Do you remember?

[ogrefish]

Does anyone have a story of their first muskie encounter or what got them started in chasing muskie in the first place?

I remember that I had a yellow perch hammered by a Ski that tore out from under the dock that I was fishing from on Okoboji as a youth. That water is pretty clear and that left quite an impression.

There was a shop in Walker MN that had a freezer in the window. They had a contest and three fish caught during it were on display in the shop window. They were all muskie and the largest was 33 lbs. How times have changed... for the better. Junkie how big was the big fish in the Cass tournament that you fished a few years back? and where did it end up?

[mrcold]

I got some info from Esoxjunkie about Watts. He told me the weekend to go up there, so I went up all by myself since my dad felt muskie fishing was a waste of time and my uncle had ranch duties for the morning. I got on the lake around 7:00, the sun was just about to come up. It took me about 45 minutes to get through the weeds and out to the channel. Got out in the channel, and the water was crystal clear and like glass. I had bought a new Abu baitcaster...and had never fished with one before (baitcaster, I mean). Bought a couple 6" jakes in perch and black perch. Cast at a weed edge, backlash. Stripped it out, worked the bait back...rinse and repeat. Third cast, stripped the line out from the backlash, reeled down, one twitch, and had my first muskie on. Reeled him in rather quickly, cause it was only a 28ish" fish. Got him in the net, lure popped out, and the net spun in my hand and dumped him right back in the water. I was a bit disappointed since I didn't get to bask in the glory with the fish for a second, plus didn't get the camera out for it.

Fished for another hour or so, and was about to throw at a muskrat house when I saw a big swirl out in the middle of the channel. I threw the bait out there, and right when it hit the water, it got absolutely blasted. I stood up and started fighting it, and this is when the sun was getting high enough that I could see down in the water. I was shocked to suddenly start seeing fish that looked to be in the 40" range swimming under the boat. The first one I saw, I thought was the fish I had hooked until I noticed my line was about 50' from the boat still. I spent probably 2 or 3 minutes getting her to the boat, where she sat on the bottom right under me flaring her gills and shaking her head. I'd try to horse her up to the surface, one tail flick and she was about 30' away...did that about 3 or 4 times before I finally got her to the surface. Tried to scoop her into the net about 3 times before I realized that was a futile effort. Then I got her by the boat, got her head in the net, dropped my rod and just scooped her back end up and got her in the boat. Grabbed my camera, dead battery. Looked around the lake, nobody in sight. Took a quick measure, she was about a 43" fish...looked at her, both sad that I had no witness nor camera, and also shaking with the excitement of it. Set her in the water and worked her until she seemed ready to go, and she just swam down to the bottom and sat there for 5 minutes while I watched her.

Not another bite for the next 6 or 7 hours...my uncle showed up later and I went and got him so we could fish for awhile. No other fish, no other bites, nothing. But we sat out in that channel and literally saw dozens of muskie that all looked to be over 40" fish swimming around that channel. It was an amazing day. Later, when we were leaving, Jamie and his partner showed up and I got to thank him for what he just taught me.

Since then, I've probably only caught a dozen or so, but nothing very big...though I guess I don't specifically target them very often, I just try to pick my bass holes based on the presence of the REAL fish.


Sorry for being so long-winded, but man do I love that story. All I have is a torn up Jake and a fading memory of it. I wish Dad had gone with me...both for a witness and to prove to him that it can be done. (actually, the following year, he went with me and lost probably a 30-32" fish at the boat, so he had to admit that they do exist)

[esoxjunkie]

Brian, I heard that story when it was still fresh in your mind a few years back, and its still a great story! When we showed up that day on Watts you were still pretty excited, that was cool.

That's how Watts was too, very short feeding window, but when it opened you better be ready.

I spent a lot of time on muskie water in MN in my early years, so there were lots of brushes with them in my youth. Played tug-o-war with quite a few muskies while crappie fishing on Cass. Probably one of the most memorable experiences was one afternoon when we motored over to Star island to portage into lake Windigo to fish for bass and pike. We found a dead 'ski floating in the reeds on the shore, and it wasn't immediately apparent what killed it, either old age or poor handling after a catch, but to my 12 or 13 year-old eyes that muskie might as well have been a beached whale. We didn't have anything long enough to measure it with, but my dad laid the ememergency oar from the boat next to it and the fish dwarfed the oar, which was probably only about a 36" or 42" paddle. I have a picture of it floating next to the oar somewhere, I should dig it out one of these days. It would be cool to compare that fish to the 53 5/8" fish we boated in the 2000 tourney.

I could go on for a while with muskie memories, like why not to slap yourself in the side of the head if a gnat flies in your ear while standing in the bow of a flatbottom boat, or the importance of removing hooks before doctoring a Suick, but we'll save those for another thread.

Jamie

[Hooligan]

I was 12 fishing the WI River for smallmouth, had a fish come out of nowhere and slam the fat rap I was fishing. There wasn't even time for a hookset, just the instant bend of the rod, and then nothing.
That got me started, and it was almost 6 years before I would actually catch one.
The first fish I landed was on Cass, she ate a Ghosttail burned over the tops of a cabbage bed adjacent to a little saddle. I can picture that very moment like it was yesterday, and I've caught a fish on that same spot many times since the first.
Pretty sure it was junkie that introduced me to a particular jerkbait that boated me my first 50" on Cass, too. Not only my first 50" but my biggest Cass fish, and one of the fattest fish I've ever caught.

[TheDude]

I don't have a super fantastic Muskie story, but the first time I ever went Muskie fishing, I managed a fish on and landed on my 3rd cast. The guide we were fishing with was like, "Wow man, you just caught the fish of 10,000 casts on your third." It was a pretty amazing experience as I had never caught anything like it before.

[NETim]

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.

[esoxjunkie]

Great story Tim, let's see...a bay on LOTW that is miles of cabbage, with an island in the middle? Does the name of that bay happen to start with an "A"? I think I know that one

Jamie

[NETim]

Originally Posted by esoxjunkie

Great story Tim, let's see...a bay on LOTW that is miles of cabbage, with an island in the middle? Does the name of that bay happen to start with an "A"? I think I know that one

Jamie

No, this one starts with an "S"... but not Sabaskong.

[esoxjunkie]

Starts with S, two words, and the island is no bigger than a VW Bug at normal water levels?

Jamie

[NETim]

Originally Posted by esoxjunkie

Starts with S, two words, and the island is no bigger than a VW Bug at normal water levels?

Jamie

Nope, it's a very very big bay and actually there are several islands in it.

[esoxjunkie]

Well then, I got one more guess and if it aint right, then I'll give up.

11 letters, ends in G?

[NETim]

Originally Posted by esoxjunkie

Well then, I got one more guess and if it aint right, then I'll give up.

11 letters, ends in G?

I feel like I'm playing Wheel of Fortune. But yeah, I think you have it now.

[Catfishsteve]

I once wrote up a description of my first enounter with a muskie as a kid. I can't remember if it was on this forum or the old NGPC forum. I can't seem to find it on here anywhere, so one of these days soon I'll have to try and recreate it. It was pretty cool!!