To know that muskies follow trolled lures is one thing. But to see them, to know for sure, is something else altogether. The drama provided by an underwater camera is exactly that—the “something else altogether” that turns trolling into an interactive video event.

“It stops you cold,” says Don Schwartz, referring to his video-trolling footage. A lure inventor and exceptional muskie angler who often shares a boat with the likes of Doug Johnson and **** Pearson, Schwartz has been transformed by the things he’s seen with his underwater camera. “I mean, can you imagine if trolling for muskies were just as visually exciting as casting?” he asks. “That’s video trolling.

“Until last year, underwater cameras always seemed like more of a novelty than a legitimate fishing tool,” he says. “I thought I understood muskie behavior, too. I was wrong on all counts.”

His quest began early last spring. While trolling for lake trout, he attached his Aqua-Vu camera to his downrigger weight. The spoon, running just feet behind, soon became the object of frequent attention by lakers.

“It was mesmerizing to spy into the underwater world and watch lakers follow and attack lures,” he says. “After a few sessions, I knew it would work for muskies. I couldn’t wait to see a muskie strike at eye level. How many people have ever seen that?”

During 2007, Schwartz recorded dozens of video clips of follows, strikes, and other muskie behavior. He saw fish charge downrigger balls and boat propellers. He tracked fish that followed lures for over a half mile, off structure and out into deep open water. They struck at lures with wicked snout swings and at times appeared to be examining lures as if to smell them. No surprise, the fish also often seemed to intensify their chase anytime the downrigger ball and lure hit rocks. Video trolling for muskies was everything Schwartz imagined and more, adding a jolt of electricity into an otherwise mundane routine.

He admits that getting comfortable with operating a downrigger in conjunction with a video camera takes practice. Running around rocks and dredging bottom takes a toll on equipment, but once the physical mechanics mesh, it becomes a sturdy trolling system. “Today,” he says, “it would be hard for me to go back to my old trolling routine. There’s just too much to be learned from a fishing perspective—and so many visual thrills.”

The visual thing with muskies—that you sometimes see them while casting and they follow, and those follows can at times be converted into boatside strikes—remains at the core of the fish’s appeal. Adding this visual reaction factor to trolling is a compelling addition to this aspect of the sport.

“Initially, I didn’t think one of the main benefits of video trolling would be my ability to react to the actions of following fish. Once I knew fish were following I could do something about it— speed up, make a sharp turn, grind the ball into bottom, track tight to contours by raising and lowering the downrigger ball. I could interact in all sorts of ways that might make a following fish eat. Furthermore, by recording the footage and studying it, I began to understand which moves worked best in different situations.”

Tools and Mechanics

The Aqua-Vu DVR unit, which connects to the underwater camera, allows recording action and replaying it later—either on the camera monitor or on a home computer. “Not only did I learn all about various structural elements and fish response,” Schwartz says, “now I know how each lure works generally and reacts in different situations—their actions at different speeds and as they collide with bottom.

Schwartz’s system consists of an Aqua-Vu Scout SRT. This year, he will experiment with a new Motorized Aqua-Vu. He connects the camera optics to the cable of a small portable downrigger just above the downrigger ball, via an Aqua-Vu Cam Rigger kit. The camera’s lens can be adjusted to aim in multiple angles in order to keep different lures in line of sight. Schwartz has been trolling in less than 20 feet of water, often less than 8 feet beneath the boat, so a light downrigger ball is all that’s required.

He uses a Cabela’s clamp-on manual downrigger with a 4-pound ball, but also carries an 8-pound ball to keep a lure directly below the prop wash at faster speeds. “At times, muskies really like this,” he says. “But monitor the depth and structural layout, or things can get dicey. Be ready to crank up a few feet if you see bottom on the monitor, especially boulders. You don’t always have to keep the bait in the prop wash, though. Sometimes the 4-pound ball is nice because it lags farther behind the prop at faster speeds.”

Once the camera’s connected, attach your fishing line with an Off Shore OR-8 Heavy Tension Downrigger Release. Pinch the line just above the leader swivel. “If you’re running superbraid,” Schwartz says, “Double wrap the line into the release.”

“People don’t believe how close to the ball muskies will strike until they see it happen. I use a standard 9- to 12-inch wire leader that positions the lure less than a foot from the ball. Muskies aren’t afraid. When a muskie hits, the lure pulls free from the clip and you’re into a crazy green fish on a short line.”

Schwartz uses 81⁄2- to 10-foot medium-heavy power trolling rods, like a 10-foot Shakespeare BWDD 1100 or BWLD110010 or a Shimano Talora TLA-86MH-2. He fills a Garcia 6500 with 80- or 100-pound-test PowerPro. At that point, he places the rod into a holder and loosens the drag before lowering the ball. Then he shifts the motor into gear and drops the downrigger ball, while thumbing line off the reel.

Behavioral Revelations

Schwartz thinks these behavioral observations based on his underwater viewing will interest most muskie anglers. The camera never lies, though we’re left to interpret what we see happening below. Here’s how Schwartz sees things.

›Banging Bottom Triggers Muskies & Never Slow Down—“Most muskie anglers know that contact with bottom—particularly banging rocks with crankbaits—triggers muskies to strike. Camera observation confirms this,” Schwartz says. “I’ve watched a lot of fish follow or strike just after the ball bangs a rock on the edge of a reef, before it drops off into deep water.

