Champlain, New York

FINALLY! After 15+ outings, countless 3 am wakeups and way to much money spent on gear, I was able to land my first musky today! She measured just over 35". Today was my first time fishing since being back up here, and it did not dissapoint. I was in the water by 5:50 am, and the weather was perfect: cooler temps, with overcast and somr slight rain. For the first 2 hours, I had no action, using a glide bait and a double bucktail. At about 8:30 is when I had my first bite. I was casting from the middle of the river to a lily pad weed line, when out of nowhere a musky exploded on my glide. It totally missed the bait, because I didn't feel any weight. The next cast, the fish actually hit the glide in it's mouth. Unfortunately, I think my drag was too loose to set the hook, because it swam off immediately after hitting my bait. I had a 2nd bite about 30 minutes later, again on the glide. This time, it was a rather small musky that nudged the bait out of the water with it's nose but didn't take it. After another hour or so throwing the glide bait with no luck, I decided to switch lures. I switched to the Musky Innocation Double Dawg, and on the 3rd cast, I felt the weight of a fish. This time, my drag was plenty tight, and after a couple minutes I was able to finally put my giant net to use and land the musky. It took quite a few minutes to get hooks out of the fish and untangle it from the net without hooking myself. The bank I pulled up to was a muddy clay slope, that you both sunk into and slipped on. Since it took so long to get the fish out, I decided against taking a ton of photos and just got the fish back in the water. I kept the double dawg on for the ride back, and managed to catch a 16" pike in the same spot where I had my first musky encounter of the day. I tried to boat flip him, but he spit the hook. The very next I saw the musky follow my lure in, but he go spooked by my kayak. The fish definitely looked bigger, about 40". That might have to be my next goal, although I am probably going to focus on some other species for a bit.

Topwater was popping today, whoever coined the term “River Monster” was absolutely right. Missed two other Musky, one was bigger than this one but rolled down the falls and spit the hook. I’ll scoop him up another day 😎

Decided to do some dusk top water fishing. They were definitely hungry 😎

Decided to bring out the Lews spinning rod and jig the current. Did not disappoint 😎