I Just Gotta Tell This One

I can say that I've been challenged many times, but sometimes it just seems like these fish just won't let me win.  I have taken Mr. Don Murray out several times in the past, but when he told me a few weeks ago that he wanted to get his son his first muskie, I was more than willing to take on the challenge.  I've managed to get many people their first muskie, including Don, so I didn't think to much of what laid ahead of me.  Well I probably should have I guess.  In hopes of landing one for Steve, Don booked two full days out on Minnetonka.  As it turns out, we nearly needed the full two days, which I'm not happy that it took that long, but super pumped that the fish eventually did what it was suppose to.  We fished hard the morning and evening the first day, which gave Steve several chances, but all that came out of it, was several lessons on what not to do.  It is hard at times to teach exactly what to do when you have a muskie show itself, so I guess Steve decided to try everything that shouldn't work, before testing out the right methods.  This became stressful at times, and also hilarious at times. 

Day two of our attempt to land the big one brought more of day one's luck.  You could say that Steve had some unlucky breaks, but that would be a total understatement.  I believe that we figured out of the 19 fish we saw on day two, that 17 of them made their attempts on Steve's bait.  This is exactly how we wanted it to work, except that they just didn't amount to a photo session until the last hour of our day on the water.  I think that my boat raised about 4 feet higher in the water once this fish was landed, due to all the tension that was released from our backs.  This may go down as one of the best clients that I've taken out, because of all the fun we had, and the time and effort put into landing a fish for one lucky angler.  Steve, I'm pretty sure that you've experienced 90% of things that can happen while muskie fishing, which probably makes you ready to join the Professional Musky Tournament Trail.  Thanks again, and see ya's soon.  Fishon!!

Keep 'em Comin

I will tell the story about this trip very soon, but until then, here are some pictures from this morning.  Hopefully there will be more pictures from this afternoon.  I will finish the story tonight......

So far, 3 in the boat, 44, 47 and 48".  stay tuned for tonight's adventure.

Update on 2006-08-29 18:29 by Travis Frank

Sorry for the delay in getting this story written, it has been a hectic couple of days with little to no time to sit at the computer. 

When I arrived at the access on Thursday morning to meet Brett and his fishing buddy Dave, I knew that it was going to be one of those days.  The conditions were near picture perfect, and with the recent success, I told the gentlemen that they were in for something special.  It wasn't long after going over a few details with the boys as to how to run the bait and what to do after a strike, that we were in battle.  We weren't sure how long we were going to be able to fish with the unstable weather and the storms approaching, so we were running and gunning at what seemed like record pace.  After a couple of misses, the first battle was between Dave and 50" range muskie at boatside.  Not that I want to keep dwelling on this for Dave's sake, but the 50"er won that battle.  Soon after that we didn't have too many other issues besides the fast approaching lightning.  In the last 3 spots that we fished, we managed a 44", a 47" and 48", one of which was Brett's first muskie (47).  When they want to eat, they can eat, and we saw just how fast you can rack up the numbers.  Unfortunately the lightning and heavy downpours pushed us off the lake.  Definitely a good 2 1/2 hours spent on the water.

Our evening brought us ungodly high winds, which kept the fish active, but made for tough times controlling the boat.  The two gentlemen on this night had muskie experience of their own, which got me excited to possibly land some fish with ease.  Well, I think the one thing that I have learned several several times in the muskie fishing scene, is that there is never ease in catching the toothy critters.  We saw several fish, putting the hooks into two that managed to get off, and seeing several others before the next hurricane rolled accross the surface of Lake Minnetonka.  It came on so quickly that we managed to get half way back to the launch before it unleashed its fury which found us hiding underneath a bridge.  After watching the white-out conditions from under the bridge we decided we had daylight left and planned to hit it once more when it passed through.  This seemed to be a good idea, because surprisingly the fish were still active and it gave us several more sightings and attacks, not to mention the 52" monster at the top of the pictures that decided it wanted to have a photo shoot.  Yet another giant that this lake keeps kicking out for our trips which I can't help but shake my head at in disbelief. 

4 muskies in the boat, and 2 hurricanes.  What a day.  Fishon!!

Yeehaw!!!

Well the last two days of fishing (monday &tuesday) have brought back the thought of 1 in 10,000 casts so to speak.This came about mainly because these fish were managing everything in their power to shake the hooks and swim freely which made for some stressful days on the water for myself.  Fun, yes,  but still stressful.  The weather wasn't the best and the fish that were coming at our baits seemed to be magicians at missing the bait.

This morning however we won the chess match more than once.  On the second spot of the day, the fish nicknamed Ricky Bobby (named by Steve a few days earlier) decided to come out and play one last time.  Brian had this fish come up and miss the bait twice on the same cast.  Knowing the aggression this fish has shown the previous three trips out, I decided to have him throw the bait from a different direction to see if it would respond again, and prove one of my theories right.  Well a couple of minutes later we were taking pictures of a great looking 43-44" ski. 

The next couple of spots gave us some follows but no strikes.  We were starting to talk about how lazy the fish were until the water gave out on my topwater and another battle was underway.  I could tell instantly that I had a good one, and I let both Brian and George know what we were up against.  After a short but intense battle and a little net help from Brian, we were able to land this 51" monster.  Sometimes all I can say is "WOW" when I get to hold something of that sheer power and size. 

We finished the morning with several more close calls, and a lot of new lessons and techniques learned by both Brian and George.  Hope you guys can put all that new information to use someday, and I cannot wait to post the results that you do come up with.  Thanks for another memorable trip on the water boys, FISHON!!

Sunday Fun Day!

Today Tim and myself spent much of the day doing a real thorough midseason cleanup and tuneup of all the gear and the boat.  I find that it is important for me to do this, otherwise the equipment just won't handle the abuse that it receives on a daily basis.  So with every Calcutta freshly oiled up, and a sparkly clean boat, Tim, Tara and myself hit the water for what we hoped would be one good hour of fishing before dark.  This was Tara's first time muskie fishing, and both Tim and myself just assumed that she would have the beginners luck and boat the first fish.  Well, she did have a couple of chances, as did myself, but Tim was the only one to boat one on this absolutely amazing night on the water.  Way to go Timmy, 2 trips - 3 muskies, pretty darn good.  Oh by the way it measured at 44".  FishOn!!

Friday's Trip

Today things calmed down slightly, and the fish weren't quite as aggressive as they had been the previous two days.  We still had plenty of great action, with Jim putting the hooks into 2 fish, and Allen his son also having a couple of chances.  For our morning we saw in the neighborhood of a dozen fish.  We only landed one today, but did have some pretty intense battles.  Some times just the intensity of the strikes and the chance to do battle is enough to make it an awesome day.  Thanks again Jim and Allen, and i'll see you guys again next year.

Still no more sightings of Jaws, but I think that she will want to eat again soon.....

Thanks to everybody for all the encouragement that you have been sending my way, it is very much appreciated!