ChiefD
Footballguy
Mission Accomplished!
Just got back yesterday. Got there Thursday afternoon about 12:30, and we were on the river by 1:30 that day. Fished a few deep pools with nightcrawlers to try and catch some nice smallies. We were also looking for suckers we could throw on a muskie rig.
Caught a few nice smallies and some larger suckers, but nothing small enough to put out as bait. We were also casting out muskie lures to see what we could find. I found this beauty - 46.5" on an orange bucktail. We wrapped it up about 6:00 because my brother and nephew were coming in town for the rest of the weekend.
So, as I mentioned before, my 12 year old son was coming up with me for the first time. He really wanted to catch a muskie. My 17 year old nephew was also coming, and he had never caught a muskie. He has actively fished for muskie for 4 years with his buddies at home in north Chicago and also at this same river in Wisconsin. So our goal was to get these two boys a muskie.
We floated the river for 12 hours on Friday. We caught some 10" suckers early and floated with them all day:
Bite 1: nephew had the sucker go down and a muskie on good. Got it to the boat, and all of a sudden it took a turn and headed around the back of the boat. The 80# braid caught a rivet and snapped off the fish.
Bite 2: son has a sucker out, and all of a sudden it takes a little bump. I stand up and see a 40 incher swimming around this sucker. For 5 freaking minutes it swims around this thing as we get prepared in the boat. Muskie finally just swims off.
Bite 3: son is throwing the orange bucktail and hooks up! It's a small one - about 28". Gets it to the boat quickly, but ends up shaking off the lure before we could get the net down.
Bite 4: same sucker that was on it Bite 2 gets bit - hard this time. Line is running out - son tries to set hook - no hook up.
We get done on Friday with no other bites, so neither boy gets their muskie. My uncle, on the other hand, caught a 37" muskie on a 6" perch rapala in the first 5 minutes of the float.
We head out Saturday morning, and we catch two small suckers right off the bat. Nephew has one out and so do we (we are in two boats). About 11:30 my nephew hooks into one while casting an orange bucktail. A few minutes later, it's in the net, and he literally screams with joy - "FINALLY". Ended up being a 43". Nice fish.
So now we have one more muskie to get - my son. We are talking - I'm in the boat with him and my uncle. So we decide if his sucker goes down we are just going to let him swallow the damn thing. About 45 minutes after my nephew gets his, the sucker gets it. You can always tell - on this one it was more like a slow burn. The sucker starts heading upstream at an even pace. So we know one is there.
The bobber then goes down and stays down. We start the motor and go upstream as my son reels in the slack. We are basically on top of this fish and we tell my son - "Go Time".
He sets the hook with a fury, and this thing is HOOKED. He is hanging on with all his might, but playing this fish perfectly. This kid is a fishing savant, so watching him fight this fish was no surprise to me - I've seen this before with other fish. The fish takes a leap and crashes into the side of the boat - thank god it didn't hit a rivet.
A couple of minutes later, he pulls it around and guides it's head beautifully into the net. I scoop in up and in the boat it goes.
A really healthy 40 incher! (uncle in the background). So in the span of 45 minutes on Saturday, both boys had their first ski's. So awesome.
We spent the next two hours, both boats tied together and floating down the river - the men drinking beer and the boys casting for their second muskies.
A great weekend - one of the best I've ever had. 4 landed muskies between the two boats in 2.5 days.
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