“A rigger ball is the ultimate banging tool,” he says. “As you’d suspect, getting close and personal with bottom hazards creates violent contact between the downrigger ball and boulders. Everything goes haywire, camera and ball bouncing, hammering rocks, and stirring sediment. The lure digs in, smacks rocks and caroms left, right. It’s amazing how much abuse those lures take. About that time a big muskie shows up like a heat-seeking missile, always beneath and just to the side of the lure.

“The worst thing you can do is slow down. Muskies don’t have brakes. Slow down abruptly from a 3.5 mph troll and a fish will scoot right past the lure under the boat. Rarely do they get back on the lure after that. To trigger strikes it works at times to throttle up from 3 mph to 4 mph to 6 mph or more. Or drop the ball into headbanger mode by moving in tight to rocks or by banging bottom. I don’t know if it’s the sound of the collision, the sediment kicking off bottom, or the interruption in lure movement that triggers strikes,” he says. “But there’s magic in collision.”

›Muskies like giant spinnerbaits, often better than crankbaits—“Anglers generally assume plugs are the key lure choice for summer and fall trolling,” Schwartz says. “I’ve caught plenty of big fish with classic choices—Believers, Grandmas, Jakes. But the only lure that has thus far consistently triggered big fish is a giant spinnerbait. Honest, I see this as a big breakthrough.

“With plugs, muskies often seem just as interested in checking the boat’s prop or the downrigger ball as looking at the lure. I’m not crazy— underwater footage tells the story,” he says. “The first strike I captured on camera after many hours of trolling with classic crankbaits was when I switched to a big spinnerbait. So I went into my workshop and didn’t leave until I had something as big as and even more distracting than a boat propeller or a downrigger ball.”

Dive plugs have lips that yield built-in depth control, spinnerbaits don’t. The thing is that few anglers have ever ground a spinnerbait into the bottom before. You can do that behind a downrigger ball.

Schwartz’s best lure has been his new creation he calls the Train Wreck Spinnerbait. The 15-inch spinnerbait has a 7-inch plastic curlytail, silicone skirt, and tandem #10 Indiana and #8 Colorado blades. “It’s a nicely balanced lure that muskies like to eat,” he says. “Even at this size the bait casts well, too. It produced one of my bigger muskies last season while casting, a fish I found while video trolling.

“The thing is that spinnerbaits just haven’t been placed into the right depths, as cranks have while trolling, so we haven’t known how well muskies responded to them in a classic trolling situation. Maybe it’s that they haven’t seen them in this situation before. Muskies have one of the best-developed lateral line systems among freshwater fish. They are highly tuned into vibration, sound, and perhaps even scent.”

Schwartz’s idea about scent comes from watching video footage: Muskies often appear to be scenting lures like a dog sniffing an unfamiliar hand. “For sure there’s something about big thumping blades, coupled with a wide flapping plastic tail that plays on a muskie’s senses,” he says. “And I’m convinced that scent can play a larger role than any of us realize, although I don’t know the specifics of how, just yet.

“I’ve recorded many muskies following plugs like Grandmas and Believers, but the lure they eat consistently on camera is the Train Wreck.” Schwartz’s largest on-camera muskie last year was a 54-incher that gulped the lure last fall.

›Active muskies often prefer the lee side of windblown structures— Schwartz: “Almost every muskie I’ve viewed during higher wind conditions, whether a curious follower or a willing biter, was on the calm side of islands or reefs. I saw few fish on spots with lots of windblown waves crashing in.”

Schwartz also notes that when the wind subsides, the fish start showing up on the windblown side of structures. “In the past I often concentrated on the windblown side of structural spots,” he says. “Now I think I was getting beaten up for nothing all those years. I don’t know why this has been the case. We’ll see if it continues this coming year, but I’ve logged a lot of hours and this seems obvious.”

›Muskies are the undisputed kings of their domain—“Doesn’t take long watching underwater footage before you realize muskies dominate their habitat area,” says Schwartz. “Watching a muskie engulf a giant bait trolled a foot behind a gaudy downrigger ball leaves little room for doubt. They want it, and even if it’s big, they get it. Place an object such as a motor propeller or downrigger ball in their world and muskies are just as likely to investigate as flee.”

As we’ve noted, Schwartz has footage of muskies that appear curious about both the motor propeller and the downrigger ball. He’s also recorded a large pike attacking the downrigger ball. In each of many instances, muskies and pike ignore a trolled lure while investigating other objects attached to the boat.”

›Video trolling probably works everywhere muskies swim—Schwartz has footage of muskies following or striking in seven different waters, from Canadian Shield lakes to mesotrophic lakes in Minnesota, and in several heavily pressured lakes and flowages in Wisconsin. So long as the water has a few feet of visibility, video trolling works. Next season, he plans on exploring the possibilities offered by trolling in the deep basins where muskies pursue pelagic baitfish.

“Observing muskies on the camera and studying the footage later reveals so many clues that expand your understanding of muskie activity,” Schwartz says. “There’s no other way to gain so much knowledge so quickly and have so much fun at the same time. I’m trolling more precisely and more confidently now than I thought possible. I’m always engaged in what’s going on. I can’t wait to see what new stories these monsters have to show me next year.”

*Cory Schmidt, Brainerd, Minnesota, has authored articles for In-Fisherman publications for over a decade.