Just One Of Those Days.......

I'm not really sure where to start here, but I'll give it my best shot. 

Yesterday Kevin and I hit the water early and had nothing but fish, after fish, after fish slam our lures.  It was his first time out for muskies and it pretty much was far and above his expectations.  The only problem was that as many fish as we had hit our baits, we just couldn't fight them all the way to the net.  It was the weirdest thing, but we would have them devour our baits only to watch them skyrocket and spit the lure, or somehow shake the bait, not to mention the countless others that came out of the water and threw our lures forward.  I would say frustrating is an understatement, but our excitement was pretty much at an all time high. 

The highlight, and probably something that i'll never forget is watching an honest to god 50 pound muskie go airborn with Kevin's bait.  I know, I know, 50 pounds sounds big, but I really am not exxagerating, and I wouldn't have believed it unless I would have seen it with my own eyes.  This GIANT is seriously pushing state record, and I know this for a fact.  I've seen many 40lb class fish, heck, even caught a few, but this was like a freak of nature.   Before yesterday I probably would have said that the state record couldn't come out of Tonka, but I seriously have to reconsider my opinion.  We had two encounters with this beast, and both times she came out of the water and knocked the bait away with the side of her gigantic mouth.  Her nickname is Jaws, and I hope to be posting pictures of her soon.

Today the fish were just as active for Seth, Nate, Greg and myself, however we did manage to land a few of them instead of watching them all "houdini like" get rid of our hooks in their mouth.  In grand total we boated 6 muskies today.  This sounds impressive, however when you look back at the last two days, We have raised in the range of 70 muskies, putting hooks into close to 35, and only boating 6.  I still can't quite figure out how, or why they keep getting off, but I've never seen anything like it, and it's not something that we are doing wrong necessarily, they are just getting insane.  The explosions and high flying leaps have been crazy.  Oh yeah, out of the 70 or so sightings, I can count on two hands how many of them were follows, which means they are attacking. 

This exciting action today gave us a 47", 46", 45", 43", 39" &39"ers.  It's been great guys thanks for the fun.  ( hey Nate, hope you can sleep after that).  shhhhh....The Fish Are Biting!

Wow

The last couple of days I have been unable to update this site, which I apologize for.  While I have been unable to update, the fish have still been biting. 

Monday found myself back on Minnetonka to try tangling with a monster on a fly rod.  Unfortunately for Jim Peters, my guest for the day, the wind was blowing too hard, which didn't allow for us to get the proper casting required to successfully fish for these toothy critters, not to mention the unfortunate event of breaking the fly rod.  We soon switched to conventional methods, and had them jumping out of the water at our baits in no time.  We didn't boat any on this particular day, but had many close calls and several fish chased us around which made things quite exciting for the conditions we were dealt with.

Today I hit the water with a couple of wonderful gentlemen named Jack and George.  Jack has fished with me several times, and already experienced many battles, however it was George's first time after muskies.  When we hit the water, Jack, put me to the test and said "If your so good, why don't you ever catch one," after explaining to him many times that I don't cast where the fish are sitting, he told me that he wanted to see what I was made of and catch one.  Well  I guess I must have lightened the mood some, because on our second spot I managed a nice low 40" fish and it got our morning off and running.  We fished several more spots, seeing a couple more fish and having some blowups before returning to the spot where Jack caught his first muskie with me last year.  When we got there he told George "I don't want to get you scared, but I will catch one here, because I caught one last year on this spot, and it's gonna happen again."  Well needless to say, he was right.  After a few casts (and backlashes) Jack had a nice fish scream to the boat, only to scare the crap out of us, and miss the bait at our feet.  This fish was obviously very aggressive, because two casts later, from the same spot the fish slammed the bait and went instantly airborn.  I must say it was quite a battle as the fish came out of the water several times, and put Jack's pacemaker to the test.  It was a great battle, great fish, and Jack's personal best at 45". 

