We celebrated Howie’s epic musky last night. And rightfully so. A 46” fish of any kind from a river is a creature that is rare in this day and age. Today however was a different day and in order to complete my goal of getting both Mike Neuman and Howie into their first ever muskies on fly rod, I needed to find one for Neuman.
With so little fishing pressure this time of year in the Great Northwoods, I make a point not to fish the same place two days in a row. Furthermore, Howie couldn’t go and I wanted to fish today also. The forecast was for light wind and temps in the upper 50°s. I decided to take us to a lake where could both cast at the same time and I caught a musky back in June.
We purposely got a late start on this stunner of a day. The morning was brutally cold. 10:30 AM to be exact. The sky was a rich blue with a few scattered clouds. I drove my blue boat up the lake and into some back sloughs. It was calm and soon we both had our 9-weights slinging big flies. One of us casted into the shallow rice weeds and the other towards the deeper side of the boat off a drop-off and through the weeds musky anglers refer to as, cabbage.
We were only ten or so casts in and both Mike and I were taking in our surroundings. I just happened to be staring off the direction where Neuman’s fly landed. It looked as though there was bow wave behind his fly. I couldn’t believe my eyes and first looked at my boat to see if it was just a kick from it, but it wasn’t. I looked back up and now I could see the white line of the lips and teeth gaining ground.
“Numzie”, I gently spoke in order not to spook the oncoming toothy fish, “You got a musky on you”.
Mike wasn’t looking at his fly and as he turned to see, the fish ate. Neuman delivered a perfect strip set and the fish was on.
It was so early into our day that we were both in disbelief. I stripped my line in as fast as I could and set my rod down. Then I reached for the net. This fish gave a solid tug and a few short runs, but I was able to corral him pretty quick. Mike’s first musky on the fly!
The handsome glistening greenish fish was 33” with a solid girth. He was a powerful musky. He challenged Neuman when he first lifted him from the net. And it was all I could do to hold him up from behind the head to get the measurement. After a few nice photos we slid him back for another day.
When that first fish comes easy, it usually means things are not easy. And while it seemed like with another six hours of fishing ahead of us we should get a handful of muskies, we did not. That’s not only musky fishing. If you’ve ever caught a nice trout at the put in boat ramp, you know what I mean.
While we may not have landed another fish, it wasn’t for lack of trying. Neuman and I fished hard right till sunset. We did have some excitement as well. Mike moved three more fish that we actually saw behind his fly and I moved one. But we couldn’t convince them. Perhaps I’ll come back next week.
What a couple of days fishing. Musky fishing isn’t about numbers its about meeting the challenges of weather, casting, finding the fish and convincing one to eat. I managed to obtain my goal of getting each of my buddies their first muskies ever on the fly. Success!
Jeff, have followed for many years. Your photos to round out the stories get better all the time. And the writing gets us all on the water. Mark
Thank you Mark and thanks for following!
Congrats Mike!!! I am so bummed i was not there to witness in person but the blog covers it so well and i probably would have screwed up the net. Doesnt get better than Great friends, beautiful scenery and, every so often, a fish.