Fish-Hawk.Net

So,

I'm not one of those guys who can fishing whenever they want and when the weather seems right or whatnot. I usually head out when I get a chance, whether or not the moon phases are in my favour or the weather is with me or against me...I head out regardless.

So last night, even though the weather and everything was probably working against me, I headed to the water.

The wind was pretty choppy so I figured I would use it to my advantage and do a couple drifts across some known weed beds, something I have done in the past and has produced some muskies for me.

I do a couple drifts along a weedline without any luck what so ever, so I decide to drift right through the weedbeds. Well, by the time I got into the middle of them the weeds were pretty thick but I found that alot of it was in clump and that there were little mini-channels throughout, a perfect spot for a muskie to lay ready to ambush.

So I drift, and I'm casting different topwater lures and jerkbaits. I throw out my line, I don't know, maybe 100 ft from the boat. And as I have been doing, I was watching below me to see how deep it ewas and if I could see any signs of life. MY line hits the water, I jerked it a couple times and let it sit, while I peer into the water beneath me.

Now, I was only in 5 or 6 FOW, so not too deep. As I look beneath the casting deck in front of the boat, I see a MONSTER MUSKIE, laying in the weeds below!!!! I s$@* myself! I watched it for about 5 seconds, she was swimming with my boat, just nice and easy for those 5 seconds. It was unreal! Just a few feet beneath me.

Now, I have landed several fish in the high 40" range, topping out at two that were both 47" long each. And let me tell you, this beaut was almost an entire foot longer! Trust me, this thing was massive. And I know that water makes things look bigger, but when you are standing a few feet above a fish and can see it as clearly as I did and can watch it swim for 5 seconds slowly besdie you, you know how big it was!

I casted around for an hour hoping she'd bite, but to no avail. I moved on to let her settle, landed a little pike, and headed back to the area after an hour or so. I didn't see her again but I did get a huge hit off a top raider, I don't think it was the one I saw though, this one seemed a little smaller, maybe low 40's high 30's. She only hit and spit the hook but it was a good day one the water nonetheless!

At least I got to see a huge beaut! Hopefully I can land a hook into her before the summers out!

Godo luck out there!

MuskieWannabe

Holy! That sounds like a brute! I might want to make an amendment to my "which fish-hawker would you want to go fishing with" post...

Man do I know what you mean about seeing a monster like that so close and yet so far away.... meaning that the fish wouldn't take the bait.

I had the same thing happen on the Ottawa River one day... I went totally numb forgot everything I knew about fishing for them for a second or two and that was enough to not get a hook up on the fish.

I ended up buying a bigger boat as a result.... I knew that if there were fish out there that big then I needed a bigger boat for sure.

For anyone who might experience this in the future .... I learned a good tip from Muskiestalker on how best to deal with this situation.

Start figure eighting your presentation like a madman under the boat and hang on to your rod and be ready for a fight. Continue doing this long after you think the fish is gone because I guess these big ole fish need to check things out but eventually can't resist and need to hit to taste the thing.

I wish I knew this the day that happened... I have only once seen that fish since then... and she has probably been caught or dead now but ... I keep going back looking for her.

I was talking to a couple of guys from the Gananoque MCI chapter last fall, on how some musky attacked the 36" pike one of them had on his line. Needless to say, they went back the following weekend on the same pass and caught it........58" x 28".

I saw a really big one in the lower Ottawa a couple of years ago, had just finished realing in and just as I was about to cast again, this massive head just appeared next to the motor.

Gives you another incentive to keep fishing musky doesn't it

Joe

Hey peppino, a-a-a don't you wish you'd been figure 8 ing?

I got into musky fishing after I saw a huge musky about 5 ft down under my boat. it was half the length of my boat (a 14 footer) and thick as a wine barrel. I had been practicing using a suick (was new to big fish fishing) and had stopped the lure to see if it would suspend. When I saw the big girl I didn't know what to do. Now, of course, I would have quickly restarted the lure and tried to head it in a new direction and then I would have figure 8ed for an hour or two. but back then all i could do was watch as the big girl looked at the stopped lure, rolled, looked up at me, and then slowly, oh so slowly, swam deeper out into the river.

Mmm, got me those big fish chills

Hey there lads,

I don't want everyone here thinking I'm a complete idiot for not figure 8ing. He didn't follow my lure in or anything of the sort. I was drifting through the bay and drifted over her. Trust me, I brought my bait in as quick as I could but by the time i did she was gone, and beside, I think had I been able to bring the lure quick enough, had I figure-8ed I would have ended up with about 20lbs of weeds on my line! I was in think!

I have landed a 43" muskie on a figure 8 and it was awesome! By far the coolest way to catch a fish!

Good luck out there, I'll be chasing them down all weekend!

MW

Reminds me of my time on the St Lawrence! Seen one like yours really close to boat and tried like heck to catch it. A small pike hit my bucktail jig first only to be followed by the muskie nailing the pike!!!

Needless to say the muskie held onto the pike for quite sometime,but let go near the boat to leave my pike shredded from its head down
That was my first time ever having one on and to happen that way ill never forget!!!

Hope you catch that puppy!!!

Hey creeky,

Yeah I know, would've, could've, should've I predominantly troll for musky, however last year I casted more than I ever did. And this year will probably do more casting, since I made some home made gliders.

Although figure 8'ing is very effective, still find it unatural for me. I know a couple of guys who caught their personal best that way.

When my trolling patterns don't work, that's when I start casting.

Joe

I hooked my first tiger muskie while clowning around and figure 8'ing for laughs.

Another I hooked and landed while jangling my spinnerbait over the side of the boat to disentangle the willow blades. That about scared the tar outta me, but I somehow managed to react in a proper enough fashion to bring it in. We hadn't even casted yet, when this happened. Too funny.

I can relate to that stunned moment, though...when you see some behemoth thing swimming just under or next to your boat! I call it the "deer in the headlights" look...Humminna, humminna, humminna...!

The biggest I've seen was on the Moira along a weed edge and the recent huge pike I saw on Charleston. Still, they don't sound as big as the one described here!

W.

I've had this happen to me as well while fishing for bass in the bow. I'm always looking for signs of life, and one day while flipping my jig on a drift with the wind, I look down and there's a huge musky hanging around. We drifted right over her and she didn't even move. Now I know why I didn't get any bass there.

On the figure eight thing...I too have a problem doing this. I just can't get into the groove I guess. My figure eights turn out to be figure eights with the rod tip and the bait just floats to the top. Something I need to practise for sure. Since MuskieWannabee was in shallow water covered with weeds, I was thinking the same thing he was.....figure eight would add about 20lbs of grass to both the bait and the rod. I don't think it would have worked in this situation, if I'm reading it right.

Cheers,