Granny and I had river plans today but with all the rain we’ve had this month, the river was far too high.  We bagged it and went to a musky lake we fished a couple times last year.  I should mention we were skunked both of those trips.

Today, we didn’t get skunked.  I wacked a pike about an hour into the morning.  He made a good take on my musky fly and put up a nice little fight.  But, he choked on the big fly and he was bleeding.  No big deal however because Granny and I love to eat pike.  He was tonight’s delicious dinner.

The story of the day however was about a big musky we didn’t catch.  We fished this lake hard for about four hours.  Towards the end we were getting hungry and it was starting to rain.  Granny suggested we pack it up.  No problem.  I said let’s make one more pass through this channel that appears to be about 10 feet deep.  In it are lots of tall weeds musky anglers call, “cabbage”.

There was a light wind and we drifted over the cabbage and then onto very shallow water.  It’s a hump that comes up in the middle of the lake.  On this shallow are lily pads and some other weed types.  It’s very pretty and although normally I row back to the deep, I decided to drift across and make a few casts on the other side.  I was sitting in my back chair looking in the water at minnows and some colorful vegetation.  When all of a sudden I made eye contact with a musky that was easily 45”.  Maybe more.  Sitting in a foot of water under the lily pads.  Gorgeous!

The sincere looking fish didn’t spook but rather stared me down.  Honestly I was the one spooked.  Then in one swooshed of the tail as if in utter disgust he swam slowly away.  He was so big around that as he went through the lily pads they literally split leaving a trail behind that looked more like an animal passed through.

Obviously I made a number of casts to the deep water where this trophy disappeared to but to no avail.  I didn’t expect him to eat but I had to try.  I’m guessing the fence post size fish was in the shallows digesting a meal about the size of the pike I caught!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing