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Posts: 7106
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | What brought on the obsession for you? Was it a friend that introduced it to you? A magazine that caught your eye? Family? |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Madison, WI | A buddy of mine 2 years ago took me onto pewaukee, within 30 minutes i had a nice 45 incher on the other end. Was hooked ever since.. Then got married and been obsessed! |
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Posts: 720
| Hi Slamr,
With out a doubt it was my parents. Both my mom and dad love to fish and still do. In fact my mom is going to drive me crazy with her constant badering about taking her to Dryberry. I think this season I will finally take her. I've been very lucky being brought up in a home where family ,God, country, and the great outdoors were the focal points of my upbringing. Now at almost 40 years of age and a family of my own those same values are being past on to my kids.
Thanks
Dave |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | I've always fished, but I caught my first musky on accident while fishing walleyes up in DePere. That was the cause of the affliction I suffer from. Never really fish for anything else anymore. |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | I had been, walleye, bass, northern fishing with a passion from the time that I was 16 years old. Usually I didn't miss a week of fishing at least once a week from early March through mid-November. In my late twenties, I was invited to be part of a 8 man muskie hunt over Labor Day Weekend. That became a tradition for many years (before kids). My first afternoon a 45" muskie came vertical out of the water at boatside after a walleye crankbait and that was it! I was hooked! |
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| Would have to say my dad...there was never another fish that mattered to my dad and he had my brother and I out throwing baits when we were no more than 7 years old. Granted it was mepps 5's and killers on spinning equipment back then or soaking a sucker in the back of the boat while the old man casted, but none the less, we were out chassing muskies. I am only 27,but have about 20 years under my belt...probably the last 10 or so much harder than before that. (age thing) We were fortunate enough to grow up with a cottage on good Vilas Co water...without that place I dont know if I would be into it as much as I am.
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Posts: 619
Location: Verona, WI | For me it was the same as Rob. Fishing for walleyes at Lac Vieux Desert and had an absolute beast follow a walleye bait to the side of the boat. My fishing partner yelled for me to do a figure eight. Yeah right, didn't know how to do one, was equiped with walleye gear, and had already reeled up the lure to within a foot of the rod tip. I ended up catching my first, a monster at 28", and have been hooked since.
Shane |
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Location: Des Moines IA | Took a week and went up to Vermillion bay area on a guided fishing trip. We fished mostly for eye's and pike. My guide mentioned it was a good time of year to go muskie fishing if anybody was interested, so I took him up on the offer, and he managed to troll up a 44 incher out of Indian lake chain in Ontario! I was hooked right then and there. http://www.northwindsoutfitters.com/
Edited by MuskieMike 1/5/2006 2:10 PM
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Posts: 1086
| My dad and grandpa got me into fishing when I was young enough to learn how to cast. Not fishing for pike or muskies, fishing. That'd be fishing for panfish and bass. Being I've always loved the great outdoors, I took to fishing very quickly. It wasn't until I saw a few pictures at the local bait shop of what a pike or a muskie was. I was enamered by the size of the fish. I knew it was something I want to learn more about. It wasn't until I targeted these fish on my own and caught my first pike and muskie that I really got bit by the bug for this sport. At the ripe old age of 8 years-old, that summer, in the same week, caught my first norhtern pike and my first muskie. Been hooked ever since.
I've been fortunate enough to have relatives and family memebers that have always lived on some body of water that's had these fish in those lakes while growing up. I'd of course have to borrow their boats or go with them when they'd go out fishing. I had to rely on others to get out. But I'd get out quite often enough while growing up.
Now..finally I've been at the point in my life where I can afford my own boat and now I go after these creatures on my own time and my own free will.
