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| Message Subject: Your Best Musky Trip Ever | |||
jaultman |
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Posts: 1828 | I'd like to hear some bragging on your best trip ever - when, where (if you are willing to divulge), fish stats, and why you think it was so productive. Preferably unguided, multi-day trips. I'm just curious about what kind of numbers some people have put in the boat, and what season, weather trend, region, etc. were ingredients for that ultimate trip. I've never really taken a fishing trip, i.e. fishing away from home for several days in a row, so I can't contribute. | ||
| MUSKYLUND1 |
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Posts: 203 Location: Germantown, WI | jaultman, My brother and I have been spending a week each year on a lake in the Kawartha region of SE Ontario (1.5 hours northeast of Toronto) for about 32 years. We typically spend 12+ hours a day on the water fishing. We fish Muskies and Bass and occasionally catch walleyes too. One year we boated 30 Muskies with 9 over 40". I think the biggest that year was 45" or 46". On average, we boat 15-20 Muskies in a week on that lake. Some years the catch is slightly below average and some years it is above. The lake we fish, Lower Buckhorn, is more of a numbers lake than a trophy of a lifetime lake. It's really good for numbers of Muskies up to the mid-40" class. You will catch and see a few in the mid to upper 40" class, but a Musky over 50" is a rare thing. In all that time, our best musky is 48". This year we boated 21 Muskies with 6 over 40" including 2 that were 44". That's all unguided fishing. We've learned a lot about the lake in 32 years and have seen a lot of changes take place. In my opinion the Musky fishing is as good now as we have ever seen it on that lake. We typically try to schedule around the new moon or as a fall back the full moon. Stable weather is always a plus. Our best week ever had lots of overcast skies with progressively warming temps throughout the week. I hope that helps. If you want any more info on Lower Buckhorn send me a PM. | ||
| jonnysled |
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Posts: 13688 Location: minocqua, wi. | a week away from work with no cell service, on the shield with a camp full of guys who work hard and help each other out on figuring out the bite … with competitive bragging rights on the line. | ||
| jaultman |
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Posts: 1828 | MUSKYLUND1, that sounds like awesome action, and consistent over the years. 30 in a week, with a bunch of them of respectable size, is the kind of thing I dream about. Just curious - in those 32 years have you had any weeks that REALLY busted your butt? Like less than, say, 5 muskies. jonnysled, yeah that sounds like a good time. | ||
| IlliniMuskie |
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Posts: 148 | jonnysled - 7/29/2014 3:29 PM a week away from work with no cell service, on the shield with a camp full of guys who work hard and help each other out on figuring out the bite … with competitive bragging rights on the line. Sounds exactly like last week for me. Great trip! | ||
| MUSKYLUND1 |
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Posts: 203 Location: Germantown, WI | We've never had a really bad week. I can't remember the last time we caught less than 12 in a week. In fact, anything less than 15 would be a tough week for us at this point. We are pretty decent fishermen, but our success is also largely related to our many years of experience on this lake. The lake is 3000 acres which would make it a good sized lake in Wisconsin, but is tiny in comparison to LOTW. I don't think we could go to Eagle or LOTW and immediately have the same type of success. I'm certain we could figure out how to catch some muskies in NW Ontario, but like anywhere else there would be a learning curve. Having said that, as far as numbers of good sized muskies I would stack the Kawarthas up against anywhere. If you really want a 50" Musky and only consider it successful by that yardstick I would recommend going somewhere else. | ||
| Tjhollywood22 |
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Posts: 18 | I've fished muskies for 10+ years and have had a lot of bad luck. I've caught plenty of fish but always seemed to lose the big fish. The guy I typically fish with and I have made several trips to really quality waters too. Finally late last year I broke the 40" barrier with a 43". This year with work and kid's activities, I haven't been able to get out much on the weekends so we decided to get out on the River 5 minutes from my house on an occasional weeknight. I've fished it a few times prior, but have never had much luck. Our first evening out, my partner caught a 40.5" and I caught two 46". We went out the following week and caught two in the low 30". The following week I caught a 39.5" and a 47.5". All within 5 minutes from my house. I kind of feel like an idiot for not hitting these waters more in the past but am at least happy to finally have a good year. | ||
