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Posts: 2361
| Last year some fellow from KY decided he had enough of the limited musky fishing in KY and jumped off the ledge, selling all his musky stuff with the reasoning it just wasn't a doable thing to fish musky in KY. Sad story, I felt bad for the guy and the fact I didn't find out about it early enough so I could cherry pick the good stuff out of the pile... 
However, it is tough to reconcile what is actually available down here, to what is available to the guys living in the middle of the musky range. For years DougJ has come down here and entertained and traumatized me with tales of LOW musky fishing. I have made the annual pilgrimage up north fishing various lakes in Northern WI, and a recent side trip to MN to look at big fish swimming around in the water, and it is always depressing to return to reality. Life of the musky fisherman is an iffy thing down here. It can be good, and I have done very well a couple years, just staying in state and concentrating my trips in the fall, however, that hangs on water quality, not my fishing skills. My musky numbers for most years are bolstered by a double digit shot of WI fish, from what is usually one trip in late summer. It fits my nature to throw surface baits and run bucktails, and I love to see em strike. But the majority of the year I am using some kind of visual pull bait, and lately crankbaits, and have to keep up my concentration and timing, lest I blow the one strike a day that can be the feature of trips down here. I am not driven as I once was to fish. I used to fish in some awful crap down here just on the basis that I "believed". Now I look at the weather and I am ok sitting at home when it is a sub 40 degree rain going on, heavy winds, sunny, or general other crap conditions. I don't stay until sunset all the time anymore. I know it's costing me fish but, I also know there will probably be another day, and there will be other fish. It gets to be kind of a repetitive process of casting and retrieving and noting the many daily, weekly and yearly changes in water and cover conditions. It is both comfort and enjoyment for the COD musky fisherman, occassionally interrupted by an actual fish. Once in a while, conditons get looking so hinky and sparky, I actually retie my knots, splurge on new, unkinked leaders, check my drags, sharpen my hooks and get up early enough to hit the daylight bite. Not often enough......but.....sometimes.
I can understand that people quit musky fishing. I pass up a lot of interesting and fun fishing down here just to musky fish. Time and resources are limited. You dedicate them to what you like best, but you can't be everywhere. I have started to fish stripers on the bank in the spring at night, on a regular basis. OK, it's just a striper, but it is once again the process, cast cast cast in the darkness and all of a sudden !!!! I sometimes choose stripers over musky, because time and work considerations make it darn tough to do both(oh to be in my 20's again). It is difficult to keep up on all the new lures, terminal equipment, electronics, etc. etc., and sometimes I feel like I am out of touch. I love to get an occassional fishing partner that can fill me in on the gossip, the hot lures, the choice of reels, the etc of it all...just doesn't happen enough.
So, I understand if you want to quit, if your time is limited, if you have a hard time catching fish, if the fish are actually non-native and rare. Everybody doesn't live where there are six fish per acre... If it gets to depressing and you want to hang it up, just remember what I am going to tell you, PM me right away, let me talk to you, I need to find out what musky fishing treasures you are going to get rid of before the rest of the scabs on this board pick you clean!!!
Edited by firstsixfeet 12/28/2010 8:17 AM
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| muskie suicide? Tis the season for stupid postings. | |
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Posts: 8828
| I live just outside of Chicago. The closest musky fishing is an hour and a half away in "the sewer" (a.k.a. Fox Chain)
Like FSF, just knowing there were muskies were enough in the first few years. The Souhern WI fisheries (2-1/2 hours away) kept me entertained for a bit longer, but even there it's not at all uncommon to chuck and wind all day long without as much as a sniff. These days I do most of my fishing in the Presque Isle area. But that's not something you can typically do if you have a day off, or even two. It's a 6-1/2 hour drive each way, and $250 in gas just to get there and back. Add in meals and lodging, and a day of lost pay, and it's easily a $500 weekend.
Musky suicide? There have been times when I look at it all and I think "Screw this, this is STUPID." Tens of thousands of dollars tied up in equipment, and for what? Two weeks a year, where I spend a month's salary, frantically trying to catch a few fish and make the expense worthwhile? I could get $5,000 for all my gear, and spend that two weeks in Hawaii on the beack drinking some fruity drink with an umbrella in it. Or I could take that $5,000 and buy my girlfriend that engagement ring she's been dying for for a year or so.
