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Hi guys, last Thursday night we had a nearly full moon that wasn't gonna set till about 9:30 Friday morning, so I decided to hit the water early Friday morning and see if the rising sun, combined with a full moon would trigger the musky bite. The week before, I had encountered a couple muskies in 2 different weedbeds. One hit my bait well after dark one night, but I never got the hooks into her, and I hooked the 2nd one, but she tangled herself up in some heavy pencil reeds and before I could get to her, she pulled my bait free. I wanted to be on the 1st spot just as the sun was breaking the horizon to see if that would be the trigger, and sure enuff, it worked. I stopped the boat about 150' from the spot and slowly worked up to it while casting a large black spinnerbait ahead of me. On the 5th cast, I landed it right on the edge of some pencil reeds in 3' of water and she grabbed it right on cue, exactly where I'd seen her days before. I was using my homemade camera stand to take the pics, but I musta moved and rocked the boat cause the picture came out lousy, but you get an idea. I released her and ran down the lake about 1000' to the next spot where I'd missed the night time fish the week before. Same as the 1st fish, I stopped early and drifted into position and again after only a few casts the water expoded but she missed the hooks. I continued cranking and she hit the bait again but still never got hold of the hooks. I tried a couple more casts, but she was gone for the day. I moved along the weed edge about another 100' while still casting the spinner bait and hitting every little point and pocket, and after about 10 minutes there was another big boil in the shallow water and I hooked this girl. Not the biggun I missed twice now in in a week, but still a nice fish. It's always good when the fish follow the game plan. It was 7:30 AM and I'd only been fishing for about 30 minutes and I had a couple nice fish in the boat, plus another really nice one that I missed. Not a bad way to start a Friday. Certainly not monsters, but still lotsa fun. I continued to fish till 11:30 but never saw another musky, so I guess the rising sun, plus the effect of the nearly full moon had something to do with it. Sorry for the poor picture quality, maybe I need a new camera. Here's a couple scenery shots from the same morning that came out not too bad.

That says it all right there Rich, that's what it's all about !! Really good to hear you guys enjoyed your trip up here so much, infact I was just saying to Pete yesterday that I was wondering how you made out. Sorry to hear the fish'n wasn't as good as other years, but there isn't a whole bunch you can do about that. Lookin forward to seeing you again at Lakair next year, plus meeting your Mrs and the pooches too. BTW, I've had the pleasure of meeting up with Blues & Tom Foolery a few times myself and their indeed a couple nice guys.....good of them to share some tips with you.

Pretty nice haul for 90 minutes work Brian

Good to see you back Wayne and hopefully you had a great summer. I'm heading to the trailer @ 7:00 this morning and probably won't be back till next week, so I'll wish you the best of luck now on your up-coming fish'n trip and I truly hope you have a fabulous time & catch the fish of a lifetime !! I'll be looking forward to your report on your return. Go gettem bud !!

WTG Raf, doncha just luv it when they follow the game plan !!

That's alot of very impressive fish, tip-up, congrats on such a successful season so far !!

Good to hear you enjoyed your trip to New Brunswick, and congrats on the successful fishing. It's truly a beautiful place & I've spent alot of time there myself and have criss-crossed it many times both by car and train. It also has some of the friendliest folks this country has to offer.

nelly, the number of alarms is just a code used by Fire Depts to designate the equipment required at an emergency, but the news media use it to sensationalize their news stories. For a 1st alarm call, it'll usually be just 3 trucks and a Chief Officer, but as more equipment is required, he'll call for a certain alarm response, which has a pre-determined amount of trucks and man-power. This is basically a 5 alarm response, but the Chief Officer can change it as he sees fit and special-call whatever he needs. 5th Alarm 14 pumpers, 5 aerials, 2 squads, 5 district chiefs, 1 platoon, 1 division commander, 1 command vehicles, 2 air supply trucks, 1 hazardous materials vehicles, other support staff if needed. Pumpers, aerials and squads usually carry 3-4 men

Mom's only about 1000' from the fire Moe, but with the light winds, the smoke is going straight up and well above her home and everything is OK, but thanks for caring. BTW Moe, you made quite an impression on her and she often asks about you.

150' may seem like a long ways off to some folks, but that's only 2 casts away, and in my circle of fishing friends it's considered both ingnorant and inconsiderate to move right on top of another fisherman who's already working a spot, especially on a big wide open lake with plenty of other spots to fish until the desired location is vacated by the person who is already there. I couldn't count the number of times I've gone down a lake to a favorite fishing hole only to find another angler is already there, so I move on to another spot till that location becomes available. Setting up shop directly in front of someone who's already working a location may seem kosher to some folks, but in my mind it's nothing more than ignorance and shows a total lack of courtesy to anyone else who may be on the lake. Course, some fishermen also think it's OK to toss their garbage all over the boat ramp too.....

