First time for muskies at the Larry

[Stephen Glassic]

Going to the Larry this weekend with Toothy and Mark Marcus for an outing with MI 69 and we are going to have our monthly meeting there on Saturday evening. Will report next week, hopefully with some pics.

[Scott McKee]

Good luck boys!

[Stephen Glassic]

Report from last weekend.

We got kind of a late start on Friday. With the three of us going up in Jim's pickup we were crammed. Mark has a tendency to bring a lot of stuff but we had to limit it somewhat to fit everything in. We got into Clayton about 5:30 and went to meet Sharon at the Musky Hall of Fame. I stayed outside to watch our gear while Mark and Jim went in to talk to Sharon and the director, Jeff Garnsey. Jim wanted to talk to them to get a feel for their situation in the location they are at and to have some dialog with them to see if there is anything we could do to help support them. They have very limited space and are unable to exhibit everything that they would like to. They came out a little later and I was able to meet Sharon and Jeff. We broke out the maps and Jeff showed us some areas to try in the Clayton area which we were very grateful for since he also steered us clear of areas we should avoid due to hazards.

We then started out in the direction we thought we had to go to get to  PJ's Motel and ended up going about eight miles in the wrong direction. Eventually we found it, checked in and got our gear unloaded. Then it was time to go to PJ's restaurant. We all had the fish fry which was very good. We had our dinners in front of us less that five min from the time we ordered. Brad Perkins and Bob Solley came in and joined us at the table next to us. They had been out fishing and got blown off the Larry in the afternoon and tried it at Black Lake for a while. They had no fish to report except a northern.

After dinner we went back to the room and worked on a plan for Saturday. Later that night, Eric, an old fishing buddy of Jim's who lives nearby stopped over to give us some more advice on where to fish. He had not been out for a few years due to health problems but he used to fish a lot at night with great success. He gave us a couple of his secret spots and there was one in particular that he wanted us to check out. He is quite a character and we ended up shooting the s**t with him til about midnight. The room was very small we had to push the beds against the walls so I would have enough room to sleep between them an a sleeping bag.

About 8AM in the morning, we went to the Fishers Landing boat launch that was just around the corner from the motel to launch. Jim's starting battery was dead so we ended up having to jump it from Bob's boat. At least we were able to get out. The wind was blowing about 15 to 20 mph from the SW so it was to rough to check out the spots that Eric told us about. we ended up working some areas between the islands across from Clayton where it was more protected. Without a GPS with maps, we had to continuously pay attention to the paper charts to navigate and make sure we knew where we were at all times. Mostly we trolled but did try a little casting along one shoreline that was more protected. we really had to pay close attention to the charts to make sure we didn't come too close to any hazards. So we put in a god day but were not able to connect with any fish. Brad and Bob told us they had a couple of rips but that was it. The wind starter to pick up around the time we had to call it quits. on our way back we lost track of exactly where we were and ended up finding one of those rocks hidden just under the surface but slowed down in time and just bumped it with the lower unit. It was in the middle of nowhere in 50 fow.

We had our meeting at Obrien's Restaurant in Clayton which started about 7:30. There were about 20 in attendance besides about 6 members from Muskies Inc. chapter 69. Several charter captains were there including Rich Clark and Bob Walters and first mate Daryl Raate of Water Wolf Charters. Former owner of the Thousand Island Bait Shop and inventor of the Berger King Rig, Dave Berger was also there. Bob Walters brought in a couple beautiful mounts. One was a Massive 69.5' musky that died on him so he had it mounted. I'm not sure if a Beckman net could even handle a fish like that. The other was beautiful double replica mount that was very well done with two muskies swimming in opposite directions.

Jim and Brad started the meeting with some background of our club and our purpose for having the meeting there. We wanted to recruit some members from the area and become acquainted with their concerns in regard to their fishery so that we may be able to work with them in the future. They had a lot of questions and most of them were very receptive. Bob Walters and Daryl put on a very good presentation that focused on catch and release for every fish, including the monsters. He brought attention to an IGFA catch and release world record program for muskies. It  does involve buying a kit that includes a roll out measuring board and I think there is also a cost for entering a fish. Their method of measuring is  a little different. The measurement is taken from the tip of the snout to center of the fork in the tail (not the tips and no squeezing). Bob uses an underwater camera with a monitor while he is trolling and he showed us some video of the Berger King rig in action. There was a lot of great video with muskies chasing it. one of them was akin to a cat chasing a toy. Here are some short videos I found on UTube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/stlawrencemuskies/videos

One thing that we learned is that when they say we caught one today, it means that one of the charters got one but they are all fishing the open water for trophy fish. I got the impression that you could work the shallower areas and get numbers but they would generally be smaller.

That night after the meeting Jim talked to his friend Eric on the phone and he was upset that we didn't check out his special spot.

Sunday morning was blowing hard. The waves were 3 ft with whitecaps. we packed up and decided to go up river to Chippewa Bay. Had to jump Jim's boat again. We followed Bob out of the bay because he had the GPS to get us out through the shallows. After about 3 hrs we had to call it quits because we started to take waves over the bow. None of us got any fish.

On the way home Jim talked to his friend Eric. He was upset that we did not check out his spot again but the waves would have been worse there. Even though we didn't get any fish, it was an enjoyable experience fishing the big water of the St. Lawrence. You really have to pay attention to where you are. I can see where a GPS with maps is almost a necessity there. I wish we would have had less wind so we would have been able to fish some other areas. I definitely would like to go back.

[Scott McKee]

Thanks for the great report, Steve!

[jojo wilczewski]

Thanks and nice report Steve. Jojoout

[John Jarosz]

Steve...a really good report.  Liked all the details  that you put in..JJ