# Hooking up muskie on Alum Creek or Alum Creek Lake



## WYATT GLASS

I'm a life time fisherman that has caught everything thing from from monster catfish to sailfish. I have never caught a muskie, have heard Alum Creek has a healthy muskie population. Just trying to get some tips or pointers on chasing one of these bad boys down, from a better angler than me. Any help is really appreciated


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## Earthworms

The population at Alum has dropped but still a few fish around, boat hit the lake, no boat below the 3 dams below in Westerville now should be good.


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## WYATT GLASS

Any tips on where you could bank fish for them, I work west Columbus area an was going to start trying to throw a line after work


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## Shortdrift

WYATT GLASS said:


> Any tips on where you could bank fish for them, I work west Columbus area an was going to start trying to throw a line after work


Read answer #2


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## MuskyFan

Spillway below the dam. Doesn't look like much but they are in there.


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## WYATT GLASS

Hell yea..Thanks for the helps boys


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## Saugeyefisher

Ya toss large sticks or rattle traps or swims below the dams....


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## steelshep

Earthworms said:


> The population at Alum has dropped but still a few fish around, boat hit the lake, no boat below the 3 dams below in Westerville now should be good.


Are they still stocking Alum with muskie?
Hate to hear that the numbers are down there. I was hoping to get down that way soon.


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## Saugeyefisher

steelshep said:


> Are they still stocking Alum with muskie?
> Hate to hear that the numbers are down there. I was hoping to get down that way soon.


Yes they are still stocking them...


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## Farmhand

There’s a lot of musky in that lake, I live 10 mins from there. I don’t fish the lake anymore because of the traffic. You can catch them in the creek upstream wading when the suckers and white bass are in there spawning. Below the dam is almost a guarantee this time of year. Big swimbaits or cranks. Watch the snags


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## ruffhunter

My neighbor is an avid muskie guy. He has 50 lures costing 25 to 50 bucks a piece. Most of the lures are a foot long. He said it goes against muskie world, but they eat crappie (looking) lures.


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## Dovans

Try Salt Fork...


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## Snyd

If you are not in a boat fish the rocks on the dam, lake side. I have seen several fish caught over the years in that area.


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## Lazy 8

Hey guys, What happened to Alum as far as Muskies goes? What changed? Aren't the DNR still stocking the same numbers?


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## dgfidler

I’ve tried trolling Alum for Muskie several times without success. I cant really say I’ve put a lot of time into it, maybe cumulatively 60 hours over 4 years. This year I’m going to try increasing the speed and see if that helps. This fall, I observed a boat land a Muskie using downriggers. I speculate they used the downriggers to put a large spinner bait or soft bait down 10 to 15 feet. I plan to try that tactic this summer.


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## MuskyFan

Lazy 8 said:


> Hey guys, What happened to Alum as far as Muskies goes? What changed? Aren't the DNR still stocking the same numbers?


Alum gets more than any other lake. But they are harder to find and catch there compared to other lakes. Or maybe Alum isn't fished as hard for Muskie. I dunno.

https://apps.ohiodnr.gov/muskielog/stocking.aspx


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## Ir0nMan

They are hard to find even at the spill. A person tried to take 2 musky home. But DNR caught him and said you can take only one. And gave him a ticket. That's what he told me.


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## Tim67

Ir0nMan said:


> They are hard to find even at the spill. A person tried to take 2 musky home. But DNR caught him and said you can take only one. And gave him a ticket. That's what he told me.


With a fish like Musky I don't know why people wouldn't practice catch and release, unless you take maybe 1 trophy for a mount. But when I see or hear of people exceeding bag limits and basically poaching, I diffinitely do not approve. Same goes for mistreating fish that are released, what's the point if they aren't going to survive.


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## Branden_Rodgers

I fished the spill this evening with 0 luck, then went and fished the rocks on the north side of the dam with the same luck as the spill. Gotta keep at it! They don’t call them the fish of 10,000 cast for nothing! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## T-180

I've found the best way to hook a muskie in Alum is to not try to hook one ; put your best, most expensive lure on lighter line without a leader & you are are almost guaranteed to have one swim away with it !!


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## Earthworms

Join the musky club......really takes the learning curve out of it.


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## Brahmabull71

Can’t tell you how many I’ve caught over the years trolling points June - August on Flicker Shad #6-7’s running 2.7-3.5 SOG. I think we caught 3 trolling middle pool and 1 casting for crappie up in Big Run last year. I used to catch 40-50 a season, but now lucky to catch 5. The population definitely has decreased. Largest I have caught was a 52” fishing 3.5’ of water for crappie up around a brush pile in the back of a cove in mid April. Medium Light St. Croix with 6# mono hooked right in the corner of the mouth. I do not target the slimy stinking things, but they are a ton of fun when you hook one


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## odell daniel

are they going through the spillway? I know some do but it sounds like the lake is losing a lot of them. I was trolling for saugeye last year and caught a nice musky on a real small crankbait, kind of surprised me.


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## WYATT GLASS

Earthworms said:


> Join the musky club......really takes the learning curve out of it.


What's the muskie club


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## crittergitter

odell daniel said:


> are they going through the spillway? I know some do but it sounds like the lake is losing a lot of them. I was trolling for saugeye last year and caught a nice musky on a real small crankbait, kind of surprised me.


