MN Metro Area Musky Report

Muskies are not only following baits, they are also finally starting to eat! I had the fine opportunity to fish with Bob Bowman Thurs night on a metro area musky lake. It was a great night to be on the water with light winds, partly cloudy skies and a rising barometric pressure.

We were a short 5 minutes into our trip when I was able to raise a 40 inch musky to the boat. It did not eat my Dunright walleye curly tail but certainly lifted our spirits with high anticipation for the rest of the evening.

We concentrated our efforts by casting towards weed edges, shelves and fingers adjacent to deeper water. When I say deeper water, I’m talking anywhere to 20-40 feet deep! A common mistake is to get too close to these areas or on top of these area and fish too shallow thus missing those deeper fish. The majority of our time we positioned our boat in the deep water (20 feet plus) and made very long casts pulling our baits off of that structure.

A couple of hours later, Bob set the hook on a good fish and it was game on. The fish just T-Boned his bait and was swimming directly away from our boat. I had just finished making a long cast and realized I didn’t have enough time to retrieve it, so I opened my bail and threw my rod and reel in the bottom of the boat.

Bob quickly turned the fish and she was now coming in fast as I was struggling with the net getting into the locked position. Bob yelled “are you ready?” I said “not yet”…. Bob made another circle with the fish and then yelled “OK… are you ready now?” I finally got the net into the locked position but it was not caught one on the rod holders… I yelled back “Nope!” Bob was pretty patient (I would have been screaming by now). He simply turned the fish again and wasted some time. He finally yells “OK here she comes…. Are you ready now?” Getting the net untangled from the rod holder didn’t take me too long but getting it out of my swivel snap on my extra rod in the bottom of the boat was a little time consuming… Finally it was free and just like a musky pro… . I scooped her in the net…

The fish came from an inside corner weed edge adjacent to deeper water in which she was using as an ambush site.
When she had T-Boned the Dunwright Walleye Curly Tail from the side, Bob drove the hooks home and it caught her underneath the lower jaw. The fish measured out at 43 inches and had some really nice girth to it. After a few quick photos in the boat and under the water, we released her unharmed. This was Bob’s first musky of 2009 and the skunk had officially left the boat!

We continued to work the same type of structure throughout the evening as we listened to the weather forecast while we kept an eye on the storm to our northwest. There were reports of 65 m.p.h. winds that didn’t sound too good.

About an hour later Bob raised another smaller fish but she quickly spooked near the boat. We kept on hucking baits and the time flew by fast as we shared fishing stories with one another along with some mixed in jokes.

Now it was primetime, about a half before sunset and we purposely saved the best area for last. Bob had just fished this same lake two nights before and had a couple of encounters with some big fish. As we closed in on his waypoints, the anticipation of a strike grew stronger and stronger. It’s during this time when you feel you are in the zone. Everything becomes magnified…. your casts are little longer…you feel the weed ticks below on your bait a little bit more crisper… you can visualize the exact movement of your bait swimming down below… your pull pause is a little more definite… you strain your eyes a little bit more to see your bait coming in as it gets closer to the boat… you get a rhythm and you become a machine…. and you know it’s just a matter of time..

Finally my walleye curly tail gets smacked had I quickly drove the hooks home. It was game on and we were battling lunge number two! I think Bob was more excited than me which I didn’t think was possible! The fish came in very quickly and once it seen the boat decided to make a 90 degree turn. I was able to turn her but now she headed for deeper depths under the boat so I followed her by putting my rod tip in the water. She surfaced once again and we finally got her in the net! It wasn’t a monster but it was my first musky in years and I was very proud.

You also need to understand that I’m truly just starting to understand what musky fishing is all about. I’ve learned so much from Bob is such a short amount of time. I think I drive him a little crazy with all the questions… My motto is if you want to learn how to do something right…. learn from someone that can not only talk it but practices it day in and day out and does it the best! Bob shared with me that he caught well over 30 muskies last year! For anyone to do that you know they have a lot of experience and spent hours and hours per fish.

After some quick photos, I put the fish in the water hoping to get some underwater shots. As Bob was ready to put the camera in the water, the fish bolted out of my hands and just like that she was gone! So much for some under water pictures! Then I realized that we didn’t even measure her! Bob guessed her between 36-38 inches and I wasn’t going to argue with him since my opinion on guessing musky length is worthless. The fish was a replica to Bob’s fish in regard to where we found her and how she was hooked. It was anther inside corner and she T-Boned the walleye curly tail and was hooked right under her jaw.

Last year I fished with Bob only twice but both trips were very memorable. We hooked 10 fish but only ended up catching 3 and Bob got all of them. I had two fish hooked in the upper 40’s and one came unbuttoned right as she slid off the net! So landing this first fish on my first time fishing with Bob this year and being it was my the first hooked musky of 2009 and it ended up in the net, I was elated!

Shortly after that the storm clouds starting moving in and we could see a lot of lightning strikes coming out of a big thunderhead. Even though we could have fished for another half hour, we decided to play it safe and called it a night. We were thankful for the time we got to spend on the water and thanked the musky gods above.

Thank you Mr. Bob Bowman for letting tag along! It was a great night of musky fishing and once again I learned a lot. But what made it a memorable night was spending time with you learning more about your family, your job and your passion for fishing. That’s what builds friendships and makes fishing more enjoyable overall.