Now... I could always move to musky country. There was a time where that was the plan. But unless I want to wait tables or pour drinks for very little money and live in a trailer? That's not happening. I could do it if I was 20 years younger and single, but I'm not. I'll probably always do my usual week on Eagle Lake, but even that is hard to justify when you look at the cost. We could go to Europe for two weeks and stay in the best hotels, eat in the best restaurants, fly first class...
Don't get me wrong, I love musky fishing. I love all fishing. But the first fishing I'd call "decent" is 2-1/2 hours away. "good" fishing is a 4 hour drive. It's amazing how many people down here fish. 4 MI chapters within 50 miles. But when you look at the contest standings at the end of the year? Well, let's put it this way. I fished 8 days this last year, because that's all I could afford, and I didn't catch many fish this year. And I almost made the top ten.
Edited by esoxaddict 12/28/2010 11:50 AM
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Posts: 2361
| Uhm, EA, you know how to get in touch with me when your done!!
And I have a question, were anonymous posters castrated at birth or is it a hormone deficiency? | |
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Posts: 32926
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Mostly, FSF, they just don't read much. | |
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Posts: 20248
Location: oswego, il | I am 2:45 minutes away from the nearest lake that I would pull my boat to. Most are up closer to 3.5 to 4 hours away. The closest lake is 40 minutes away. It does not bother me, I make the drive and the sacrifice just for a day. Suicide for me would be to stay on the lakes close to me and fish every weekend and catch 10 fish. no thanks. | |
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Posts: 1530
| hi living here on st clair waiting till june again. i could go drill a hole and look into it for hours on end. to me thats suicide. instead of drlling ice holes across l.s.clair i will just eat dust and paint fumes. | |
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Posts: 2361
| ToddM - 12/28/2010 6:18 PM
I am 2:45 minutes away from the nearest lake that I would pull my boat to. Most are up closer to 3.5 to 4 hours away. The closest lake is 40 minutes away. It does not bother me, I make the drive and the sacrifice just for a day. Suicide for me would be to stay on the lakes close to me and fish every weekend and catch 10 fish. no thanks.
Geez Todd, now I have two reasons to feel sorry for you, your long drive to a decent lake, and your lack of the natural beauty I was blessed with. Give me a call when it gets to be too much. | |
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Posts: 123
| I didn't get to fish muskies this year, won't get to next year, and possibly won't get to in 2012. There are more important things in life than muskie fishing, so I didn't miss it too badly. Thanks to catch and release the fish will still be there in 2013 when I go after them again. Not a big deal. | |
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Posts: 12
| I would gladly trade you the Fox chain for any of your Kentucky lakes , Buckhorn , Cave Run , Green River. | |
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Posts: 2361
| pinkmusky - 12/29/2010 7:36 AM
I would gladly trade you the Fox chain for any of your Kentucky lakes , Buckhorn , Cave Run , Green River.
YOU'D GIVE UP SURFING ON THE BOAT WAKES???!!???  | |
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Location: Northern Wisconsin | I don't think I'll ever give up. I live an hour outside of Chicago and I don't fish the fox chain or shabbona but I do fish the fox river. It's a decent musky spot if you know where to find them. I pulled out a 45, 41, and 36 this year... all wading. And BTW these river fish fight harder than the avg muskie! It's exciting to be standing in knee deep water and have a fish follow hot and almost swim into your feet! When I can't find the muskie I have a blast with the smallies on the river.
And thankfully I'm almost done with my degree in education so my plans are to be looking for a teaching job up in wisconsin/minnesota/ other musky county in a couple years. | |
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Posts: 8828
| pinkmusky - 12/29/2010 7:36 AM
I would gladly trade you the Fox chain for any of your Kentucky lakes , Buckhorn , Cave Run , Green River.
I've only fished Cave Run a couple times, but... Are 'ya nuts? By 10:00 on a Saturday morning, fishing the Fox Chain, you are literally taking your life into your hands. There are so many boats out there they literally have crashes. | |
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Posts: 880
Location: New Berlin,Wisconsin,53151 | "Never say die; Never surrender" There going to have to pry my hands from that 8ft'r before I'll give up. There's a 50"r somewhere with my name on it and I'll be #*^@ed if I'll quit before it see's the frabil. I'd probably take 8 grand for everything.
