6 Best Swimbait Lures For Musky That Draw Strikes from Follows

You see the shadow detach from the weed edge, a submarine shape materializing behind your lure. It’s a giant musky, tracking every wobble and kick, but it won’t commit. As the lure reaches the boat, the fish sinks back into the depths, leaving you with a racing heart and a story about "the one that followed."

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Triggering Follows: The Right Swimbait Action

A musky follow is both a thrill and a frustration. It means your location and presentation were good enough to spark interest, but not quite enough to trigger the predatory instinct to kill. This is where the right swimbait action becomes the critical difference between a sighting and a catch. The goal is to transform that lazy curiosity into an aggressive, undeniable feeding response.

The key isn’t just a lifelike swimming motion on the retrieve; it’s the ability to change that motion instantly. A sudden pause, a quick twitch that makes the bait dart erratically, or a burst of speed can make a following musky feel like its meal is about to escape. This change in cadence breaks the spell of the follow and forces a decision. The best swimbaits for this job are those that respond dynamically to angler input, especially at boatside during the critical figure-8.

Savage Gear Pulse Tail Trout for Slow Retrieves

Picture a cold, post-frontal day where the water is clear and the fish are sluggish. You need a presentation that looks alive and vulnerable without requiring a fast, aggressive retrieve. This is the perfect scenario for the Savage Gear Pulse Tail Trout. Its genius lies in a tail design that kicks and thumps with an incredibly realistic motion, even at a dead-slow crawl.

This line-through soft swimbait is the master of subtlety. Where other baits need speed to get working, the Pulse Tail comes alive the moment it starts moving. This allows you to keep the lure in the strike zone longer, tempting neutral fish. The primary tradeoff is durability; a musky’s teeth can shred soft plastic. However, the line-through design allows the bait to slide up the line after a hookup, often saving it from the worst of the damage and preventing the fish from using the lure’s weight as leverage to throw the hook.

Musky Innovations Bull Dawg: The Classic Finisher

If you could only have one lure to convert a following musky, many seasoned anglers would point to the Bull Dawg. This legendary bait is less a swimbait and more a hybrid beast—part soft plastic, part jerkbait, all business. Its large profile and constantly undulating curly tail are impossible for a predator to ignore.

The Bull Dawg’s true power is its versatility at the end of the cast. As a hot fish closes in, you can seamlessly transition from a straight retrieve to sharp, downward rips of the rod. This makes the Dawg dive and dart erratically, perfectly mimicking panicked, fleeing prey. That sudden, violent change in direction is often more than a musky can resist. It’s a heavy, demanding lure to fish all day, but its reputation as the ultimate "finisher" is well-earned.

Chaos Tackle Medussa for Unpredictable Action

Sometimes muskies get conditioned to standard presentations, especially on heavily pressured water. They’ve seen countless single-tailed swimbaits and bucktails. To break through their skepticism, you need to show them something that moves with a chaotic, unpredictable action. Enter the Medussa.

With its three writhing tails and bulbous head, the Medussa looks like a creature from the deep, and it moves like one, too. On a pull-pause or rip-jig retrieve, the tails create a unique, swirling action that’s unlike anything else. This erratic movement suggests vulnerability and injury, two massive triggers for a predator. When a musky follows a Medussa to the boat, a sharp rip can make it dart in a new direction, often triggering an explosive reaction strike.

River2Sea S-Waver 200: Master the Glide & Pause

Fishing in clear water is a visual game. You can watch a musky track your lure from 20 feet away, studying every detail. In this high-stakes environment, the smooth, serpentine action of a glide bait like the River2Sea S-Waver 200 is unparalleled. On a steady retrieve, it carves a wide "S" pattern through the water, looking remarkably like a large, unconcerned baitfish.

The magic, however, happens with a twitch of the rod tip. A quick, sharp snap will cause the S-Waver to dart 180 degrees, turning to face its pursuer. This "stare-down" move is a powerful trigger, challenging the musky and often provoking an immediate strike out of sheer aggression. Mastering a glide bait takes practice; it’s more about finesse and timing than brute force. But for clear-water hunters, it’s an essential tool for turning follows into heart-stopping boatside eats.

Livingston Titan: Using Sound to Trigger Strikes

In stained water or during low-light periods at dawn and dusk, muskies rely heavily on their lateral line to hunt. They feel vibrations and sound in the water as much as they see their prey. The Livingston Titan is a hard-bodied, multi-jointed swimbait designed specifically to appeal to this other sense. It features an internal electronic sound technology that emits the actual biological sound of a distressed baitfish.

This isn’t just a rattle; it’s a targeted acoustic signal that tells a predator there’s an easy meal nearby. For a following fish that might be on the fence, the combination of a natural swimming action and the sound of panicked prey can be the final confirmation it needs to strike. While some anglers may be skeptical of electronics in lures, the Titan offers a unique advantage when visibility is poor, adding another layer of attraction that visual-only lures can’t match.

Mike Bucca’s Bull Shad for Ultra-Clear Water

When muskies are keyed in on a specific type of forage, like cisco or shad, matching the hatch becomes critical. In these situations, especially in ultra-clear water where fish have a long time to inspect a lure, realism is paramount. Mike Bucca’s Bull Shad is a multi-jointed hard swimbait that is legendary for its incredibly lifelike swimming action and anatomically correct profile.

The Bull Shad is a tool of precision. Its segmented body creates a fluid, natural swimming motion that is best presented with a slow, steady retrieve. You let the bait’s design do the work. Subtle twitches or pauses can add a flicker of vulnerability, but its primary strength is its uncanny ability to perfectly imitate the real thing. It might not be the loudest or most aggressive bait in your box, but when fooling highly discerning, bait-focused muskies is the goal, the Bull Shad is in a class of its own.

Mastering the Figure-8 to Convert More Muskies

No article on converting musky follows is complete without discussing the most important technique of all: the figure-8. This is not optional; it is a mandatory skill for any serious musky angler. The vast majority of strikes from following fish occur within feet of the boat, and the figure-8 is your last, best chance to make it happen.

As your swimbait nears the boat, plunge your rod tip deep into the water and begin tracing a large, wide oval or figure-8 pattern. The goal is to keep the lure moving without changing its action, making it look like it’s trying to escape by diving under the boat. Speed up on the turns and even pause briefly on the straightaways. A well-executed figure-8 with any of the swimbaits mentioned above can turn a curious follower into a hooked-up monster right at your feet. Always finish every cast with a figure-8.

Ultimately, the perfect swimbait doesn’t exist. The best one is the lure that gives you the confidence to make that extra cast and the versatility to trigger a strike when a giant appears behind it. Master a few of these proven baits, perfect your figure-8, and get on the water—the fish of ten thousand casts is waiting.