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2021, Musky Fishing - Post Spawn Collins River
Post spawn muskie fishing is a time to downsize and slow your retrieve. The fish are just emerging from the deeper holes where they have been frolicking into the shallows. This is a time where the muskie are recovering and gaining their energy back. Smaller, easier to smash baits are the general rule. Dwayne Hickey is a long time resident expert on the Collins River and a fisherman that knows what the water and the muskie are doing year round. His approach is simple, but lethal. He recommends working the banks and taking your time to systematically make as many casts as possible. You will get a glimpse of fishing both April and May to see how the fishing evolves. Dwayne prefers moving past the deeper areas to pick apart the shallows. Wood and weeds are his mantra for post spawn muskie fishing. With fish moving out of the deep, they begin to spread out, so you can find muskie anywhere and everywhere. This is why you take your time. Running back up river to fish and stretch multiple times can pay off. If any are looks good, there is probably a fish in it. Cast, cast, cast with pinpoint accuracy to work the banks. Dwayne is a great fisherman to learn from about muskie fishing skinny river waters.
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2021, Musky Fishing - Carolina Rig Crank Baits with Cory Allen
In the world of muskie fishing, too many fishermen are programmed to operate well within the guide rails. Step outside the box and open yourself to new ideas. When you start to understand that giant muskie have a proclivity for staying deep. Speed control plays a huge roll with bigger fish. Many times, the most obvious lure presentations are not going to get the job done with these big muskie. Trolling takes the element of speed control away and dragging a sinking bait takes action off the table. Having a lure down deep that will suspend just off the bottom is key. Being able to get that lure to also rise, fall and dart around at depth can be a game changer. In this muskie fishing video, Cory Allen goes to great length to articulate and demonstrate the more desirable aspects of using Carolina rigged cranks baits to target bottom holding beasts. See the rig. See the lures Cory really likes and he used them. Cory is known for operating well outside the realm of conventional thinking, with his fishing. Based on his lifetime of studying musky behavior, Cory has a treasure trove of operational and knowledge capital to tap into. Preparedness starts in the mind. Be ready. Be confident and know how to target giant muskie in the deep. Sometimes you have to go deep and stay deep to bag a giant.
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Featured
2020, Collins River Musky - Fall Transition
Collins River Musky fishing is defined by a skinny water environment that is pockmarked with deep holes, weed beds, rock beds and outcroppings and loads of wood. The waters teaming with bait and all the cover provide for a musky fishery as healthy as any in the southeast. The seasonal changes that are set off by the fall transition trigger a change in warm water musky behavior. Less daylight and slowly decreasing temperatures are the catalysts that drive musky to get serious about their feeding. This time of year is about fattening up for winter. In this video, life long Collins River fisherman Dwayne Hickey, widely recognized as the Godfather of the Collins, takes you on a drift down the river breaking down the system and where to look for musky. He talks about how to fish the shallow stretches, the deep holes, the rock beds and all the wood. By wood, I mean all the trees that are down in the river. There is nothing that Dwayne points to more than the wood. Pay close attention to what he is saying in that vein. You will notice that Dwayne Hickey takes a simplified approach to his musky fishing. He usually has a small handful of lures, not dozens and dozens. He knows the river and what triggers bites. Having spent so many years fishing the Collins River for musky, Dwayne has his program dialed all the way in. There is a lot to learn from a river rat like this. You will be privy to how he works each section of the river, what presentations he is using for each and why, how long to work a given area and why fish will be where they are. This is a masters class in a short video. There is so much going on in this river system. Having a guy of Dwayne experience showing you the ins and outs of fishing for musky in the Collins River will put you on your way to catching more fish. The principles he shares will also work in any small river. Go with knowledge and fish smarter.
