Muskellunge

Probably my single greatest catch so far in my near 6 years of fishing! My day started off very well as I landed tons of smallmouth bass on big glidebaits and swimbaits, but secretly, each time I caught one, I was a bit disappointed that they weren’t a bigger river beast. About an hour into my morning of fishing, I set the hook into a much heavier fish. Its head immediately surfaced, and he thrashed a few times. I immediately knew what it was. I fought it for a little under a minute until suddenly, I felt my line loosen. I had lost what would have been a PB musky after getting bit off on my 40lb leader. I had never been concerned about my thick leader, as I’ve caught musky on 6lb and 8lb test, so I was extremely disappointed after this happened. I knew that it was the only leader material I had, so I had to keep pushing. About ten minutes and a few smallmouth later, I saw a musky rise to the surface. I quickly casted my glide bait at him, and he bit. Unfortunately, I didn’t get an ample hookset, and he quickly came off, but I kept working the bait slowly to see if he’d follow. Sure enough, he followed it to my feet and wasn’t spooked by my presence. I continued to twitch my bait back and forth for nearly two minutes, and with each twitch, he would dart his head back and forth, completely honed in on the lure. He eventually lost interest and swam away, but he would reappear a few times and follow my glidebait, only to now spook when he saw me. It was tough moving on from a spot that I knew had tons of large river monsters, but I had to make my way back to my bike that I had stashed in the woods, and I thought there may be some more fish upstream. I was right, but not in a hole that I expected. After passing a few more large holes that I was hoping to get bit in, I thought I had lost my chance to get one. My bike finally came into view, and I was simply casting around for fun. I tossed my glide bait into a tiny little pocket in the back corner of a waterfall, and wasn’t paying much attention. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large object roll out of the water, and thought, wow there’s actually a sizable fish in here. And then it was on the line. I was completely outgunned, as this fish weighed likely double the breaking strength of my main line. After an epic battle that almost ended in disaster countless times, I landed my personal best Muskellunge at 43 inches long, weighing in at an estimated 23 to 24 pounds! Not only was this a personal best musky, but it is my largest fish on artificial by about 10 pounds. I think I can finally sleep despite not getting my 10-pound walleye.

Got nice musky on custom jerk bait from Oliver's custom lures.

First Muskie catch.

After landing my new personal best smallmouth this morning, I didn’t think the day could get any better, but I was wrong. This afternoon, I had the opportunity to go out on the kayak with a friend of mine, tossing around some baby whales for smallmouth. However, I hooked into a fish that towed my kayak around for 3 minutes. This gorgeous 31 inch musky, ate my 3” swimbait and managed to not bite through my 8lb leader. So far this spring is off to an amazing start!

My Call of The Wild: The Angler Muskie PB. 19.20 lb