisheries, bigger pull-pause baits dominate for a lot of the season. That pattern holds for Captain Bret Alexander on Lake Michigan’s Inexperienced Bay, the place a wholesome inhabitants of 50-inch-plus muskies exists. “Bull Dawgs are a staple for us beginning as early because the opener in Could,” he says. “They excel in the course of the summer time months each time chilly fronts roll in, they usually actually shine when water temps strategy 50°F. The secret is realizing the properties of every lure and tailoring them to your scenario.
“Most guys suppose that large rubber baits are interchangeable. In reality, the varied fashions fish fairly in another way. The opposite secret is to maintain various your retrieve. Examine it to working small jerkbaits for walleyes or bass. Altering the cadences of the lure is often extra productive than a relentless, regular presentation. What holds true for bass and walleyes additionally holds true for muskies. It’s simply that muskies make us work loads tougher for them.”
In relation to realizing your dawgs, the Westminster Kennel Membership has nothing on Musky Improvements, the maker of Bull Dawgs. There are actually greater than 20 totally different fashions within the kennel to select from to your pull-pause wants. As a tough overview, the usual Bull Dawg first hit the scene in 1993 at a hefty 9 inches and three ounces, however it might be thought of a small breed mannequin by as we speak’s requirements. For Alexander, it’s an important staple lure below cold-front circumstances and in river settings when a smaller-profile bait is critical to match prey dimension or enchantment to tentative fish. Scaling again an oz in weight, the 9-inch, 2-ounce Shallow Bull Dawg excels over the tops of weedflats and is less complicated to work erratically. By bending up the nostril of the Shallow Dawg, a walk-the-dog motion will be achieved—a lethal presentation throughout low-light intervals.
The Magnum Bull Dawg, at 12-inches and eight.9 ounces, is now the usual Dawg thrown by most anglers throughout the nation. Additionally it is obtainable in a Heli Dawg mannequin with a Colorado blade affixed to the highest of the bait on a wire arm. The flash of the blade is an added set off in each clear and stained-water settings. This comparatively refined accent to the bait will pay large dividends. Many anglers modify their different Bull Dawg fashions to incorporate this characteristic.
Since everybody likes the bigger breeds, the 16-ounce Tremendous Magnum Bull Dawg (aka, Pounder) has turn out to be a favourite for these chasing big muskies. Pounders transfer a ton of water and current a big profile at 15 inches lengthy. Pounders, in addition to Magnum and Customary fashions, are additionally obtainable in a Professional mannequin. Professional fashions have an inner jointed wire harness, not like the unique fashions, which characteristic a stable single-wire inner body. The jointed wire harness provides Professional fashions extra flex, pop, and stomach flash when labored with a rip-and-retrieve approach. The flexibility of those baits makes them exhausting to withstand.
For those who want much more thump in stained water or when fishing after darkish, the Alpha Dawg has all of the heft of a Pounder however with an extra-wide tail. This characteristic creates extra drag, leading to a slower fall fee and extra turbulence behind the bait. When much less depth is desired, the Shallow Tremendous Magazine is offered, and for extra twisting and pulsing tail motion, the Double Dawg provides two tails on one Dawg. For these trying to costume up their Dawgs, the choices are seemingly countless and rising yearly to incorporate holographic, glow, and UV finishes, together with a plethora of ordinary and customized colour mixtures.
With so many Dawgs within the pound, Alexander recommends beginning the cold-water season with Shallow Magazine Dawgs over the tops and alongside the perimeters of remaining inexperienced cabbage beds. “Muskies completely T-bone large rubber baits ripped via the weeds,” he says. “At first of the day, I inform my prospects to try to break the rod on the hook-set in the event that they really feel something totally different with the bait. When the primary chew occurs, I do know who has been paying consideration and who has their head within the recreation. For those who fail to set exhausting, muskies lock down on the bait with their enamel and easily have it pinned of their jaws. It’s essential to break their grip on the rubber physique together with your hook-set. I carry a small torch with me within the boat and rapidly restore any injury to a bait after a fish catch. That manner scorching baits don’t miss any time within the water. I’m keen on black and orange, shad, and walleye patterns, with the Ball Licker, UV Reflex Silver Cisco, Ice Walleye, and Golden Bear being constant producers.
“When shallow weed patches get pounded by anglers, slide off the deep edge in 15 to 25 ft of water and work the open water with greater baits. Depend down the bait 8 to 10 seconds previous to beginning a pull-pause retrieve. Sweep the rod again 3 to 4 ft with every pull, and reel up the slack because the bait glides down in small arches. Impart an occasional fast rip on the bait to set off any following fish. Throughout cold-front circumstances, use longer, lazier pulls and have a number of Double Dawgs within the combine for extra hold time from the bait. With its single-wire harness, you possibly can bend the nostril of this lure all the way down to get extra depth and digging motion. At all times be looking ahead to following fish and be able to impart barely extra motion on the bait because it nears the boat. My favourite transfer is to maintain popping the bait with 1-foot pulls of the rod as I am going into the figure-eight.”
As fall progresses and the water cools into the 30s, Alexander searches for hotter water and the shad it attracts. Pounder and Professional Tremendous Magnums are then his pull-pause baits of selection, and they’re fished a lot slower. Pulls are lengthy, and pauses are even longer. Spend additional time working your figure-eights to permit fish to meet up with the bait and decide to it.
Alexander suggests to not overlook swimbaits resembling Swimmin’ Dawgs throughout this time interval. “Throwing Pounders will be bodily demanding. If I discover a buyer getting fatigued or their approach struggling with an outsized bait, I’ll change them over to a Swimmin’ Dawg. These swimbaits solid effectively, come via the water with minimal resistance, and have super belly-rolling and tail-kicking motion to them. They’re pure fish catchers on a straight retrieve or can have extra motion imparted on them with modifications in retrieve speeds.” The primary factor is to remain dedicated to those baits and know that large outcomes will comply with.
*In-Fisherman Discipline Editor Steve Ryan is an achieved and well-traveled multispecies angler. He’s a longtime contributor to all In-Fisherman publications.