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2020, Muskie Fish with Bass Crank Baits
It is not often that we think about the intersection of the bass crank bait world and the musky crank bait world. This is antithetic. Maybe not though. There will be times when you need a musky lure that gets down deep real quickly. Musky fishing legend Cory Allen breaks down a handful of bass crank baits that he routinely uses when muskie fishing. He will discuss subtle differences and point out various techniques for getting the most out the lures he presents. The assortment of bass cranks Cory profiles are a few of his favorite. They get plenty of action and have caught him many fish. Learn how valuable it is to include baits and lures from outside industry norms and expand your fishing arsenal. The real difference in bass and musky cranks is size and respective dive curves. Bass cranks are design to get down fast and be retrieved over the length of one cast. A lot of musky lures dive on a more shallow plane, due to heavy use in trolling. There is no way a musky crank will dive over a short distance to significant depth. When you want to work steep edges or into deep timber where trolling will not work, you need the precise package of a hefty bass crank. When you start using bass cranks, you will find that not all deep divers that go to the same depth get there the same way. You will see a wide variety of swimming action and rise speeds. You will see Cory breakdown the Livingston Lures Howeller Deep, Strike King 10XD, 6th Sense Cloud 9 Series and the Berkley Dredger 25.5. All of these lures offer huge versatility to the musky angler. Don\'t let the industry tell you what a bait should be used for. Stretch your thinking and bag big musky using bass tackle. You won\'t be let down.
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Featured
2020, Musky Fishing Jigging Lures
This Musky Jigging Lures video is a masters class on how to utilize non-typical baits for vertical jigging. Fishing savant Cory Allen presents five incredible baits that can be fished vertically through the water column. Move your thinking away from just the up and down and think about how you can get more action and more movement horizontally as you move vertically. When you start using baits that are not traditionally considered jigging lures, your world will open up and you will trigger more bites from neutral of inactive musky. If it sinks, you can jig it. This should be key to your thinking. Just because it doesn\'t say “for vertical jigging” on the box does not mean that the bait is not superb for that use. Cory will share his analysis, while demonstrating how to get more performance out of each bait. He will offer you five outstanding muskie lures that are each drastically different in design. This will show you that marketing is not always you friend. Open your mind to new frontiers and see how a wide variety of great baits make for excellent musky jigging lures. Cory Allen will profile the H2O Tackle Barbarian, the HardHead from Phantom Baits, Vibrations Tackle EchoTail, the Molix Spoon and a large safety pin spinner bait. Each of the baits, other than the EchoTail, is not specifically design for vertical jigging, but when utilized for such make lethal tools every musky fisherman should consider. The more you use these baits, as well as others, for vertical jigging, the more feel you will get for what a bait is doing at depth. If you can feel the baits wobbles, wanders and deviations, it is far more likely that you will feel the subtle change of a bite from a neutral fish. Get out of the exclusive world of product marketing and by that I mean don\'t go by what is on the box. Step outside and expand your arsenal. You should make the baits do what you want. The range of performance you can get out of a bait far exceeds what most will ever use them for. Take the insights Cory Allen is sharing and your thinking on musky jigging lures will be forever changed. All of the baits featured and many more work supremely for vertical jigging. You only need to start using them. You will end up with more tools to explore deep water. Fish smarter and catch more musky.
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Featured
2019, Trolling Topwater Musky Lures with Cory Allen
There are times when you just cannot seem to get a bite or even a follow. It\'s muskie fishing, right? Well, there will be times when only really slow presentations will trigger a reaction. When you are dealing with bigger fish, this can be the only thing that works. Casting a lure out and slowly retrieving it may not work either. Huh!? Yes. You do not have enough runway with a cast. There will be times when a big muskie will follow a slow moving musky lure for a really long time. The only way to achieve this is with trolling. Cory Allen is a musky hunter of the highest order. He has made a name for himself catching big fish all year long year after year. How does he do this? He gets way outside the conventional box and experiments for inordinate amounts of time. Slow trolling is on his play sheet. Learn why this technique works, at times, and what lures he finds most effective. See how he suggests setting up a spread and how to manage it. What speeds are ideal. The more you know, the more success you will have when things get difficult. Learn from the best and fish smarter.
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Featured
2019, Topwater Musky Lures with Cory Allen
Easily one of the most popular, but also one of the least understood realms of musky angling is the surface bait lineup. Most simply look for the loudest, splashiest, sloshiest thing out there, when often just the opposite is the most effective tool for larger fish especially. This In The Spread muskie fishing video with Cory Allen breaks down a selection of specific topwaters not just by their \"fish catching ability\", but the reasons why they allow more nuanced controls than their ilk in the topwater category. One thing to consider is how slow are you working your topwater musky lures. What you think of as slow may not be slow enough. There are times during the summer when the near death crawl is the only thing that will trigger lazy big muskie. Cory will profile each of his selections, paying particular attention to how well each does very little. This may drive some of you nuts, but it works. If you want to fish smarter, learn from the best.
