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| Just finishing up my first full muskie season but now what the heck do I do to pass the time!!!>??? |
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Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | Do some research on world record muskies and post your opinions about their validity. |
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Posts: 265
Location: McGuire AFB, NJ | Buy a crap ton of new lures, have them sent to your neighbor's house so your wife doesn't find out. Start planing all your trips for next years season. Watch musky hunter, next bite, and other musky related shows on t.v. as often as possible. Purchase surplus musky video's when people sell them here. or.....
take a trip down to my part of the woods and keep fishing  it was 65 degrees this weekend! |
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Posts: 529
Location: Not Where I Want To Be | Go into Hibernation |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | Plan and go on a trip south to salt water fish while the winter crawls by, or plan a trip for next season to somewhere that you haven't muskie fished before.
The trip south can involve your significant other and kids, if you have them.
Plan activities for them, but make sure that you get your fishing time as well. It gets you fishing plus "brownie points" for future benefit!
Everyone wins!
Edited by Steve Van Lieshout 11/16/2009 3:36 PM
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Posts: 1184
Location: Iowa Great Lakes | Go ice fishing and see the ones yet to be caught. |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Put Down The Rod, and RUN Away as fast as you can....................Quit while your ahead !
You'll thank me some day.
Jerome |
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Posts: 69
Location: janesville | hit the ice for some big pannies and some slob northerns on tip-ups. then just repeat every weekend or day off. i have fun fishing in all four seasons. |
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Posts: 1460
Location: Kronenwetter, WI | Order some components and start tying your own bucktails. Hit the local clearance bins for 75% off lures, sell them on ebay then use the profits to buy baits you really want. Find some pals and plan a trip to a winter musky show. Find out which network carries Keys Outdoors and make sure you have that in your channel line-up. |
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Posts: 158
| Every year on December 1st I am cryogenically frozen so time stands still for me. It is like a short nap. The doctors play the first couple of seasons of Musky Hunter on a continous loop for me. This keeps me sharp. Then they warm me up in the spring around late April so I have time to fish Iowa and WI a couple times before MN opener. This is also the same thing that happened to Han Solo, he loved to fish muskies. This is the best off season approach. Good luck, it's a long shaky winter. |
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Posts: 315
| go catch a redfish down south (they are fun)
go icefishing, or make your own baits (i wanna try that)
-ba-
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Posts: 553
Location: 15 miles east of Lake Kinkaid | Saltwater fishing a blast...and if you have never caught an amberjack, Jack Crevalle, or any tuna species you need to do it. Muskies are strong but saltwater fish blow them out of the water. It also may give you a sense of how much "easier" other species are to catch compares to musky(even species that average 30-60 pounds). Or like AFChris said come down south...Melton Hill, Kinkaid, Green River, Cave Run...etc. all hold big fish and are good action lakes. BTW....AFChris we sure do have it good down here in Carbondale huh? |
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Posts: 553
Location: 15 miles east of Lake Kinkaid | Amberjack:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2681284220083767820CfyouA
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Posts: 315
| ive decided to go down to sarasota this year in early may for permit and maybe some tarpon action......uggg i cant wait.
-ba- |
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Posts: 3913
| Tear down, clean, lubricate and rebuild your reels. Maybe upgrade some parts like drag washers, bearings, or gears.
Put all your baits in the dishwasher and let her rip. Takes about 20 minutes to fill the dishwasher and about 2 weeks to get all those baits out of there.
Buy an excellent file and sharpen every single hook point on every single bait you own. Then go back and paint all the fresh metal with a perm majic marker, the ink prevents corrosion. Power sharpeners are tempting but take off too much metal.
Take off your trailer tires/wheels, pop out ALL the bearings parts and rebuild everything, including new tires. Talk about confidence on the road.
Get a DuBros(sp) wire leader tool, some solid wire, swivels and stringease snaps and make glider leaders for yourself and all your buddies. Likewise, you can go sevenstrand (crimps) to make leaders for jig/creatures, or flouro for other leader needs. Leaders are EASY to make and you can save a bundle over time.
