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Posts: 192
| The thread on fighting a Muskie got me to thinking about another topic. What is the strangest way you've ever landed a Muskie? For me it was the time I lassoed one. I was using a Burt jerk bait and a 43" inch fish rolled on the bait and missed it but it got it's body into the line and the line then looped over the back hook of the lure. When I set the hook and pulled, the line cinched down tight around the fish and I pulled it in sideways and landed it. |
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Posts: 383
| My new 8'6" XXheavy rod snapped at the hook set. Landed the fish with the remaining 3' stub. |
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Posts: 8774
| Snagged a 40" in the tail trolling a few years ago. Fought like hell. I thought for sure it was a giant. Also noteworthy... Caught a 43 that hit like a ton of bricks, and then just gave up. At first I thought it was a small pike, and then was convinced it must have gotten all tangled up in weeds or a stick or something, because I was just reeling in dead weight. It wasn't until I got it to the boat that I looked down and realized it was a decent sized muskie. It didn't fight, it didn't thrash in the net, it didn't move when I was unhooking it, and it was in no hurry to get away when I released it. It looked healthy enough, but it was the most boring fish I have ever caught. |
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Posts: 1184
Location: Iowa Great Lakes | Hooked one in the arse last year, on a Weagle.... pulled loose at the net, still trying to figure out how that happened without seeing her hit the bait....Had one skyrocket 4' out of the water after the 8 I went back down and she hit first turn... Another I never saw untill after swinging back to cast, saw her and dropped the bait in the water and she smoked it on the first turn...Netted a friends after he broke his rod in 3 pieces......Another one of his to this day dont think ever had a hook in her she just wouldnt release the bait clamped in her mouth...
Edited by shaley 4/25/2013 7:40 PM
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| Taking the hooks out of a 36" in the net, partners squirrly burt is floating in chop 3 foot from the boat. 24" little guy smashes it going into the air and almost lands in the net with the 36." Still laughing at that one.... |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Trolling with PointerPride on Green Bay several years ago, and the out rod goes off. I start reeling, as I'm up. Nothing there. So I start pumping the rod to get the lure in faster, as it's out there over 100 feet. All of a sudden I'm snagged...except there's a huge tail that flies out of the water. Next thing you know, we're in a battle with a fish that I can't do anything with. Felt like the biggest musky I'd ever seen, much less hooked. Turns out to be a FAT 48-49" fish, foul-hooked by one barbless hook...in the shoulder, right in back of the gill plate.
15 minutes later we finally got her to the boat and into the net--but not before it swims under the bow a couple times. As soon as I let the tension off the line with the fish in the net, the one hook just fell out of it's body. I still remember to this day that Pointer just about ripped the trolling motor off the bow trying to get it out of the way. Twice. You buy them books, send them to school, and then that happens!
Great memories...
TB |
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Posts: 164
Location: Bloomington,MN | last year i got a 44 on lake bemidji fishing off the docks right on campus. Anyways, I was throwing for bass with a spinnerbait and hooked up, fought the fish for about 5 minutes and 10 ft from the dock the line snapped. As i was fighting the fish I flagged down a near by walleye fisherman so he was motoring in as I was fighting it. The fish snapped the line and swam about 15 ft and stopped, by this time the guy in the boat was right near shore and he took his walleye net and netted the fish. Half of the fish was out of the net so I jumped in and got control of the fish, took some pics and off she went. It was one heck of a situation |
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Location: Not far enough north! | One of the coolest in my boat was up on LOTW a few years ago. Mid forties fish follows my bucktail to the boat I instinctively say follow at the same time my cousin says it too. Look down and there are two fish one at the front of the boat one at the back. My fish went around a couple eights and sank away. My cousins is just cruising around the eight gills flaring and gonna eat. However she just wouldnt commit and wouldn't leave. He did everything right deeper, shallower, faster, slower... the fish wouldn't go. Now I'm not kidding about 10 minutes into the eight my cousin is exhausted on his knees on the bow fish still behind the bait and I get an IDEA! I grab one of my rods with a hard head attached and say were gonna do a hand off. So in one smooth motion I grabbed his rod and he grabbed mine. I took the original bait out of the water and he continued the eight with the new bait and on the second turn the fish smashed the hard head. Worst part of the whole story is the after all that effort the fish shook off the bait with a couple head shakes. But it sure was a cool move.
