Muskies on the Bay

Tis the season of BIG ESOX!

James, PJ Vick, and I, headed east to Green Bay last Friday afternoon. We were greeted with a small craft advisory that was supposed to subside throughout the night with very fishable waters on Saturday.

We woke up Saturday morning with light winds and overcast skies. Our plan was to fish all of the potential feeding windows (sunrise/moonset, sunset/moonrise, moon underfoot, and moon overhead).

It didn’t take long to get confidence on the bay with PJ’s ground work of searching for weeds, and the insane technology of MEGA imaging. I bet we saw around 15 no doubt muskies on the side imaging for the day, which for me, is just as good as a follow. Sunrise/moonset yielded one lost fish and a nice ice breaker fish at the very tail end of the minor.

We spent some time searching out new weeds away from the most pressured areas mid morning and returned to them during the moon underfoot period. No bites.

After a quick bite to eat and a nap, we headed back out for sunset with intentions to fish all night. We fished our tail off without a bite until about 9:30PM. I finally hear the words. FISH!!! She was a big girl and did not give up easily. All nerves settled after the bag was under her which resulted in high fives and the excitement that we actually caught the fish we drove over there for.

We did fish until about 2:30AM with one other short bite. We’ll take two muskies any day of the week on waters we have experience on, let alone waters with very little experience – for that species.

For baits, we used bucktails and rubber. Each presentation produced a fish.

We will most definitely be back.

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The ice breaker

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James went full ‘musky face’ in that photo. lol Congrats guys. Definitely looks like it was worth the drive.

BrianF wrote:

James went full ‘musky face’ in that photo. lol Congrats guys. Definitely looks like it was worth the drive.

That face is a 50/50 split between “pure joy and I’m going to bust a blood vessel” as I tried to hold that fish up for a quick pic! That fattie hadn’t been missing any meals, that’s for sure!

We will most definitely be back.

Darn right!

There are a couple of good looking girls. Nice job

Awesome fish!

Nice job!

What were the lengths? I’m all for making fish look their best, but maybe don’t hold them quite so far out…

Michael C. Winther wrote:

Nice job!

What were the lengths? I’m all for making fish look their best, but maybe don’t hold them quite so far out…

How big do they look to you?

Any surprise small mouth catch’s. I found they were also biting on the bay. I can see them chowing on a musky spinner no problem.

leinieman wrote:

Any surprise small mouth catch’s. I found they were also biting on the bay. I can see them chowing on a musky spinner no problem.

Nope, no smallies. One small pike did make a game attempt at trying to destroy a Medusa, however.

Great Pics and report! Will there be video?

-J.

How big do they look to you?

they look big enough to make for a really great day on the water.
congrats.

It didn’t take long to get confidence on the bay with PJ’s ground work of searching for weeds, and the insane technology of MEGA imaging. I bet we saw around 15 no doubt muskies on the side imaging for the day, which for me, is just as good as a follow.

Totally Agree !!!!

Great Report guys and congrats on the nice Muskies !!!

Jon Jordan wrote:

Great Pics and report! Will there be video?

-J.

Not from this outing. We went over with the goal of learning enough about the fish and the fishery to shoot muskie shows over there in the future. In hindsight… we might have lugged at least one video camera along… just in case. Of course, if we had done that, we would have blanked ‘cuz that’s just the way this sort of thing works out.

I’m sure there will be a muskie show or two from Green Bay in the future. Maybe even this fall.

Those are some great fish and great pics.

Pat McSharry wrote:

I bet we saw around 15 no doubt muskies on the side imaging for the day, which for me, is just as good as a follow.

Pat, when you get a chance please share some of those screen captures. They’re amazing.

Pat McSharry wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Michael C. Winther wrote:</div>
Nice job!

What were the lengths? I’m all for making fish look their best, but maybe don’t hold them quite so far out…

How big do they look to you?

Theyre both beauties for sure. Id say the icebreaker is an upper 40’s and James’ fish a 53.25″ LOL
I don’t measure many of my fish because every time I have seen someone post a pic of a BIG fish and say the measurements they get chastised for doing it.
I wouldn’t blame anyone who doesn’t post the “measurements” for that reason alone.
The markings seem quite different between the two fish, but that may be lighting. Beautiful fish for sure.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Pat McSharry wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Michael C. Winther wrote:</div>
Nice job!

What were the lengths? I’m all for making fish look their best, but maybe don’t hold them quite so far out…

How big do they look to you?

Theyre both beauties for sure. Id say the icebreaker is an upper 40’s and James’ fish a 53.25″ LOL
I don’t measure many of my fish because every time I have seen someone post a pic of a BIG fish and say the measurements they get chastised for doing it.
I wouldn’t blame anyone who doesn’t post the “measurements” for that reason alone.
The markings seem quite different between the two fish, but that may be lighting. Beautiful fish for sure.

You’re not far off.

I believe they are both Great Lakes strain fish. I heard they put Leech Lakers in there from a few people but can’t find documentation saying so.

Pat McSharry wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Pat McSharry wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Michael C. Winther wrote:</div>
Nice job!

What were the lengths? I’m all for making fish look their best, but maybe don’t hold them quite so far out…

How big do they look to you?