| drreilly |
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Posts: 73 | My dad and I do a three day trip every fall and always do well. The first day we boated three 45, 45.5 and 47.5. The 47.5 shouldve gotten off about three times but didnt. Next day we put a 44 in the at about 7:30 am. We went 9 hours without another fish and then put 5 fish in the boat in 45 minutes. Fish ranging from 44-49.5. Next day we blanked. Best trip buy far especially since my dad got the 49.5. The 49.5 came out of the water 5 times and only had one rear hook in it. Somehow it stayed on. By far my most memorable trip. Wouldnt trade any fishing or hunting trip for that weekend with my dad every year. | ||
| Jeremy |
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Posts: 1126 Location: Minnesota. | drreilly - 7/29/2014 8:59 PM My dad and I do a three day trip every fall and always do well. The first day we boated three 45, 45.5 and 47.5. The 47.5 shouldve gotten off about three times but didnt. Next day we put a 44 in the at about 7:30 am. We went 9 hours without another fish and then put 5 fish in the boat in 45 minutes. Fish ranging from 44-49.5. Next day we blanked. Best trip buy far especially since my dad got the 49.5. The 49.5 came out of the water 5 times and only had one rear hook in it. Somehow it stayed on. By far my most memorable trip. Wouldnt trade any fishing or hunting trip for that weekend with my dad every year. Congrats on... one of the coolest posts I've read!! J. | ||
| Walleyedoctor |
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Posts: 76 | My fishing buddy and I have fished together for years. He has a neurological disorder which doesn't allow him to stand and cast. He has had a few close encounters boat side but was unable to do a figure eight and never close the deal. So I remodeled my boat last winter and improved the front casting deck (seat) so he can cast better and do a little figuring eighting. My efforts paid off in in the fall when on the last day of our trip he landed a beautiful 50+ incher. Lots of hoots and hollering and a great big bear hug! Best trip of my life and I never boated a fish personally. | ||
| brianT |
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Posts: 427 Location: Planet Meltdown | I've had a few multiple fish days but last Friday on our last day fishing on Nipeeing we boated three fish all within an hour and a half. It was special because I was fishing with my Uncle and I put him on his first musky which turned out to be a nice fat 48". He beat my personal best by one inch on his first fish. After that we boated two mid 30s fish. All on the same golden sucker Slammer. It was a very special day on the water. | ||
| Travis A. |
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Posts: 157 Location: Lincoln, NE | OK this is going to be long but since you asked "why" I think it's our most successful I'll give you the backstory and all the details. Bought my first musky lures in about 2009 before a trip to one of the only lakes in Nebraska that has muskies in it. It was mainly a walleye trip and we had our big catfish poles to throw the musky lures thinking "these rods can handle anything". Mainly walleye fished and threw only a very little bit thinking it was a one in a million shot. Fast forward to 2012 and I bought a Big Nasty, etc, and got into it hardcore but had no boat and went on one trip and rented a john boat up there since my uncle sold his boat since then. Then last year we bought a Lund 1900 Pro V and decided we're going hardcore. So 2013 was our first serious season with boat, trolling motor, electronics, 16 hr days figuring 8ing after every cast, living off energy drinks and codene. We did pretty well considering the lake is 4.5 hrs from my hometown and about 6.5 from where I live now so couldn't fish every weekend. Put a couple 48"ers in the net. So my cousin and I decided we were going to try and tackle Mille Lacs in the late fall. We drove up on Halloween Day and rolled past the lake at first dark with fog, drizzle, and gloominess everywhere. The perfect setting for Monsters to be lurking out in the water beside us. We were fishing Friday - Monday. We wanted to do it ourselves and didn't have a guide. The first day we go to the east end since we heard about Three Mile Reef being so good we figured we'd hit it before the weekend crowd. Found this tiny little wooden dock in the trees that looked like Jason Vorhees was going to jump out and looked out on the lake and it looked like Hell was raging upon it. Decided that wasn't gonna happen. Went south and put in on a calm area that had a little creek lead out into the lake. Went out very slowly watching our electronics. Made it like a mile out and weren't even out of the bay into the main lake and turned around cause the waves were getting so high. We never experienced rolling ocean waves like this before, in Nebraska we have small whitecap waves not huge rollers. Load the boat up. At this point we've wasted a good portion of the morning and were contemplating