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Posts: 7
| Things have been going pretty well for my fishing partner and I this year. It's all relative, but for us, catching or contacting a muskie on pretty much every outing this season. Mixed in with catching and contacting muskie there have been a good number of pike as well.
On our last outing, I hooked up with what I initially thought was a small pike. It was shallow water and I saw part of the fish as it hit. Not being all that interested in catching small pike, I was pretty lackadaisical with the hook set and how I played the fish. I told my fishing partner it was a small one, no big deal. When I got the fish to the boat I realized it was a muskie and not that small - under 40" and no PB, but still worth putting in the net at this point in my muskie hunting career. The problem was that my lackadaisical hook set hadn't been good enough and she came unhooked and was gone.
No big deal - my mistake and it wasn't a huge fish but it got me thinking. I've had good fish on strikes that didn't feel like much before. You really don't know for sure until you get the fish beside the boat or in the net. We talked about it afterwards and agreed that both angler and net man will react like it's a PB until proven otherwise. Thank you small muskie for teaching me a lesson and maybe helping me to put a new PB in the boat down the road !! | |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | That's a pretty good lesson and worth remembering. Sometimes I feel pretty silly when I yell, there's one! and am cranking like crazy trying to keep a good bend in the rod for a few seconds, and it end up being a 20" pike. Those little northerns seem to hit harder than most muskies do, and often times fool me, but I usually try to treat every hit like it could be a musky until I get a visual on it.
I've caught little muskies that initially felt huge, and some better ones that susprised me at how big they were based on the fight. I try not to relax too much until I see the fish, because it's bitten me a couple times like it did with you. Thankfully not on anything huge, but on fish I wouldn't have minded putting in the net.
Good tip! | |
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | Interesting how small fish still make the hair on your privates stand up when you hook into one.
2 years ago my partner Tom and I were fishing the Big St. Chamber dealy and he snapped up a fish we thought for sure got us on the board. We netted it and while it got a bit smaller looking in the net, we both thought we had a mid 30's. We placed it on the bump and when I saw 33.5", not matter how I pinched the tail, I kept asking him, and myself, how that fish got smaller.
Funny how the small ones school you. | |
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Location: On the O | Woodie - 9/12/2013 12:25 PM
We talked about it afterwards and agreed that both angler and net man will react like it's a PB until proven otherwise.
Here's my only issue, after deciding on the above the next fish he gets is greeted only by a loud grunt and a YUP, then he's right into his kung fu fighting stance.
This all has me scrambling to get my lure to the boat, I grab the net leap over the tackle box and chair to net what I am sure will be a nice muskie only to arrive at the front of the boat for what can only be described as a dink pike. We'll what's smaller than a dink? A prepub?
I just shook my head, c'mon man really!
The thing was smaller than a bass and here I am standing with a big kahuna and a bloody shin.....at some point you gotta know and if you do you should call off the netman.
Just saying.
Edited by BigC 9/17/2013 1:49 PM
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Schooled by a small Muskie