Favorite Lure to troll for Muskies?

[PaJNS]

I still love Big Old Rapalas! What are your favorites?

I don't troll much. I prefer casting to all fish- more intimate contact with the fish and the strike. BUT, here in WNY, in the Upper Niagara River (yes, ABOVE the Falls with a 6 MPH current!), all the old River Rats prefer to troll a "doctored" #2600 Jointed Pikie (4 1/4" size)! Not the newer plastic ones, but repainted old 1960's wooden models, with the lip "modified" and the middle treble removed. I've used them, and caught Muskies, many times! Nothing like it! Black with yellow stripes ("Bumblebee" color), is the favorite. Not too many of the Rats left.
I river fished with a Rat and he taught me a lot of the tricks. He always won or placed high in the Muskies, Inc. yearly contests! He used to gash his hands and fingers with teeth and hooks so often, that he carried a surgical wound stapler (I am NOT making this up!) in his boat at all times. He once showed me how it worked by putting a staple in his palm just as a demonstration! As a matter of fact, he's the one that hit me in the head with a Musky sized Mepps, yanked it though my scalp, and pulled my hat off! Yep, the Khaki pork pie hat I showed at another post. He said he knew he was in trouble when he saw my hat go flying out as a trailer on his Mepps! He wanted to keep fishing, but after he saw the way the blood was running down my chin and neck, he kindly agreed to take me home--- he probably went back out fishing! What a character! Great guy, I always enjoy his company! Best----JoeW

[bui boater]

oh, its a seasonal thing.in the early spring,i love trolling big butchertails/musky killers,then we just go big.the biggest plugs we can buy.this fellow in chautauqua lake , ny makes these plugs that wobble like a duck.they usually try to swallow them big plugs to thier gullet so we put one single hook in the middle,or delete it all together, and then make double hooks from the rest of them.when fall hits, we stop trolling, and take 10" suckers with big slip bobbers and go after em.what a cool fish to target.