Fishing the hound

By Just Fish Guide Service

After ten or so years of thought and research the Dog River Lodge Lure Company has come up with the St Clair Hound (Buck-Tail). This bait is made with the highest quality components from the 5/0 Mustad treble hooks, .062 in diameter stainless wire to the high quality brass fluted blades that are available in nickel, gold and black nickel plating. The St Clair Hound comes in four fish catching sizes, the ''The Lil Hound, ''St Clair Hound'' the ''Magnum Hound'' and new for this year the ''Ultra Mag''. The Dog River Lodge Lure Company also has in my opinion the best color patterns on the market, with this being said this gives most musky anglers what they want  ''a big selection of size and color''. Whether you ''cast'' or set up in your spread ''trolling'' this high quality hand tied Buck-Tail made right on the south shore of Lake St Clair will catch fish for you!

Casting:

The St. Clair Hound is a very versatile bait that can be slowly rolled or burned through the water to get the fishes attention along with it being properly weighted you can cast this bait a long way even in the  nastiest of weather. In my home water's of Lake St. Clair I fish the hound in 5-15 fow along weed edge's, over top of the many hump's that exist on the lake bottom.                          Don't over look casting in open water with a quick retrieve just above the weeds, a lot of the Musky in the Great Lakes are roamers and on the move a majority of the time. Most of my success casting comes early and late in the year (fall) with most of the fish following the shad run into the river, working the St. Clair Hound as you would fish most rivers with a lot of structure, working the shorelines and the mouths of inlets. Casting in high current areas like you will find on Detroit River I position myself upstream and work the bait into or across the current. It also makes a great lure for shore fishermen looking to catch Musky/Pike.  With the Hound being a very versatile lure it is easy to cast, covers a lot of water, different retrieve speeds and being able to figure 8 the lure at the end of each cast makes it a deadly addition to any shore fishermen’s arsenal.

Trolling:

The St. Clair Hound is one of the baits that gets set up in every one of my trolling spreads whether it is set up as a boat or down rod or run off planner-boards. Over the last few seasons trolling the open water of  Lake St. Clair  the ''Hound'' has taken its fair share of big fish. There are a few ways to set the hound in your spread starting with running it off boards, I run all Hounds with weight to keep it from surfacing.  To start the day I run them high in the water column with 1oz weight 20-30 feet back off the boards, 2oz and 20-30 feet back and back as far as 40 feet also works very well. For running it off the boat 1oz and 30-50 feet back and some days 2oz and 30-40 feet back. Last but not least the down rod for me is my favorite rod to run. I like pulling the Hound on 1lb ball 10-15 feet back with a trolling speed from 3.8 to 4.2mph. Give these set ups a try you will be glad you did!!

Andy Copeland from Just Fish Guide Service - www.justfishguideservice.ca