So John and I just had to go again. We couldn't resist. I purchased a few different kinds of wake baits hoping to really get into the walleye again. The bite we had on the full moon could be considered excellent... what will a moonless night produce? It was about a half moon which did not come out till around 1130 or. We fished on Thursday, July 17, 2014 from about 830 to 1200am. We arrive just at twilight, well past sunset. The river looked beautiful. Not a breath of wind, a sheet of glass interrupted by a few rings from rising fish. There was a heavy mayfly and midge hatch at the time. What should we start off with... well, we both wanted to try for walleye. My wake live Target blue gill, 3" lure gets the first try. John and I cast simultaneously. I hook up on the very first cast or maybe second. Nice fish, our lines are crossed, I lose pressure and it gets off. Likely a walley, maybe smallmouth, not a musky. The musky usually like a current break and we didn't really have one here. But then we tried around the bend where we did have the current break. Walleye or musky hold in this type of water. They could be in the riffle, like the 2 foot deep riffle or out in the eddy or the main current. No telling where and we've hooked them from all habitat areas. But this one ledge I knew was there was a long bomb of a cast out... maybe 60 yards from the rock. It can be done with the right lure. I use a spook a few times and nothing. Then I try a good old Smack It Still Water.. my number one striper top water bait... tarpon too. I'm jerking it the Pop Pop....... Pop retrieve that worked so well on Monomoy flats several years ago. It's completely dark. Near zero visibility. Then we hear it. The most jaw dropping of surface explosions. We literally heard the fish somersault, tailwalk and crash back into the water. This fish came completely out of the water for the lure and must have landed tail first long ways as we heard the whole thing as if we could see it broad daylight. I may have only felt a tick in the line, or a brief pause. The fish completely missed the lure??? That happens... unfortunately. Sometimes these fish just whiff big time. Whether on purpose or not but one can't argue this fish wasn't hot. I try a few more lures and nothing. We switch back to walleye for an hour or so to rest the fish. It's getting late and John and I decide to try again. We both get to the water about the same time. I let him go first thinking he'd take the rock tip to walk out on. But instead he walks along the bank more, getting much closer to the offshore ledge where this fish was hiding. I've missed a few from that ledge several times over the years and always figured you had to cast from this rock point to reach it. But John just walked 20 yards down the muddy bank and got 20 yards closer. Dumb dumb me. Oh well. I cast first and sure enough I get a good swirl. No idea how big the fish is. Same one maybe? Walleye maybe but doubtful.
John throws a huge wooden walk the dog and he gets another jaw dropping out of the water strike. Then nothing next cast or two. Then another surface explosion. This time much, much closer to shore. The fish must have followed it. Or do we have multiple fish here? All reasonable possibilities. He then throws a jointed traditional musky wake bait. Something that has a steady retrieve. Something that would be a lot easier for a musky to track and attack. Sometimes you just got to keep it simple. If the fish is hot a steady retrieve should do the job. We both thought it would just make sense. I cast a huge jointed wake bait that was just gigantic with the same thought. Another strike! This time John's hooked up. I soon remembered the reason why I didn't like walking down the muddy bank. There's a down tree parallel to shore there. Who knows how much of it is under water. If his fish goes in there, it's over. I drop my rod and run over. But I'm not much help. The fish jumps a few times but is looking near done. Then again he has this look that he's going to give one more jump. One more right next to shore with 2 trebles in his mouth just begging to dig into my leg. I crab the leader and John's worried it's going to come off. We beach it on the mud. But the fish is still ticked off. Twice we almost ended up with jewelry. Get the fish off. The opposite side of the mouth has a distinct hook mark. Very recent too. Other than that a very healthy, slender fish. Once released it didn't go far. It kind of turned back around and hung near shore. When I tried to revive it more it would take off with a huge splash but then just sit there. We ended up taking it into the current more in direct cold flow. Most of the area we were fishing is still below 80 degrees for a variety of reasons from springs and seepage. It mixes quickly with the warmer river. This time it was obvious the catch took a toll on this fish. But not likely too much of a toll. The fish should be fine. It was not deep hooked and we kept it in the water most of the time for hook removal and pictures. But this very well may be the last time for a while. Concentrate on bass and walleye. Weird how we didn't score one walleye. The moonless night was just too dark? Or was it because that musky was around? Who knows. I'm sure that same fish and others were around the other night too but for some reason didn't want to play. I don't think I worked that ledge well the other night. Who knows. Here's John's Muksy. Nice fish, just shy of 40 inches.
I'm off to Canada next weekend. Hopefully booking Musky Rush Charters for a day. Only going for a three day weekend trip. Really not enough time to book a charter but oh well. We'll see. Then in three weeks I'm going back again, this time to Ottawa on the Ottawa River.. land of giants. Hopefully this year I can connect.
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