Rice Lake Cottage Trip - What kind of bait are the bass and musky taking?

[tcp]

Hey guys,

Im headed up to Rice next weekend for a week long cottage trip. Headed up with the wifes family, they have boats and will be fishing every morning with spinning gear. I understand there is good LMB and musky opporunities on rice although these arent fish I normally target and im not familiar with this particular lake. Im looking for some advice in regards to bait. I will be fly fishing while up there so this week I need to prepare and tie up some flies. I will be tieing zonker leechs, cray patterns, some top water poppers and some baitfish streamers. Just wondering what you bass pro's have the best results with so that I can imitate that in my presentations.

• Do you know what naturals the LMB and musky are feeding on as far as bait fish? ( bluegills, smb, perch,crays etc.)
• what is your number 1 bait/lure on Rice lake for LMB/SMB
• what is your number 1 bait/lure on Rice lake for musky
• any of you fly fish rice?
• how bout walleye on fly? what bait works good for walleye there ?

If you dont wanna air out your secrets in public, feel free to PM me, or even just give me a basic idea of what is working best for you. No need to give me the exact lure or whatever. Just looking for some direction to focus my fly tying on. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[alwayscatching]

I will tell you right now, find any bay with a 2-5 ft weed bed or lily pads and just toss a senko! 5 inch wacky 7 inch texas rigged. Any color works. I do not believe in colors making a big difference unless the water has been hit hard by a specific color, then at that point I would change it up. Musky are harder to find there. I can't really help you with that but as for largies, stick to senkos and if you have a flipping stick I would suggest using a jig with a zoom chunk. Black and blue. Have fun! Rice is my favorite lake. I guide there sometimes for certain people.

 

[tcp]

Cool, thanks for the tips man, much appreciated