As with any trip, I stayed up way too late prepping gear and tying last minute additions.
This time, the early morning prep time paid off, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
A few of the flies --
I would say this trip started as a last minute decision to hit some new water in the Bluegrass State in hopes of the big, angry musky. Yiman and I met up in the early morning hours to pack our gear and have a sip of coffee. We had a bit of a drive up to Kentucky, but we made it.
We got on the water as soon as we could after rigging our rods and loading the gear into Sweet Pea. What a sweet boat.
Yiman started the day at the helm. He can get us anywhere in this rig.
He even let me drive a little while taking me to school on musky fishing.
The water, flows, and weather couldn't have been better. The wind was a bit annoying by the end of the day.
About an hour into the float as we got settled in to the day, I said to JR, "You know, man, I don't think these things are real. I would just be happy today seeing one of these things" I guess one heard me because when I looked at my fly after turning back from talking to JR, there was a monster that probably would have really eaten if I had been paying attention. I jumped and stripped the fly, causing the rear hook to foul in the side of the beast. It took off to the depths and my fly came loose (fortunately) and left me with a few scales. I'll find that one again - I've got the home address.
Now that I'm fired up again, the focus was on! About two hours into the float, JR was fishing and rowing while I was at the front when it happened again. Like a giant submarine that literally came out of nowhere, I had a follow and she was HOT! As if I had been doing it all my life, I starting a violent fast figure 8 with my rod tip going up and down in the water column
while giving quick strips to what little remaining fly line was outside of the guides of my rod. It took a good 3 to 4 rounds of this until she committed to the fly right under my feet. I mean directly under my feet. In a 14' canoe. Holy hot dang. The fly was under the boat when she ate, so I didn't get to see it, but JR did. He yells, "strip, strip!" -- I yell "I got her!" and feel the line go tight. She was NOT HAPPY. Violent head shakes, mad rushes to the bottom of the river, and a crazy hard fight that felt like it lasted 15 minutes (but was probably only 45 seconds). JR was a superb net man and we got that dragon's head up and in the net. We had her.
It was over and I needed to sit down. Make the acceptance speech. I want to thank God, my wife, JR, TFO rods, Bass Pro for the pliers, Craigslist for if it wasn't for you there would be no Sweet Pea, Travis Wiles for the inspiration and countless hours of describing these mythical apex predators, Nautilus reels for making my hat 'cause Lord knows I can't afford anything else you make... and so it goes...
We had to cut the hook in order to get it out of her jaw. Thank goodness for bolt cutters. Add that to the acceptance speech...
Smiles like this can't be bought
She measured out to be 42". Not bad for my first musky on my first musky trip using the second musky fly I've ever tied.
We gave her a few minutes to recover and then released her back to the blue depths.
We had two more follows that day, one for JR at the last minute right before the take out, but we didn't have any make the commitment. I'm sore, tired, hungry, and in great need of a shower. I'll be back.
Till next time!