I will for sure pass this same knowledge and experiences of the great outdoors and fishing on to my kids, offer it to them and hope that they, too, will take to this sport like I have. That's what I hope and look forward to the most. |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | family vacations since the 60s, and checkin out the size of the fish in the "coolers of death" . got tired of 14.5 inch walleye and pike so i started musky fishing. |
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Posts: 327
| I've been fishing for as long as I can remember , just wasn't fishing for ski's . My cousin and I could slay the pike and bass all day long but never chased Muskies . It wasn't until 2 years ago when I was fishing with Mike at Shabbona and he stuck one at boatside and i watched the whole thing , it was AWESOME !!! Then we went out after that and i was hooked , literally .. through the wrist ( BARELY MISSED BOTH VEINS !!) , to about a 40" fish . I knew I had the Muskie fishing bug after that because we had no hook-cutters and i didn't want to leave to go to the hospital to get the hooks cut out , I wanted to catch another one !! Ever since then I've been begging my wife to let me go as often as I can , and now that my son is almost 4 she's going to hate it more ... Someone has to teach him about fishing and the outdoors right ?? Oh yeah , he WILL learn to bring his knipex with him too !!
Now its all about MUSKIES and MONSTER-BUCKS !!!! |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | fished pike when i was a kid starting at age 8 or so ... then moved to the south as a young adult and got into the bass tournament trail living in texas and tennessee ... moved back up here about 8 years ago and went with some guys from work ... haven't looked back since ... used to compete with field trial retrievers and had the duck hunting sickness like we all have the musky problem ... i guess i like complicated, yet simple games that you can't just go win every day. |
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Posts: 324
Location: Bloomington, Illinois | I have fished all my life...Up until 4 years ago I fished for crappie, walleye/saugeye, and bass...I knew there were musky in my primary fishing lake...So, I bought a used rod and reel and a few baits and went Musky Fishing!!! I was throwing a Topraider at dusk and had a musky do everything but take the bait...It followed it in...it porpoised behind the bait within 8 feet of the boat...I swear that fish looked me right in the eye (a 40 incher or so)...My hands were shaking...I threw every bait I had for half an hour after dark...Thats all she wrote...My other tackle has laid dormant ever since...I've spent a ton of money on tackle and baits....have had numerous follows, missed fish, and barren days over the past 4 years...As much as I hate to admit it (pride...I always considered myself a better than average angler)...It wasn't until my 4th year (this year) that I actually boated a musky...A 39 incher in May and a 40 incher in October...Admittedly, My time on the water is severely limited by certain realities in the make up of my household, but if you had told me that I would go three years without catching a fish I would have never believed it...Anyway, I'm hooked for life...I look forward to more time on the water and more muskies in the net at the boat...LOL 
matt |
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Posts: 354
| Joel Wick- We were bass fishing in Door Co. He insisted on us trying for some skis. I was one of those lucky people who on
about my 15th cast hooked into a 41" fish. I then went about a year before my second. Great experience.
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| It was a trip to Canada that made me forget about bass. |
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Posts: 654
Location: MPLS, MN | Growing up my parents had a cabin on Forest Lake. They stocked them in there and we'd catch um by accedent. Then they got bigger, I got older and that was it! |
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Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | Oddly enough, I have the Indian treaty rights to partially thank for my addiction. I had caught several by "mistake" whether it be bass fishing or walleye fishing, but I still preferred walleye fishing at that time. When they (Indians) really started taking it to the walleye population in the mid eighties my catch rate started to decline. Catching 100 walleye a day is a bunch of fun, but it started to be work to catch 20 of them when they started spearing hard. I decided if I was forced to work for fish I was going to work for the biggest, baddest guys in the water.
My first attempt at strictly musky fishing resulted in a follow in the first 15 cast or so. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen while on the water. The fish looked like it was about 90" long (I know now it was probably about 40"). The addiction was immediate, unfortunately the catching wasn't. It took a whole lot of trips to boat the first "intentional" musky. Fortunately the catch rate has improved a bit since then. The excitement level hasn't though. I still have the same reaction seeing a 40" fish today as I did on that first trip. If that ever goes away I quit! |
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Posts: 32954
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Fishing bass/muskie combination water with my Dad, Mom, Tony Portincaso, Jim Cairnes, and other friends of the family. That got me started when I was about 16, but I've fished hard since I was much younger. I didn't count myself a real Muskie Fisherman until about 1976 or so, when I got taken in by the big old uglies on Pelican Lake. I fished muskies for years before that time but didn't really target them. |
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Posts: 2893
Location: Yahara River Chain | for me, I was always an angler, having a Class I trout stream nearby. As a kid, I was either fishing it or playing in it. I did a lot of trout fishing from when I was 11 year old to when I started into muskies in 1984 (17 yrs). In the fall of `85, I scored a stream brown trout of 20”, this heavy female brown trout weighed about 4 pounds – my biggest & I had it mounted. About 2 weeks later, my neighbor, Ron Ripp asks me if I would like to go with him to Eagle River in search of muskies, in his narrow 12’ Lund. I didn’t have any heavy equipment then, so I bowered from my trout buddy that had heavy rod & reel. We headed to Eagle River, stopping into George Langley’s Sport Shop. We ask for a good bait and George said these Hi-Finn Foolers have been working great, so we each bought one (Ron got a perch & me a sucker colored one). I had a couple of hits that weekend (at least teeth marks in the bait said so) on a Bagley Bang-o-Lure. I was so green, I thought I hit weeds. Ron did get a 2 footer on his new Fooler. That was the only action we had that first weekend of October, 1984. That January he asked me if I wanted to attend a Capital City Muskies, Inc meeting. In which we did and we both signed up.
