I met both Scott and George early in the AM on the first day as our plan was to fish Leech Lake. As a fishing guide it's my role to find out their skill level and adapt from there. In conversation Scott mentioned that he had been fishing Lake of the Woods for several years with his son George and they have caught muskies up there. Sweet! I knew they would be ready to put in a good shift of fishing to try and boat these goofy muskies.
This is where I will let George take the story from here.
"The
Fish of a Lifetime"
Written by George:
Before we
made our trip to Leech Lake, I was scanning through the pages of a book of
famous quotes by athletes. One that particularly caught my eye was a quote by a
cornerback on the Pittsburgh Steelers that said, "You only get a once in a
lifetime chance so many times" That's what we were up here for, the chance
to catch a muskie, an accomplishment some anglers never get, let alone the
chance of hooking into a 50" muskie.
We
started off the first day a little slow. We met our guide, Jeff Andersen, at
the docks at The Chase on the Lake.
We fished for about an hour with not one follow. We pulled up to a new
spot and had a fish that barely bumped Jeff's buck tail, a hot follow on a fish
that turned away on the figure eight and was never to be seen again. We fished 3
or 4 spots proved to be slow, with only 1 follow, but on the bright side the
weather was clearing up and was very soon warm and sunny. Good for us, but not
for the fishing. We pulled up to a rock ledge that went on for hundreds of
yards. Jeff told us that this was a very good spot to catch a mid-sized muskie.
We casted for about 1 minute and
soon enough a fish shot up out of the deep and engulfed Jeff's buck tail right
next to the boat. He quickly handed the pole to me and the fight was on, I
fought the muskie for a few minutes and brought the fish to the boat. What a
good fight! First fish of the trip and my biggest to date! We netted the fish, but one problem;
the fish was hooked very deep and it was bleeding a little. After a few minutes
of trying to get the hook out, Jeff finally got it and we got some good
pictures with the fish. He gently worked the fish back and forth to get water
going through the gills. To our surprise the fish darted back into the deep and
swam away.
On the
first day we also caught a hard-fighting 32" northern pike while fishing
for muskies and had another big fish follow. We later fished for Walleye for about half an hour and caught one
walleye and three perch.
The second
day was going to be very windy, so we decided to try a nearby smaller muskie
lake. Jeff had advised that we might see a few more fish there. The fishing was
once again slow early. We fished 4 or 5 spots and only had 1 follow. That all changed when we pulled out in
front of some reeds and cabbage along the shoreline of an island. We casted and casted, and to be honest
my hand was getting sore, and I was getting a little bored. Then I heard Jeff
tell my dad he had a follow, and I looked over a sure enough there was a
good-sized muskie following my Dad's copartner, called a Pacemaker. The fish
was ready to eat, but unfortunately after 3 or 4 figure eights the fish turned
away. Bummer! About 3 minutes later, I was looking at my buck tail, which I was
casting, and out of the corner of my eye, I watched Jeff get ready to cast and
quickly stop the cast and start to figure eight. I was a little confused until
I saw an enormous, fish sluggishly following the lure and then as quick as it
came, disappeared. Jeff told us to reel up, and that we were going to make
another pass through the area to pick up those fish. We made a pass with no
signs of the giant. Jeff said we better wait 10 minutes or so and try one more
time. We casted and casted, a little bummed out that neither fish showed up
again! Then Jeff switched lures from a buck tail to a huge rubber bait with a
big tail. The lure was enormous. After a few casts with that he pulled it out
and looked ready to cast the other way, but instead casted it to the same spot.
Thank God he did! A few cranks in he set the hook. "George, George, this
is a big fish, be ready." I fought the fish with all my strength and
effort. I was grunting as I was trying to prevent the fish from going under the
boat. We fought the behemoth for 5 minutes until it finally surfaced.
Everyone was shocked, Jeff netted it and pulled it out of the water. I was
speechless! I had never seen a
fish that big! I was shocked. Barely any words could come from my mouth. We
took a few pictures and let it go. It swam away slowly, with its enormous back
sticking out of the water and finally disappeared into the deep waters. High
Fives were given all around! My new shirt and shorts were drenched in fish
slime and my arms were ready to fall off! The fish was incredible! A 51",
34 pound muskie! A once in a lifetime fish! Just what we came here in hopes of
doing, but we still had 1 1/2 days left.
