Had a chance to share the Crawdad with one of the best anglers I’ve ever fished with. Knox landed his first baby musky a couple weeks back after multiple trips of paying dues. We both pursue the same types of remote secluded water, and he’s a night junkie like me. For the past few months, we have been planning and postponing our first musky trip together, and finally managed a trip to explore a new drainage this Friday. With a little help from Google Earth and a Gazeteer, we were launching the Crawdad after about 4.5 hours of driving into some gorgeous backcountry.
As we geared up, Knox made his selection from a suitcase of his fresh-tied oversized flies, ready for his first mature sized musky to attack. The new water was amazing, and I nearly pinned the tundra in some rocks and deep ruts while dropping off the boat.
Started off casting to a nice long run, scanning the leafy/gravel bottom hoping this stretch would be holding some fish. A few follows and misses got us primed as we confirmed muskies were around. As I scanned the clear water, I spotted a fat fish lying motionless in the rocks. As we drifted over him,I pointed him to Knox, but I had the right boat angle for the cast. “Go for it!” Knox exclaimed.
A long upstream cast, deep sink of the 450 grain line, I crossed my fly in his path, and the fish spun around into a fast chase. I turned 4 fast lunges of a figure 8, and this brute slams the fly right at the boat. The fish fought great, and Knox soon had him scooped in the net.
44.5 “
We kept trolling up, hitting the opposite bank, and the deep mid channel, and we were able to spot 2 smaller fish that wouldn’t budge. As we drifted down to the next hole, Knox finally experienced his long awaited moment. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!!!” We can see a fat muskie head shaking after a perfect strip set. “Don’t screw this up, Man!” he shouted nervously. I thought he was yelling at me…but he was just coaching himself. A tremendous battle unfolded, and we finally got this gorgeous 43” fish into the mesh. Off to the bank for some long awaited photos.
I’ve never seen an angler so excited to finally put a plan together. Reminds me of when I caught my first one with Mike and Jarrod.
He said, “Dude, I know I’m posing with this over excited, goofy smile, but honestly, that’s just how happy I am.”
Victory beers were had.
We scarfed a very quick lunch, anxious to finish the evening fishing the last hour of daylight. We drifted on, and as I stripped my fly out of a perfect deep run, and I could see a very fat fish gaining fast. I sliced the rod through the water past my trolling motor, and the fish made a huge lunge, missing the fly In the froth! She spun around fast and raced furiously back into the deep water hunting and ready to crush the first thing that moved.
“That’s a hot fish!” I yelled. “Get your line in the water, she’s ready to eat.” I continued to figure 8, but she was already out of range for my boatside fly. Knox casted his line about 40 ft upstream. Suddenly his line came tight…Strip set….Fish On!
“You got her!!!” We watched this beautiful fat fish hugging the bottom, diving and thrashing. It was a nervous battle on the 10 weight. This fish stayed deep, but we finally got her up to the net. More photo opportunities unfolded before the long shadows of evening darkened the water. It was so cool to both get a huge thrill from the same fish. In all honesty, I’m glad Knox was able to get the catch. It’s more thrilling to me to see someone else freak out when these monsters appear.
A very thick 45”
We floated to our takeout, feeling truly blessed to encounter such an amazing fishery in a pristine setting
It’s not easy to get back here…but believe me, we’ll both be daydreaming about returning to this water as soon as another chance comes again.
Knox is now shopping for a musky net, boga, bolt cutters, long pliers, gloves.....etc.
