Home Sweet Home....

Sorry for the delay in updates.  I have been away from home for a bit.  Last week found me up on the big pond once again.  With the muskie tournament fast approaching, I wanted to spend some quality time searching and destroying new waters.  While I have some spots that I am confident in, it is always good to find new gems that may help our cause.  This encompassed three days of my life last week.  And the results?  Well, lets just say that I've done better.

Friday morning my tournament partner Mike Tengwall and I were joined on the water by Brian Peterson, the outdoor editor for the Brainerd Dispatch.  Joining him were his 3 buddies Jeff, James and another Jeff.  They had a hankering to try their luck at the big toothy critters.  Our morning started with James landing a nice pike on the first few casts.  Shortly after, a few encounters from the right specie presented themselves, but came up just short.  Part of the game on that big lake, but something that fuels the fire.  It was dissapointing on my end to see them leave the water without a muskie, but sometimes that lake can be downright brutal.  This proved to be the case that day and the next few as well.  A massive cold front came in and the water temps dropped below the already unusually cool temperatures.  The hot bite that we had experienced the week before was definitely a thing of the past.

Mike Ernst joined me later on that day and my tourney partner also had a buddy jump in with him.  We split up to fish new waters and see what we could find.  Friday evening gave both of our boats some pretty good chances, and both of us came up on the short end of the battles.  Ahh, musky fishing!  We moved a lot, covered a lot of water and really tried to think outside the box.  We have found that the oddest of patterns can win a tournament when the fish become pressured or turned off.  Over the next two days we ruled out many things, and put a few more locations and techniques on the milk run.  While we didn't have tons of action, the encouraging part was that all of our fish activity occured during the tournament hours.  With this cooler than average weather pattern sticking around this week, odds are that we may put ourselves in a good position.  But then again, it's still muskie fishing, so anything can happen.  I guess we will see when Sunday afternoon rolls around.  My prediction is that one good fish may win this thing, and two fish should seal the deal.  Not the numbers of fish seen in years past, but somebody will get lucky.  I just hope it is us.

Anyway, it feels good to be back home.  There is just nothing like returning to my home waters and gaining some confidence again.  Last night I hit the water with Tim and Wags.  Both of them for the first time this year, and it seems that Tim has a horseshoe stuck up his you know what.  He thinks muskie fishing is really easy, because every single time we fish for them he catches 'em right away.  I don't mind, it's fun watching the walleye guy catch muskies.  Its just that one of these times I feel he should have to work a little harder to catch one.  We tried a different pattern for the first time this year, and were able to connect.  It's fun to mix it up and have things work out, but my partner in crime Mike Ernst stuck to our guns from the last time we were out, and found a little better results.  His report should be coming soon!

This morning I returned for a short stint on the water.  It took a while to get things moving with the cold front that came in, but patience and persistance paid off yet again, and I was able to snap another photograph of the elusive ski.  A good way to get the mojo rolling again before the tourney starts up.  As always I will keep you posted with everything that happens up until the event, and hopefully I will be showing you pictures of the winning fish....In my hands!  Until then, keep on livin' the dream you muskie nuts!