Hulbert’s Top 20 Quick Tips

1. Always bring and wear your polarized glasses, even on cloudy days.
2. Always look behind your bait and do at least one figure 8 after each cast.  Long, wide sweeping turns are a must.
3. Never slow your bait down on a figure 8, speed is the key
4. Don’t waste time changing baits all day, stick with a few proven techniques and you will get bit.
5. Try making the switch to longer rods.  They make working baits a lot easier, figure 8’s and be done easier, they make fighting the fish easier and your hooking percentage will increase with the use of 8 foot and 8’6 rods. I recommend Professional Edge Custom rods.
6. Use good quality equipment:
   I use 80-100 pound test line, Cortland Spectron and Master Braid

A good quality leader with heavy-duty snaps and swivels, like Stealth Leaders

Have a musky friendly net, which means rubber coated bags are a must.  I recommend the Frabill Big Kahuna

A good quality bait-casting reel.  I would recommend the Daiwa Luna 300.

A lightweight and comfortable rod. I use and recommend the Professional Edge Diamondbacks

7. Have plenty of release tools with you in the boat.  Several pair of pliers, 2 jaw spreaders, 2 bolt cutters, and Musky Armor gloves.
8. Learn to watch and understand the moon phases as this will lead you to more and bigger fish
9. Replace weak split rings with a good quality ring, I recommend the #7 Bucher Rings
10. Fish as often as you can, as you never know when that big girl decides it is time to eat…
11. Pay attention to bait fish movements
12. Always fish into the wind and never with the wind
13. Fish areas hard the thorough, don’t move through spots to quickly.
14. Never leave fish to find fish
15. Don’t be afraid to fish at night, even in the late fall
16. If you can’t quickly unhook the fish in 2 or 3 shakes with the pliers, immediately grab the bolt cutters and start cutting.
17. While fighting a fish keep your rod tip down.  Having your rod pointed towards the sky will only bring the musky to the surface, which means thrown lures.
18. While setting the hook, one quick “SNAP” is all you need.  Don’t set the hook multiple times.
19. Keep your photo sessions limited to 3 photos.