The weather was perfect, a nice front moving in, and FINALLY, some lower flow rivers that could be accessible to fish. Crystal and Jazzi joined me for another trip to the New River in hopes of finding some hungry winter muskies.
We launched the Crawdad on the lower river, and the flows were definitely UP. Over 7000 cfs flowing in the chalky, dingy water. We fished the Wide river hard with large twitch baits for several hours, and finally decided to load the boat and head upstream about 50 miles to hopefully find clearer water with less flow. At the ramp, we spoke with a fellow who had landed 4 fish. He was able to reach a distant stretch with very deeep slow flows…a place I’ll one day see with a Jet motor.
With 2 hours of daylight left, we reached our next launch site, and conditions were perfect. We were greeted with a soft, amber sunset, and nice clarity to the 2000 cfs water. Crystal and I were both throwing flies—hers on a spinning rod with added lead, and mine on a 10wt.
Soon after I tied into a nice fish out of the bottom of a deep rocky run. Crystal netted the fiesty fish perfectly, and we soon had a bankside photo and a strong release.
Next it was Crystal’s turn. Now I don’t know why this happens, but Crystal has never hooked a musky yet with any more than 3 feet of line in the water. Today was no exception. She slowly sarts to swim the fly out of the depths, and just as she’s lifting for another cast, BAM! A fired up musky grabs, sloshing the surface, and banging into the boat. I scrambled for the net, as the fish is spinning and splashing the surface water into the hull. As I lifted the net, the fly comes out of his jaws. We found a nice spot on the bank, and Crystal wanted to hold the fish like the “musky guys” do. She gently lifted him for a quick photo, and released him with a strong kick.
In the last light, we eased down the bank, fishing some gnarly laydowns of old Sycamore stumps and roots. Crystal reeled the fly in to the 15” flourocarbon leader, and I hear her saying, “Oooh, Oooo, Oh my Gosh!, Oh my Gosh!” A FAT mid 40’s musky had followed her fly to the boat and was slowly approaching . Now I expected this fish would just veer off in typical musky fashion…but NO! Before I could shout “Figure Eight!” His gills flared and he slashed for the bait in a quick pounce! Crystal was so nervous she launched the fly out of his jaws and five feet into the air.
She kept wanting to go back to that fish, but with 15 mins of daylight left, we had to motor back to the ramp. Then the 4 stroke wouldn’t start( flooded it during transport)..and we had to troll ¼ mile back upstream in the dark to the ramp. Luckily the battery had some charge left.
We drove home in the rain and snow of the descending Arctic Front. Now, we both can’t wait to find that next golden sunset of calm water to chase that haunting fish.
