Muskie on a fly!

I’ve been thinking about the future year to come and what fish I would like to explore! And this year I going to make an effort to catch a muskie on a fly. So the research starts now.

Is there anyone out there that has fished muskie on a fly rod? If so, I would like to here some of your thoughts, good or bad.

WHEN I land one, I will be sure to post some pics!

I have landed Four or Five Muskies on the Fly rod and they really put up a great battle! These were 32-38″ fish that hit my Bass Bugs. I have lost a couple bigger ones simply because I couldn’t control them on the 8/9 wt set ups I usually use for Bass… Id be looking at a 10 or 12 wt to fish them on purpose…unless you know a snag free location to fish. Good luck!

Ben, I have done this a fair bit on the Chippewa River in Sawyer County and in the Eau Claire river here in Eau Claire county. I have also popped a couple of smaller fish off the dock up at the cabin while casting for the gazillion largemouth in our lake. Mostly used my steelhead gear (8-9 wt rods) and big streamers in relatively skinny water.

I’ve had several guiding clients over the years on Mille Lacs target muskies with fly rods/flys with great success! Each time we landed at least one fish over 40″ and had three one trip with a 47″ being the biggest. They also had countless follows and blow-ups/misses. NEVER broke one off–as I chased the fish around with the trolling motor in some cases.

Feel free to call and talk “fly muskies”. (If I tried it…I would have the fly stuck in my ear the first five minutes! I just watch!)

I would put some time thinking into this.

If you want to catch one, for the sake of doing it, sobeit.

However big muskie cannot handle the stress of long battles. They fight fast and furious but have zero stamina. Most true battles last less than 1 minute. By that time, the fish is completely exhausted and needs assistence or atleast very gentle care to revive and survive.

I apologise if I’m sounding like an elitist. It is not my intention. Just make sure you have the proper gear to get the job done!

Gary, thank you for your thoughts, and I will take all of those things into consiteration. And you don’t sound like an elitist, muskies are very incrediable creatures and I would not go about this half. The equipment used will be well suited to handle the power of these fish.

Thanks again for your thoughts!