finding a smaller lake nearby that was fishable, but that wasn't what we came for. We were thinking we've gotten in too deep without a guide. (And btw I don't need to hear how stupid we were by not getting a guide, we didn't let the excitement get the best of us and rush it. We put boating safety first and played it safe and didn't put on where it was dangerous and turned around and got off the lake when it looked to be too much and were willing to abandon our whole plan and fish a smaller lake.) So we go talk to the bait store person. They say you gotta play the wind on this lake cause it's so huge and shallow. Makes sense. So we think let's try Indian Point. We pull up and see other trucks and trailers and one of them is Jason Hamernick and another is Lee Tauchen. Yes, finally we are in the money! Head out there, fish for about a 1/2 hr and the waves were too much for our Lund amongst a sea of Rangers sitting as level as though they are on a trailer. Pack up and fish the north shore for the rest of Friday. No fish. Saturday and Sunday fish Indian Point, Spider Island area, all over, great spots, big community spots with 20 other boats. One day was dead flat calm and sunny. No fish still. We meet a guy in the hotel while loading our gear one morning and said that someone caught a 55"er off Indian Point Friday about 10:00 am. If only we had a Ranger that could have been us. Sunday night we talk with some local guys and they said their buddy got a 57x28. All of this and not only have we not raised a single fish but we haven't even seen one other single boat catch one. Then we see Hamernick's fb post and see the two absolute Monsters he put in the boat. So, so far only 4 fish that we know of have been caught. Amongst this all we come in, in the evening, and as we are pulling up to the dock and I'm jumping out to get the truck this guy is walking onto the dock. He is bundled to the hilt and looks like the kid off Christmas Story with only a face sticking out and he looks at my Just Encase and says "hey you got my baits!" We're like wtf is this guy talking about we didn't steal anything. "The pirate logo" Yep, we just came 9 hours from Nebraska and Johnny Dadson came 15 hrs from Georgorian Bay and we crossed paths on the dock at the exact same time! "How is it out there, looks bruuutal" in his thick accent. We were getting off that and he was just going out to troll all night long. Hardcore. So 3 days down and no fish yet. It's Monday, our last day, last chance to avoid going home and explaining to everyone how and why we drove 9 hours to spend 4 days fishing in freezing weather and didn't catch a single fish. We decide to try a new location, that's not a big community spot getting hammered by 35 boats with 3 guys all throwing pounders from dawn til dusk. It's perfect overcast conditions with rain in the forecast. I bomb out and keep a tight line as it's sinking and feel just the slightest tick on the drop and I set the hook and feel the weight and head shakes. It's instantly to the surface and thrashing. It heads under the boat, I back off the drag, get her back out and after a few more short runs into the net! 48.25 x 25. 36-38 pounder by the formulas. Not a true superbeast for that lake but our biggest musky yet. I think the relief was greater than the joy. We did it. First serious season. No guide. First time on the lake. Late season. Tons of boats and locals getting skunked, only 5 fish that we heard of being caught and half of them were by the resident badass Hamernick and 1 of them was by me. Funny thing is I had this feeling leading up to the trip that it would happen on a non-main location off all by ourselves, and it did. All of that and it finally paid off. Lesson Learned #1: Guides are more than just putting you on a hot location where the fish are. They are first and foremost safety on an unfamiliar lake. And also save a ton of time (especially in fall when daylight hours are limited) by knowing the safe routes and shallow spots to avoid so you don't waste precious first light hours navigating out to a spot slowly for an hour. Lesson Learned #2: If George Clooney had a Ranger no one would have died in The Perfect Storm Highlights: Stopping in Thorne Brothers on the way up: mind blowing The gloomy first impression on Halloween Night that will forever be burned into my memory Meeting Johnny Dadson Fishing the same areas as other well known musky guys with the feeling that it could happen to us just as easily as them Falling in love with that lake and will return every year from here on And quite possibly the greatest......discovering Caramelized Bacon Shakes in the hotel restaurant | ||
| jaultman |
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Posts: 1828 | Great story Travis A. | ||
| muskidiem |
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Posts: 255 | #1 Day trip: casting endlessly and shifted to new idea. 40 minutes later we had a 42, 42, 43. #2: Thanksgiving week one November me and a buddy: Boated 46, 44, 42, 42, 36 none on suckers N. WI. Traveled down for Thanksgiving and got a 38 near home, then went to Madison and got a 34, 46. Such a fun week learning fall patterns. Had on at least 3 other 20lbers and raised handful of other fish. My good old days til kids came around. | ||