However we did catch the other fish the next next day on the same spot. A nice fat 45...
Edited by Farmer Rick 4/25/2013 8:31 PM
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Posts: 303
Location: WI | I had the foot of my reel snap off on a hookset, leaving me with rod in one hand, reel in the other. I tried as quickly as possible to figure out my next move.... I dropped the reel in bottom of the boat and grabbed the line...partner came over to assist in hand lining. We got the fish in the boat and had a good reason to high five. |
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Posts: 540
Location: MN | In 09 I got a 53" that almost ripped the rod from my hands but after the initial hit I just reeled it to the boat it never shook its head jumped or did anything. The bucktail was firmly planted in the corner of its mouth. Everyother fish I got that year fought like a beast. |
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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | Had a couple of regular clients out a few years ago. It was early October and we were casting and pulling meat. Had just relased a mid 40" fish and drifted off the spot we were fishing. As I was getting things back in order, a fish grabs a sucker out in the middle of nowhere. Client sets the hook and is fighting the fish and the reel comes off the rod (apparently it had loosened up at some point). So now he's holding the rod in one hand and the reel in the other. His partner grabs the reel, he holds the rod, and the 2 double team the fish to get it in the net. So not only did we have 2 fish in a few mins, but the second was a team effort. We all got a good laugh out of that one, as every time I guide him, something goofy happens (he's also broken a rod on a hookset and got the fish in fighting it with a 3' stub of a rod lol).
Good times! |
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Posts: 117
| Had a fish come up and go for a baby duck, the duck got away, I obviously then casted towards it and it ate the bait as soon as it hit the surface of the water. That will never happen again. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | tcbetka - 4/25/2013 7:14 PM
Trolling with PointerPride on Green Bay several years ago, and the out rod goes off. I start reeling, as I'm up. Nothing there. So I start pumping the rod to get the lure in faster, as it's out there over 100 feet. All of a sudden I'm snagged...except there's a huge tail that flies out of the water. Next thing you know, we're in a battle with a fish that I can't do anything with. Felt like the biggest musky I'd ever seen, much less hooked. Turns out to be a FAT 48-49" fish, foul-hooked by one barbless hook...in the shoulder, right in back of the gill plate.
15 minutes later we finally got her to the boat and into the net--but not before it swims under the bow a couple times. As soon as I let the tension off the line with the fish in the net, the one hook just fell out of it's body. I still remember to this day that Pointer just about ripped the trolling motor off the bow trying to get it out of the way. Twice. You buy them books, send them to school, and then that happens!
Great memories...
TB
I also fought through a leg cramp from the cold weather that day. I believe I distinctly remember the words "world record" spoken during that battle.
To this day I don't know why the trolling motor didn't lock in the first time.
That was a fun fish. |
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Posts: 2024
| Are ducklings considered "live bait"? |
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Posts: 265
Location: McGuire AFB, NJ | While taking a short rest from slanging dogs up on a small lake near eagle river I left my bait in the water with maybe six inches of line and was surveying the landscape ahead. I looked down and saw a small 24'' trying to eat the dawg boat side. Didn't get any hooks in him but got a good laugh out of it. Only musky we saw all day.