We
returned to the lodge, where we fooled my mom and sister that it was just a
small muskie, but we had some cool pictures of it. Boy were they surprised!!!
Neither had ever seen a fish that big! My sister, Lauren who was new to fishing
and 11 years old, had decided to try fishing for a little bit, and Jeff took us
to a little area where we caught 7 Northern Pike all about 2 feet long and a
few perch! Lauren caught her biggest fish so far, in a 23" pike! Everyone
of us had fun battling the feisty northerns. What a day!
The 3rd
day was tough, very tough we fished all of 8 hours and not one fish! That's
muskie fishing though! A few
northern were brought to the boat, and I did catch a 8" Rock Bass on my
8" Buck tail! Jeff recommended we stop at Dairy Queen on the way back, and
boy did that Nutter Butter Blizzard taste good after 8 hours of casting!
So we
were down to a half day of fishing left before we had to go home. We fished walleyes
for 4 hours and we all had a blast. We had caught probably 10 walleyes
including two 17" fish and a 22" and a 24" walleye. Dad,
Lauren, and I each caught big walleyes and we were having tons of fun. We
were down to the last 5 minutes of fishing before 11:30 am. We brought out the
rally caps and prayed for luck! Jeff hooked a big walleye that we unfortunately
lost at the boat and another one that Lauren missed at the hook set. With 2
minutes left I was working my Jig N' Rap as hard as I could. I slowly let it
down and all of a sudden, WHAM! I hooked into something, something big. The
fish stayed down a long time, we all thought that it was a really big walleye.
I fought the fish with all my strength, but it stayed down. After 5 minutes of
it staying down, it finally made a run, ZING! The fish took off. By then we
knew it was no walleye, I saw the enormous head of a Muskie charging towards
the surface 30 feet out from the boat. Then it made a spectacular leap out of
the water, every inch of the fish was 2 feet out of the water! Snap. I reeled
and no Muskie on the end! Bummer! We all just looked at each other talking
about how amazing that leap was and hooking a muskie while walleye fishing
with 8 pound test! Where were you yesterday when we had 80 pound test?!
Well,
what a fabulous way to end the trip of a lifetime!
Thank You
Jeff for the incredible experiences, and fish of a lifetime.
Sincerely,
Scott
George,
14
Lauren,
11
Thank you Scott, George and Lauren! What an amazing memory!
A story and a photo that will never be forgotten by George and his Dad is what makes my job rewarding.
Just a little bit about the fish we caught:
The first fish was caught on a Blue Fox Twin Turbo 10 blades. This bait is made right but you have to be willing to put the work in as the blades are heavy and move a ton of water. Bottom line is they catch fish! Speed was the name of the game here as it seems the fish are just following slower retrieves. Get that thing rocking if you are having follows give the one two crank and burn those arms and you will soon convert those follows to bites. On the second fish, the big one, we landed was a fish that many anglers would have passed by. As George mentioned we had this fish follow off a steep edge. In most cases once you move a fish on a piece of structure the fish will eventually move back to that same piece of structure, but in some cases they stay out off the edge as this fish did. We made a few passes and the fish didn't follow or show itself. A perfect scenario to work a large soft pastic bait like the Storm ThunderBeast Click Here to see the lure. Again, as George mentioned, I made several cast to the same location the fish came from but out off the edge. Pretty much where the boat had just traveled. Making several cast to the same location over and over and just as I was about to give up I made one more. That was all the fish could handle!
Musky fishing is all about ups and downs as I have written in the past. The quote George mentioned, "You only get a once in a
lifetime chance so many times" is spot on when coming to musky fishing. When you get that "chance" you better be ready and sometimes an angler does everything right and that "chance" still slips away. Guess what! Keep casting my friends.....
"Get Hooked and Make a Memory"
Jeff "Breezer" Andersen
Here are the photos from the trip... (Click on image for larger view)
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