| mecoltin123 |
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Posts: 146 Location: Alsip, IL | I had an 11 fish day in the UP June 5th, 2012. The day before my birthday. No personal bests that day but man was it fun to see as many fish as I did in one day. The 45 in my profile picture was the cherry on top. Probably could have had a couple more had I had a fishing partner. | ||
| Chuckin Baits |
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Posts: 143 Location: La Crosse, WI | My favorite trip so far was a weekend I took up to the Minocqua area with my dad and two of my best friends. We were fishing a lake we had never fished before and I caught a 40 inch tank within the first hour of fishing. I was ripping a crankbait in between a saddle in 20 feet of water when it hit out of no where. Later in the evening my buddy caught a 43 which was his personal best weight wise. The next day we fished hard and raised some nice fish but nothing hit the bag. It always feels great to go to a new body of water and have some success. Nothing beats fishing with your dad and a couple buddies. It also doesn't hurt that we had the GoPro working so I get to watch the footage over again. I think it was Dick Pearson who wrote that many fisherman fish their whole lives before they realize that it isn't about the fish you catch but the experience along the way. Most of my favorite memories aren't about the catches but more about the memories of the trip. | ||
| Clark A |
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Posts: 607 Location: Bloomington, MN | In June 1991 my friend Mark Roth and I did a quick weekend trip to Pelican Lake, WI.. Any trip to Pelican Lake is a great adventure whether the fish are cooperating or not, but we finally caught a top water bite. We didn't boat any giants, but we caught 7 in a day and a half, and lost at least that many. Gooch's Pups/Tallywackers and one I remember on a Creeper. That was the trip that I learned to have a bit more control over setting the hooks until I felt the fish, basically you just watched the other guys lure. I think we actually did a Rhinelander run to find Polaroid film cartridges! | ||
| jaultman |
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Posts: 1828 | mecoltin123 - 7/30/2014 10:14 PM I had an 11 fish day in the UP June 5th, 2012. The day before my birthday. No personal bests that day but man was it fun to see as many fish as I did in one day. The 45 in my profile picture was the cherry on top. Probably could have had a couple more had I had a fishing partner. So what was the recipe for that incredibly successful day? | ||
| mecoltin123 |
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Posts: 146 Location: Alsip, IL | The recipe for that day was stay on a productive body of water and throw big bucktails on the old river bed of that particular area. I got 4 on a showgirl in black and orange, when that was trashed I switched to a vibrax double 10 in white and got 3 in 45 minutes. I motored to the dam got out and went below during mid day and bagged 3 more down there. Later in the day got the 45 on a super model TI bucktail. All that action was before 6pm I stayed out thinking the sunset bite was going to be superb and didn't even raise one. Best day I've ever had. I did get my PB pike that day of 38.5 inches to, unfortunately fishing alone all the pics of it are awful. But some kayakers were nice enough to snap a pic of the 45 for me. | ||
| achotrod |
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Posts: 1283 | My best trip was about 13years ago. We were up on my annual family vacation up in Vilas Co. for a week. It was My dad, Mom, brother, Sister with her two girls and my other sister and her 2 boys. We also had 3 of me and my brothers best friends with us. It was tight living and us boys all slept on the floor in the porch for the week. That week we put 4 muskies in the net 34, 37, 32" tiger and a 48.75. My Buddy caught the 48.75 and it was the biggest fish we had ever seen and broke the net while I tried to put in the bag so I bear hugged it and got in in the boat. We were only a hundred yards from the dock where my dad had watched the catch so we motored over to show him. He was just as excited as we were and it was awesome to share it with him. Both my Dad and buddy have passed since then and it was the last trip we all went up together making it the most memorable. Not to mention we still havent boated a bigger fish since then. | ||
| Muskieman52 |
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Posts: 7 | 2 years ago fishing a metro lake on a dead calm sunny Saturday with jet skis, water skiers, and cruisers all around. The day was also ranked as a poor fishing day according to lunar charts. We caught a 51.5, 51, 50.5, 49.5, 41, 40, 39, 38. We also lost 3 other fish in the 35-42inch range and a fish that made the 51.5 look small... We still have no idea why they were going on what seemed like a terrible fishing day. | ||