Order 10,000 mousies from an on-line bait shop, pack them up a couple dozen at a time and sell them to ice fisherfolk.
Begin collecting lake and river maps. Put them in those nifty plastic sleeves that fit in a 3-ring binder, taping the top closed to make things waterproof. Later, you can pull out only the maps you need.
Read "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand and tell me if the whole 1,200 page book is simply a thourough discussion of "organizations exist primarily to make profits" vs. "organizations exist primarily to contribute to the improvement of society".
Send me $1/week until April Fools Day. (If you do this one, I'll read that book and fill you in.)
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Posts: 32934
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I spend my winter free time ice fishing and hunting. This March, Sue and I'll be headed to Arkansas to spend a week catching bass, crappies, and Stripers.
I have a great time shooting video on the ice. Have seen LOTS of muskies on camera while fishing. This year, the Frabill R2 Tech will be on the ice almost every day.
Ranger, one more premise for 'Atlas Shrugged', "organizations exist to make profits which contribute to the creation and improvement of infrastructure keeping everyone busy and therefore under some semblance of control, therefore improving society". Or not... A buck a week ain't enough. |
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Posts: 3913
| Well, sure, Steve, you gotta have infrastructure to run a railroad. I see the "control" part is required, though, as she was a devout athiest. And this topic isn't for the boards here.
Send me my hat and I'll drop the whole thing. |
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Posts: 32934
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Gotta get some made, we've been out for months. Have to have a few ordered, they won't just build us one. Got LOTS of WalleyeFIRST hats, though... |
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| Catch up on what you neglected to do during the open water season.
Free time? Take a hike. |
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| When does Keyes air again? I assume it hasn't already, please correct me if I'm wrong. |
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Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | I finally get to do a lot more trout fishing this winter. My wife is at home with the kids, so early morning trips to the river for some steel and brownies will happen on a weekly basis. Nothing like popping some chrome first thing in the AM and getting home and hour or 2 later to a nice warm breakfast.
I also plan on annoying the daylights out of Slamr all winter, complaining that it's too cold, that the wife cleans too much, and doesn't let me go out with the boys enough. Oh yeah, and a few fooseball tournaments should round the winter off nicely. But alas, we still have open water. :) |
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Posts: 880
Location: New Berlin,Wisconsin,53151 | Open the drapes on our southern exposure and sit in my recliner and count the red lines on the back of my eyelids. Then make sure that you have enough rum and brandy for the Tom & Jerry's around the holidays. After the 1st of the year get everything together and rebuild, replace, spool and sharpen. But alas, we still have open water. Wait tuffy1 just said that.....
Happy Holidays everyone......
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Posts: 8834
| I don't know about you, but by the end of the season my gear needs enough work to keep me busy all winter. Rods with bad guides, reels that need to be cleaned and re-spooled, lures with hooks missing, hooks that need to be sharpened, this or that that is broken... One thing I do every year is I go through all my tackle. Take what I have too many of or just don't use and sell it at one of the swap meets, make sure I am good to go with hooks, leaders, snaps, split rings, etc. Wipe down all your tools with a little WD-40 so they don't rust over the winter, get your reels repaired, check all your guides, make a list for your next trip to Rollie and Helens...
The list is endless! And before you know it you find youself a week from your first trip in April, STILL scrambling to get everything ready. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Netman - 11/17/2009 12:37 PM
Open the drapes on our southern exposure and sit in my recliner
Boy if I could get a recliner at the Southern Exposure down here....... |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | I'm going to learn how to catch tulibee through the ice. they are so #*^@ tasty smoked! Please PM me if you have any tips. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | Get up in a tree. |
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Posts: 727
| I ice fish everyday possible, also starting to get into coyote hunting. |
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Posts: 123
| really funny/insightful answers, <!!>
we mid-atlantic guys keep fishing river musky until the next year dawns, then pick it up again (bad habit).
