There and Back Again in Search of Giant Musky

[Gregoire]

Hi All,

 

I haven't had a chance to post much of anything lately, but managed to have an eventful weekend with my buddy John (cowanjo) and thought I'd share the story with OFC. If involved three days of fishing, about 900 kms of driving, some fish being caught, and some disappointments.

 

It started on Friday afternoon. John and I had made plans to fish the Mississauga Chapter of Muskies Canada outing on the Magnetawan. and needed to pick up John's boat at the cottage, so decided to head up as soon as we could on Friday, fish until dark, and drive to River Haven's Resort hopefully before MIdnight.

 

I arrived before John, in fact a few hours before him in my excitement, so got the boat set up and was on the water with some time to spare. The skies were blue, and the weather was hot, but I decided to stay close to home and see if I could have any luck. I fished hard, and I fished hot, but did not find anything but a small musky that follow my bait to the boat. It was getting close to the time that John was going to arrive, so I decided to troll back. After a few minutes, as I was passing a point and got a decent hit. I felt a little heavy, and I thought that my hard work had payed off with a feisty little kawartha fish. As I got it close to the boat I was a little surprised that I had hooked a large walter.

 

Some of you may know that hooking large walleye is a problem that I have. At least I think of it as a problem. When I am hunting musky my focus is quite single minded, and anything but a musky is a huge disappointment. I have a tendency to hook rather large, 25" plus large, walleye. This guy was not exception, as he filled out the bottom of the stowmaster pretty well.

 

Oh well, at least it was a fish. I trolled back to the cottage and picked John up. We talked about what I had seen, and devised a plan for the rest of the day. We went back out, hitting a few spots on the way to our destination along the way, before we got to our milk run. After drifting around a bend something strange happened to John's line. To be more specific, nothing happened during his retrieve. He was reeling up, and all of a sudden he felt nothing. A fish had hit, and was running right at him. I looked down just to see a smallish musky swimming towards the boat, thrash it's head, and spit the lure. It happens. I told John "It was just a small guy anyway, at least we don't have to release him." My attempt at consoling John were not met happily, as he muttered something to me. Seeing as this is a family friendly site, I won't guess at what he said.

 

We gathered ourselves, motored up to the waypoint, and continued our drift. After a few more minutes, I heard John say "yeah, I'm on", and saw him set the hook and start reeling at a rapid rate. For those of you who have fished with John, you'll know that he sets the hook on everything; clumps of weed and scattered rocks being some of the most common objects. Whenever I see John set the hook, or hear him say "fish" in his down under drawl, I look at his rod or for a fish so that the Aussie does not fool me.

 

This time it was not joke. I say a large fish rise from the water, and told John "it's a big fish". Luckily, John's penchant of setting the hook well meant that the fish had hooks buried into her, and before long she was in the net. After cutting some hooks, and letting her revive in the net for a while, John handed me his phone to take a picture. When John hooked her, I knew she was big, When she was in the net John said "That's a fifty", but I was not convinced. She had a huge head, and a fat body, but a skinny tail section. I'm guessing that she was spawned out, and had just started feeding again, so had not started to bulk up yet. When we got her in the water she kept stretching, and stretching, and easily reached 50".

 

After releasing her, John asked me for his phone, so he could see the picture. I have been in the boat with John when some big fish have been caught, and he has caught a 50" class or bigger fish the last two years, but those were on LOTW. This was his first Kawartha 50, something that is quite rare. You can only imagine how disapointed I was when John could not find the picture. I guess in my excitement I hit the wrong button, and at one point took a video, but did not capture the fish at all. The lesson here is to check the picture before you release a big fish. There is nothing wrong with letting her recover in the net a little.

 

After that disappointment we gathered ourselves again and resumed our drift, but saw nothing else, and decided to pack up the boat and head to the Mag, as we did not want to get in too late and disturb our bunkies. We pulled the boat and packed up our gear, and were on the road. We arrived a bit before midnight, just in time to share a few pleasantries with our roomies and turn in for the night.

 

The next morning we were greeted to blue bird skies for the second consecutive day, and it felt like it was going to be a grind. We kept a positive attitude and motored out to our first spot. After drifting for a few minutes we I hear John exclaim "fish". After looking at his rod, and seeing a nice bend in it, I went for the net. While she was coming to the net I saw too much green for my liking. It was a pike, a fat pike, but definitely the lesser of the esox family in our opinion. John being the consummate conservationist, and sharing my dislike of anything that is not a musky, quickly released the fish before I could get a pic. The best I could do was this shot of him at the net.

 

The rest of the day was a grind, to say the least. We do not know the water well, and were kind of throwing darts at the spots we were fishing. I say a decent fish on a lazy follow, and two musky were boated close to us, but all that we could manage was a small guy.

Even though this is just a small one, we were happy, as this was our first Georgian Bay Musky. We spend some more time fishing, but ended up being pretty burnt out, and went in for the outing dinner.

 

For those of you who fish musky and are not members of Muskies Canada, or have never been to a Muskies Canada outing, I would highly recommend that you join and you attend outings. It is quite nice. The delicious roast beef dinner was followed by an auction of a huge prize table. I would imagine that everyone in attendance left with a decent haul on the night. We did pretty well ourselves, with the big win being a sling blade to add to the collection. A rod that would come in handy, as on Sunday I managed to break a sling in half while I was pulling my lure out of the weeds. Luckily St Croix has a great warranty, and that rod has already been replaced with a new one.

