Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Musky on my mind, again....

I have been in hot pursuit of landing my first musky this year, so, I took another trip to the Northwoods with my best friend The Fat Gordo.

I was standing on some rocks working a pool, and I heard something thrash on the shoreline behind me under an overhanging tree. My first cast was wide, and didn't stir anything up. My second cast landed under the tree inches away from the shoreline. MONEY. After 2 short strips of the line, my fly was replaced with the head of a musky. After I strip set and felt all of the weight, I yelled out to the Fat Gordo, "I've got a Musky!" 

The fight was short, and as I was stepping off of the rock I was standing on, my fly popped loose, and I watched my unicorn swim away.

I casted back to the same spot to show The Fat Gordo where I hooked up, and as I was telling him about the eat, that same musky came out of nowhere and took a swipe at the back of my fly. We were both in surprised. After more than a few casts into that same general area we moved on. We estimated both estimated that musky to be about 30 inches.

The smallies are my favorite. Every single one I have caught up there has been an absolute brute.
BASS-UKA!
As we waded up river, we came across this area that had a ton of cover with weed mats and lily pads. I worked the outsides of the pads and didn't see any action. Then I turned and looked at the weed mat next to me. I casted past it, and worked my fly back, and as it was about 12 yards in front of me, mass chaos began....

A huge musky shot out from underneath that pad, and engulfed my fly with all of it's rage. A double strip set, and I had a musky on, and it was pissed!! I have never seen more violence in the water from a fish in my life, and I'm not going to lie, my knees shook. I cannot even explain what happened next, but as the fish was thrashing like a manic my line shot back towards me. I dropped a major F bomb. The musky must have caught my line past the leader when it was rolling.

Somewhere in the Northwoods, there's a big 35-40 inch musky with a 6/0 cotton candy looking fly in it's mouth. =(

The Fat Gordo working an area he had a mid 30's musky follow.
Always ready for battle.
Catch & Release

7 comments:

  1. You'll get em!! The fact your getting them to bite is a great step!

    Just remember to sharpen those hooks, check your leaders, and strip set teh crap out of those things!!

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  2. I now know all about them losses brotha! Great job on those smallies. I'm sure they must put up a tremendous fight!

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  3. Wow, those are some great looking Smallmouth! If a guy has trouble landing a Musky, certainly nothing wrong with Smallmouth like those for a backup fish..................

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  4. I've never fished for anything but pike and tiger muskie. It's a blast if you can keep them on. Even the little ones.

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  5. I did indeed strip set the hell out of both of those musky, Nick!

    I hope your feeling is right, Mark. I NEED to catch one this year.

    The smallies are an excellent consolation prize, and I would take a trip up there just for them.

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