This wasn't the first encounter of this type. Ole' Musky Matt and I were tossing dogs one day and I snagged a stump. He left his bait in the water and gave me a hand running the boat. After messing with it for a minute of two I was able to get the bait off the stump. We swapped spots and I put the trolling motor on high and moved back to the ledge we were fishing. No sooner than that kid picked up his rod I hear him screaming like a little girl...."I've got him...I've got him" I look back and see a monster head thrashing out of the water like crazy. Never in my life have I laughed so hard. Ended up being a fatty and one of the nicer fish wish caught that year. I still give him crap about it to this day. Guess he had been eyeing the thing for a while and when Matt picked up the rod he smashed it.
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | Its been 24 years, but I caught a 42" on a 1/8 oz crappie jig and 6 lb line. That was my largest Muskie that year.  |
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Posts: 633
Location: Madison, WI | during a tournament last year we were 6 hrs in and hadn't seen a fish. we drifted in off the weed edge on top of the weed bed and after a couple minutes i noticed a decent musky just lying buried in the weeds. not wanting to spook the fish i backed off and we gently tossed some baits at it. after 3-4 casts it was obvious the fish didnt want those baits, so we changed up and tried again. still no luck. fish never moved a muscle. being the only fish we had seen i decided im not going to leave this fish alone until it either swims away or eats! i get the boat directly over the fish and drop a phantom to the bottom an inch in front of its face, and still the fish never moved. i slowly pulled the phantom up and drop it on the fishes head and BAM gills flare and it sucks it in! turns out that 38" fish was the best of the day and we won that tournament! |
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Posts: 246
| Not me but in my boat, my dad was chasing some bluegills one hot august afternoon while I was tossing bucktails just drifting along and all of a sudden his ultralight with 4lb test starts singing. We both look at each other like what the hell and then a muskie jumps a distance away when it dawned on us. Thankfully it swam away from the shallow rocks towards open water. He ended up with a 36" muskie. Only fish in the boat that day. I now call night crawlers muskie bait, the tackle shop guys kinda look at me sideways when I say it. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Pointerpride102 - 4/28/2013 11:52 PM
I also fought through a leg cramp from the cold weather that day. I believe I distinctly remember the words "world record" spoken during that battle.
To this day I don't know why the trolling motor didn't lock in the first time.
That was a fun fish.
LMAO! I don't know about the words "World Record," but when it first came out of the water, the thing looked like it was pushing 60" because of where it was hooked and the angle...and the fact that there were 2-foot waves washing over the fish. I remember it was pretty windy that day.
I also remember that day because you got your SECOND 50+ inch fish, and I told you right where it would hit. It was right after the Packers knelt-down in the "V" formation. Then you got musky crap all over my boat!
That was a fun two weeks, with 4-5 fish over 50" in the boat--the largest of which was a monster...
TB |
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Posts: 20211
Location: oswego, il | I was doing that thing everybody in vilas hates but not there and we bag a 37 on a down rod. I pit the fish back in the water and grab a planer board rod, bring it in, take the board off, follow, 3 go rounds on the 8 with a 3ft leader and I have a 42 in the net and the 37 had not swam off yet.
set up a sucker once set it in the water, bobber got 10ft away and went down, 38 in the net and we did not even have a casting rod out. next weekend same thing only we were shallow and I set the sucker next to the motor, before I grabbed a rod a 33 ate with 3ft of line next to the motor and the rod not in the holder, same thing happened minutes later to the other rod but that one got loose.
Edited by ToddM 4/29/2013 7:58 PM
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Posts: 1023
| Caught a 48 off the dock while talking about how perty my new dawg looked to my 10 year old daughter. My wife said that it looked ridiculously big and I entered into the eight and out came a solid 4'er from under the dock. My kids wouldn't swim for a day after that.
Lasood a ski on once on a squirko.
Threw back at a deep fish following the boat on st Clair last summer. Dropped a dawg on the bottom in front of it and it tipped down and sucked it up like a bass on a craw. My buddy did the same thing 30 min later.
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Posts: 192
| I've got a couple more weird ones.
