How to catch Esox in the bay?

Looking like this weekend is going to be a bust for trolling for walleye because of winds so we might try going for Northerns or Muskies in the bay if the rain isn't killing us, neither of us have ever caught a single pike or muskie unfortunately and we aren't experienced in catching them anywhere. I'm currently doing research on the best ways to catch Esox in the bay but does anyone have any advice for catching them consistently? We can either cast lures (or bait) or we can troll either with deep-diver lures or with downriggers. The only two thing that makes me nervous trolling in the bay is one, if we ran the cannonballs through weed beds accidently and we tear up the substrate and scare the fish away, or two, there's other boats arond fishing and the lines set behind the boat were to snag other guys' lines. I see reports of occasional catches of Esox in Erie but they seem like under fished species for the area overall.

I will be making some assumptions here.

If you have never caught a musky I would think you don't have musky gear. Yes they can be landed on "bass" tackle but save yourself the frustration and don't pretend "bass" gear is ment to handle musky fishing. It is not as some would have you believe.

Also don't run your down rigger through weeds... Better idea run the rigger through weeds and tell us how it turns out. You may lose your rigger to the lake...

So here is my tip for bay fishing. Get yourself some 3/8 or 1/2 oz bass safety pin spinners. Work weed lines try to catch bass. You should catch bass and may have a extra pike or two thrown in the mix. Who know maybe even a musky if your lucky.

If you have a bass setup with somthing in the ball park of 10# line and use that safety pin spinner and work the weeds. Pike will be in there with the bass. It's likely those pike are all under 24" but on light gear they are fun.

I would shy away from the typical catfish rod because in my opinion they are way to soft to work bigger baits.

For your day trip there is no need to spend money on musky baits or tackle for a once in a while trip. You would cry when you see what musky gear costs. So that's why I keep pushing the spinner bait pike setup because you likely have all the parts

Fish deeper weeds. Like weed lines or pick apart open pockets in deeper growing weeds. I prefer 4-12' of water depth with weeds for pike

The lagoons will be rough tomorrow. Going out into the bay tomorrow is a bad idea. 40 mph gales from the n.e. STAY OUT OF THE LAKE THIS WEEKEND.

Good news was I saw two monster Muskies in the upper end of the lagoon yesterday. Bad news, they weren't in the mood for anything I offered them including half a dozen different lures. Still managed 50 or so fish out of the lagoon this weekend though and a lot of them were nice Largemouth! Also caught a Bowfin on the way home at Geneva Marsh so always nice to catch a new species. Pretty good weekend for seemingly nonstop rain.