2006 Metro Muskie Tournament
Travis Frank
With the 2006 muskie season under way, my tourney partner (Muskie Mike) and myself decided to hit the waters of lake Waconia for some early season competition. With little time to pre-fish during the week, we set out to hit some areas away from crowds where I had located a few fish while bass/walleye fishing. This turned out to be the right decision for us. After 10 minutes of casting and raising 3 seperate ski's, it was obvious to the both of us that we had chosen the right pattern. With this in mind, we decided to stick with our pattern and try to find more active fish on similar spots. At 6:45 I landed a 40 1/2" ski which unfortunately for us was the only fish brought in the boat.
We officially lost our trolling motor batteries at 7:15 forcing us to play the wind, and use the outboard for the rest of the 8 hours of fishing. With one in the boat, we felt that catching just one more would seal the deal. When it comes to catching muskies as most people know, IT ISN'T EASY ALL THE TIME!! We spent the next 8 hours chasing about 15-20 different muskies around. They did everything but jump in the boat for us. It was almost as simple as basically throwing on a different lure each cast and seeing how horribly the fish would miss it. By the end of the day we figured we had raised those fish 40 or more times. It would almost have been less frustrating to not have seen any fish at all, but the excitement was unbelievably high and the day passed in seemingly minutes. It was a great day on the water and after letting a full week of the new muskie season slip by without throwing a bait, I can honestly say that it felt great to break the ice. Thanks for all the fun Mike!!
The top anglers from around the metro that day managed to land 2 ski's a piece from Forest Lake, Lake Independence, White Bear Lake, and one 52" giant from right here on Waconia. Out of over 600 anglers fishing the 15 lake tourney, there were 44 fish caught in total, so needless to say my 40 1/2" didn't take the top prize. However, the money raised from this event goes to help keep the sport of muskie fishing alive throughout our state.