I snagged up an Ernie down deep in standing timber. Couldn't get it loose so I got out one of those blue lure dogs on a rope and sent it down after the bait. Kept at it for five minutes and finally freed up the lure and was bringing it back up with the lure retriever in a big wad. Had a 40" fish follow that mess all the way up to the boat and the fish hovered boat side for a good thirty seconds before swimming off. I had such a tangled mess at my feet that I had no hope of making a cast.
I hooked up another muskie on the first cast of the morning using a Doc topwater lure. As I was fighting the fish and my partner was getting the net ready the fish ran head first into the shaft of the trolling motor. It made a hell of a thump when it hit and sort of knocked the fish for a loop. We netted it and let it go. |
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Posts: 696
Location: Northern Illinois | Got done reading the article Joe Bucher wrote about figure-8n the entire drift. The fishing was slow overall so I said ah what the heck. I had a walleye-glitter magnum bulldog on. I probably did around 80+ figure-8s and my uncle and my dad were just laughing at me and calling me an idiot. A few seconds later a 36" jump from underneath the boat and drilled the lure. The fight didn't last long and we got her netted. Released her and the sad thing is I never again did that strategy again. SMH thinking about it right now. |
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Posts: 463
Location: Sw Pennsylvania | This happened a few years ago, we were runnin a 6 rod trolling spread. The side rod on the drivers side managed to get caught in the rod straight out the back. As it was reeled up the lure was coming straight up the line on the back rod. The lure came up and got 6" out of the water when a low 40"s musky comes out of nowhere and grabs the lure that is out of the water attached to the other line. It stayed hooked up for about 10 seconds, but all 3 of us in the boat spent that time laughing and stunned at what had just happened. |
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Posts: 96
| I was trolling West Okoboji last summer with a perch colored super shad rap and we finished the trolling pass and were gonna move spots and switch baits so I left it floating in the water while messing with the other rod. Out of no where a pike hammered it and went airborne and almost landed right in the boat. |
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Posts: 16
| my most memorable strange encounter was short line trolling with my dad he had many doubts about the tactic thinking it ridiculous that a fish would grab a lure so close to the boat after hours of persuading he agreed to it and as i was getting ready to put the first rod in the water a mid thirty inch muskie came jumping out of the water trying to grab the lure hanging in the air needless to say he is strong believer in this tactic now |
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Posts: 546
Location: MN | rumbler - 4/25/2013 8:29 PM
last year i got a 44 on lake bemidji fishing off the docks right on campus. Anyways, I was throwing for bass with a spinnerbait and hooked up, fought the fish for about 5 minutes and 10 ft from the dock the line snapped. As i was fighting the fish I flagged down a near by walleye fisherman so he was motoring in as I was fighting it. The fish snapped the line and swam about 15 ft and stopped, by this time the guy in the boat was right near shore and he took his walleye net and netted the fish. Half of the fish was out of the net so I jumped in and got control of the fish, took some pics and off she went. It was one heck of a situation
That's pretty neat |
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Posts: 1937
Location: Black Creek, WI | One that comes to mind for me was a fish that went into a figure8 and after a few laps it veered off... set itself up for an attack from down deep, and when it attacked... it launched itself into the air like a dolphin... bounced off my front casting platform... and landed right in the cockpit of the boat. It never made contact with the bait! Gotta say, the fish were truly "jumping into the boat" that day. |
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Posts: 2012
| good thread - made me think of multiple "strange" catches. Wish I had video of these....
1) Muskie hits a Merganser so hard it breaks its wing...bird makes it to shore flapping one good wing...switch baits quick 47ish fish eats TR - Big headed "duck eater".
2) Its cold wind rainy early Oct. Fish eats Weagle second cast of the day - I set the hook rod slips out of my hand into the drink...I dive into 51 degree water...grab rod as its sinking....jump back in boat land 45" fish.
3)Tail hooked 20+ pounder on DDD ...ya they feel like giants tail hooked!
4) Mid 40" fish jumping in the boat on hook set after she is hot in the 8 for 10 laps....Broke 2 rods!!