Happy New Year,
Bruce | |
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Posts: 3156
| Well has somebody who was born in Minnesota and lived here all my life,, Id say think hard before you move here and so called musky heaven,,musky season lasts 5 months you have to also live the other 7 months too
high taxes,heating bills,laws up the ### a creeping bumper to bumper freeway system that offers little room to expand in the metro that never was planned for this to become a major population center .
cold,cold,cold,
land of 10,000 lakes "which means Humid summers"
welfare system that YOUR paying for Minneapolis is nicknamed 'Moneyapolis" among the welfare crowd.
and besides that were starting to see drop off in the Musky fisherie anyways.
like my mother used to say to me a 'million' times,,,How come our ancestors didnt have the comon sense to get the hell out of here!!!,,not very profound or poetic,,,but to the point.
Edited by happy hooker 12/29/2010 5:17 PM
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| I hope most would just take a season off before they do something like selling all their gear (usually for a fraction of what they paid for it). I've backed down to a couple outings a year, Many years ago, it was three or four times a week. No one says you have to be all in, or all out.
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Posts: 8828
| Well... It's easy to think about quitting when the lakes are frozen and you're looking at a whole ROOM full of fishing gear. But when that big girl comes charging up behind your bait in June? Ya, quitting? Not so much. | |
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Posts: 906
Location: Warroad, Mn | WARNING....WARNING....WARNING!!!!!! THIS IS A SCAM!!!! FSF is not thinking about quiting muskie fishing and is only looking for cheap stuff (not that I blame him, I like cheap stuff also). If anyone is thinking about quiting the sport I'd like to be second in line! Doug Johnson | |
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Posts: 2361
| dougj - 12/29/2010 6:37 PM
WARNING....WARNING....WARNING!!!!!! THIS IS A SCAM!!!! FSF is not thinking about quiting muskie fishing and is only looking for cheap stuff (not that I blame him, I like cheap stuff also). If anyone is thinking about quiting the sport I'd like to be second in line! Doug Johnson
DON'T BE POACHIN MY WATER JOHNSON!! | |
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Posts: 73
| Whether you Musky fish once or twice a year or a couple times a week—it really doesn’t matter. If you’re going to Musky fish at all, you’ve got to have the gear. And once you have it, it really isn’t costing you anything to keep it. But it’s always at a loss if you sell it. If there wasn’t a single Musky around the area, I’d still keep my stuff for when I had a chance to do an occasional trip, and fish for something else in the mean time. | |
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Posts: 994
Location: Minnesota: where it's tough to be a sportsfan! | When my guiding took me after bass and walleye only, I fished Muskie's went I went on vacation. Then after 10 years of fulltime guiding I had to go get a regular job to save my family togetherness. Then vacation "on water" time was at premium value. I stuck away a few cherrished Muskie baits and sold the rest. I didn't fish Muskies for years. Just really back into it now. All I can say once it's in you it doesn't go away. You can run but you cannot hide! | |
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Location: oswego, il | FSF, what is a Water Johnson? You earned your septor and I am keeping my baits.:-) | |
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Posts: 158
| I think folks mistake their local lakes as not being any good to frequently. They may not produce size, but those fish have to eat, so they should be catchable.
The issue is, if the lake is truly local, and you are a Musky addict, you will find your self there all the time......And by all the time I mean on days with lousy conditions. Bright, sunny hot days are days to fish for bass, or something else. Save the Musky fishing for the days with the best possible conditions, weather or season/water. | |
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| The love of musky fishing feeds our spirit or our ego. you can hear it from every fisherman when they talk. the ones that are thinking of suicide are tied to there ego. as for the ones that fish for our spirit are in haven on water! | |
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Posts: 909
| firstsixfeet - 12/29/2010 9:14 PM
dougj - 12/29/2010 6:37 PM
WARNING....WARNING....WARNING!!!!!! THIS IS A SCAM!!!! FSF is not thinking about quiting muskie fishing and is only looking for cheap stuff (not that I blame him, I like cheap stuff also). If anyone is thinking about quiting the sport I'd like to be second in line! Doug Johnson
DON'T BE POACHIN MY WATER JOHNSON!! ; )
I'd love to spend a few days fishing with you two! I bet its funner than watching comedy central! Good times for sure!
Brian | |
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Anybody contemplating musky fishing suicide?