Edited by curdmudgeon 11/17/2009 10:38 PM
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Posts: 1296
Location: WI | Drink beer, shoot pool, play guitar, and go snowboarding. Also read a ton of books and work. |
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Posts: 284
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Go south but not to the saltwater ... no closed muskie season in a lot of states. |
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Posts: 2068
| Saltwater fishing the Pacific! Fly fishing and casting topwater to marlin, mahi-mahi, and roosterfish is hard to beat!!! |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | I get caught up! I build two or three fly rods, and get my personal boxes full, then start working on getting flies and baits tied up so when the orders start coming in in the Spring, I'm ahead of the game.
Oh, and I'll be deployed this year again to somewhere in S. America looking for bad guys, so that'll take up some time too. |
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Posts: 137
| Here is what you can do....
Sit back and replay all the giant muskies that you lost during your first season of muskie fishing. Because no one ever loses any small fish do they? And know that you will have to get used to those types of thoughts, because they will haunt you forever. And then just think about how many more giant fish you are going to encounter and lose again next year, and even more the year after that and the year after that, and on and on and on.... Or you can reflect back on all the time you should have been working on the house, fixing the leaking skylight that you promised your wife you would get to the week after next, only now it's three months later and you are trying not to remind her about it because she somehow forgot about it too...(only you know, deep down, she really didn't and you are in for a reckoning at some point in time that the world has never seen the like of!) Then there is the money you spent on the reels that you broke, or the rod that you dropped in the lake, or the lure that you lost when your stupid reel backlashed and your line snapped and your pounder flew into the netherworld below the waters surface the day after it arrived in the mail and it was the last walleye colored pounder that they had in the store! And don't forget about the trailer lights you just rewired last week, and now the other light on the right hand side went out...(*&(*&XX!!! And you can definitely spend a good amount of time reminiscing about the fights you had with your brother about which spot is the better spot to try out and who knows more about muskie fishing in the boat and the fight later on that resulted from no fish being caught on either spot at the end of the day and who's idea was it to skip the point on the other side of the lake, anyway, not MINE!!!! You can cherish those many sweet memories of days spent fishing out in gale force winds and freezing cold rain that chilled you to the bone and that would make the weather guys that stand on the beach in hurricanes look like woosies. Or better yet, think back on those nice sunny pleasant days with no clouds at all, but of course, no fish at all either, and you just keep asking yourself, why isn't there wind and rain so I can catch a friggin fish! Oh, and the Jetski's, can't forget about the JETSKI'S!!!!!!
And then you can ask yourself if it is really worth all the fuss and hassle, the time and money, the pain and suffering.
But before you come to a conclusion....
Think about the most memorable fish you caught this year....how it hit your favorite bait on the figure eight after you did everything right, and how it was barely hooked and yet you somehow fought it around the boat and under the trolling motor and your brother had an awesome net job right when it started to do a massive headshake and it ended up being your personal best, and how the adrenaline was flowing through your body so badly that your hands looked like they belonged to someone else, but you somehow managed to get it unhooked quickly and got her back in the water and watched her swim away strong with a slap of the tail that sent spray in your face. How afterward, you got a high five from your brother who is always there to fish with you when the time is right and how you took a few moments to sit back and relax for the first time that day and while reflecting on the fish you just caught you stopped and really took in the squadron of geese flying through the air overhead in a perfect V formation. How you you breathed deeply and noticed the smell of the fall winds and burning leaves in the air. And how you realized just how perfect the world is when you are actually out in it, enjoying what most people avoid as they run about in traffic, spend time shopping for this and that or stand in line waiting for some sale on something they don't even need or really even want and couldn't use to catch a fish or cast a lure or sleep in under the stars. And most importantly you remember how much you really enjoyed that one singular moment when most times you can't seem to remember how the days and weeks and months went by so fast while you were hurrying around doing the things that you had to do to survive in this world filled with responsibilities and stress.
