Musky Fly Swap 2018

[eastern fly 0]

Ive fished everyones flies a couple times the last few weeks. No fish in the boat yet but Ive had 3 follows and an eat. I had a lazy follow on your black/ orange fly, Tom. The other two and the eat were on Kevins. The eat was pretty crazy. I saw it flash on one of my first strips but thought it was gone by the time my fly was boat side. The second I turned the fly into the 8 it came out of nowhere and smoked Kevins fly. The musky thrashed once and spit the hook. Headed back out Monday and Tuesday.

Mike I'm glad its working. If you find something I need to change please let me know.

 

Kevin

[Crackleback 0]

Got one on Andrews fly

[MuskyFlyGuy 0]

Mike,

Congratulations on your fish! I really like the colors. Did it hit way out or on the eight? Also, congratulations to Andrew on his fly. I am looking forward to trying all the flies when the season opens in a couple of weeks.

Tom

[Crackleback 0]

It peeled out of the weeds and followed almost all the way to the boat before eating maybe ten feet out. Since I hooked it so close things went super smooth. I basically netted it two seconds after setting the hook then it immediately spit the hook in the net. Snapped a pic and let it go.

[vicrider 0]

That's great for the fish Cracker but doesn't put a lot of the fight they are capable of in the memory banks. One time walleye fishing a buddy brought a musky about 40" to the side of the boat without hardly a fight. Thing didn't know it was being led on a leash. He looked at me and said, "Where's this great fight musky are supposed to famous for?". I took the net and instead of netting the fish for release I just smacked it on top of head. It exploded next to the boat throwing water everywhere, scaring the hell out of both of us, took off porpoising and ripping line off his reel until it shook it's head just right and cut the line. Buddy was all pissed off and I said you weren't going to keep it anyway (48" size limit) and there you got the fight they're famous for.

 

I've had several like that over the years where they didn't know they hooked. One grabbed a walleye and I led it to net, netted it and it went crazy. Dumped it back in water and had to keep poor walleye with fillets with teeth marks. Buddy hooked one in the 40" area under a dock bass fishing. Led it quietly to side of boat and jig was just back into upper lip and I reached in with needlenose and grabbed the jig and gave a twist. Musky didn't like that and exploded just as I did that and jig snapped back and hit buddy in his cheek (didn't hook) and my good pair of needlenose went flying through the air and hit the water off the end of the dock never to be seen again. In WI I took out an old bucktail of my Dad's and started flinging it. Bang, nice musky I did plan to keep (old days) and had it along side boat with net ready and it did a backflip and gone. Lifted bucktail and rusty hook had broke. Then I went out a dead calm day and made the first cast with a Jitterbug by a weed bed. Plop, plop, plop, kaboom. Small fish around 24" or so. Had planned to catch bass and had no net so reached down to grab it by the gills. It gave a twist and put the second set of hooks into my finger. Tore the hook out of my finger, which bled like you'd sliced an artery, and had to grab it a second time and it went back covered in blood, mine not his.

 

Seems like most of the musky I have caught did their part to leave an impression but the two that stand out the most were on Giles Flowage near Hurley WI. I was just finishing a fruitless day throwing a Suick's on the old 30# dacron. I'm maybe 50' from the dock and I make a cast and notice a frayed section of line just a short ways out of rod tip after cast. I was going to set rod down and retie and then said heck with it, one more cast and I'm done anyway. The resort bay monster then picked that cast to grab himself a Suick's. We're talking one of those well known fish estimated in the 50# area. Sure enough, set the hook and line pops at the frayed spot. Lure pops back up and I went and got it shaking like a leaf in the wind. Always check your knots and line dummy. For a year or so I had nightmares of seeing that body and tail roll onto that Suick's.

 

Another time my brother was reeling in a Mepp's bucktail Musky Killer and as he lifted his bait out of the water a giant of a musky rolled just under the surface and spun two whirlpools in the water he and I still talk about. The next day I took my uncle out to where that fish had made the pass at the bait and missed and the whirlpools were still spinning. Well, maybe that's a little bit of a fish story there, but the fish that spun those that day was very real and very big. My biggest release was probably in the 30# area but all but one I've caught were on conventional tackle.

[MuskyFlyGuy 0]

Was in Canada recently and was able to fish with flies for two days before the wind forced us to use conventional gear. Tried everyone's flies and they all looked great and worked great. We averaged about 10follows a day, but we could not get them to hit. It has been a muskyless season so far. I hope to be able to post something before the season ends.

Tom