This evening I went out to scout some new spots, finding many places that I will return, but the temptation of a fading sun and many big fish on proven spots, lead me to make a stop at a honey hole of mine.  I have only caught 4 fish on this spot in the last 2 years, but they all measured over 50" which is incredible.  It only took 3 casts and I was doing battle with this very very healthy and fat 52" monster.  The ironic thing about this fish is that 2 summers ago I actually caught this same fish when it was 50 1/2" long, and it was on the same lure on the same exact spot.  The reason that I know this is because of the distinct cut in it's tail.  What a great couple of days on the water.  Thanks to all who spent it with me Jim, Eddie, Jack, George, Matt, and Mike.  Until Tomorrow, FISHON!!!

Muskie Streaks

A streak ends and  a streak continues!  Last night Drew came out with me to tackle muskies for the first time this year.  He has landed one with me already this year, but not when we were fishing for them.  Drew may just be the luckiest person ever when it comes to muskies.  For the last 5 years ever since he started coming out fishing with me he has boated at least one muskie every time out.  This is an amazing streak to have, and one that anybody should be jealous of.  Well, needless to say, last night was no different.  Fishing was a little slow to start out, but towards dark things really picked up and by the end of the night they were flying out of the water literally.  We saw several with many close calls, and YES Drew landed another one to keep his streak going.

This morning was a streak that unfortunately came to an end.  I have been taking Lloyd out 2 to 4 times per year for the last 4 summers, and during this time period we have never come back to shore with the big goose egg.  We kept talking about how amazing our streak was and all the fish we have boated, but never thought we'd see the day when we didn't land one.  Today proved to be the end of a great stretch.  With the action the last few days, it really never crossed my mind that we wouldn't catch any.  I actually was trying to figure out how many we were going to land, and not if we were going to land one.  We ran into a little snag this morning and missed our first 45 minutes of daylight when Art, Lloyd's fishing partner for the day couldn't find the access.  Then once we did get out, the muskies turned into lazy logs, and would only slowly follow the bait.  It wasn't that we didn't see them, it just that we couldn't get them to eat.  We saw as many as 8 different fish on a single spot, and absolutely no takers.  FRUSTRATING to say the least, but still a good day.  Thanks Lloyd and Art, and can't wait to do it again.

Matt's on a Roll

Today the conditions were great, and the fish responded just how they should.  We started out by seeing fish on nearly every spot we went to with several trophy caliber fish in the 50" range being very aggressive.  The only fish hauled into the boat on this outing was a healthy 44" caught by Matt.  He's definitely got this Muskie fishing thing going the last two trips out.  The morning ended by seeing somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 -12 ski's with nearly all of them swiping at our baits and coming up just a little bit short (no lazy follows today).  If I had Matt's luck on this day, we probably would have pictures of about 5 more fish, but it was just one of those days for me where the hook just would not find the right spot in the fish's mouth to keep it hooked.  At one point I had 3 fish in the 50" class either on, or explode on my topwater presentation within 10 casts of each other, and absolutely none of them found their way into the boat.  That's how it goes with muskie fishing though, and probably what keeps me coming back day after day for more intense explosions, or what we now call "dropping a water buffalo from a helicopter!"  Thanks again for reminding me how to land the toothy critters Matt.  Fish on!!!

Fishin With .COM!!!!

Well after a few days of fishin for everything but muskies, I decided it was time to get the monsters back in the boat and leave the little fish alone.  My good friend and fellow guide Matt and myself decided to hit the water on this absolutely gorgeous Monday morning.  After nearly 3 hours of daylight passing before we finally got on the lake, we took our chance with the not so good conditions, and well as you can see, it paid off huge for Matt.  We fished a total of 5 spots, seeing a fish on every spot but one.  It was only a mere 15 minutes between when he lost a fish that was leaping boatside before he landed this beauty at 49".   The sad part is that the one that shook the hook was almost identical in size, which would have made for one heck of a great 1 1/2 hour trip on the water.  Nonetheless it was fun for me to watch this well known bass fisherman tangle with one of my pet toothy critters, and to see the reaction it got.  Another awesome morning of Tonka muskies courtesy of this full moon period taking place right now.  The bite is definitely on, and I will be updating often, so keep checking to see all the monsters that keep coming in, and feel free to contact me if this awesome bite may just interest you a little bit.  Thanks .Com, Fishon!!