A springtime broken finger altered many of my fly fishing adventures for the year. The lack of vacation time sorely affected fall fishing fun. However, my good friend John told me months ago that if I could get a little bit of time off of work then we should go fishing for musky in September or October. And, luckily, I got Monday off following the October 22-23 weekend. John called Scott, currently on permanent sabbatical (AKA retirement) from work, and the 3 of us headed to the waterways of the Northwoods in search of musky.
Driving north Friday after work, fishing the weekend, and heading home Monday, I surprisingly left the Northwoods and my friends feeling just as satisfied as the previous 3-4 Octobers when I could sprinkle out 14 days of vacation time to mostly chase musky, but also smb, salmon, and trout.
This was really a very special trip, and I just wanted to share it with you. Due to extenuating circumstances, I've been asked not to share what waters we visited. I'm sorry, but if you use Google Earth, speak with the DNR, etc., there are many musky haunts awaiting your discovery in the Northwoods. (If you click on the individual pictures, they will enlarge so you can see them better)
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| Scott keeps the line tight to his first musky of the trip while John prepares to net it. |
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| Preparing to give the musky a smooch! |
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| Scott's 2nd musky of the trip. The camera didn't depict the color and beauty of the markings on this fish. |
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| John removes the fly from his big musky. |
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| Careful fly removal by John. |
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| John was beyond happy when his big girl was safely netted!! |
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| On day 2, Twitch (me!) lifts her first musky from the net. |
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| I saw the boil and set the hook. It was an exciting fight, but my main event was yet to come! (Photo by John!) |
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| This was my first ever tiger musky boated! This critter struck and I set. The line went slack. I slowed and then started stripping... hoping for a return. It struck again!! I set hard. Leaping twice, rolling and rolling, then a couple short rod-bending runs, John had the fighter netted. I whooped it up!! John wanted a pic of the 3 of us. Well, of course! All in the boat were excited by the fish's fight and its beauty. (Thanks Scott for taking the other photos!) |
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| The fish got fired-up in the boat too! John felt the problem first while I was happily clueless for the moment. I won't quote here what John started to say when Scott took our action shot! |
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| John hunts musky in the beautiful Northwoods. Not everyone can access this water so we were even happier to be here. |
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| Off to more promising musky habitat and giving the arms and concentration a break! |
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| Nearing the end of a good day, for the first time EVER on musky water, I was happy to put my rod aside and sit back and watch friends cast and row while enjoying just being where we were and enjoying the end to a mighty fine weekend. |
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| Partners in the hunt: John |
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| Partners in the hunt: Scott |
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| And Twitch, sporting rabbit ears provided by John. |
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| This swan runs on water during take-off to avoid a pursuing musky! Well, the musky part isn't true, but it sounded good. (: |
Gimminy Girl,
ReplyDeleteUp Friday and back Sunday night; anywhere you go up there north of US-8 is an 8-10 hour drive. Good thing you're young.
Doesn't look like the trees has begun fall color yet. This is a strange year for color.
not much fall color up there yet, eh? Nice fish and looks like a fun outing.
ReplyDeletealf in Bettendorf
Awesome, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for taking the time to respond. It is appreciated.
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