Well… I have said it before and I will say it again. If there were Muskies in California I would never fish for Bass again. I headed out to Minnesota last Monday (8/18) for 5 glorious days of Muskie hunting. After getting set up in the cabin one of my customers let me use, I prepped my gear for the next 4 days / nights of fishing. To spare the bad details (fishing was VERY tough), I will just give the basic details.

Tuesday – 5am – 1pm. = Had 3 followers that were “slow and low”. They weren’t interested in anything that we were offering them. Fished rock and weeds and didn’t see a whole lot of activity or bait.

Tuesday – 4pm – Midnight = Saw one more fish right at sunset and didn’t get any takers that night.

Wednesday – 4:30am – noon = Saw nothing and no biters.

Wednesday – 5pm – 11:30pm = Saw nothing and my partner had something grab his big bucktail but didn’t get the hooks.

Thursday – 10am – 10:30pm = Fished a different lake and had some action. We managed to move 6 fish from rock reefs, saddles and weedlines. All of the fish were following much closer and were much friskier than the fish on the other lake. We both had a good feeling that we were going to get bit once the sun went down. As the sun was setting, we went back to the areas that we moved fish earlier. We managed to pull up to one weedbed and started making casts. I was fishing over the top of the weedbed with a Mag. Bulldawg (swimbait type creature looking curlytail thingy). I had my bait hung up on some cabbage so I ripped it free and started grinding it back to the boat. A 45.5 incher decided to crush it on the burn. Ended up putting it in the net and we went to work trying to extract the lure from her. After cutting about every hook off, we managed to snap a couple pictures and drop her back in. That was the last action for the night.

Friday – 4:30 – 2pm – Went back to the original lake as there was a weather system that had come in during the night. We thought that the system may get one of them to bite but it wasn’t meant to be. I headed back to the airport to fly home.

In closing… roughly 50+ hours of fishing…. VERY little sleep and one Musky (which was my main goal for the trip). I cannot wait to do it all over again (hopefully in the fall where they are fat and sassy.

One thing to mention... it wouldn't be a gladiator Muskie trip without 30 mile an hour winds the last day. Nothing like having your fillings come out running in 5 footers and fishing from your knees while rolling down the deck so waves don't throw you out of the boat. It's always an adventure on big Minnesota waters.




http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/6913-6911-45_5_copy.jpg


http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/6914-6912-release_45_Copy.jpg

Attachment #1, (.jpg file)
Attachment #2, (.jpg file)