When the environmental conditions are tough and the muskies are not moving or reacting to your traditional presentations what do you do? It is easy to become frustrated during moments like these but in the sport of muskie hunting, they happen often, and thus it is important to have a game plan for how to score when the chips are down. My lure of choice to trigger a reaction strike from a muskie that is a negative mood is the baby ShallowRaider because it is such a versatile lure. Why is it so versatile? Because you can fish it over open water, in and around thick cover and click-and-tick it over shallow rock reefs too. But it is the way in which you are able to fish the baby SR that truly makes it a difference maker for me. I utilize a hybrid technique for fishing the baby SR, a downsized minnow bait, and I believe this style of working the lure is what makes it so deadly. The hybrid technique starts with twitching the crankbait a few times, then generating some slack in your line, and whipping the slack to generate a quick 90 degree turn of the lure - and PAUSING it. This can be a magical moment in the retrieve because many muskies that are holding tight to cover perceive this as an opportunity to eat a wounded fish. If you don’t trigger a strike here, continue with a straight retrieve and bring the baby SR right into the figure-8. The ability to straight crank the baby SR, and your ability to trigger muskies in the figure-8, is part of what makes it so deadly! It is an extremely versatile lure that allows you to really customize your retrieve style, that this is important when the muskies are not responding to traditional lures. This vlog is designed to provide you with my take on why the baby SR is such a fantastic lure for me and how it allows me to score under tough conditions.