My 2014 Election Day voting duties were completed by 7:30
AM, but I still had the rest of the day “off” from work. The current weather was pretty crumby (windy,
cool, and raining), and the forecast was for more of the same, but even worse (with
increasing wind and cold.) It would have
been all too easy to choose to spend the day in cafes with lattes, or on the
couch with Ollie; and while any of these options (and many others!) would have
been pleasant, “pleasant” doesn’t seem to be much of a factor when it comes to
putting muskies in the boat. With Daniel
Lugo as my omni-present virtual guide (“Are
you a Do’er? Or a Don’ter?”), I
launched Numenon on a desolate M
Lake. I launched into the teeth of a stiffening
wind and some horizontal rain, but I was wearing my best rain gear; and I had
another set (plus a complete change of clothes) in the truck. I had a packed lunch and a full thermos of
coffee on hand. And, inexplicably, I had some
hope for success.
The wind was bad enough that I first chose to troll. M Lake offers lots of deep water. This environment serves as (mythical?) cisco habitat, but also as a
certain refuge of safety for the muskies.
My biggest fish on M Lake have generally been hooked in deep water, away
from the weeds, so they are out there; they’re just difficult to find. I was marking an abundance of
bait/fish/activity on the sonar, and so I remained hopeful. But it was windy enough, and the weed lines
irregular enough, that I was having a difficult time consistently presenting my
big crankbaits in sweet spots without fouling the salad. Plus, I’d spent all last fall plying these
depths without a fish! Moreover, I could
not ignore the observation that many of these weeds were still green. So within an hour I chose to switch from
trolling to casting to the shallow weed beds and edges.
By recognizing Numenon’s
limits for control, carefully picking locations, and by using the wind as an
ally as opposed to fighting it like an enemy, I was able to consistently present
some weed-free baits more effectively.
My sexy shad Bucher Shallow Raider got a work-out as a personal
favorite, but I mixed in various bucktails, topwaters and big rubber-baits,
too.
I wasn’t exactly surprised when I detected a faint ”tick” on
my line after a cast over a shallow, wind-swept weed edge. But I was surprised when I swung, the rod
fully loaded, and my line instantly parted. My 65-pound braid must have been damaged
during a previous casts and use; it didn’t break at the knot, but rather about
half-way between the fish and me. There
was no swirl, no leap, really no external indication at all of the biter.
I repositioned the boat to get away from the windward shore,
and promptly re-tied each of my rigs. I
fished for a little longer, but I was somewhat soggy and now a tiny bit
deflated. Plus, the whole idea of this
day was to be on a known hot-spot at 4:30 PM’s moon-rise. So I took advantage of the rare benefit of surplus
time to go get lunch, change clothes, start over again and try another lake!
An hour and a half or so later, I was repositioned on C
Lake. My favorite Shallow Raider was now
gone, but I’d recently purchased a Drifter Tackle Believer for exactly this
situation. On about Cast Number 5 for
the session, I instinctively swung on a slight hesitation in the lure’s cadence,
and a lit-up muskie, crank-in-jaw, appeared 20 feet or so away from the boat.
Her fight was less than spectacular, but she found her way
into my net! At a confirmed 42 inches (and
a probable 20-plus pounds), she was the first “legal-sized” muskie aboard Numenon in quite a while. We treated each other as gently as possible;
I took a couple of unsatisfactory snap-shots, and I was pleased to feel her
vitality return as I supported her in the water, boat-side. She confidently swam off, and I’ve got every
reason to think she’s going to be okay.
Her beauty was only enhanced by the fishing line scars scattered across her head
and back; she’d clearly been caught and released before. I hope to see her again.
Just after I released her, the rain stopped and the winds
shifted from SW to NW. Lake C fishes
pretty small, and I kept pounding my spots, but nothing else moved for me. Until exactly moon-rise, that is, when a
slightly smaller muskie followed my Believer and stayed with my Figure 8 for
quite a while. I didn’t trigger this
fish to bite, but I’d already had a great day. To stay any longer appeared to
be lunacy. What better way to celebrate Muskie’s
Election than to be home, with the boat put safely away***, by dinner time?
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| There's no justice in this photo for this fish. I've simply not figured out how to get a satisfactory selfie while respecting/protecting their physical needs for a safe release. |
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| Such a beautiful smile... |
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| Without a trace of doubt in my mind, I'm a Believer! |
*** As I write this, it appears that Winter is Coming! Soon! This might turn out to be my last session of the year with Numenon!
