Note: Boat control is a combination of using the wind, varying trolling motor speed and casting accuracy…it isn’t easy but it gives you a better chance to "hover" cast an area with potential for a Musky. After a frustrating 15 minutes setting up the boat and dealing with some wind induced backlashes, I finally got into the casting groove…casting my bucktail over the target area and using a slow to moderate retrieve. It was another 20 minutes or so into covering the area when I saw the green flash of the side of a Musky as it stalked my lure. He came up from about 8 feet of water to attack my lure in about 3 feet as it was being retrieved. As I kept my retrieve steady, I saw the Musky’s white underside as he snapped the lure up in its gapping mouth…the fight was on. As is the case in many Musky hits, all I had to do was apply firm resistance as the fish set the hook on himself…he immediately went down, taking line off my reel. This was a good tussle and as the Musky breached the surface, he rocketed out of the water and performed a dolphin flip as he reentered his brown stained watery home. We ‘argued’ with each other for a few more minutes until I was able to manipulate him into the net that I had waiting for him. With the fish in the bag, it was time to free him from the lure, take a measurement, snap a photo and then set him free. The way this Musky was hooked demanded that I use my compound bolt cutter to cut the tips of the treble hooks to allow me to free the fish and protect myself as I reached in to take the fish from the net that I kept in the water to minimize the time that the Musky was separated from its oxygen supply.
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