Fish-Hawk.Net

Had a great day sat. meeting other Fish-Hawkers. Also enjoyed fishing with BassStalker,Deric,and FishinFreak even if I didn,t get even a nibble,from any fish(muskie,pike,bass,walleye.

Holy crap! That was a helluva good time

Huge thanks to Bobber for being such a great guide! And I really mean that, the 43" right after I get a look at it in the water it spits the bait. So I was just like NOOOOO!! But he told me right away to let my line out and he'll come back, and thats just what happened. The muskie took the bait again about 20seconds after spitting it and I made sure I set the hook!

I was happy enough when Bobber caught his seeing this monster in the boat, but getting my first... and have a 43" as a first was such a treat.

I felt like i Was going to have a heart attack, my heart was thumping so hard.

It was great seeing everyone I met before and even better meeting some of the new faces.

Too bad big-o, bts, and seaweed couldn't go, and all the others that missed it.

It was also great for MT to invite us all to his place at the restaurant! Loads of laughs!

And Markus, this is for you!

And when FF boated by, all I saw was this.

We had a frustrating day, with 3 lost fish!! But I am happy for Snag, getting your first muskie is quite the feat and then adding your second is incredible. Same to Markus, but we all knew that would happen so it wasn't a surprise Also, way to go Hawk and Bobber, 2 fish each and 2 for your partners... WOW!!! That's why you guys run this thing!! I had a bit of redemption today and want to get out again bad. At Muskie outing 3 we won't let'em get away...

Anyone willing to share how they caught they're Muskie? As a releative newbie to Muskie fishing (only 2 in 2 years of trying), I sure would like to know how you guys did it. What did you use for bait, casting, trolling, technic, how deep, etc would really help to educate those in the "skunked" club!

Live bait seemed to be the ticket for Saturday (as with most days on the Rideau), drifting minnows in or near the channel edge produced all the fish I heard of except one. The only fish not taken by bait was landed by FLOATFISHEN in my boat, it was caught trolling a 10" perch Jake in the channel.

Thanks Muskiemagnet. Any special tips on minnow size and how they're rigged?

Large suckers 6-8 inches would be the norm. Bigger if you can get them, rig them many different ways. Personally I'll not use suckers for Muskie and I'd highly recommend a quick-strike rig for the safety of the fish if you do use live bait. We'll see if Bobber lets his secrect rig out of the bag, or he may be waiting for a special patent.

The Rideau River is a river where this sucker technique is used to high success because the river is so narrow, there are few places that are loaded with structure and the Muskies are generally "on the move". Drifting suckers though bottle necks or near bridges are deadly on these Muskies. I would not recommend trying this technique on the Ottawa River unless you now of a great high percentage area.

Snag.. great looking fish!~ glad you landed one and there is still lots of muskie time left in the seaon!

Congrats to Marcus, and Snag on their first Muskie. Great Job.
Congrats go out to all who landed one , or two.

Sorry I didn't get to meet everyone on this outing , next time for sure.


And I'd like to say a special thanks to all the folks who put these outings together, you are all awesome.

It was a great day, even without the fish.

Could someone possibly make me a new avatar? I've spent a good 20mins trying to make one, but i keeps saying its either to big by size of file, or width/length of the picture. I really suck picture cropping.

Just email me the file, or make it a link.

ccope096@uottawa.ca

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome!! WOW, where do I start?!

A huge thanks to MT Livewell and Misses Livewell for inviting me and my family into your home for the weekend. My kids had a blast playing with yours and your hospitality highlighted a very memorable weekend for us.

Saturday morning was a morning I’ve been anxiously been waiting for. After MT and I made our way through a series of back roads in search of the boat launch, we managed to arrive on time and we quickly met up with our fishing partners for the day. After enjoying Jakes musky seminar, Fishhawk and I quickly jumped into his princecraft and proceeded to tear down the middle of the Rideau to start our day of musky fishing. I couldn’t wait to wet a line; I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.

Within 20 minutes of fishing, Fishhawk was into his first fish of the day! I watch and listen to every word and action he does and says. If my turn was to come, I didn’t want to make any mistakes. After netting the 36 incher we took a couple pics and released her.

We move to another spot and set up again and it’s not too long and Mike indicates he has another fish on! “This one has a little more weight and is a better fish” he exclaims. I watch the two of them battle and Fishhawk soon has the fish boat side. I’m ready with the net, but the fish decides she’s not done yet and with a powerful thrash she succeeds in EXPLODING Fishhawk’s rod into 3 pieces and snaps the power pro like it was thread. I sweep the net and lift it up and we have her! A gorgeous 45 incher without a mark or flaw on her. We are two happy fishermen at this point!

