<a href="
title="Beautiful Morning by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3082/2629784624_a9c5da877e_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Beautiful Morning" /></a>
7:27 am on a glorious morning. Mike and I are in the boat and ready to head to our spot. After Sundays fun on the Bog we decided to do the exact same thing today only the weather was completely different. Instead of overcast with a bit of wind ending in a storm it was sunny and dead calm not to mention pretty damned hot.
7:50 am - I'm getting worried as Mikes super bait has yet to catch a bass when Mike watches (the water was flat and clear - you could see everything) a musky fly sideways from 10 feet away and attack his bait. Talk about an exciting way to musky fish! She gave a beautiful fully out of the water leap but Mike held on...
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After letting her rest in the net she came in for a quick photo op
<a href="
title="Mikes first by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2106/2629786430_be0c97cdec_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Mikes first" /></a>
The back she went
<a href="
title="Off you go by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2104/2628967807_0a5a8c575b_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Off you go" /></a>
Nothing like starting the day off with a nice fish right off the bat. Back to casting we went. Mike still using his big white topwater and me tossing the gold versoin of the same bait.
8:23 am and my lure hits the water and probably hit this guy on the head - instant boil!
<a href="
title="Come to daddy! by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3102/2629792974_79972ecd73_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="Come to daddy!" /></a>
<a href="
title="Little scrapper by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3274/2628975491_eecbb2f520_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Little scrapper" /></a>
Sure not a big one but she was fun and before 8:30 am we had two musky in the boat, this was a VERY nice way to start my Canada day.
Mike managed to get a largie soon after but the pics are on his camera. If I'd known that was the only largie we'd get I'd have taken a pic too. Weird day with the bass - they must have been hunkered down good as we hardly even saw any.
10:22 am. We've moved into a bit more open water so I put on a big bucktail I picked up at the fishing show this spring. I picked up a really nice musky rod from DANIMAL on Saturday so I finally had a rod that could handle this big lure (damn those things get heavy when wet). Just when I'm starting to think we should switch to bass mode as my arms getting really tired I see a head come into view about 10 feet behind the bucktail. Two swishes of his tail and he's right behind it. Almost casually he opens his big mouth pushes forward over my bucktail and clamps down. Did I mention I LOVE sight fishing for musky. What a rush. This guy made a bee line for the surface but I saw it coming and was able to keep the tension on as he cleared the water. The second time he jumped I wasn't expecting it but luckily by then the hooks had found their mark. After some more fun fighting she came up to the boat
<a href="
title="Bucktail Muskie by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/2628979723_0acf3ef043_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Bucktail Muskie" /></a>
A quick photo op
<a href="
title="Now I'm happy by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3175/2629804546_a6449aab39_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Now I'm happy" /></a>
and then a release shot that I think is the same as last years
<a href="
title="Go get bigger by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3270/2629807914_19d10c466a_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Go get bigger" /></a>
Here's last years pic for comparison
<a href="
title="The release by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1035/1430074291_47d67468b2.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="The release" /></a>
Things slowed down on the Musky side of things so we finally made our way to the lilly pads to go Bass hunting. Mike put on a nice pink frog while I tossed a big white blade dancer over the slop and wouldn't you know it...
2:30pm
<a href="
title="Frog Musky by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/2629810974_744946843b_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Frog Musky" /></a>
Silly Musky, Frogs are for Bass! He looks pretty big in that picture but check out the pads for reference
We had another little muskie come after our baits in pads but didn't hit so we took that for a sign (well that and Mike's trolling motor battery running out) and headed back for one more pass at our starting spot before calling it a day. Without the trolling motor and the winds picking up Mike lined us up for one more drift, threw out the sock and we went to work.
I had a follow on the bucktail that wanted nothing of my figure eight but the drift was going over some pretty bad looking areas. We were getting a little discouraged but eventually we got into some nice weeds again and Mike put on an orange and black spinner bait. Not much later he had a good hit but missed it. A few mintues later I see him freeze, wait and yank and its on! The water is much murkier now so we couldn't see her come at it but when she turned we both got a good look at her back and I think we both shouted at the same time - "Nice fish"!
After getting the trolling motor out of the way and trimming up the motor I grabbed the net and remembered my camera
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2629812584/" title="I'm not coming in that boat! by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3179/2629812584_4e8a551804_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="I'm not coming in that boat!" /></a>
This girl barely fit in the net. In fact this fish convinced us that we need to pool our funds and get a bigger net
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2628992959/" title="Resting in the pen by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3038/2628992959_4f70fdf7c5_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Resting in the pen" /></a>
After she got a rest in the net it was photo time
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2628994259/" title="Admiring his handiwork by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3160/2628994259_419b125ca0_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Admiring his handiwork" /></a>
Then back in she went
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosworld/2629816612/" title="Final release by Sean Maurik, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3272/2629816612_535ba60e2a_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Final release" /></a>
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As she swam away I looked at Mike and simply said - we can go home now. There was no way we were going to improve on that so we cleaned up, high fived each other and headed to the launch and late late hour of 4pm.
I'm still smiling - that was probably one of the best fishing days I've had in years. Really active fish (all with nice thick bodies which was nice to see) and they came spread out throughout the day so we never got totally bored and what can I saw about those clear flat water hits where you could watch them come in to take it - wow.
So Happy Canada day everyone, sure was for me!