5) Last. but not least..would be my buddy somehow getting the line wrapped around his neck on the hook set of a mag dawg....to this day I have no idea how this was done he said the "fish was running at him"? Anyway he is screaming the fish is fighting hard, I'm trying to get the line from around his neck and cant stop laughing....he ends up landing a heck of a nice 47" fish that at the time was his PB!
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| First musky I ever caught. 44". Was casting a buckertail with a grub tail on it. Got a super bad backlash. Sit down and work on getting backlash out for about 2 minutes, lure is dragging bottom about 20 ft out. All of a sudden my rod about pulls out of my hands. First one I ever caught and I've been an addict ever since. |
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| Was fishin indianas barbee chain yesterday in higher than normal water levels and had a mid forties crush a fat az raptor jerkbait fought it within two feet of the net when she shook the hook, on further inspection one of her teeth was stuck on the rear treble |
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Posts: 300
| 2011, my wife and I were planning to fish a local lake. We left the house, forgot the suckers at home. We turned around and grabbed them, and we were off. We got the boat launched, and I went to rig the sucker. I reached for my gear bag, and realized I left it in the kitchen. I just so happened to bring an old harness my brother gave me YEARS ago. I figured, it was better than nothing. I have little to no patience when it comes to suckers, so my wife gets to babysit. We were fishing along a spot that I had been drooling over ALL year. All of a sudden, the sucker stays put, as we continue on. I thought for sure the stupid sucker swam off and buried itself in the thick weeds (my favorite). My wife grabs the rod and looks at me funny. I asked her what was going on. She said she wasn't quite sure. I asked her if there was a fish on there. Before she could answer, she set the hook hard. The next thing I see is a gold side, flash past the side of the boat. Two seconds later, the line goes limp, and I see the sucker still on the harness. Our hearts sank. I pulled the sucker out, and checked it over. There was a gash on its side deep enough that I could see the spine. My wife is ready to cry for loosing a fish on a old crispy sucker harness. I told her not to worry. I pitched the almost dead sucker back to see if it was even alive. It was, and started kicking. All of a sudden, all I see is mouth and teeth, and no more sucker. I waited a few seconds, and set the hooks as hard as I could. The fish swirled, and I saw the sucker fly out of its mouth, but she still had hooks. After a little battle, the fish was in the bag. A fat 41.25", still my PB. Took some pics and sent her back. As we are celebrating, a little old lady came flying down to the water to let us know she had hung up on her son to watch what was going on. Not a day goes by that I don't think about the day that started so wrong, but ended so beautifully. |
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Posts: 280
Location: McFarland | This one was about as strange as I've ever caught. Poor little fella...
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Posts: 1286
Location: WI | Hooked one trolling and it jumped right away. Started reeling it in and lost it soon after. Reeled in a bunch of slack and hooked it again. Came in hooked under the mouth. I think it rolled in the line when it jumped, then I reeled the slack that was around the fish and the bait ended up near the mouth again. It was definately not hooked for a little while. Strange. |
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Posts: 128
| LAst year fishing a bass tournament on Forest lake here in the metro. Found a bunch of nice bass stacked up on a weed edge...A larger predator was also utilizing that same weed edge. I set the hook on a bass about three and a half pounds or so, in typical bass fashion, the fish went airborne. Mid- air the bass is slammed by a 43" Muskie that was also simultaneously airborne, the Muskie lost it's grasp on the bass but was determined to eat it's meal. I'm trying to get the bass to the boat as quickly as possible when the muskie shows up boatside. Don't know if it was just dumb instinct on my part or what, but for some reason I automatically went into a figure eight with the bass, and on the second turn the Muskie hammered it. Girlfriend grabs the net, wipes out on way to front of boat, and nets both fish at the same time. Unfortunately the bass was too mangled to weigh in as we finished under 3 Lbs. out of first place. Did get a nice photo memory of a chunky lil' 43"er though. |
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