Dontcryformejanhrdina

Looking pretty good there, Mike!

When I first started fishing for musky I bought a Rapala musky rod and revo winch reel from CT. I had no experience with baitcasters and didn't want to end up with a bird's nest every cast so the guy who worked there actually took me behind the store and showed me how to properly use the reel. That was some of the best customer service I've ever received.

Haha I don't know about that but I sure hope I can get a musky before September this time around lol. I'm not going to spend as much time fishing Baptiste and Elephant up north (fish there while visiting family) which seem to be pretty tough musky lakes and I'm going to focus more on the good musky waters closer to where I live.

Same here. I launched through the ice in November and decided to put the boat away then it warmed up again. I'm kicking myself now, especially since I got a new (to me) boat and only had it out a few times. Never even went out in the Bay this year.

It's never easy losing a dog, especially under such circumstances. They really are a member of the family. Sorry for your loss. -Chris

115 muskies in 1 season is insane to me! I had to work my butt off for 7 this year, and 3 of those came because of Musky Mike. No wonder why you rarely take pictures Lew, your face would get tired from smiling so much.

That would be an awesome experience, I'm sure somebody here will take you up on your offer. I'd love to do it in the future but the problem is it's hard enough finding someone who wants to fish musky for a day, let alone an entire week. None of my fishing buddies share my stamina/stubborness and I don't know anyone who'd take an entire week off just to musky fish.

My uncle had his boat motor stolen right out of his yard about a month ago when he was in the hospital having surgery. Scumbags are everywhere and will steal anything that's not nailed down.

Wow, sorry to hear about your loss. You have a lot to be proud of. The things he helped build will still be standing long after we're gone and will be enjoyed by countless people. I can't imagine the courage it takes to do that kind of work every day, either. You certainly would never catch me up that high.

This year was by far my best year. Bought my first boat, started out with a new PB bass while targetting walleye. I had only caught a couple of walleye when I was 12 so it was like a new species for me. No huge walleye but some nice eaters. Had a fishing weekend in early June with some friends and caught more walleye (the most of the weekend and the 2nd largest, missed out on the pool money when a guy caught a bigger one with an hour left lol). Then my 2 brothers and 1 of my sisters and I rented a cottage for bass opening weekend and we had a blast. First night there resulted in my oldest brother's first walleye (my other brother caught his first walleye in my boat a couple weeks before). 2nd day my sister caught her first pike, 4.5lbs and she was excited. More walleye for my brother and I and some nice bass spread around. This was also the first time I tried fishing for musky. The last morning there I woke up early and was casting off the dock (pretty much practicing using a baitcaster for the first time) when I got my first musky hit but it jumped off right beside the dock as I was too excited to relax. What a huge disappointment (especially since nobody else saw it). My sister chose to sleep in a bit so my brothers and I went out in the boat together for the last time that weekend and I caught my first (and largest at 30") pike which helped ease the pain of losing that musky. we decided to call it a weekend after that as we were all tired but I kept casting off the dock where I lost my musky, resulting in 2 more pike and my brother caught a 5lb smallmouth off the dock that morning too. I fished with friends, family, my 2 oldest nieces, 2 of my uncles for the first time resulting in some more walleye and lots of pike. In September it was time for the annual fall fishing weekend/tournament with the guys, I caught my first musky (about 38" if I had to guess) the first evening there, unfortunately the "tournament" doesn't start until Saturday so I missed out of money AGAIN! lol But that was okay, I had bragging rights by catching the biggest fish out of any of us since they are started going to that location every spring/fall. I caught a 31" after that, then went fishing with Stacy Ash from protackle which resulted in a 42" musky and some new techniques. Another 33" musky and I was starting to get on a roll. I got to meet musky Mike and he got my 3 more musky including a personal best of 44.5". My brother also caught his first musky that day too. Unfortunately the next day I broke the axle on my trailor somehow after launching and getting it stuck on something in Head Lake so I thought I was done for the year. I ended up buying a boat in November from another OFC member and had it out a few times. I was skunked each time though, nobody caught a single fish in my new boat. Can't wait until next year. I hope to put an end to that bad streak very quickly and put all the experience I got from fishing with Mike and Stacy to good use and get even more muskies in the boat. I already have 4 weekends planned for next year, and I hope I can get out to the St. Lawrence again and get Mike to teach me something about trolling walleye lol.

The water there is also crystal clear too which helps. Many lakes/rivers I fish have maybe 2-5' of visability. One of my favourite days of fishing was using a husky jerk this summer and seeing bass come out of nowhere to smash it. Bass can be very fun to catch....when you're targetting them lol. It's definetely more exciting using lures to catch bass than live bait even though it's more difficult.

