Rhythm of Rubber

WHEN FISHING SOFT PLASTIC BAITS, CADENCE & RHYTHM ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN TYPE, COLOR OR SIZE

- Aaron Katzmarek and Nate Osfar

As the sun rose on the second day of the Professional Musky Tournament Trail’s Ranger Boats World Championship in northern Iowa last October, the team of Nate Osfar and Matt Raley found themselves with a serious case of dry net. After registering no muskies on the first day, Sunday loomed large as 20 mph winds and rain gave way to breaks in the sky, sun and calmer waters. Gliding in to a shallow weed edge, Raley tacked on a Medussa and went to work.

He didn’t have to wait long.

After a brief fight and routine netting, the musky was registered, and Osfar and Raley were on the board. After a gear check and high-five, Raley connected again on the very next cast. With two fish now registered, and a racehorse-worth of adrenaline in their systems, the team focused on pulling every active musky they could off that same 200-yard stretch of weeds.

From the front of the boat, Raley yelled back to Osfar, “Quick pops, little hops!”

Osfar took a moment to watch how Raley was working the Medussa in the shallow cover. He altered his retrieve and rod cadence to match and was rewarded with the third musky of the morning.

The Medussas danced up and down, frantic through the weed edge, and the fish ate. When the window of action finally closed only two hours had passed, but a total of five muskies had been registered by the pair, enough to win the tournament with a bit of breathing room.

Quick pops. Little hops. Those two sentence fragments resonate in the story of the championship due to the nature of the information Raley conveyed to Osfar. The important detail wasn’t in bait type, color or size. Instead, it was the cadence and rhythm of the retrieve. Bait selection is critical, of course, but working those baits in a manner conducive to fish activity and mood is vitally important to maximize the chances of success.