My 4 Year Old's BIG Musky!

In just a few short days my son turns 5 and this week and this week at pre-school they had a special day where he got to bring in some of his favorite things to show his class… And the first thing he wanted to bring to show his friends was a picture of his “BIG” muskies. Talk about a proud dad moment!

Between lots of scouting and a bit of dumb luck my son was able to reel in his first two muskies over the 4th of July. When he got home I asked him how it went at school and he said that all his friends “want to come fishing with you dad!” And I can’t wait to take them someday!

All fish were caught trolling Rapala Super Shad Raps at 3-4.5 mph. I usually start off running one rod each at 65′ and 85′ feet behind the boat. If we have a full boat I’ll add rods at 45′ and 105′.

Will

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Way to go

So cool to get kids on fish like that. Congrats to you and the boys!

Basin trolling or structure related?

Will, Too bad you couldn’t post the video. That was both comical and epic .

Amazing you saved the rod!

I still watch that and can’t help but laugh, yet be in awe also.

What a lucky young man! Great job dad and son! A lifetime picture!!!

Wow, that’s awesome! What a great experience for him AND you!

tswoboda wrote:

So cool to get kids on fish like that. Congrats to you and the boys!

Basin trolling or structure related?

Thanks!

I’m fishing suspended fish out over open water but I’m almost always finding them within 50-100 yds of the traditional structure areas. These two fish both came 10′ down over a 20′ flat immediately out from a point with a steep break and we hooked them them within less than 5 minutes of fishing time. I also lost a 3rd fish on a planer board that went back right at the same time we hooked our first fish… I don’t have good electronics on the pontoon but there had to have been a giant school of bait over that particular flat.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

Will, Too bad you couldn’t post the video. That was both comical and epic .

Amazing you saved the rod!

I still watch that and can’t help but laugh, yet be in awe also.

I was telling the story about how the rod had actually gone in the water and how I was able to save it because it was still hooked to the fish in our net… And Hunter goes “Dad, you didn’t save the rod, the musky did.”

One of these days I plan to get them onto Youtube and I will definitely share on here once I do.

Very good start them young. My son took a beaver tail to school for show and tell

It’s not often I’m jealous of a 4 year old! Congrats to the young angler and to Dad for putting him in position to have a great angling experience at such a young age. Hopefully he’ll catch ‘The Bug’…

BrianF wrote:

It’s not often I’m jealous of a 4 year old! Congrats to the young angler and to Dad for putting him in position to have a great angling experience at such a young age. Hopefully he’ll catch ‘The Bug’…

I’ve been trying my hardest to get him excited about fishing without pushing him and I think he’s got it… He had a weekend at the cabin with nana and papa and spent the whole time fishing off the dock. He baited his own hook and when he ran out of night crawlers he even used a minnow net to catch his own bait!

That’s the thing. What triggered the fishing bug in us, may not happen to them. About all you can do is to expose them – being sure not to over-expose them – to the outdoors. Hopefully, something will stick. I’m fortunate that one of my three kids has the fishing bug; just not the one for muskies. All of them grew up having lots of family fishing experiences.

BrianF wrote:

That’s the thing. What triggered the fishing bug in us, may not happen to them. About all you can do is to expose them – being sure not to over-expose them – to the outdoors. Hopefully, something will stick. I’m fortunate that one of my three kids has the fishing bug; just not the one for muskies. All of them grew up having lots of family fishing experiences.

Great way to put it.

I’ve been trying my hardest to get him excited about fishing without pushing him and I think he’s got it… He had a weekend at the cabin with nana and papa and spent the whole time fishing off the dock. He baited his own hook and when he ran out of night crawlers he even used a minnow net to catch his own bait!

Great fish, congratulations! Pretty cool moments to share with your kids and family.

Our place is on a lake only a few miles away from there. On the last day of vacation this year, my 6-year-old son didn’t want to come in and wanted to keep fishing. I figure the right move is to always leave them wanting a little more.

Yours is on a gem of a lake with a good muskie population, though not a whole ton of fish in that real upper size range. Those are special indeed! As a minor aside, I’m glad to see you’ve switched to horizontal holds with the belly supported instead of vertical ones – better for the fish’s well-being for sure. Thanks for taking good care of those fish, and sharing such a cool story and pics with us.

Nice job, Will !

-J.

What are some of your favorite super shad rap colors? Or does it all depend on lake forage?

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

What are some of your favorite super shad rap colors? Or does it all depend on lake forage?

By far my favorite color is Perch. Most likely it is tied to the forage base as it has caught probably 90% of the muskies that I’ve gotten trolling and I will often run more than 1 of that color. It has also produced muskies and a 40″+ plus pike for me on Mille Lacs; however, in the past few weeks my friends up there trolling have caught their biggest pike on Mullet color.

Will

Thanks! Hoping to do some pontoon trolling in the longville area mid-late September! Would love to get my wife and her family some toothy critters while my 2.5 month son watches!