Metro Muskies By the Moon

Saturday was the first of many for me, the first time I got a chance to hit the water in the last week, the first time I got to hit my favorite body of water with my best freind Dan this season, and the first time I got to put my hands around a fish that I have marked on my GPS well over 10 times this year. I have seen this same fish a good number of times so far this season, but up until now, I have only been able to mark her on the GPS and come back to work her another day. Saturday.. Hooks met flesh and I got a chance to be photograped with a beautiful fat 44 inch fish, I am all smiles!

4-am came early on Saturday morning but we hit the water prior to sunrise. Working fish that I had marked on the GPS from tips prior was my foucs at sunrise, we had a few good things in our favor early in the day, one was sunrise, and the other was..moon rise! This came at 10:29 am and I will tell you that it was like someone flipped a switch. Dan had our first round of action when a 46-47 inch fish ate at boatside on a big double 10 blade, but to no avail, the hooks popped out before I could even set my fishing rod down. Looking at Dan in the back of the boat was painful, he could not get a word out of his mouth, and to make it worse, all I could see was a big boil on the surface, where that big Lunge told Dan goodbye just a little to early. This was a big wide fish that we have seen a number of times this year and we were inches away from having her tucked in the bag. That’s muskie fishing!

Knowing that we were right smack dab on top of a few big fish that I had seen earlier, I kept positive and kept hucking. Good things happen to those that keep positive, in not more then 6 casts after Dan lost his Lunge, I drove hooks home into a very recoginiziable fish. Based on the girth of this fish, I know that this is the same one I have marked on my graph about 10 times so far this year. The only thing I prayed for was the hooks to stay put. I have lost a good number of big fish this year, but this one I really wanted tucked into the Beckman. I can’t tell you how rewarding this was to finally get this one in the boat. After a quick measurement, she was back to swim another day. With big smiles, a quick high five and soon the cold taste of Molson Ice on our palets, we were two happy huckers. Dan and I sat back for a good 20 minutes, more a less, soaking in the moment. This is not the biggest fish in my boat, but the moment sure felt like it, after all the hard work of finding where this fish was day in and day out, I got to pop her at moon rise. It was like the clashing of the Titans, God it felt good!

Back to the moon. I have been keeping a lot of data from the last few years and even more this year. At this point I have managed to boat 12 muskies, lost another 9 fish, but all with the exception of 2 have come this year at moon rise. I don’t know what it is about the moon and its phase at this time, but the fish have been active and willing to eat. All of these fish have come at different times of the day, but all of them have been at the power of the moon. Without keeping data and records of past trips, and also marking each and every fish on my GPS, this never would have happened. I hunted this fish down for the first two months of the season, I clocked it’s movments when I was on the water, and I finally got to have my picture taken with her, only to have someone do this again in the future, that’s the beauty of muskie fishing. Thanks for the memories Dan, it was a great day on the water, next time I will get the net, I promise man….. thanks for being there Bro!

This just may go down as my most memoriable fish of the year, simply because of the hunt, and it was a great one for a number of reasons!!

Happy hunting!