I can get what you're saying but bass is very popular for a reason. They're very aggressive, abundant and put up a nice fight (especially smallmouths). It's also fairly inexpensive to do (well, it CAN be inexpensive), so it appeals to more people. You can buy a cheap rod & reel, grab some worms and fish off shore for LG in almost any lake, or you can be a pro in a VERY competitive tournament, or anything in between. Since I got into musky fishing I've almost stopped fishing for bass because I wanted to try for something bigger and more difficult to catch, plus I fished for bass exclusively all my life, I wanted to try something new.

Awesome catch! The eyes on that fish are hilariously huge. Certainly makes me regret putting the boat away for the winter already with how mild it's been here.

Really nice musky! Persistence pays off.

Wow...... I was actually in Protackle here in Belleville today looking to pick up a Bondy bait, but apparently some guy already cleaned him out. Seems like your lures are really getting popular and it's not hard to see why. Congrats on a day every musky guy dreams of!

Gorgeous fish! Never tried jigging for musky, though my 2nd biggest came on a bulldawg that I let sink close to the bottom and popped up a couple of times and just felt dead weight until it started to move. Exciting feeling, gotta give jigging a try next year.

To clarify, the guy we were waiting on wasn't even in the water, he had his boat/truck in the lane of the boat launch. He could have easily got his boat ready after or before launching.

Imagine how the guy in front of me felt! I try not to get angry while I'm out fishing. It's my time to cool off, I have plenty of time to get angry while I'm driving lol.

I've been a passenger in a boat when the guy drifing did this to someone else, I was embarrassed. what's worse is earlier this month I along with another gentleman had to wait to launch our boats while some jerk took his time, sitting in the boat launch, taking down his canopy, changing things on his boat, etc.. before launching it. In fact, the other guy said he had already been waiting 15 minutes for that guy before I even got there, and there was less than 3 hours of daylight left so it's not like we had all day.

I live in Belleville but have never fished on the Bay of Quinte. Hopefully I'll end up buying a bigger boat this winter and I'll do some fishing for walleye there next year.

That's terrible, never got the flu shot myself and won't be anytime soon. Sorry to hear about your loss.

Congrats, that's a big variety of different species, takes a lot of skill. Sorry to hear about your mom. I lost my dad last month and fishing DOES help relieve a ton of stress and helps the grieving process somehow. It's important to have some goals and positive things to focus on/look forward to. I tried all summer long to catch my first musky with no luck and after my dad passed away I finally caught it my next time out. It may sound silly that catching a fish can mean something, but it was a huge relief to me, like a weight lifted off of my shoulders. It was the first time I was excited about anything since he passed and kind of proved to myself that I could still feel happy, even if it was just a small thing like catching a fish.

I hope he becomes a fulltime guide because he knows his stuff and does a really good job. Very informative and he's eager to learn more techniques himself to expand his own knowledge plus he's got a very easy going personality.

Congrats, sounds like a really fun day! I'm hoping I can go out for a day of walleye fishing with Mike next year. Those walleye pics are making me hungry.

Thanks everyone. Yeah that is a really heavy tiller to be moving all day long in those waves, I can't even imagine how Mike must have been feeling afterwards. I had the next three days off and was planning on doing some more musky fishing but Sunday after driving to Haliburton after visiting family in Bancroft I launched my boat in Head Lake but when I went to pull the trailor out, my tires just spun. Flip into 4 wheel drive and they still spun...got out of my truck and my trailor looked like it was on an angle. Tried calling a tow truck but the only tow truck in town was in Barry but they said several people have gotten their trailors stuck in there before. Oh geez....only 1 thing I could do....go swimming. The water was so cold once it hit my chest I was literally gasping for air and couldn't breath and the back of the trailor was too deep for me to stand behind and pick up so I had to dive under, tie a rope around it then pull it up while a guy passing by drove my truck out. The result was a bent axle with 1 tire bent right into the frame. Thankfully my boat is just a 14' aluminum so I called my uncle who has a long box in his truck and we threw the boat in there (after I waited around 2-3 hours SOAKING wet in the wind lol). So my fishing year is officially over. One of the guys helping me get my trailor out said I had some balls for diving in there, but all I could think was it was going to take me a few days to find them again . So thanks again to Mike for such an awesome day of fishing. By far my best day fishing during my best fishing year was my last day out. It sucks that I won't be casting anymore this year but it could have been a lot worse and, well, stuff happens.