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Featured
2019, How to Catch Pike in Small Lakes
Not only an action feast, but also a great introduction to the wonderful world of esox, small pond pike fishing might be considerably easier than jumping straight into musky, but it also has its quirks that require some experience and insight. This In The Spread pike fishing video will help you understand how best to break down these areas into smaller bites to maximize efficiency for both numbers and to help target bigger sizes. Learn about lures, presentation theory, gear and how pike tend to behave in these environments.
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Featured
2019, Winter Muskie Fishing Techniques with Cory Allen
The coldest periods of the year, even in the south where we have open water all season, often demand special techniques and tools that might seem sterilizingly tedious to most anglers, but its during this period that slow and steady often produces the largest fish of the season or even your lifetime. This In The Spread muskie fishing video features Cory Allen discussing specific lures and methods to help you acquaint yourself with a season that challenges many anglers, simply because they rely too much on positive feedback to justify their approach. If you have not watched any of the Cory\'s other videos, you will soon learn why he is so respected by those that truly excel at fishing for big muskie. He is a legit savant. He will show you ways to fish lures that may challenge your whole muskellunge fishing construct. This is master level. Go with knowledge. Fish Smarter!
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Featured
2019, Catching Muskie with Live Bait
Livebait can be tedious, but also very effective in its own right. It most certainly isn\'t a \"magic bullet\" for muskie fishing, but especially during colder periods there are ways to rig and present it that offer a different angle unavailable in artificials that also allows you to employ other methods in conjunction. This In The Spread muskie fishing video showcases Joe Murphy\'s STFF rigs in action. Learn why these live bait rigs are so effective and different ways to present baits with them to increase your success rate.
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2019, Winter Musky Fishing in Deep Rivers
Many who fish rivers for muskies, often find themselves more fishing in what is more a creek than a river. The divisions between deep and shallow water are pretty easy to determine, and the run riffle hole setups make them somewhat easy to interpret. But what happens when dealing with a river system that is uniformly deep, with no truly shallow to deep differentiation in the channel? Learn to break these situations down easily and effectively without becoming overwhelmed or simply flailing in the dark for the light switch. Learn how to target less obvious features in the deep water. Utilizing upstream, cross stream and down stream tactics to maximize your coverage. Fish more of the rivers water column by using the principles shared in this In The Spread musky fishing video. Learn from the best and fish smarter.
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2018, Musky Lures from H2O Tackle
In The Spread and Cory Allen are at it again analyzing how much varied performance you can get out of a set of curated H2O Tackle musky lures. Cory Allen will never leave you short when it comes to serving up a performance review of his curated tackle. It\'s not very often you can find an almost entirely complete line of baits covering everything from the surface to the bottom, all of which stand tall amongst their analogs, from a single lure designer. Yet Roger Watters\' H20 Tackle offers just that. Here we discuss in-depth a fistful of his collection that amazingly is just the tip of the iceberg of his genius. If you did not know, Roger Watters is the mastermind behind so many different baits relatively unknown to the market at large. Pick up valuable fishing tips on this sampling of muskie baits and fish smarter.
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2018, Bottom Fishing Musky with Live Suckers
When most think of muskie fishing, live bait does come to mind, but anchoring and camping up on a structure is practically unheard of. Even less accepted is utilizing the bottom itself in presentation; most musky anglers always gotta be on the move. Joe Murphy, though, has other ideas. In this In The Spread musky fishing video, Joe shows us the virtue of anchoring and setting live bait lines on specific areas of bottom topography, how to give your bait the best rigging for both stationary control and having a good \"leash\", and being able to place them for maximum efficiency. This is true \"musky hunting\"...staking out trails the fish move upon and waiting for your quarry like a true hunter, instead of constantly chasing them. Use this fishing video to broaden you knowledge of how to catch muskie using live bait while on anchor.
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2018, Best Big Lures for Muskie with Cory Allen
There\'s big. And then there\'s musky big. Muskie fishing is a sport of extremes, and as much focus as the smaller end of the spectrum demands, the larger end deserves its own time in the spotlight. We have all seen fishing videos showing big muskie swimming around with a 20\'\' inch fish in their mouth. This In The Spread fishing video features legendary esox masquinongy angler Cory Allen showcasing some of the better Brobdingnagian baits out there for musky anglers, and why their size in these instances, serves as an particular asset. There may be no muskellunge fisherman that spends more time breaking down lures and how to squeeze every ounce of performance out of them. Cory has a unique set of skills for understanding what fish will eat and why. Learn why these lure fishing tips can enhance your store of baits. Learn from the best and fish smarter.