I boat the next two and bring our boat total to 4! My heart is now beating so hard and I can hardly stand because my knees are so weak. What a rush!

I was so pleased to see so many folks where able to stay for dinner. It was great to have the chance to meet so many new hawk talkers. I was disappointed I never got to meet everyone and I also want to say thanks to JP for all the time he put into organizing this day.

A huge congratulations to Snag for catching your 1st and 2nd Musky! You rock and I think you’re fantastic! Congrates also to SteveG, Bowzog, SlushPuppy, FF and Bobber (2) for your Musky’s also!

The campfire at MT’s place Saturday night capped off a perfect day. I was so happy that so many were able to come and share a few pops and laughs.

Fishhawk, thank you, thank you, thank you. You help and education with musky fishing helped me land my first musky! You’re an awesome partner and fishermen…not to mention friend. I can’t wait till we hook up on the water again. Awesome!

Alright - here is what was working well in our boat...

We often go with a bass jig and a sucker minnow (8 to 10 inches if we can get them but smaller will do). Add a 10 inch power worm to the bass jig, add the sucker and a stinger treble (a bass jig and huge stinger is like a quick strike rig). We drift these along deep edges and of course, the bridges have all paid off in the past. I'm not sure if they are still as good - we didn't even stop at the 416 and the Beckett's bridge got me only one before we moved off of it.

But the Piece de Resistance that made all the difference yesterday was the addition of a Williams Wabbler. Picture this...
end of line
barrel swivel
6 inch 7-strand leader
barrel swivel
wabbler
barrel swivel
12 inch 7-strand leader
heavy duty snap swivel
bass jig and stinger hook on 6 inch 7-strand leader

The sucker looked like it was chasing a flashing wabbler. The muskies just couldn't live with that.

So I caught my 36 incher and 45 incher first, with this kind of set-up. Markus said, "gimme a wabbler will ya" so I rigged him up. Within ten minutes of trying his new rig he got the 44.5 and it was his first ever muskie. Big high fives on that one.

Bobber rigged a wabbler and got his 41.5.

Bobber rigged a wabbler for Snag and she got her two.

I think the wabbler made a difference.

Tomorrow, none of this may work. What do I think is the most important thing to catching fish?

Location location location

Toobinator will fish the same locations as I will with a three or four inch tube on a jig. And he will do as well or better. But if you are not in high percentage loacations than you are less likely to do well...it's that simple.

Muskiemagnet mentioned areas that are bottlenecks. I like the bottlenecks because usually they have some current moving through them and if there are muskies moving through the area then they have less area to move through, they have to go past ya.

You ave to picture the Rideu River as a bowl from one side of the channel to the other. You can have the wide bays on either side of the channel, but the spots where the channel is narrow and deep, or the spots where the 20 foot depth is close to shore...these are spots I target. Bobber and I figured this pattern out for oursleves and we are still finding new spots that meet the pattern and hold fish. Five of the 8 fish from our two boats came from spots that we discussed trying the night before. We stuck to the plan and it worked. Nice when that happens.

Oh yeah - I forgot about my rod exploding. I thought my muskie was done, the 45 incher that is. I was leading him over to the net, quite a bit of pressure on my med-heavy rod. The fish made another swish, the rod made this really loud cracking sound, splintered into pieces, the line broke and the fish popped into the net - all in about 1/2 a second.

Unbelievable! THat was the one that JP took the picture of...I hope... because we didn't get a picture of it.

Markus - nice net work.

Saturday was definitely a good day. No fish for our boat, but it was good to see others catch fish, especially Steve G. and I was even happy to see that Markus caught fish, since the 2 of them traveled up here from the South.

I knew our boat would be fighting against the odds of catching a fish, when we stopped at our first spot and the smell of skunk filled the air.

Anyways, it was a great day, and it was great to finally meet Snag and a few hawk-talkers I had never met yet, and to see Markus and PL who I hadn't seen since the spring.

Until next time.

JimW

Hawk, Bobber, Snag and Markus. SWEEEEEEEEEET muskie!!! That 48 incher is awesome Markus! And Snag! For that to be your first Muskie is outstanding! Must have fought like champion! FANTASTIC!!!