Muskellunge

Sunday, June 20, 2010 Conventional Fishing , Minnesota , Muskie 3 Comments

This weekend my father and I went to Duluth, MN to fish for Muskie. I have been in love with the sport of Muskie fishing for a long long time, ever since I started traveling to Minnesota to fish. Muskellunge are large beautiful fish, apex predators and the culture surrounding them is very conservative minded. To keep a fish is almost a mortal sin amongst most anglers.

Muskie are called the fish of 10,000 casts and are notoriously elusive. The Wisconsin DNR notes on their website that the average density for Muskie on a lake is one fish every three acres and that it takes most anglers 30+ hours on the water to catch one fish. Talk to anglers who chase Muskie and seeing one is a good day. Well since we would only be fishing one day on this trip we went out with Pete Brzezinski of Muskie Northland Adventures. Last year alone Pete boated over 100 Muskie himself and many more for clients. His experience paid off: we caught three Muskie and saw four others. We caught two on bucktails and the third on a spinnerbait. Of the four we saw I lost one on a follow due to not going into a figure 8, one hit my lure from underneath throwing it into the air, we had one throw the lure out after being hooked, and one was lost during a figure 8. Of the three I boated two and my father caught one. It was a spectacular time and I am already looking forward to a few weeks from now when I will be in Minnesota again this time chasing Northern Pike. Here are the pictures:

The second and biggest fish of the day, a 44 I boated that my dad is holding. It was a strong fish. 

This was the first fish of the day, a 41 that hit really hard. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend a weekend with my Dad. Despite the long drive it was well worth the time in the car and on the water spent with my father. 

My Dad learned from my previous mistake and didn't fail to figure 8 after each cast. After thinking we lost him on the first figure 8, he nailed the lure on second one. Nice 36.5. 

Lake Superior