The realm of lures is ever-expanding, and especially-so on heavily pressured waters (and summer is nearly always the busiest for fishing too), this is a good thing for muskie anglers. No one knows for certain as to whether or not muskies think at all, or just react eventually to negative experiences – to not repeat them, but there is no doubt that fish learn to avoid certain things after a while. But, show them something they haven’t seen – that looks like something pretty good to eat and easy to catch – and the attitude is much more positive.

I’ve had a lot of luck the last few years with Sebile’s lures; truly some innovative and different designs in a variety of lures. The Stick Shadd and Bonga Jerk incorporate rudders and weighting systems that offer very different actions. Swimbaits like the Magic Swimmer are something quite new to muskies. When it comes to soft plastics, there’s all kinds of new stuff on the market these days; different sizes, colors and with unique-looking tails (often numbers-of) – that definitely look like something new, that’s easy to grab. When things are tough, it’s tough to beat the soft plastics.

Understand that old can be new too. Be aware of watching the trends – what others are using, and when fish aren’t showing, try something different. With all of these new lures coming out, and folks quickly reacting to what the hot lure(s) is on the internet, sometime the newest thing may be an old reliable that caught lots of fish in the past, but got booted out of the tackle box or was just forgotten; odds are the fish forgot too.