A Week To Remember

[Wanderer]

All the pics didn’t get posted but here’s a pretty good run at what I was fortunate enough to boat over a week long Muskie fishing trip to Canada.  First I’ll say this more commemorative than just bragging; we hit it hard and were rewarded pretty well, we thought.  

 

We boated 17 total muskies along with pike and a few eager smallies.  We started the week with wind, cool temps, cloudy skies and some rain but that eventually broke into calm, hot, sunny days; the same weather we had the entire 5 day trip last year where we boated 4 muskies and one notable pike.  Our best single day this year  was 5 skis boated and worst was 0.  That was the first day of the weather change and everyone one on the lake struggled.

 

Here goes:

 

Now the info part:

 

Obviously it was a clear water lake and not a secret lake, so a little research if your interested will get you some results.  But all in all, I believe this could be repeated on most Canadian lakes with good muskie populations.

 

My partner stayed true to muskie gear the entire time while I mixed it up with bass and light pike tackle.  Early in the week I was doing noticeably better but by the end of the week we were pretty much tied with him boating the the two biggest fish.

 

The baits:

 

The Mepps Giant Killer was new and is just about wore out.  The Savage Gear 3D trout in Redhorse was a darn good bait on cloudy days and got me my biggest.  It didn’t get hit at all on the bright days, just like last year.

 

Swim shads had their place and saw enough action to stay on the table.  The jigs and lizards were the prime throw back baits on follows where figure 8’s didn’t get the commitment.  Fished on hand tied 40lb flouro leaders, they were usually picked up off the bottom while sight fishing the hot fish that went cold after seeing the boat.

 

The F-18 Rapala is one of my faves and picked off the third from bottom fish in a bay we call pig pen.  Named from the fish and cloudy water we saw last year but couldn’t ever connect with them.  We ran everything we could think of on multiple return trips.  This was our first connection there on our first try this year.

 

The 5th fish down slurped in that little Rip Stop like a trout on an extended pause in my jerk, jerk, pause retrieve.  I’ll never forget how gentle he took it.  That was on a light bass combo and a heckuva nice fight.

 

Last thing:

 

This Shallow Invader was a top tier bait for raising fish and hook ups IF it was customized as shown.  Bending a piece of bucktail wire to hold the hooks keep them from fouling on the bait and one another along with making the bait run deeper and suspend/slow sink rather than float up.  My partner got about half his fish on it.  I used mine straight out of the package for a few days and didn’t see nearly as much interest and the two that hit it never hooked up even though the bait totally disappeared in their mouths. 

 

He customized mine mine for me while I made dinner one night. It was a totally different bait for me after that.

 

Hope this info helps some of you out there.  We’ve already thought of at three new twists to put on presentations for next year’s trip which happens to be booked already. 

 

@Rick has been looking for some more activity on OUR site (yeah, ours, if you’re using it).  And so am I, so  I’ll answer most questions about what I’ve experienced if you wanna ask.  I still have a lot to learn about muskies since this is just my second year specifically targeting them, but they’re a fish, and one that can be figured out.

 

Edited July 5, 2019 by Wanderer

[leech~~]

Arms hurt? 

[Rick]

Nice nice nice report. Thank you.

[Wanderer]

On 7/5/2019 at 6:48 AM, leech~~ said:

Arms hurt? 

 

Haha - Not too bad!  Ibuprofen and 321 foam rollers were also used!  The worst pains I remembered were the one day I wore “proper” shoes my legs and back got sore.  After that I went back to Crocs and was fine.  The other was setting hard on a muskie and bruising my ribs a little.  Plus I missed it anyway. 

[leech~~]

Some times.  Love Hurts! 

[chaffmj]

@Wanderer  Wow Tracy! Nice fish and a great report!

[leech~~]

I will have to say though. With all those great fish pictures and all those gear tag hat and shirt changes.

I didn't see one HSO or FM hat or shirt worn! 

 

And I know a guy that can get them made!

Edited July 12, 2019 by leech~~

[Wanderer]

Haha, right!

 

Sometimes I have my hoody and cap packed but usually for fall/winter trips.  Start embroidering UA or other performance gear and see what the price does!  I was going for wind/water resistance and coverage from the sun without overheating.  I still dig my HSO hoody but had to go with the right tool for the job.

 

We did ask the resort about hats and hoodys and got the “hard time with digitizing the logo” and “costs too much/don’t have room to stock” reply that wasn’t surprising.  Oh, and the “Don’t make anything from it anyway” too. 

i knew exactly what they were saying.

 

I said I knew someone too but they weren’t really interested.  Basically said, Good, you can order direct from them!