It was 1993 and we had already been fishing LOTW for many years and never really messed with Muskies 'cause after all, they were the fish of 10,000 casts, right? Why mess with them when you've only got 1 week to spend on the water?
But it was my wife's birthday and she wanted a Muskie for some reason. A guy camping on the resort island where were staying (known to us as "The Bear Hunter") told us, "Go down through the narrows and hang a left."
So we did.
After tooling through the narrows and hanging a left, I pulled up to an island in the bay (easily recognizable because it has rocks and trees on it
) and started tossing bass sized spinnerbaits into the plentiful cabbage all around us.
After about 3 minutes of this, for some reason I turned back and looked over my shoulder to check on the wife to see how she was doing.
I couldn't have timed it better.
From out of nowhere, a big white mouth appeared boatside and engulfed the little spinnerbait. After a seesaw battle that lasted maybe 5 minutes, the fish was alongside the boat, apparently beaten.
It was then I realized that the walleye net in the boat was nowhere big enough. This was easily the biggest fish either of us had caught at the time and the fact that it had a mouth full of razor sharp teeth (not to mention the gill rakers), made me even more nervous.
But the Muskie rolled over real docile like and I was able to slip my hand under the gill plate and hoist her aboard. 42" of pretty Muskie. Her first.
That was Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday afternoon, Mom, Dad, little brother and my better half had all caught a Muskie. I didn't even have a follow.
So Friday morning, the last day of the trip, my wife and I got up at 5 and headed back into the bay, into a dense stand of cabbage that literally goes for miles.
With Ahab-esqe determination, I started tossing a 6" black perch Grandma lure. About a 1/2 hour later, a large, large shadow appeared behind the lure, but being a rookie, I didn't know enough to figure 8 or even "L" turn. I was stunned to see such a large creature appear right by the boat in only 6 feet of water.
I kept firing the Grandma. Suddenly the water erupted in a geyser of white water about 30 feet out. There was no doubt it was a good fish.
After a coupla minutes I got it boatside and we got our first glimpse. It was HUGE! It looked like a submarine ghosting by. It made several runs and dives at the boat but the line held and the drag stayed steady. (I was using a 7' 6" flippin' stick and 14 lb mono. Good pike buster rig and bottom bouncer rig.)
Finally it gave up, and I was able to hand land this fish too. Turned out to be 46" long. My first and biggest for several years.
The fish also took the "big fish" award from my wife for the week too.
Later that morning, after breakfast, after recounting the heroic battle for the rest of the family many, many times, we headed back out and midmorning I hooked up with a 44" fish on a 6" perch colored Swim Whiz.
I was hooked.