 

That night we had pulled the boat, and packed up, as we were not sure if where we wanted to fish the next day. Sunday we were in no rush to wake up, but when we crawled out of bed the skies were blue and our choice was clear. Back in the truck and fish the Kawartha's. We were rigged up and on the same lake we fished Friday a little after noon. We had a plan and were eager to execute it.

 

The day started off a bit slow, but on our 3rd or 4th spot I heard the Wallaby war cry "FIsh, Fish". I looked over saw a decent bend in the rod, and grabbed the net. This time a little male had come out to play. Because he had inhaled the lure, no pic was taken, as the hook cutting and reviving process was the most extensive of the trip. He did end up reviving and disappearing in to the depth after about 5 minutes.

 

In the mean time we had drifted quite far from the way point. Instead on motoring back to the spot, we decided to drift back with the trolling motor. On his very next cast after retying I heard what I though was a koala bear screech, but it turned out to be John saying "Fish". I again checked his rod, and this time saw it doubled over, so I grabbed the net, and lifted the trolling motor. Because of where we were on the lake, I told John that it was probably a big girl, and I was right. She was in the net, and properly photographed.

 

After that I was beginning to think that John had a horseshoe up his but. That made 4 fish to my 0 for the trip. In reality, he is a skilled angler, who was choosing the right baits and presenting it properly to the fish. Nevertheless I kept fishing hard.

 

We went to a few more spots. and fished for a few more hours, and finally I felt some weight on the end of my line. Finally my turn. "Fish, fish" I said. I felt the some weight, some head shakes, saw John go for the net, and started to reel in. Then nothing. I was kicking myself. I had lost maybe my only chance to get a fish, and was blaming myself for not setting the hook properly. I tried to shrug it off by telling John that it was just a small one, but I was kicking myself for missing a fish.

 

Again we kept fishing. I was casting away, and getting quite worn out. Then it happened. It felt weight on my line, and set the hook. At first I was not sure if it was weed, as there was a lot of scattered weeds in the lake. Then I felt weight, and a good amount of it. I hoofed on her, and reeled her in. I could feel that the hooks where in her pretty good, but saw a large fish in the lake at the end of my line, and could not relax until she was in the net. After what seemed like much longer that I'm sure it was, she was in my the bag, and she was pretty big, but I wasn't sure if she was a pb or not. She definitely had a big head on her.

I just wans't sure how long she was.

She ended up being a pb by 2 inches, and was also the heaviest fish I've ever caught.

 

It was only 6, so we decided to keep fishing the pattern we were getting them on, and hoped we would get lucky one more time...and we did. John hauled in this healthy fish.

 

We kept fishing after that, and took many "one more" casts. I had a few hits, but could not set the hooks into anything else.

 

It turned out to be an awesome weekend. 6 muskies in the boat, at least 3 more with hooks in them, and many more seen. Thanks for reading and happy fishing.

 

I would like to thank Mike Parker for providing John and I with our official uniforms for the weekend. Unfortunately zinging the bling didn't land us any fish, but he makes a great lure, and his shirts look awesome.

 

Greg AKA Roaring Dan Seavey

[Lucky Linda]

Great post and fantastic pictures!! I just ordered that shirt! I hope to have something close to that big in a couple of weeks.

 

6 muskies is a great weekend.

 

Cheers!

Linda

[Musky or Specks]

Disappointed I couldn't make the outing this year had a blast last year. How did the rest of the guys do?

[Weeds]

Awesome report! Still searching for my first of the year. Had one on a few days back but he came off. You know how that goes...

[Rich Clemens]

Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to share

[Gnote]

Awesome report! Some very nice fish.

[Moosebunk]

Six Kawartha skis over a great few days. Too bad about the camera operator problems for the 50... Just teasing dood. We've all been there at one time or another.

 

Great report.

[Gregoire]

Just for the record, we boated 5 Kawartha and 1 Georgian Bay musky.

As an aside, the title of the post is a reference to something John and I share in common. Can anyone guess what it is?

Edited June 25, 2014 by Roaring Dan Seavey

[Joeytier]

Well done, you Tolkien nerdlings

[Gregoire]

Tolkien is on the right path, but that is not it.

[Musky or Specks]

Your both Hobbits?

[Gregoire]

Your both Hobbits?

Correct. Anyone who had met us would be able to figure that out.

[Joeytier]

I was going to ask if you had hairy feet...

[cowanjo]

greg great report mate - I am still trying to forgive for no photo on Friday, Thanks again to Mike parker - we tried the blades but they wanted rubber. For those who have fished with me I am a tube guy but they didn't want this either just dawgs, if we could have hooked every hit I think the number would be in the teens. great weekend on a very weird pattern.

 

Hope to post again this weekend cant wait. I am going back to the cottage I mean the shire.

 

John

[JoshS]

I enjoyed that report, mainly because I can relate being a kawartha musky nut as well. We were out as well last weekend and fished a total of 1.5 days and only netted two. Pretty sure we were on the same lake as you guys on Sunday. I found last weekend tougher compared to the past weekend with the little wind and bluebird conditions. We saw maybe 6-7 total but only two committed. We had some very lazy follows early in the day sunday and couldn't get them to go. My friend threw a lot of blades but they wanted the plastics as well for us. We put in a few hours after dark as well to no avail.

 

Congrats on the kawartha 50!

[Gregoire]

That's funny. We found the previous Saturday tough as we got two small guys in the boat. I'm also surprised with the water warming so quickly that the fish weren't chasing blades.

[Handlebarz]

Awesome report Dan it sure does look like you and John had another great time out there.

You are very correct at times fish will crush blades at others its all about the rubber and others you need wood for them I always have a good selection of all in the boat every trip as the fish will tell you what they want.