One Hour Muddy Water Musky

[TWiles]

Been Jonesin' to hit the New this January with the mild temps.  A little rain earlier this week barely stained our rivers, so I was sure one or more stretches of the 150+ miles of musky water would be fishing good.  I invited a good friend along so we could take his G3 Jet on his first musky quest.
Stayed up til 12:30 getting gear rigged and flies tied, woke up at 5:00 to drive to his house and load up the boat, and we were off.

On the 2.5 hr drive the conditions were shaping to be a perfect day.  About 20 miles from our destination, we took a pit stop.  My friend took off his jacket, and changed into some warmer clothes from his carefully packed boat anticipating the great fishing to come.  As we neared the water, I noticed it was quite stained... but I was perpared with plan B and C river stretches to save our day.

Then "Oh, No!!!!, Damn it! Damn it!Damn it!"  I realized the disgust that my buddy had left his jacket with wallet and Blackberry in the boat while changing. 

"No problem, man, we'll find it."  We then proceeded to drive up and down the interstate, scouting every piece of blue rubbish and debris that looked like the jacket.  Every bridge, overpass, guardrail....we stopped and walked past roadkills, cigarette butts, Redbulls, 5hour Energies, and an unusual abundance of empty condum boxes (which surprised me for rural Virginia).  After 6 hours of searching, and multiple calls to cancel all credit cards and bank accounts, my friend and I finally gave up, and he decided we should go fishing with the last hours of daylight.
We launched in the boat with hesitant doubts due to the murky water with about 4 inches of clarity before our baits completely disappeared. 
Fished about an hour, and Bam!  I get a take and fight down this chunky fish( guessing 40").  I had to use to Knipex to clip the net, this guy rolled  really twisted up the mesh.  After the photo, he took off like a lightning bolt with a huge splash--gotta love the energy of these winter fish.



Had we got the chance to fish longer...my plans were to hit this stetch of river...maybe next time.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dexVpjjGTe8

[gaspergou]

Nice fish! Sure would be nice for once to have a trip where nothing goes wrong...!

[Fred Mertz]

I admire the passion...keep it up!
And thanks for sharing.

Fred

[Steve H]

Solid work and sorry for the lost wallet. That can be frustrating.


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[Glenn Hawkins]

Nice job!  Thanks for sharing.

[Yoda]

Way to go Travis!!!! I can now see why you are so obssessed with these fish!! I can hardly think about anything else!!

[jkilday4]

There you go again!  I believe you're in double-digits now, aren't you?

[TheYiman]

Nice fish!  I love how you can see that big old tooth in its lower jaw.

[TWiles]

Good News!
My buddy got his wallet back.  A man called him after finding the jacket and wallet on the roadside, no signs of the phone. He paid the man a reward, and he personally delivered it by the office today...he found it on the only two mile stretch that we didn't search on foot.

New replacement Frabill Net mesh- check, New overpriced plug ordered that I cracked casting too close to the bank--check.  Tying materials purchased to replace lost fly that took 1.5 hours to make--check
Now I just have to wait for the rivers to drop back out again.  With all this rain, it might be a while.

 

[Steve H]

Great news on the wallet. There still are some good people out there.


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[TWiles]

Don't have any Mantas yet..It was a black back / pearl Giant Thunderstick...a bitch to find this exact bait online.

[MikeA]

Nice one Travis. Lately our rivers are either blown out or it's a workday.....