Fast forward to late June 1985, Ron buys a 16’ Alumacraft Lunker SS. In this boat you could stand up and cast. We took it out on it first trip on to Monona. I was using a medium bass rod & had on a Baby Buchertail (char/char) when I felt something. I set, felt weight, and set again. The fight was on. No net, no camera, & no ruler, but we got her in. Since we had no ruler, I marked the rod and we measure that later, it was a 33” hybrid. Ron did ask me, if I was going to keep it, to which I quickly said NO. My first release! It felt great. I was into releasing many trout, so this was a no brainer for me.
I never had a boat those first few years and Ron got me out a lot of times. I was very thankful. In 1987 when I got my first boat, I ask Ron if he wanted to go fishing with me, but he always had something else going on. But I kept asking. I wanted to pay him back for taking me so many times, but was refused so many times, so much so that I quit asking. About two years ago I told him how frustrated I was that he always turned me down and never let me take him fishing. He told me that I will get my chance as he was thinking of retiring at the end of the year and I would have my chance then. A couple of months later, he passed away from a massive heart attack. So I never did get to repay him.
Ron Ripp, (www.ronripp.org) I will always be grateful for the many times you took me! If any of you ever knew Ron he was such great funny guy, with a thirst for knowledge about the old days, like blacksmithing, wood working, etc.
Thanks for letting me post my thoughts.
Gerard Hellenbrand
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Posts: 1
| I first got into muskie fishing after I got married. Every Memorial Day weekend my wife and her family would go muskie fishing in northern Wisconsin. The first few years I went I wasn't really into it. But once I caught my first one I have been into it ever since. It wasn't very big but the way it hit and fought amazed me. Now I go every weekend, and my wife is wishing she never took me along on her families annual muskie trip. |
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| I caught one when I was 15, and I have been fishing since I could walk thanks to my Dad and Grandfather |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Caught my first this year, been fishing since I fell out of the womb!
Mike |
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Posts: 793
Location: Ames, Iowa | My dad took all of us fishing in California, Illinois, Iowa (Navy family) as soon as we could walk. He used to tell me about friends of his who had caught muskies in WI and/or the Fox Chain of Lakes over near Great Lakes, Ill. Dad died one year ago today- lost a great teacher and one I try to be like to my kids.
About 20 years ago my mom caught a 36 inch tiger muskie on Prairie Rose Lake in SW Iowa. Then six years ago my wife caught a 36 inch muskie with me on Leech Lake. I figured I might as well join the ladies and started chasing em. Never knew it would be so expensive and so consuming- but fun.
Don |
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Posts: 4266
| I went "up north", threw a lure in the water, a muskie hit it, I reeled it in, tried to fit it in my walleye net but couldn't, watched it swim away, haven't been the same since.
That's all it took.
Beav |
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| 2 words
My dad.
after writing about a 10000 word post, i figured i'd just be simple and say that. man what memories and good times
thanx dad!!
