Monday, August 30, 2004

A tale of three muskies Just as tarpon anglers ask each other "How many did you jump?" muskie anglers ask each other "How many did you raise (or see)?" The point is that many more of both species are seen or hooked and lost than boated.  I kept that tradition alive with two follows to report.  Friday morning, I launched my boat on a local lake just to make sure everything was working and to throw the kinks out of a couple muskie rods.  Shakedown cruise for a TV trip we did this morning.  On the way to the lake I realized I had forgotten the net and long-nose pliers, but I did have a good pair of gloves, so figured I'd manage somehow if I hooked a fish. Not only was I the only muskie fisherman on the lake, I was the only boat for the 2 1/2 hours I was there.  On my first drift, a nice fish (40-inch plus) followed a Mepps Musky Marabou (bright yellow, orange, green) to the boat, then disappeared.  Got me excited, so I marked the spot and came back three more times to nothing.   End of that story. Fast-forward to this morning, when Lee Kernen (retired WDNR fisheries chief) and I fished Lake Wingra in Madison.  For two hours, we saw nothing but a heron, a resident osprey (The lake has a nesting pair now.) and a couple boats speed-trolling.  I started with a yellow Mudpuppy, then switched to that same Mepps marabou mentioned above.  When I switched again to a skunk-tail Mpps (B/W), a 36-incher followed my first cast, then rolled a couple times on the surface and is still out there somewhere.  The only fish we saw all morning.  Then at the landing, a guy launching a We-no-nah canoe to fish said he had caught a couple muskies on crappie jigs!  And also on live bluegills caught from Wingra.  Not today, mind you, but he had done it, he said. OK, third muskie story, this one from my brother Mike who lives on Long Lake in the Adirondacks.  Mike writes: "I got Muskie #4 yesterday morning (a small one, 71/2 lb on the Bogagrip) about 100 yd from my first one in the Grasse River.  I had been working/fishing up that way for a  few days and caught him after 14 hours of fishing out of my boat, kayak, and waders.  I saw a sweet log jam that looked promising, hiked  up river about 200 yds., and slowly snuck down to where I could cast to it.  Just as I was getting within range, a boat with two guys floated around a bend, so I hurried a long cast before they got to me.  He came out of the log jam and smashed the silver Buchertail I was chugging on the surface just as they pulled abreast of me.  Turned out it was an out door TV guy named Don Meisner who produces a show out of Watertown, NY (he thinks he has met you at an out door show).  That's the story." No, I don't think I've met Don, but I know his show.  What are the odds that a guy who does a fishing show on a PBS affiliate would come around a bend in a river just in time to see the brother of anothr guy who does a different fishing (and hunting and camping and...) show on another PBS affiliate catch a muskie?  Of course, Mike lives in Don's backyard, but still... I  wonder if Don got my borher's fish on tape? Next time: report on the Rinehart 100 3-D shoot at Holmen. Later... 10:05:00 PM    comment []