River Muskie!!!!!

Good day all!

Here's a quick photo update of the weeks fishing.

Wednesday I had Dan Clayton and his nephew Lance Meister out for a full day of muskie fishing. We got started at 2 and by 2:30 we had a fish in the net! Dan hooked up and landed a super fat 44" muskie on a bulldog, over 40 f.o.w. This has been my strategy of late (deep water suspended fish) and it's paying off in spades. We contacted a couple other fish over the course of the day but none made it to the boat for a picture. Thanks so much Dan and Lance for a great outing, looking forward to sharing the boat with you come Sturgeon Season!

Thursday I had Rick Demarchis and his buddy/workmate Rod in the boat for a half day. Last year on the same trip Rick landed 2, so expectations were high, but we struggled and never managed to see a fish. The mid morning time period, which traditionally has been very good, has been slow. Prime time seems to be the mid afternoon then a lull leading into prime time at dark. They were good sports and understood that sometimes with muskies they bite and sometimes they are just not interested.

What a difference a day makes.....Today I had the pleasure of sharing the boat with Dan Patrick. Dan is a super avid angler, without the means of a boat. He does most of his fishing with a fly rod, from shore on local lakes, and does quite well at that. Today we were intent on catching him a muskie, make that two muskies! We got out at the crack o' dawn, raised a nice fish right off the bat, then the rains came. It poured buckets and hailed plenty as well, but we hunkered down in Afton State Park till it subsided, then the fun began. Our first stop after the thunder was a piece of structure I've been seeing alot of fish on and it didn't let us down. Dan hooked up on a scrappy 42" about 10am or so on a topraider at boatside. Not wanting to see this fish get off, I did the quick scoop and got him in the net in 10 seconds flat! After a couple pictures and high fives, we slid her back and said our thanks to the muskie gods. I said the pressure's off, lets go find another! We fished a couple other spots, made a trolling pass to take a lunch break and keeps baits wet and then headed off to another hot spot. About 2:30 or so his bulldog got inhaled by a fish, a BIG FISH, size LARGE! I knew right away he was into something special and sure as can be, this monster came barreling out of the water, did some crazy maneuvers but my net hands are too quick and she was ours! Both shaking, we got her untangled from the net/hooks etc and stared in awe. 49.5", lets call it 50 shall we? What a beast, great fighter for a big fish and oh so pretty! Another quick net scoop meant a safe and healthy fish on release, we admired her as she swam off, high fived once again and decided that's a good way to end an amazing day. Dan, you're a stud dude! That's big fish of the year and makes 20 river muskies in the boat for the season. Things are really starting to get hot and I aim to stay on this bite right up till the PMTT tourney rolls through in september. Wanna get a muskie, now's the time my friends.

Enough for now, I need a nap. Enjoy the images.

BigPikeMike!