Lady luck was on my side this September evening. As I felt the Muskie strike I set the hook and the game was afoot. The initial excitement of a Muskie on my line turned into a feeling of dread. This Muskie was not coming out of the water. He was heading for the bottom, and I could imagine the crafty devil searching for a stump to wrap my line around and thereby accomplish his escape. With my rod tip held high I coaxed the Muskie toward the boat. The net was at the ready waiting to embrace him. With the exception of a swirl or two, we still hadn't seen this Muskie. As he approached the boat, he decided to do a tour of the area. Luckily, I had found time to loosen my drag causing the line to be grudgingly freed from my reel. As he got close to the boat again, he decided to inspect the bottom of the boat, causing me to follow him with my rod tip. Finally, my Muskie opponent made his appearance at the side of the boat. With the low light conditions, I couldn't tell how big he was, but I knew that he was "respectable". John netted the Muskie without further incident. As I released the tension on the line, the hooks came free from the Musky's jaw. Keeping him and the net in the water, we prepared to measure and release this Muskie to fight another day. He measured in at 38 ½ inches. We took a picture and sent him back to the safety of the stained water. The key to this Muskie catch was the use of markers. Without markers we would not have been able to accurately retrace our path back to the proximity of our Muskie sightings. Many Muskie hunters say that they don't like using markers for fear that markers will disclose an area of high Muskie potential to the general fishing public. Perhaps that fear is well founded,
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