It never fails to amaze me how many ignorant people we have to share our lakes with. I really enjoy fishing this time of year, specially thru the week as there are very few others on the water and it's a nice change from the congested waters of the summer months, and normally we don't have to fight for spots. Cory & I were lookin for muskies on Upper Buckhorn on Monday and basically had the entire lake to ourselves, 'cept for one other boat that was about 1000' away from us. We were working our way along a nice weedline, adjacent to an island and I had a blowup from a decent musky but missed her. We continued to work the area, about 75' out from shore and just off the weedline, when here come the ignoramous in the blue/white boat. Guess he was lonely in his spot.........waaaaaaay over there..........and decided it would be a friendly gesture on his part to move in beside us and keep us company. Sure enuff, he comes around the corner, stops his boat and drops anchor DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF US, not more than 150' away and tosses out his bobber with about 20' of line so that it was over the edge of the weedline and right across the path that we were working. Upper Buck is a HUGE lake and we were the only 2 boats visible !!!!! I wasn't about to change my strategy and continued my casting as always and soon my large Sledge was landing all around his boat and I even put a couple right beside his bobber, but he still didn't get the hint. I held my course and eventually he had to crank in his bobber or lose it, and we passed within 4' of his boat. He was a very friendly moron though, and as we were just about to rub elbows, he actually wished us a "Good Day" He never did seem to be fazed by what happened and continued on with his fishing as we disappeared over the horizon and I spose he was there for the duration and wondering why I was so ignorant as to disturb his quest for the monster perch he seemed so determined to catch. Idiots.........

Maybe give Brian a call at JB's Raf ?? ......He should have the info

So very sorry to hear about your friend Mike. Sounds like you & Kareem shared alot of wonderful times together over the years.

Really awesome fish Steve !!!!! Congrats on the new PB. Always great to see someone set a new benchmark for themselves. Good meeting you a couple weeks ago too, BTW.

Never, ever, doubt the power of a Suick Jamie WTG Bud, that's a real beaut and now I see why you were so pumped when you phoned me the other night, and again, congrats on the tourney win !! I just got home this morning and 1st thing I did was look for your post. Looks like my 4 years of trying to convert you are finally paying off. ....now, about those silly dawgs

Sorry to hear that, putting a friend down is one of the hardest things us pet lovers ever have to do. I have a feeling you gave her a pretty nice life though in the short time she was with you.

Ohiomatt, I'll be lookin to get slimed on Pigeon myself this coming Monday and will be in a green Crestliner.....maybe see you up there.

Cradles are excellent for laying a musky in if you want to get a measurement......see Marc Thorpes many monster pictures.....but they're awkward to operate by yourself, and guide the fish in at the same time. Large musky nets are easily operated by yourself and also provide a good place to hold the musky in the water while you remove the hooks, plus it allows the fish to recuperate and catch his breath. Frabill, Beckman and Stowmaster all make excellent products.

Deano, I always enjoyed your "pic of the week" from a few years ago (Tuesdays I believe) and you had some incredible shots. Lookin forward to more of the same from you now that you've built of your picture supply again, and we've now got this new forum

This new photography forum was a great idea Dan. I'll be in the market for a new camera in the near future and will definetely be asking some questions here. Congrats on winning the award for your picture, but then again, you've always had a knack for getting those perfect shots. In keeping with your fence theme, here's one I took this summer across the road from my trailer. The barn is also where my boat spends the winter months.

That's a gorgeous part of Ontario and you really captured alot of it in your pictures, thanks for taking the time to post them.

Just look at those 10,000 casts as practice swings on the golf course Big Swede, and every once in awhile you'll whack a hole-in-one Sorry to hear bout the skunk, but your number is coming up and then it'll all be worth it.

Sorry to hear about the heart problems Garry, and hopefully they've got everything under contol for you. Your sposed to get sick before you retire, not after It'd be good to hook up with you & Rick again, we had some fun times together, infact I was cruising up past his place last year and saw him on the dock, and went over and shot the breeze for awhile. Good to see him again too. Here's blast from the past for ya.....more fun times

Good to see you posting again Garry, it's been quite awhile

Nelly, as I said in your original post a couple weeks back when you 1st caught that fish, you have absolutely nothing to apoligize for.....NOTHING !!!!!!! You weren't targetting muskies, and there isn't anything you can do to stop one from grabbing your bait, infact it seems 1/2 the muskies caught by members of this board are incidental. You guys accidently caught 3 muskies that day and successfully released 2 of them, but the last one died on you, even though you tried for 30 minutes to revive her........I wonder how many of our so-called experts would work that hard themselves to try and save a fish. I've been fishing for muskies for a very long time and have caught 100's of them, infact I landed 110 in 2004 alone, and have definetely had some die on me, and probably alot of others that died after the "successful" release. I have alot of $$$$ tied up in release tools and strive to do everything I can to ensure a safe release, but sometimes there's nothing you can do. Too many folks around here who are unfamiliar with muskies or musky fishing in general are often very quick to criticize others when infact, they have no experience themselves, but often just like to hear themselves talk. Too many people catch 1 or 2 fish and suddenly become experts on everything pertaining to them. We've lost most of our regular, successful, musky fishermen from this board over the last couple years, and alot of others, myself included, seldom post musky reports anymore, because of so many negative comments from folks who know little of what they speak. I hope you enjoyed your experience of catching that big girl Nelly, even though she died on you, but you can feel good with yourself that you at least did everything in your power to revive her, and thanks for taking the time to at least try.......many "experts" wouldn't have worked so hard.