First off, I give a BIG THANKS to many on this board. I have used it extensively in my research to catch a Musky here in TN. THANK YOU!
In August of 2008, I made the journey from Utah to North Carolina to fish with my old trout bum friend, Owen. This trip changed the focus of my angling passion. He guides for a outfitter in Boone and had started fish for two new species of fish. After an obligatory first day of trout fishing one of our old haunts, we set out on a two day float of a nearby river to target Smallmouth and Musky. We had a great trip and stuck many Smallies. Some of you know, I am a Smallmouth junkie these days from my previous posts. My Smallmouth habit was formed on this trip as well. But, there was one moment that hooked me on Muskies for good. We got to a deep flat and Owen handed me a big spinning rod with a huge bucktail spinner on it. He said we were switching to Muskies and for me to try it out. About a half hour later, just as I was starting to wonder why we had stopped catching Smallmouth to wear ourselves out throwing these giant lures, two huge Muskies appeared side-by-side right behind my spinner. I nearly jumped out of the bow at the sight of these mean freshwater fish making a bee-line towards my lure. Needless to say, rookie me did not make the smooth transition into a figure 8 that may have sealed the deal, but from that moment on, I was a Musky hunter.
Since then, I have chased these fish all over the South and made 2 trips to the Upper Peninsula. I have logged my casts and had many follows. I have messed up the take and missed plenty. I have spent a lot of money in fly shops, tackle shops, Rollie and Helen's, gas, motels, restaurants, and bars all in the name of these amazing fish.
Yesterday, with my friend Eric, I finally put a Musky in the boat!!! We met at dawn on a middle TN river boat ramp to hunt for the day. Ran upstream a few miles and fished our way back down. Just above a big deep hole, I got a hot follow from a nice fish. It stayed with the fly through a couple figure eights and fell off. I slapped the fish on the head with the fly and it started following again. It fell off the fly again. I thought it was done. Eric said, "he turned under the boat, get your fly back out there!" I slapped the water hard again, and the fish rocket out from under the boat and swallowed the fly. One moment the fly was in front of its nose, the next, it just disappeared. I strip-set and felt the weight. Eric said, "hit him again" I hit it twice more and the fight was on. I put the fish on the reel and kept the battle tight to the boat. A few tense moments later, a 39" Tennessee Muskellunge was in the net! The fly was right in the corner of its mouth and popped right out. We took some pictures and put the fish back in the water to revive it. A couple minutes later, the fish started bucking and let us know it was ready to go.
We had good action throughout the day. About twenty minutes later Eric had another nice Musky hit his fly after a couple merry-go-rounds boatside. We don't know what happened. The fish inhaled the fly, closed it mouth, Eric set the hook, but the fish was gone. Heartbreaker!
After lunch, both are arms were killing us, so we broke out some spinning tackle. I had three good follows using a Super Shad Rap, but did not get the fish to hit any of those. One of these was an absolute giant! Onto some pictures...
River X
Alright, we've gone far enough, time to fish!
I know I have a ridiculously cheesy, shit-eating grin, but I guess I couldn't help it!
39" TN Musky
Let em go
Indian Summer
Headed home
I can't wait to get back out and start hunting for the next one. I like to think of Musky fishing as the big game hunting of the freshwater angling experience. You put in a lot of time, research, and effort for a few glorious moments.
I hope you enjoyed my post. Thanks for reading!
Tight lines,
JR