G |
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Posts: 723
| I watched My dad when I was about 5-6 catch a 42 off our dock on his first cast on Rainbow flowage. That got me excited. Then while on Carrol lake with my uncle, up in the shallows, we saw countless skis swimming around,following, and nailing topwaters. I didn't start fishing intentionally for them until I was about 14 with my buddy on Pelican. Thats really where I got hooked. When we were kids all we ever threw was topwater on pelican. We saw and missed soooo many skis (rookies) its not even funny, some really bigguns too. Its been downhill eversince. My wish is to be burried in my favorite weedbed. bluegill food. |
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Posts: 1536
Location: God's Country......USA..... Western Wisconsin | Got started with with my cousin Gordy. Wanted to go because of seeing and catching so many while fishing Bass Tournaments. Lost a very nice one the 1st time out with him. Then caught my 1st legal at the North end of Bone lake the next time out. I've caught a lot of 'em since but I remember that 1st one in his old F7 Alumacraft with a 25 Johnson and a tiller mounted hand control trolling motor. Boy we sure had a lot of fun back then. We both bought new boats in 1979 with 55 hp motors and thought we had the world by the tail. Guess maybe we did. I still get out with him when I can but he can't chase the Muskies anymore because of health problems. We sure still have a great time whenever we get together though. I wish that everyone could have at least one fishing friend like Gordy in their lives. I have been very fortunate to have him, my dad and my Muskie partner Glen all these years. I guess I still have the world by the tail.
Edited by muskyone 1/6/2006 9:11 AM
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Posts: 89
| My buddy won a WI Top 50 Muskie Lakes book at a DU Diner (as a door prize) - he read it cover to cover and narrowed it down to a couple lakes - he took me to Yellow Lake in NW Wisconsin - in the first 1/2 hour we had on and lost three mid forties - caught a couple small ones and I saw what looked like a small couch follow my 8 inch Tennsesee Shad Jake - Been hooked hard ever since - however, have yet to have such a hot morning. The following year Beaver (yes, the same Beaver from this board) took me to Big Sand and put me on my first legal - a big thanks to both guys. Hopefully I'll be able to pay 'um back someday. |
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Posts: 667
Location: Roscoe IL | Grew up in Lake Forest ILL and fished from the Pier for Salmon my whole life. When I moved to the Rockford area my neighbor asked me if I would like to go fishing with him. We drove up to the Madison area and I had a Bucktail in my tackle box that I bought at wallmart long ago. I asked him what in the #ell it would catch if I used it. He explained to me that it was for muskies but that I couldnt use it with the gear I was using & that I needed something like what he had in his rod locker. One look at the rod & reel he showed me was enough to get my attention. I went to Bass Pro and bought myself a muskie rod & Reel and some lures to get started. For my birthday he hired a guide for us up in central wisconsin and I caught my first muskie on a LeLure Creeper. That was it for me and aproxx $50k ago...We continue to go to the same area once a year leaving our familys behind for a guy's only fishing trip and are very best of friends. I'm still pissed he did this to me because now my life revolves around the full moon periods & weather conditions, and I will leave for the water at the drop of a dime. The wife sure loves it when I jump up and say it's go time and hook up the boat and split. But I love it and dream about this crazy hobby all the time. Nothing like falling out of the bed setting the hook! |
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Posts: 2865
Location: Brookfield, WI | I'm just going to really take it up this coming season. I have a friend from San Diego who caught one two summers ago with his cousin on Moen. We took our families to Big St. Germain last July, and fished for them off a pontoon boat with no know how, electronics, decent equipment, etc. for about ten hours total. We still managed two follows in brutal heat. Very Cool. This coming summer I'm putting the golf clubs down for the first time in 30+ years. I just exchanged messages with Mike Koepp and hope to become a star pupil starting this spring. I can tell you I really love all the equipment and have even ordered three custom Diamondbacks from Keith at Professional Edge. At the end of August next summer, I go to Andy Myers Lodge on Eagle Lake with three buddies, so I guess you can say I'm jumping in with both feet. I know a couple guys who have boats, but have never really done any Musky fishing. They seem glad I'm going to be off the golf course and are willing to give it a try. Last time I really caught any fish at all was on Cass Lake five years ago. Used to go there with my Dad before he passed. He loved catching perch. He'd be as excited for me as I am I'm sure. I miss him. The internet sure makes it easy for a newbie like me to gather the basic info, and I can't wait to start putting some of it to use.
Kevin
I don't know much, but I have a plan. |
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