Steve @ G & S Guide Service
11-13-2001, 09:00 PM
Well, I got up this morning, thinking I was going to go do a little deer hunting. The steady downpour of rain put an end to that idea.
So, after checking messages on the puter', I called Gil to see if he wanted to do the logical thing. After he answered, I said "Hey, it's raining too hard to go hunting, wanna go muskie fishing?" And away we went....
We arrived on our favorite lake around 9:00 am, put out 2 suckers on quick strike rigs and began casting twitchbaits and bulldawgs.
Within the first 30 minutes, I had a follow, a missed strike and boated a sublegal muskie.
Around 2:00, we had a brief flurry of activity. Gil had a BIG muskie take a sucker and it got off, but not before we got a good look at it. A beautifully marked fish in the upper 40" range.
Just as Gil was bemoaning his bad luck, my sucker reel "went off". I set the hook and the sucker came flying back at me.
I twitched the sucker and watched as the muskie came back, stalked the sucker and attacked it again. The muskie missed the sucker, but did bite down on the treble hook in the sucker's dorsal fin. I set the hook and soon landed a 38" muskie.
The sucker was still alive, so I reattached it, dropped the sucker overboard and lifted the muskie from the net for pictures. Just as I got into position, the reel went off again!
Gil quickly snapped the picture and grabbed the rod. I released the fish just as Gil set the hook. A roughly estimated 45" beauty was soon brought to the net.
Pictures were taken and the muskie released. We were laughing at the thought of 3 muskies on, 2 landed in 15 minutes when Gil's sucker was attacked. He lost that one when the snap straightened out!
We hadn't had any action for an hour or so and I was thinking about getting home and maybe hanging another deer stand when I had a muskie hit a Bomber Long A. This fish measured out at 36 inches and was photo'd and released. I straightened up the boat, put everything back in order and made another cast. A carbon copy of the last fish hit the Bomber shortly after it hit the water.
This fish was too wrestled into the boat, admired and released. So much for muskies being the fish of 10,000 casts!
We got off the lake at 4:30, having activity from 30 muskies (I keep track with a golf score clicker), had 11 strikes and boated 6 muskies, 4 of which were legal fish. The largest was a mid-40" fattie that took a sucker for Gil.
Three of the 6 boated were taken on small twitch baits, 3 on quick strike rigged suckers. The water temp was 39.8 degrees. The first fish hit in 2.9 feet of water and the deepest water we found muskies in was 7 feet.
So, even though the deer hunting for the day was a washout, the muskie action was certainly not! Unless I can get out again before the end of the month, that makes 138 muskies caught and released out of my boat.
With the guide service so busy this year, my partner Gil and I have had very few opportunities to fish together. I'm very glad that even though this might very well be the last muskie trip of the season, I was able to spend the day with my best friend.
Not too bad of a season I guess. Although I am hoping that I can fill my deer tags on Opening Day and get back to muskie hunting. A couple more would be nice :)
Steve @ G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods. http://www.herefishyfishy.com
So, after checking messages on the puter', I called Gil to see if he wanted to do the logical thing. After he answered, I said "Hey, it's raining too hard to go hunting, wanna go muskie fishing?" And away we went....
We arrived on our favorite lake around 9:00 am, put out 2 suckers on quick strike rigs and began casting twitchbaits and bulldawgs.
Within the first 30 minutes, I had a follow, a missed strike and boated a sublegal muskie.
Around 2:00, we had a brief flurry of activity. Gil had a BIG muskie take a sucker and it got off, but not before we got a good look at it. A beautifully marked fish in the upper 40" range.
Just as Gil was bemoaning his bad luck, my sucker reel "went off". I set the hook and the sucker came flying back at me.
I twitched the sucker and watched as the muskie came back, stalked the sucker and attacked it again. The muskie missed the sucker, but did bite down on the treble hook in the sucker's dorsal fin. I set the hook and soon landed a 38" muskie.
The sucker was still alive, so I reattached it, dropped the sucker overboard and lifted the muskie from the net for pictures. Just as I got into position, the reel went off again!
Gil quickly snapped the picture and grabbed the rod. I released the fish just as Gil set the hook. A roughly estimated 45" beauty was soon brought to the net.
Pictures were taken and the muskie released. We were laughing at the thought of 3 muskies on, 2 landed in 15 minutes when Gil's sucker was attacked. He lost that one when the snap straightened out!
We hadn't had any action for an hour or so and I was thinking about getting home and maybe hanging another deer stand when I had a muskie hit a Bomber Long A. This fish measured out at 36 inches and was photo'd and released. I straightened up the boat, put everything back in order and made another cast. A carbon copy of the last fish hit the Bomber shortly after it hit the water.
This fish was too wrestled into the boat, admired and released. So much for muskies being the fish of 10,000 casts!
We got off the lake at 4:30, having activity from 30 muskies (I keep track with a golf score clicker), had 11 strikes and boated 6 muskies, 4 of which were legal fish. The largest was a mid-40" fattie that took a sucker for Gil.
Three of the 6 boated were taken on small twitch baits, 3 on quick strike rigged suckers. The water temp was 39.8 degrees. The first fish hit in 2.9 feet of water and the deepest water we found muskies in was 7 feet.
So, even though the deer hunting for the day was a washout, the muskie action was certainly not! Unless I can get out again before the end of the month, that makes 138 muskies caught and released out of my boat.
With the guide service so busy this year, my partner Gil and I have had very few opportunities to fish together. I'm very glad that even though this might very well be the last muskie trip of the season, I was able to spend the day with my best friend.
Not too bad of a season I guess. Although I am hoping that I can fill my deer tags on Opening Day and get back to muskie hunting. A couple more would be nice :)
Steve @ G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods. http://www.herefishyfishy.com