The last time Bret and I hit the water together, we managed to boat 3 muskies in a trip that got cut short due to the weather. One of which was Bret's largest at a very healthy 48'. While those memories were shared yesterday morning with Tim, we didn't exactly have plans to repeat that success. Our mission was to start out the morning by boating a few walleyes and then switching over to the ol' Bucketmouths. Well, we did do as planned, but as you can see from the pic, we also did a little unplanned dancin with the toothy critters. Our morning started by catching roughly 10 walleyes, which was pretty good action considering the intense wind. They weren't quite the size that we were looking for, but Bret took home some fresh walleye fillets for dinner.
We then switched over to bass, but with the tornadic strength winds we were dealing with, it made it quite challenging to strategically place our casts. We landed a few bass including a nice one by Tim, and dealt with the wind the entire time. The great part about the style of bass fishing that we were doing, is that we were working a couple of my favorite muskie spots on the lake and giving ourselves the opportunity to do battle with a trophy of another kind. The first time we encountered a muskie on our lighter than normal muskie gear, the muskie won, and left me to retie another lure. The second time we encountered a toothy critter, it couldn't have gone any better. The battle was won by Bret, and it was quite the battle at that. First of all, I took out my gigantic net to make room for the finesse fishing, which forced us to land this fish in a very different matter.
Secondly, and the best part of the story, was that this muskie was spotted before it even ate the bait. As Bret would put it, there is nothing better than seeing it before the attack, and observing the entire strike. And lastly, it was battled on lighter gear than my normal musky fishing tackle. According to Bret, it beat the intense battle that he encuontered with me last year when he landed his 48 incher. While this muskie wasn't as large, the 43 incher will always be remembered as the one that he watched eat the bait and somehow got in the boat. While we didn't plan on landing the muskie this way, it definitely is quite common to entice them on lighter tackle this time of the year. There are a few baits that seem to work really well for me, and they are also my favorite bass baits. It only makes sense to throw them this time of the season and give ourselves the opportunity for a little bonus action. Truly a fun morning on the water, and I cannot wait to do it again fellas. Thanks for the fun time, and until next time, Keep on Livin the Dream!