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Put another blog on the fire...
6/26/2005 10:24:48 PM
Dear Blog:

Well after all that foolishness, and this being a muskie website and all, I suppose I'd best get down to business and blog something about muskies.

My first ever encounter with a muskie was in July of 1978. Yes, if memory serves, the earth was cool then. I graduated from High School that year and my present from my folks was a 3 day guided fishing trip on Leech Lake. which for me was the perfect present. I'd much rather of had this than a car.

We weren't really going after muskies. Dad, when he did have sometime to take me fishing, was a panfisherman. He wanted fish to eat. This trip was supposed to be a walleye and northern fishing trip, which we did spend most of our time doing, but I was able to talk him into a little muskie fishing. We had never fished muskie before but I had this grandious dream of catching a 30# pike. Silly me, as I was to later learn that 30# pike were pretty rare even back then.

But I had a Garcia 6000c on a Shakespere Wonder rod. I still use the reel. I have it on my heavy jerkbait rod. That old and it's still stronger than the reels on the market nowdays. Not as smooth as the new ones but a lot more muscle.

Dad had hired an old time guide by the name of Marv Utke (sp?) He worked out of Huddles resort on the South of Leech Lake. Dad and I had never been on big water before and the first morning the lake was really rolling. Marv had a 18 foot flat bottom bench seat crestliner boat with a 25 horse tiller evinrude. This was a big fishing boat back then, but by todays standerds it was small, my new boat is bigger than this.

The waves were bigger than anything we had ever been in before and in reality I can't say after this many years just how big they were but suffice it to say they were scaring the P**s out of us. I looked at Dad and he at me and it's hard to say who's eyes were bigger. I know I was wondering if it was safe to be out, i'm sure he was also. Later that day we did get chased off the lake by a tornado that touched down near the Annex area of the lake. We had been fishing near there and Marv said it was time to get off the lake and just as we tied up at the boathouse the weather radio said a tornado had touched down out where we just were.

The next day we drifted for walleye and trolled for pike. We were doing ok with some fish on the stringer and an 10 pound pike caught. So I asked if we could try for a muskie.

We started casting for them and I was given a green cisco kid crankbait to use. I was told to figure 8 and shown how to do it, but of course being an 18 year old kid I knew it all and didn't bother to do so. After awhile with nothing happening I started to get bored and didn't pay attention. I would just lift the lure right out of the water at the end of the retrieve and start my next cast. No figure 8 and wasn't watching for follows. ( You guys know what's about to happen, don't you?) It did!

I lifted the lure out of the water and when it was about level with the top of my head, I'm 6'2", a muskie explodes out of the water after it. It jumped so high out of the water that to this day I swear that I was eyeball to eyeball with this fish. Scared me almost to death. My heart litteraly skipped a couple of beats. I jumped backwards and almost jumped right out of the boat! The fish, of course, missed the lure by a mile and fell back into the lake. Marv and Dad saw what happend and they were laughing their butts off. My heart was pounding and I was pantting for breath. My hands were shaking and I had to sit down. I asked Marv how big he thought the fish was, he estimated about 15 pounds or so. Back then everything was measured by pounds not inches like today. Different era and fishing ethics and culture. So not a big fish by anymeans but it was the biggest fish of any species that I had ever seen to that point.

Well, I didn't catch that muskie or any other for that matter. But it planted a seed and I supppose you could say, that after all these years, it caught me and hooked me so well that while humans may be catch and release with muskies, muskies don't catch and release humans.

Put another blog on the fire.
Cook me up some bacon and some beans.




Posted by dogboy on 6/30/2005 11:34:40 AM
You'll never be released of the muskie sickness. once you've been bit and the slime gets in you, you're done. All you can do is try to find the annecdote on your favorite lake.

dude, you write a lot.


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