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2018, Best Small Lures for Muskie with Cory Allen
Musky fishing is almost synonymous with big. Big rods. Big fish. Big baits...But, history shows and any veteran angler will attest to the fact that many of the largest fish ever caught were taken on presentations smaller than you\'d expect, some even geared for \"other species\". Here we do a quick run down of some great selections for smaller presentations, some of which you may or may not be familiar with. Cory Allen is a musky lure savant. He spends inordinate amounts of time analyzing how lures can be made to perform and sharing why certain lures work so well for muskie fishing. Take these fishing tips to the bank and fish smarter.
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2018, Collins River Musky Fishing on Fly
Fly Fishing for Musky on the Collins River from In The Spread and Captain Chad Bryson is part of our fishing video series for fly fishermen. Chad highlights the river dynamics that hold muskie and how to target these powerful fish. You will also learn about why certain confluences are productive fishing areas, the water features to look for that may hold fish, presentation mechanics, rods, reels and the types of flies that produce the most success for Chad. Captain Chad Bryson is a multi-discipline fishermen with extensive skills using fly or conventional gear. He has guided and caught fish all over the southeast. His deep understanding of the water, species behavior and willingness to share will help you be a more successful angler.
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2018, Muskie Fishing Channel Flats and Feeder Streams - Cory Allen
When muskellunge were introduced into southern reservoirs, these fish we placed in an environment they had yet to exist in, one created by the impoundment of massive river systems with considerable, albeit controlled current. Often, this placed the yielding structure situations far off the shore but in very predictable locations. This In The Spread muskie fishing video, featuring angling savant Cory Allen, will break down how to find, map, and effectively fish the side feeder stream cuts that most turn their backs turned to, instead facing the bank and far away from the fish. Remember, what the fish are relating to is often not visible. Know your topography to know where fish will hang. Know before you go. Let the knowledge lead you to pay dirt. Fish Smarter!
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2018, Jigging Spinner Baits for Musky with Cory Allen
A vertical lure presentation isn\'t something that often comes to mind when the subject of spinnerbaits is brought up. Yet, there are few baits that allow for a more controlled presentation on the Y axis. This In The Spread fishing video with Cory Allen will break down the elements of using spinnerbaits in your arsenal for vertical jigging and yo-yoing for big musky. There may be no better technique for triggering bites from suspended or neutral fish. This is an extremely effective fishing method on one your should work on. Learn how to catch musky with this underutilized technique. Learn from the best and fish smarter.
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2018, Kayak Fishing for Musky
Jase Bouldin is born and bred of Rock Island, Tennessee, and exemplifies the best qualities of both a white water kayaker, and a kayak angler, being a pioneer of the sport before it really was ever truly considered one to begin with. Naturally, with fantastic musky fish prowling the waters of his backyard, he gravitated to using single man crafts as mobile weapons platforms for muskie angling. Coming from who is very likely the first guy on planet earth to ever concertedly fish for muskies from a kayak, this one is definitely worth more than a passing glance. Learn about ideal kayaks for angling skinny rivers, how to methodically break down every piece of water with a variety of musky lures and what it takes to control your craft while throwing heavy freshwater tackle. The information presented here goes far beyond just musky fishing from a kayak. You can take many of the concepts about navigating a river while fishing, tackle, where muskie like to hold in skinny rivers and how to present lures Jase shares in this In The Spread fishing video and apply them to your regular fishing program.
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2018, How to Fish for Muskie in Coves with Cory Allen
One of the first stops on any musky angler\'s quest in almost any flowage or reservoir will be in one of the many coves extending off the main body of water. While they often do in fact provide consistent fishing, there are ways to determine which \"exits off the interstate\" of the main channel are worth more time and effort. This In The Spread muskie fishing video not only helps you discern the quality of a cove by its layout and relation to the main channel, but also how to dissect them for the most yield for your effort. Instructor Cory Allen is a genius about breaking down the topography of a lake system and knowing how musky will relate to the subtle changes and transitions. Cory built his reputation on boating big muskie year in and year out in the ultra dynamic eastern Tennessee lakes and rivers. He is an excellent instructor who provides incredible depth to his reasoning and showing you over and over exactly what you should be doing. Learn from the best and fish smarter.
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