Team Tuffy Strikes!

Since coming back from Lake of the Woods, I jumped right back into the swing of things.  Tony Steffes and I got out onto the water bright and early.....well I guess not bright, more like a lot of rain.  The topwater bite was going pretty well and I was excited to get some slime into the boat for the first time this year.  We got out to a little spot and started throwing and four casts into the game my topwater was pummeled!

 Well if you remember I had a little oops on the opener and all I was telling myself was, don't pull it away, don't pull it away, don't pull it away on every cast, and guess what happened?  I waited on it and laid two sets of hooks right into it and the fight began.  For the first fish of the year I was content with a text book fight and landing....no funny business.  It felt good to get back into the game with a nice fat little fish, but we weren't done yet.  No more than 5 minutes later, I heard an explosion and set the hook hard into another fish, but this time the line went slack... I reeled it in with just a swivel attached to my line, the dang leader broke!  I was a little perturbed, but hey, that's fishing.  I had a monkey on my back for a few minutes until once again the sound of rain hitting the water was interrupted with another eruption.

 This time I had hooks into her and it once again must have read the memo, coming into the net perfectly!  This one was a good 40" and again a chunkster.  It was pretty funny that I had all the action, while we were using the same bait.  I gave up my dirty little secret and not too long after Tony had a beautiful big fish come and roll on his bait only to miss and go back down to the depths.  These fish were so hot that we only had one follow and 5 strikes in the first 2 hours.  I gave it another 20 minutes before my line was tight once again with a feisty guy who came airborne a few times before succumbing to the net.  At this point it was getting pretty ridiculous, 3-0, but the score didn't stay like that for long.

 Tony had one come up and absolutely crushed it and the fight was on, like clock work we netted, unhooked, snapped a few pictures and the girl was swimming away.  That put our count at 4 and the morning was still young.  We switched spots and almost right away, one came up and smoked my topwater, but just pushed it into the air without getting its mouth around it.  It was getting later out and I was fooling around just pitching it about 10 or 15 feet and then working it like a pop-r when one came full out air-borne right in front of our faces, but like his friend did not sink his teeth into it.

 When it was all said and done we had chances with 9 of our toothy friends and put 4 into the boat.  A guy can't ask for too much more, and it was a fun morning without a doubt.  The weather has been pretty goofy, and I have heard mixed reports from others, but it has been working for me.  The next few days on the water are filled with some big guys and the dethroning of a muskie virgin!  Stick around...the fun is just beginning!  From the top......Keep Livin' the Dream!