And when you think back on that one special moment in time, you will breathe a deep pleasant sigh, sit back in your recliner while you are stuck inside during a cold January day, and you will realize that you have somehow gotten yourself involved in one pretty unique and rewarding way of life. A way of life that is twisted, frustrating and far from the realm of how normal people would choose to spend their time, but rewarding nevertheless. And before you know it, the ice will be melting away, and you will get out all the new lures you shouldn't have bought over the winter, pull the boat out hibernation from the garage at 3 in the morning so you can be on the water at the crack of dawn for the first day out on the water and a new year of fishing memories and you will go out and do it all over again. |
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Posts: 137
| OH....you can also write really long posts on the internet too....I forgot to mention that somehow. |
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Posts: 731
Location: martinsburg wv | fish musky year round little deer hunting |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Toad,
What the.........???
Shut up and Fish !
Jerome |
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Posts: 17
| Soon will be heading to run my charter boat the Swordfish down in Costa Rica. My partner just put in a new Cummins diamond series diesel so am looking forward to getting out there fishing for marlin and sailfish. |
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Posts: 8834
| Or 'ya could just try to read Toad's entire post... |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Toad, my humor meter might be broken (which I doubt), but if that was an attempt at being funny the boat left the dock and you weren't anywhere near the dock. If there is a sale on a new sense of humor I'd look into purchasing one if I were you. |
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| Toad may need a sense of humor, but PointerPride could use a whole new personality. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Guest - 11/19/2009 10:47 PM
Toad may need a sense of humor, but PointerPride could use a whole new personality.
Have you checked the batteries on your sarcasm detector lately? My guess is they are running low. Try the E-Cells, they work well. |
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Posts: 1168
| Guest - 11/19/2009 11:47 PM
Toad may need a sense of humor, but PointerPride could use a whole new personality.
Toad may need a sense of humor, PointerPride may need a whole new personality, and 'Guest' could grow a pair of cojones and say this using a registered name instead of hiding in anonymity. |
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Posts: 342
Location: Passaic, NJ - Upper French River, ON | " Organizations exist as a parasitic host for the community organizer in chief." |
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Posts: 137
| Wheeewww, that's a relief....I'd hate to find out I did something funny when i wasn't trying to be. You could say it was long winded and wordy, yes, sappy, that too, I admit to being guilty of all these things when i get rolling sometimes on the keyboard after the ambien kicks in. I just like seeing how many people actually get sucked into reading one of those things. I was going for poigniant really, but probably not succeeding at that very well, either. I don't know, was that registering on anyones poignant meter? For future reference though, you'll know when I'm trying to be funny, because I type all my funny stuff in a funny pirate accent for added hilariousness. That kills.
I really was just answering the question in my own way and thinking that, as a muskie fisherman, at the end of the year you can always look back on your season and make an assessment on how things went. For me it was a rough year with a lot going badly on the home front that ended up translating to my time on the water. Enough that I wondered a lot why I do this crazy muskie fishing thing. But after things started to turn around for me on the water recently I realized again why I do what I do.
I guess I could have just said that and went and watched some basketball. My bad. As for purchasing a sense of humor, sounds like I'd spend my money better getting one of these "humor meter" thingamajigs. Then I would know when I was or wasn't being humorous, inadvertently or not, and avoid these highly embarrassing situations. I'd probably better buy a warranty for it, though, seeing as how they sound like they break quite a bit without anyone knowing.
Muskieaddict, I saw you trying to be funny too, luckily for you, I think you succeeded again.....this time.....but next time I will have me a meter to check...Yeaarrggg. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | ......strike two |
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| Seriously, sometimes people forget that when they respond to a post on the internet, they are actually responding to a person…not just some picture on a computer screen. No need to be an a-hole to someone you don’t know, is there? Would you say that to someone you met in person? You’re a kid still; you’ll figure it out eventually. |
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