It's musky time

December 16, 2012

 

Hit the Pot today at a popular spot.  John and I rolled in and see the parking lot empty but then there’s a truck and trailer behind us. We fished more or less bankers hours.  The other boat just so turns out to be Anthony and Austin from Mid Atlantic Muskies.  We recognized each other after only meeting once. A while ago I asked for advice on how to repair the finish of one of his gliders I purchased.  When I saw him he just gave me another one!  Wow.  Can’t thank you enough.  Class act for sure.  This thing held up incredibly well too with perfect action. 

Now for the report. We did a little trolling, mostly casting.  On one of our arm resting trolling trips we started to come out of the deeper but average 15 foot stuff into the 8 foot stuff and our cranks were bumping bottom pretty regularly.  We often had to clear our lines from floating grass and debris too but especially when they’d bump bottom.  Well part of the time I was trying the old prop wash troll too, then lose confidence really quickly and let the lure back out.  Well one time I started cranking it in, thumping it violently in the process and got it right behind the boat in the wash and THUMP. Could have sworn it was bottom again but not when the rod was thumping like I just snagged a VW.  I knew right away it was a good fish. Quite a few head shakes and then it comes out of the water.  Around the boat we go a couple times, then it finds the engine like they always do, luckily not quite the prop.  She stayed deep for a while too.  I guess now is a good time to explain what makes a good boat partner, a good net man!  John did great and the fish was in the net.  Our tiny little pliers were enough, didn’t even have to use the hook cutters.  Got a few decent photos on a couple cameras and witnessed the strongest release I’ve seen yet. The fish bolted back to the bottom the second I released my grip.  The only blood that was shed was mine as she must have caught me with her teeth on the release.  Oh well, I couldn’t be happier with that one fish.  We worked our tails off searching for another bite but it wasn’t meant to be. One strike all day and we made it count.  Thanks for the trip John.  It’s been since June since my last lunge.  Gotta love it.  Time for the old musky happy dance.  I don’t kiss every fish I catch but when it’s the the predator of all other predators that swim, she’s getting a kiss.  As they say, “Muskies, everything else is just bait.” 

 

Musky 1: Jon 1