So I’m paddling along the Paw Paw river past countless fallen trees and something catches my eye and it seems like a branch in the middle of the river has a mouse hanging off the end of it. So I turn around wondering how the heck that might happen. Turns out I found my first baby muskrat fishing lure.
So what can you catch with a baby muskrat lure…?
Saltwater fisherman here…
It looks like a henway…
Musky? Can’t think of any other freshwater fish in the area that would take anything that big…
Bass in freshwater and redfish in salt marshes love rat patterns. Suspect they would like a muskrat too.
Yep, bass. My wife looked it up. I’ve seen muskrats crossing the river many times but have never seen a muskrat lure.
It catches tree bass.
My Dad, who grew up in the heyday of Florida fishing said lures are more for catching fishermen than fish.
This time of year sport fishermen in Alaska are fishing with a little piece of ribbon.
Bass fishermen in Florida use lizard lures, snake/Leach lures, frogs, and things nobody knows. Why not a muskrat?
Catfish can get big enough to take ducks. Why not a rat?
Why a Duck, Chico?
Albino baby muskrat,
danced a red-eye jig,
A musky lunge!? A musky plunge.
Oh rats! Hooked somethin’ big!
Allure of rodent wriggle fest,
arose the bottom napper.
Fur taste better than downy feather?
Peas in pod for some big snapper.
I’m probably showing my age here, but back when I was really interested in fishing Heddon used to make a lure called the Meadow Mouse which was supposed to be for bass.
I recall seeing them but never “bit” on it, preferring River Runts and Bass Orenos. The Meadow Mouse was quite a bit smaller than what you’ve pictured there, at least if I’m reading the photo right. If that albino muskrat decoy is for bass, it must be marketed toward only the VERY most optimistic of bass fisherman. I suppose that would be a really big market, though. (Bet it would be great for young gators if, for some reason, you wanted the challenge of recovering your lure after catching one. Might work on those pythons I’ve been hearing about also… 
)
Save it. Its a collector’s piece.
Bass like Oreos?
Maybe - I don’t know. I always ate them before they became “terminal tackle”. Never though they complemented bass very well with supper, though. Might as well eat the Oreos first.
Thanks. A laugh is always good.
Telling my cat she can be replaced by a bass…
Crud. I threw it away. I don’t fish any more and I’m on the side of the fish. Normally I cut the hooks off the lures I find and give them to the neighbor’s kids (age 3 and 4). They call them little fishies. But the muskrat was all hook with just a thin rubbery body and it was creepy. When I find stuff I leave it on the picnic table and the kids get pretty excited. Not that they’re cute or anything.
I think it’s good to threaten your cat but in my experience it won’t make any difference
I’m with you in that regard. I got into tropical fish breeding (Killifish, cichlids; both South American and African) and eventually lost interest in fishing and eating fish. I still do, though rarely, in recognition of the fact that they are nutritious.
But I’m now reminded of an NPR interview I heard while driving somewhere. It was with a marine biologist who was promoting a campaign to limit reef damage from trawling and abandoned fishing nets as well as over fishing of some species. A worthy endevour, IMHO.
At the end of the interview the interviewer asked her, “So do you eat fish?” She responded, “Does Goodall eat chimps?”
“Does Goodall eat chimps?”!!!
Does Fosse eat apes?
It gets tricky in wrath of picky.
Why even Chavez ate grapes.
And so, let us consider, over a Stein of Beck’s. Or two, …or five.
And a thick steak!