Yes, in fact, the DOW has been conducting a tagging study. There is a detection device below the spillway that can read the tags. So, they get a count that shows how many end up below the dam. 




WYATT GLASS said:


> What's the muskie club


He is referring to the Central Ohio Muskies Inc Club which is chapter 41. 
http://centralohiomuskies.wixsite.com/centralohiomuskies


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## Earthworms

Pics or it didn’t happen, I call bs on a Muskie that big in Alum....


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## Fisherman 3234

It's a GOOD thing some Muskie are ending up below the dam. They seem to be thriving in Alum Creek and the Scioto River, with some natural reproduction taking place... Historically Muskie were abundant throughout many Ohio River tributaries and streams.


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## bman

I can attest that the Muskie population seems down in Alum. Last year was the first time I didn’t hook or catch a Muskie on almost every trip to Alum. In fact, I felt my interactions with Muskie (as a bass fisherman) was more normal on Alum from what I grew accustomed to bass fishing in Illinois and Wisconsin. It was kinda silly to be able to catch/play with 3 muskies at multiple outings at Alum a few years ago.


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## Bleeding Minnow

we never seem to put muskie in the boat at alum when targeting muskie. we have had a number of guest fish though when fishing for saugeye, crappie and bass.


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## WYATT GLASS

Brahmabull71 said:


> Can’t tell you how many I’ve caught over the years trolling points June - August on Flicker Shad #6-7’s running 2.7-3.5 SOG. I think we caught 3 trolling middle pool and 1 casting for crappie up in Big Run last year. I used to catch 40-50 a season, but now lucky to catch 5. The population definitely has decreased. Largest I have caught was a 52” fishing 3.5’ of water for crappie up around a brush pile in the back of a cove in mid April. Medium Light St. Croix with 6# mono hooked right in the corner of the mouth. I do not target the slimy stinking things, but they are a ton of fun when you hook one


If you caught a muskie that big that is a state record, 50 1/4" is the current state record


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## Saugeyefisher

WYATT GLASS said:


> If you caught a muskie that big that is a state record, 50 1/4" is the current state record


Negative ghostrider, state records are determined by weight.


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## WYATT GLASS

Saugeyefisher said:


> Negative ghostrider, state records are determined by weight.


Sorry 55.13 pounds and 50.25"


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## Saugeyefisher

The 55lb peidmont record is a FREAK,that is thick as can be. My uncle has a 42"fish that weighed 24lbs from peidmont some thick fish fo sho


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## Saugeyefisher

I have no reason not to beleive brahm,he has proven on here he puts up good fish and fishes ALOT. its not like theres a rule saying alum muakie are not allowed to reach 50"+.....
If it was caught during the crappie spawn that fish was probobly not aa thick as ahe could be. An i would guess didnt even sniff 45lbs.....


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## LoramieFish12

Saugeyefisher said:


> The 55lb peidmont record is a FREAK,that is thick as can be. My uncle has a 42"fish that weighed 24lbs from peidmont some thick fish fo sho


THICC!


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## dbortolani

I fish the crappie spawn up by the feeder stream near Kilbourne. EVERY SINGLE YEAR I see a few pairs of musky spawning right at the shore. Male and female doing the spawning dance. They were big as well, at least 36-40". Tried to get them to hit a crank bait to no avail.


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## reyangelo

I was going to add: Sometimes if you use certain lures to fish for a specific species (Bass, Saugeyes, etc), there are Muskies which may hit the same lure. For instance, last year I ended catching some Muskies by not targeting them but I was using a fairly sized lure for Saugeyes (mainly suspending stick baits like the HJ's and P10). I caught almost all of them on the lake (fishing near drops). The downside is you may lose some lures. Last year I caught 11 of them; plus I hooked 6 others that I lost (resulting in lures lost due to Muskie cutting line and one that actually caused my fairly worn reel clutch to fail/break). When I target Muskie I make sure to use a steel leader, but since I don't normally target them it will result in a lost lure if hooked deep inside the mouth with the line exposed to its teeth/sharp areas (my assumption since I had a couple at the banks and watch it leave with my lure). The ones I was able to reel in (without targeting them and not using steel leader) were mainly because the hooks were near the jaw line with my line outside of the teeth/sharp area. This is mainly a perspective from fishing the banks, I have yet to catch one on a boat/kayak. Most of the lures I caught them on were ~5" range.


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## mlkostur

Branden_Rodgers said:


> I fished the spill this evening with 0 luck, then went and fished the rocks on the north side of the dam with the same luck as the spill. Gotta keep at it! They don’t call them the fish of 10,000 cast for nothing!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


They are not the fish of 10,000 casts or even 1,000 casts. I would say 400, but somedays it is a 1,000 or more...and others it is every 150....
I was considering taking my first trip to Alum during my sons soccer tourny next weekend, but now I am not sure if I want to haul my boat down there. Up north we have some killer lakes where 1 fish is expected and 2 or three isn't uncommon... and i am not an expert Musky fisherman. Just a lake erie guy who dables with them when the big pond doesn't cooperate.
And yes join a Muskie club! Besyt guys out there!
Sad to here Alum is odwn for Muskies as several NE lakes are killing it. Hope they get it together...and please release those guys if you can!


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