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The Miracle Muskie

tbayboy

By tbayboy
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tbayboy

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Good morning everyone. Yesterday I had the pleasure to hook up with Manitoba Rob a relatively new guy to the board who lives up in my neck of the woods (aka Markham). I had been dying to get into some walleye since my buddies back in thunder bay started prefishing for our annual trip and starting sending me reports just to rub it in.

 

Rob suggested Stoney Lake as we had a shot at both muskie and 'eyes and since I've never been to any of the Kawarthas I was up for anything. Rob took care of all the boat rental arrangements and at 6am we left the big smoke for an 8am start. The owner of the boat rental place told us a couple big eyes had been pulled up at the falls right around the conrer so we headed over. Luckily Rob has lots of boat time under his belt and did a great job of backtrolling us into the rapids at the foot of the falls and down went the jigs.

 

Tap Tap Tap - ahh man there's perch here. Ok off go the nightcrawlers as the little perch won't let them stay on long enough. A bit later I get a real pull so up goes the rod and wizzzz out goes the line. Son of a ... when I switched reals the night before I didn't set the drag. Ah well we tried there and nearby for a bit longer but other than an incidental smallie (my first smallmouth ever actually but out of season and all of 10 ounces made for a quick pictureless release).

 

We then moved around for a while trying a bunch of islands, shoals, humps and other spots that Rob had mapped out (he had picked up a nice map of the lake somewhere and done his homework before we headed out) and then the comedy/miracle began. We had been going by a bunch of people targetting muskie but they weren't having luck. Rob had been tossing out a few muskie lures as well but nothing. Rob then thought we should try setting up the bottom bouncers and working a long shoal with a couple promising humps on it. On went the rigs and the crawler and after driving be some more unlucky muskie hunters when my line stopped and this conversation began:

 

"crap, snagged", "Ugh its a log, and I'm draggin it up", "You sure its a log?", "Yeah must be, though unless I'm crazy the log just thried to throw the hook?", "Thats not a log, its already on the surface - look where your line is", "Nah, probably just slipped. Oh wait no your right and thats no walleye", "Where's your camera "

 

Rob, always in guide mode, made a great call asking where my camera was then cause I sure as hell wasn't thinking about it and we wouldn't have this bit of fun:

 

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="

name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

 

I called it the miracle muskie because:

 

1. Wasn't targetting muskie

2. Was using a leaderless mono worm harness with a single smallish hook on 8lb braid line.

3. It appears that it slapped at it and missed the hook but got caught on the side or rolled off the hook and got it on the side

4. When near the boat she rolled again and the hook moved from the side right into your mouth so when landed she was perfectly hooked at the side of the mouth.

5. I don't know how to fish so me being involved in any way makes it a miracle :)

 

Anyhow, here I am when all was said and done with my first muskie, 41 1/2" of fun:

 

<a href=" My first muskie title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1422/558571838_f772c8e245_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="My first muskie" /></a>

 

Later in the day as you probably saw a the end of the video Rob tried a repeat of the only way we seem to know of to find muskie. Unfortunately in my rush to get the camera filming and my line out of the way I managed to get my line in the motor. Arghh. Rob got the motor stopped without missing a beat but now he couldn't chase the fish down in the boat so when she rolled there was nothing he could do and the mono was sliced/snapped right off. Sorry Rob we'll call it a long distance release.

 

Outside of the 2 muskie we also ran a drift over some good looking muskie territory that instead resulted in a school of perch (11" in the boat) and a bunch of incidental largies - those guys are definitely done with their spawning and looking for some fun - they were hitting everything. All in all we ended up missing my target (walleye) but caught: Muskie, Perch, Smallmouth, Largemouth and of course the worlds greatest sportsfish:

 

<a href=" Worlds greatest Sports Fish title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1117/558879637_d74aee1431_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Worlds greatest Sports Fish" /></a>

 

And this monster which actually did turn out to be a log (after the last 'log' we weren't taking any chances with this one):

 

<a href=" Big one title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1036/558880439_9ca03cf8dd_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Big one" /></a>

 

Big thanks to Rob - this guys knows his stuff and his time guiding in Manitoba certainly showed today and I learned a lot from him. Next time maybe he can find me some walleye too :)

 

Thanks for reading everyone, see you out there. (edited because I can't spell or type)

Edited by TbayBoy
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TangerineDream Minnow

TangerineDream

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Yeah it was a great day on the water with ya! I had a great time minus the sunburn and headache this morning lol. Anyways next time will be walleye don't worry. Just have to hit the other end of the lake :) Was a pleasure to have your company and you did a great job fighting your fish. :clapping: I wouldn't hesitate to do it again bud and we will.

 

And remember considering everyone we passed had caught nothing in the heat we did pretty good. I switched to bouncers deep because the muskie lures were not working. They seemed too lethargic to chase. We never even got one follow on any lures all day casting.

 

I wish I had landed my big muskie but that's fishing and it was your turn. Will get more next time.

 

Enjoy the weekend.

Edited by Manitoba Rob
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tbayboy

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Thanks but it was really more Rob than me (I just seem to have a big horseshoe crammed where the sun don't shine - I always catch decent fish when out with guys who know what their doing but they usually get skunked when I'm with them, go figure hehe).

 

We actually had a few good walleye hits as well, one cut Robs minnow exactly in half (we were using 4-5" minnows) and one skinned my minnow from the gill right down to the tail. I felt the solid hit and set it but all I felt was the same kind of feel you get when you drag your hook up a weed trunk. Left the line to see if he'd come back then pulled it in and found out I'd pulled the minnow out of his mouth while leaving most of its outside with the 'eye - guess I had the hannibal lector walleye.

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snag Fishing Icon

snag

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That's fantastic!!!!!

 

What a great report.

I think I will try to not catch musky so that I will catch one.

 

It seems there are more reports of people fishing for walleye, bass etc. who get a musky!

 

Congrats!!

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