All in, we boated 11 muskie and 3 pike. We fought 4-5 more but didn't land them.
I've never seen the creek so active. Must have been a combination of all the perfect conditions... wish I could tell you WHAT they were, and WHY they were so perfect. My guess is, the water temperature was nice, the sun was shining and the fish were either hungry or short tempered.
I know what you're thinking, 'I can learn a lot from this guy'. Caught this beautiful fish on a green senko!
Jer caught this one with a white spinner bait, by casting along the edge of a bank:
Jer casts into the slop and GAFFS this pike in the side of the head (he'll be fine):
I get one with a white spinner bait (great fight—he jumped out of the water about 2 feet high. EDIT: Forgot to mention, when I caught this one, the mate (presumably the female because she was quite a bit bigger) was following this guy as he darted back and forth, she was probably wondering what the hell is wrong with you!):
Jer gets a few more:
(live bait)
(top water leopard frog)
(white spinner)
THEN.
I saw what I didn't think was possible in this tiny little creek.
Keep in mind, with a good set of polarized glasses, you can see almost everything in the water.
Jer says "look... at... this!", and all I saw was a fish tail in the water, but nothing else.
The reason?
It was in the process of being digested......
It took my eyes (and brain) a few seconds to adjust to what was a BIG, FLAT, alligator-looking head that I've only ever seen in pics on the web.
The poor muskie snack was 4-5 lbs. I Honestly can't accurately guess the weight of the monster—but legend will make her 60lb come the winter. Seriously, I'd guess her to be somewhere around the 25–30lb range.
The beast takes one look at us, and completely panics. She leaps out of the water (this is where you can truly appreciate the power she generates) and regurgitates her lunch.
Notice the gash, and all of the teeth marks along the top.
Jer takes the time to nurse lunch back to health, and when we left it, it was staying upright and breathing, but just treading water. It wasn't in the same spot when we returned, so anyone's guess as to what happened...
We casted a few more times while we talked about our new perspective of the creek. The 5-12lb muskie we've been used to catching don't "own" the creek. Does the beast hang out in this area of the creek? Are there more? Are there even bigger ones? We have a new mission now. Of course, there's no way our medium action spinning reels with 20lb braid would hold up to this fish even if we did catch it.... after seeing the power of this thing, I'm totally going to have to rethink my gear.
I cast into the lillypads and get a huge hit! I set the hook, and with the weight of the weeds, for a split second I thought I have the beast.... but nope... WAYYYY too overly optimistic. She was still a thing of beauty though. All the fish are super healthy.
The release:
WHAT. A. DAY.
Eric[/b]
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