Theyre both beauties for sure. Id say the icebreaker is an upper 40’s and James’ fish a 53.25″ LOL
I don’t measure many of my fish because every time I have seen someone post a pic of a BIG fish and say the measurements they get chastised for doing it.
I wouldn’t blame anyone who doesn’t post the “measurements” for that reason alone.
The markings seem quite different between the two fish, but that may be lighting. Beautiful fish for sure.

You’re not far off.

I believe they are both Great Lakes strain fish. I heard they put Leech Lakers in there from a few people but can’t find documentation saying so.

Was I too low?

I heard the same thing about Leech Lake strain being stocked there. Sure have similar markings.

Those are great fish… I’d love to know how big they are just cause…. in part I can’t imagine catching something like that. Very impressive.

Chuck Melcher wrote:

Was I too low?

I heard the same thing about Leech Lake strain being stocked there. Sure have similar markings.

James fish looks like a Leech Lake strain. If someone told me for a fact they were stocked in there, I would claim it to be one.

You were about 2″ high on both. Everyone happy now? LOL

All in good fun, I try to explain the size of fish rather than put an exact number on them. If I say we were excited to actually catch a fish that we drove there for, it’s a big one – 50+. Once they are in that class, does it really matter? We accomplished our mission and were very happy about it. Are there bigger fish out there? Hell yeah there are! That’s what keeps us going!

Constantly quantifying everything and reminding yourself that so and so caught one that was an inch bigger is bad for you. If you were excited to catch the fish, that’s all that matters!

I agree in that Muskie folks seem to think everybody is a habitual liar. I regularly visit some Muskie sites and it seems one of two things always happen.

1) The size and weight of the fish comes into question.
2) The release method comes into question.

Of course you also have the guys who think they invented Muskie fishing and they are the final authority.

I’m guessing one fish at 34″ and the other tips the tape at 38 7/8″.

Dutchboy wrote:

I agree in that <em class=”ido-tag-em”>Muskie folks seem to think everybody is a habitual liar. I regularly visit some Muskie sites and it seems one of two things always happen.

1) The size and weight of the fish comes into question.
2) The release method comes into question.

Of course you also have the guys who think they invented Muskie fishing and they are the final authority.

I’m guessing one fish at 34″ and the other tips the tape at 38 7/8″.

Dutch, You forgot the “hold” method.

I agree Pat! Going that distance on unfamiliar water and having anything to show for it is a success story!
When I first saw the thread I immediately thought you would be trolling because its an easy thing to try and cover large amounts of water in unfamiliar territory. Happy to see you guys went the casting route instead and ended up rewarded with a couple beauties! Not that there is anything wrong with trolling, its just not as “rewarding” I don’t think then catching a slob casting.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Not that there is anything wrong with trolling, its just not as “rewarding” I don’t think then catching a slob casting.

I love to troll, but I would rather catch 1 fish casting than 2 fish trolling. Once you start talking 3-1 or unfavorable casting weather, its time to get the rod holders out!

Pat McSharry wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Not that there is anything wrong with trolling, its just not as “rewarding” I don’t think then catching a slob casting.

I love to troll, but I would rather catch 1 fish casting than 2 fish trolling. Once you start talking 3-1 or unfavorable casting weather, its time to get the rod holders out!

Agreed 100%, like your outing last October? I went back and read that recap a week or so ago. Crazy what you guys went through to chase after those fish. Rewarded handsomely though!

How about those screenshots? I have “thought” I had spotted musky on my Lowrance HDS unit on a different lake, so it will be interesting how your shots compare.

Great work guys! Always a pleasure finding “new water”.

Nice job guys. Looks like fun.
I completely understand the joy of a single fish, and the grin that goes with it!

I’m not on these sites enough to remember how dicey people can be about the things we do or methods we use, but I hate that it’s still out there.

I was very interested in the length of James’ big one because I had a monster lock onto a 15″ walleye up at Lake of the Woods last June, but I only got to see from the dorsal back to the tail. That’s relatively 1/3 the total length and I thought it to be about 17-18″… x 3= HUGE FISH! I obviously had nothing for that fish, armed with only a medium light rod, 15′ test Power Pro, and a #1 hook stuck in a walleye, minus letting it eat the walleye and possibly gut hooking it, but that wasn’t really an option. I wanted to catch it, somehow, but I didn’t want to hurt it. Anyway, it released the walleye from its jaws after teasing me for 2-3 minutes, surely knowing that the encounter will weigh on my mind until I’m dead! I got the last laugh though…. I ate the walleye. It was dead already so it became dinner!

When I look at the tail and compare it to James’ chest, I can see it’s relative to the fish I fought, but knowing Lake of the Woods is producing fish up to 60″ now, I’m going to say mine was bigger…. or James needs a smaller chest!

Congrats on a good time and two very nice fish!

Dutchboy wrote:

I agree in that Muskie folks seem to think everybody is a habitual liar.

Is exaggeration considered lying? ‘Cause I do think there is a LOT of habitual exaggeration going on in the world today, not just the musky world.

I’m with Pat though. Post the photos to allow us musky heads to share a great moment and drool over a big fish, but withhold the dimensions as being unnecessary and a lightning rod for auto-haters whose default response is to try to ruin a good time for anyone feeling it.

How big is it? You’re looking at the photo! Enjoy it for a few moments, congratulate the angler, and start planning to catch your own. Measurements only lead to arguments with provocateurs.

Sorry it took so long. Here are some screenshots

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