| 2T Critter |
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Posts: 153 | Two trips I can distinctly remember. One: fishing alone caught five muskies, four pike, lost one muskie in four hours. Two: 26 muskies between partner and I on LOTW in a week, average size 44 1/4" | ||
| buckner |
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 Posts: 109 | I live in wv. We fish in elk river musky club. We were having a weekend tournament. I think there we close to 20 of us fishing. Me and my partner went to a very small very popular spot on a river. We expected it to be crowded but we were the only people there. We caught 8 that day. 4 for each of us. We went back after church on Sunday and my partner caught one more while trolling back to the truck. My partner had also lost a couple other fish. I got first in the tourney abd he got 2nd. I think there were 23 fish Caught in the tourney. It will be tough for us to ever beat that weekend here locally. | ||
| muskyroller |
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Posts: 1039 Location: North St. Paul, MN | Camping trip in northwest Ontario with my best friend from high school. We had talked about staying for cheap at the resort, and just camping instead of getting a cabin (I didn't have any money at the time). So, we did that for 3 1/2 days of fishing. Day 1: Fished a small lake, motor problems right away, went back to the resort and got the spare motor, back to the lake, motor problems with the spare, went back to the resort, asked for some help, got one of the motors running, finally back out to the original lake we wanted to fish. We wasted a solid 3+ hours that day. Fished from 11-7 and proceeded to catch 13 muskies all ranging from 32-36". That was a good day...what was to come the next two shatters it.... Day 2: Different lake, smaller than the first. Average size of all muskies caught this day was somewhere between 28"-31"...so they were small. BUT, when you and your partner catch 46 (21 for me, 25 for him) muskies it's kinda fun! Everything was caught on fudally's candy spin spinnerbaits and bucher slopmasters...it was a spinnerbait bite. Day 3: At this point we still haven't fished our favorite lake so we make the decision to do some portages to get to it. We proceeded to catch 11 that day on cranks, bucktails, and spinnerbaits. Biggest was a 38" prehistoric looking thing. All the fish were between 35-38", including a solid 35" tiger. On the way out through another lake we threw a few casts and I caught a little 30" to get the total to 12, six for each of us. Last Day: I was leaving that morning and my buddy's family was on their way up. We decided to stay close and fish a lake easy to get in and out. First cast of the morning, I'm still sitting down and get one to come in...buddy says you have one coming (I couldn't see as I was sitting) and I figure 8 and have it hit, only to get off right away...great start! See a few morning follows, have a tiger blow up my bucktail, but don't get hooks, and catch a bunch of northerns...all before having to pack up the truck and boat and heading home by myself. That trip for me will always be remembered because it was something we had talked about doing for about 8 years AND it lived up to, and exceeded all expectations. We didn't catch anything big, but we caught 71 muskies (32 by me, 39 by Ben). I believe that afternoon, Ben rented a boat, waiting for his family to get there and caught a 42" (biggest of the week for him and family) on a ciscokid topper. We both are married now with kids...I'm not sure when this trip will happen again, but hopefully someday when we can still do it, we hit those lakes and put a "hurtin'" on those muskies! | ||
| jaultman |
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Posts: 1828 | muskyroller - 8/1/2014 8:26 AM That trip for me will always be remembered because it was something we had talked about doing for about 8 years AND it lived up to, and exceeded all expectations. We didn't catch anything big, but we caught 71 muskies (32 by me, 39 by Ben). I believe that afternoon, Ben rented a boat, waiting for his family to get there and caught a 42" (biggest of the week for him and family) on a ciscokid topper. Wow. Do you think you could go repeat those results (more or less) almost any time? Or do you think you guys hit a perfect streak of weather (or something)? | ||
| muskyroller |
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Posts: 1039 Location: North St. Paul, MN | Weather and season I think had a lot to do with it. It was actually about 8 years ago to the day. I believe it was the end of July/first week of August. Very stable weather, light to moderate west winds all three days. We've been back to the lake where we caught 46, but haven't been close to that number since. I think we'd be able to get 50, but it would have to be perfect. There are that many fish in that lake where I could see us doing 50 in a day. | ||
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