Will DEET bug spray ruin my muskie baits — what insect repellent is safe around expensive muskie lures and leaders?

Here the tackle, not the fish, is the reason to switch. DEET is a plasticizer: it softens and hazes soft plastics, lure paint and monofilament. Keith Jones's Berkley work also showed bass strongly repelled by it at about one part per million, but muskie hunt almost entirely by eye, so the scent side is minor. Buy 20 % picaridin lotion or wipes, which do not attack plastics; treat clothing with permethrin at home and let it dry — never at the water, where it is highly toxic to fish while wet. On buggy summer nights, run a Thermacell-type unit and wear a head net. What DEET can wreck in a muskie boat is costly: big rubber baits, custom-painted gliders and crankbaits, and heavy fluorocarbon leaders you cannot afford to doubt. Wire is unaffected. Apply repellent before touching baits, using the back of the hand.

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