
Once in while you have an oppertunity to get away from it all and enjoy the great outdoors etc etc. Well this is a story of little ol ' me callin a family day to my place of work(known utility) not 2 days ago. So there I am 6:30 am calling the boss and stating that I wont be in because of blah blah blah.


So off i head out to Balsum Lake, ont... Kawarathas area lookin to finish off the year with a day of muskie fishing.
At the outset things looked ok. Coolish but me being from the Valley No problem! So i see while driving that ...hey most of the shallow lakes are frozzin over. So's I'm thinkin...jeezzz looks like my 1.5 hr drive is for naught. Well to my amazement I was lucky.....

Then I start to fish....Water temp 37 degrees F...slight breeze light, high clouds. Time to troll nice and slow across the weed lines off the deep breaks and across a few reefs. I use a lowerance 8hd with side image...ya git attention to detail with these units.

So after a couple of hours troling(2 to 2.5mph) with the occasion burst of speed...I get a hit off an outside weed line 14 ft deep...This 38 incher hit an 8inch believer yellow with brown bars...

things are looking up

The following 2 hours produced this monster 50 incher/approx 36 lbs

again off the 8 inch believer(same color)
Then to top it off a 45-46 incher off the same point and island..actually i thought they were the same fish but it didnt fight as long.

Once got the fish in the boat i noticed a something came off the fish...looked like a bad fin since it was close to an ulcerated lession on its back. After the fish was measured and released I clean off what appears to be a fish tag. Thx goes to Andy for the "what i should do with the tag bud"

Anyways after that day I knew I couldn't top it so the boat is being winterized till next spring. Oh regarding the handling of the fish. All fish were handled with minium time out of the water. the fish were taped measured , no actual weighing of fish was taken. I actually just cut a treble out the middle sized fish because of the tangle with the net basket. no worries. Also I ensured they were released when they were ready to go which usually meant a face slapped with icy water....

This year for me and the family has been filled with alot of ups and downs and I truely looked to the heavens after having a triple header muskie day with a personal best thrown in for good measure. I hope you enjoyed the pics. regards
