fishingisliving

Was suposed to take out a relative fishing last week, but last minute emergency at work made him cancel the night before. What a relief considering the cold front, big winds and rain on the forecast. I got to sleep in the next morning!! That's it... .. until about 10am, when my phone rang, and its good friend Lungelarry with computer issues.. (you gotta admit so far this fishing report is great!) After helping him out as best I could, his problem persisted, so I put the phone down and looked out the window and noticed the leaves on the trees had stopped moving and the neighbor's flag was laying down. No wind? huh? Meanwhile Larry was still yaking away on the phone about something, so I picked up the phone again to interrupt him:"HEY, we going fishing today or what? the wind just died down, just bring your rain suit." he agreed immediately as he always does when I offer to put him on fish(%stab1%). We braught the smallie gear, largemouth gear and Lunge gear. LOADED. The rain and wind was quite different on the lake then it was in my backyard (no crap!) We tried a new spot out of the wind first with fast search baits to see if there were agressive fish nearby. Pulled a school immediately, bunch of 2 to 3 pounders. Cool! Then about 4 little pike that probably totaled 5 pounds stacked together. We kept working the new zone, but only had a couple short strikes to keep us interested in actually finishing the run of the spot. ok here is a picture to keep you mildly entertained until the end of this report. Releasing the last bass on the new spot before moving on. I then decided to hit an old spot I had not touched in years, sure enough smallies still lived there! In numbers too, every single cast showed or hooked a fish. We could fish slow, fast, didn't matter it was a frenzy! We took a couple pictures with the "better" fish of bunch.. while we did that, something underneath the boat was changing. We kept fishing after the picture session, but something felt odd... it was getting warmer, the sun was out! Since our jackets had gotten soaked, we got to fish in our T-shirts for a bit. Not a single bit in 10 casts, is it over? just like that? The sun turned the fish off? Larry says:" GOT ONE!, little guy" he fights the fish for a few seconds and his rod unloads, Lost it? no Got bitten off.. immediately after we notice 2 big fins flying straight over the surface the water a few yards away: muskies! "We are going to need a bigger net" Larry said. So I put the little St-croix down, and picked up the BIG X-heavy 8.5 ft 100lb braided WINCH! I asked Larry to take the musky net off the bottom of the cockpit and get it ready incase we hook this fish. Larry takes the first cast in the open where the fins were a minute before.. two cranks of the reel and water moved in a big swirl behind the lure. I follow up the cast only a few yards away, just a few cranks of the reel again and the fish is on! I had locked down my drag and this big fish has no chance with this kind of rod. In the net after maybe 12 seconds of head shaking and tail dancing. CLICK! and away he goes. Nice healthy male musky! The sun then shot back behind the dark clouds and we keep the musky gear wet cause now I want another one! Take a few more casts 3 or 4 cranks of the handle the lure comes to a dead stop! I set the hook and here comes Momma's big mouth with gills flared head shaking! Drag is locked down, quick run under the boat and drag actually rips out several feet. This was a different class of fish. I got her back to the surface where she wasn't finished head shaking as the net moves around her. And out comes the hook, time for another knuckle skin ripping session with this big female! CLICK! After the release, we had drifted very far from our smallies, but was the bite still on after all that? YOU BET! Moved back in, this time, no more 2 pounders.. to finish off the day, Larry pulls out the pigs from the pack!

as usual, online reports are taken as gold, instead of being taken as what they should be, a report.. that's it! if you dont like it, stop using it.. but dont get all pissed off because of one or two bad experiences, or because of some report! fact is, when it comes to fishing you can use equipment or techniques that you hear about online or cause some pro told you, or you can go out there and let the fish tell you what is good or not. Sometimes, it takes a flurocarbon leader, otherwise you will be one of those that wonder why you didnt catch anything.. sometimes it doesnt make a difference and any line will do. ..why am I answering this...? Where's Roy???

its been a while... just wanted to post some quick pictures. and say hi to ROY!!

NOOOOOO?????? really???????? YOU?? BOSTON???? funny clip.

i haven't posted any reports this season, so I wanted to share one or two lunge pics from this fall. Having a blast in the cold water. this one pulled drag like heavy log, what a solid fish! And this one was not very long, but what a girth all the way through. Lets get a few more before ice up!

Nice fish!! been a tough year for many people.

If it gives you shakes and giggles... it's a trophy! if you wait to see where the tail ends on the measuring tape before you are happy with your catch.. then you dont deserve it!

I burst after eating too many fish heads.. too much foie gras.. too much duck fat.. too much... just too much.. now I'm hungry!

I have a tip, get a tripod for your camera and learn to use the delay timer on your camera so you can take a nice picture of yourself holding your next musky so it's not resting on the blue chair again. musky fishing is like heroin. The first taste is the best.. then you keep going looking for that same feeling you got when you got your first one... But thankfully with Musky as oposed to the compared substance, you DO get that feeling back when you break your PB for length and for weight class and you will make friends instead of lose them.. unless your a scots ! GO GET EM!

i catch em using... MUSKY LURES!

great "all in one". there is a "clone" on the market as well which is actually safer since the sides do not get burning hot like the egg does. Both have awesome heat control.

Use a big net! Good luck and have fun!

Well it's not compatibe with 75,90 and 115 EFIs. It's available on the 40-60hp with limited functions. ..oh well. here is the chart for future info if anyone else was wondering: http://www.mercurymarine.com/precisionrigging/smartcraft/smartcraftataglance/engines/outboards.php

thanks Roy. :-)

So going through my boat purchase I forgot to include the smartcraft gauges with the installation (dumb dumb, I know!). I checked on Mercury's site and for my motor (90 EFI 4strk) it says it has the smartcraft Engine guardian, and next to smartcraft it says "yes". Which to me means its compatible thus I should be able to just go back to my dealer, buy the smarcraft gauge set and have them install it. Awesome no big deal! I call my salesman, he says it's not compatible and smarcraft gauges only work on Verados and Optimax engines and that the computer in the EFI 4 strokes dont support the smarcraft gauges... ok so after repeatedly asking him if he was sure of this, I stop arguing.. he's "the expert". I sat there wondering what does Mercury mean on their site in the specs that the engine has smarcraft features but yet you cant use the smarcraft gauges? I then pull up a quote I got from another boat manufacturer and dealer that I had priced out before buying my boat, and for the same engine (it was a 115hp EFI 4 strk instead of a 90, same engine really.. or so I am told), the smarcraft gauges were part of the quote, and would be installed with the rig. Now I'm starting to really wonder.. finally my question is, does anyone have a Mercury EFI engine in the 75 to 115 range of fourstrokes and has smartcraft gauges installed and working with the digital rpm control, motor temp, oil gauge, motor hours, etc? I will call Mercury themselves to be sure, but I figured I can get a simple answer from the community.