Our season thus far

[Scott McKee]

On the first morning of The Season, at the moment when preparation and anticipation transforms into action, there is a sense of relief and comfort for the musky angler.  The routine of musky fishing – casting, trolling and (even) jigging – makes me feel secure.  With their annual six month hibernation, merely the physical movements involved with these actions bring forth a flood of contentment and satisfaction.  Absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder as long as we’re not talking about going t the dentist, and these six months of musky inactivity makes smashing a trolled lure into a favorite rock, landing a bucktail under a dock or watching a lure sail as far as I can bomb it nourishing.

I have never had particularly good opening days.  My boat has, but I haven’t.  As I get older a great opening day doesn’t have to be a great day of catching.  Just the act of musky fishing is enough.

How many times have you seen the river this past off-season and yearned to be in your boat chasing muskies?  Unless there was minefield of ice on her surface, I bet your answer is “every time”.  Opening Day, Carrie and I had a great morning of casting and trolling lures on our beloved river.  It was nice to be on her again.  We weren’t out long and we fished well, despite the cobwebs.  We hit a few of our favorite spots (west for me and east for her) on our truncated trip; just enough to satisfy our longing before we had to leave for work.  We pulled old favorites, chucked new toys, sang songs, laughed a lot and had a great time.  I even got a good start on the annual musky bruise on my left ribcage from ripping crankbaits, and, thankfully, the holding-my-rod-trolling-while-jerking tendonitis in my left elbow is still asleep from the winter.

We also didn’t catch anything, and I’m fine with that.  It’s always a plus to get the skunk off the boat on the opener, but musky season seems like it will last forever on Opening Day.  Carrie and I will be out Monday and while the romance of the start of the season doesn’t end after Opening Day, it does fade a bit, and catching becomes more pressing.

Congratulations to everyone who connected opening weekend, and just wait until you see the cover of July’s newsletter…  How’s that for a tease?

Monday, June 22

Carrie and I set sentimentality aside today looking to get the skunk off the boat for 2015.  We spent all of our time on the east side from 3:30 to 8:30 PM.

We trolled from the Canal down to Motor Island on the edge of the channel.  When we arrived at Motor Island we traded our deep spread for a shallow look.

Carrie had a short rip right off the bat.

After an hour of zipping around the shallows between Motor and Grand Islands we decided we’d give it another five minutes before switching to the expensive rods (casting).  Five minutes was good enough to kick Pepe off the Lund and ten minutes was better.

My first in-season musky (I caught a super-dink last week drop shotting for bass), an overzealous 32-incher, smacked a Handlebarz double 10 off of a Jojo Ball in the prop wash.  The lure only has one treble and with a quick flick of my wrist with the pliers, it was gone.

Five minutes later my outside rod doubled over with a nice rip.  I thought I might have something memorable until I wrestled the rod out of the holder.  After a brief tussle, Carrie netted a healthy 37” for me.  I only use two trebles on my little Wiley’s and this fish had two points of the front hook buried in her mouth at the tip of her snout.  This is why we netted her and this is why musky anglers carry Knipex.   When two points of the same hook button a fish’s mouth shut, removing them with pliers is the wrong idea.  It’s invasive and very bad for the fish.  With Knipex all it takes to free a fish hooked like I described is two quick cuts, and the lure is out.

Both fish hit in 12-feet of water in UN4.  I had six feet of line out with the orange and black double 10 and the Brown Perch Wiley was back 35-feet.  We were trolling 4MPH upstream for both fish.

We cast and trolled our favorite haunts in UN4, but the two small muskies and the rip was all of our action for the day.  We’ll be out tomorrow at some point.

 

Tuesday, June 23

With the nice northwest wind we started in UN2.  Carrie had a nice rip, but as soon as she grabbed the rod the fish came off.  Later in UN3 I had really nice pike (upper 30’s maybe 40”) pop off after it smacked an orange and black Handlebarz bucktail.  Besides dragging a smallmouth for 50 yards, that was all the action we had.

[John Pensyl]

Great report.. if the cover is what I think it is all I can say is GIANT!. and it's about time that fish showed herself.

[John Miller]

Spoiler

[Capt. Larry D. Jones]

Stop! I want to see it and read it!

[Mike "the facilities" Fortunate]

Who got what..what am i missing

[Scott McKee]

You'll have to wait for July's issue, Mike.

[04qgbjv11ur6a]

Great read Scott.thanks for all you do.