Yeah Baby!

What a sweet day to be on the water!  Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching the sun rise and set from the seat of my Ranger Boat.  Fortunately it was a good day to be spending on the lake, cuz those muskies were darn hungry.  I'll start with last night because it is still so fresh in my mind.

Mitch, Kristin, Mike and myself hit the water at about 6:00 pm in hopes of continuing the streak of fish that I have been recently compiling.  With high hopes from the great morning that I will soon share with you, we shot out of the access to see what we could come up with.  Kristin was our professional photographer for the night, and we were really hoping she would get to put her camera to use.  The weather was strange, with high sun, dead calm waters, followed by high winds and storms from many different angles.  At times the wind would be from the north, and at times from the east, then west, well you get the idea.  Needless to say, it wasn't prime muskie weather, but we pushed on with high hopes. 

As the sun set, there was a feeling in the boat that something was about to happen.  I went to one of my absolute favorite spots on the lake for sunset bites, and we fished it very slowly.  To set the stage a little further, this is only the 3rd time Mitch has fished for muskies, and he has yet to land a beast or see one in the boat for that matter.  His excitement to see a muskie caught was as high or higher than the rest of us.  As we worked slowly down the structure manuevering our baits to the "spots on the spot"  I had Mitch cast his bait to a specific weed patch where I had seen a giant earlier.  To my surprise, nothing happened.  Two casts later he had a muskie crush his lure at boatside and go hog wild.  At one point I thought my rod was broken.  The fish, while not huge, gave us an adrenaline rush before it shook the hooks.  Literally the very next cast, Mike chucked his bait to the spot I had Mitch cast to, and it was all over.  The beast decided that it just had to eat.  For the next few minutes, it was absolute chaos.  Kristin was snapping pictures like crazy, and Mitch and I were running around trying to position ourselves for the success of a net job and a quick safe release.  This muskie measured at 51.5, and is Mike's second fish over 50 inches.  For such a true monster to be the first that Mitch and Kristin got to witness was surely a life changing event.  To see more pictures from last night, check out the numerous photo albums to see Kristin's work.  I do believe that the addiction of the muskies just got passed down to another poor soul.  AWESOME!

While last night was amazing in its own way, yesterday morning was one of those mornings that I wish would never have ended.  Brett, Russ and I hit the water early, and we had fish going nuts nearly every place we went.  We saw fish on almost every spot we went to for the first 2 hours of fishing.  It was predictable as we would pull up to the spot, and I would point to where they should be sitting.  Instantly the fish came screaming to the bait, however they seemed to be extra smart at getting the hooks out of their mouth.  Brett was on fire, and he had a solid 15 different muskies attempt to get caught by his magical lure.  Although we were all throwing the same bait, Russ and I had only one muskie each attempt our lure, and Brett had over 15.  That's just how it works some days, but I am happy to say that I made the most of my chance, with a nice 39 to 40 incher.  Brett followed up one of the fish that he missed earlier in the morning by catching it the second time around.  While not huge, the sub 40 inchers always seem to go airborn, and this fish was no different.  We saw some real giants again yesterday morning, but they won the chess match.  All in all, it was another one of those days that I will look back on for years with a smile.  And, I'm thinking that a few other guys will be doing the same.  Gosh are those muskies addicting.  Until next time, Keep on Livin the Dream!

Father Son Outing for the Books!

This morning well before the normal man or woman was thinking about rising, I was gearing the boat up for what I hoped to be an awesome morning on the water.  Joining me for the 3rd straight season was the father son duo of Jim and Allen.  Now these two guys are no strangers to muskies, and I must say that I think they have a slight horseshoe of luck in their pockets.  The past two seasons they have joined me once each year for their muskie excursion of the summer.  Each time out, we have had muskies jumping like crazy at their baits, and many in the 50 inch class.  While most of them have found their way off the hook, we have boated 3 of them, so we are batting well over 100%  This morning was right on par for the type of trips that we have experienced in the past.  While it started slowly, it ended with a bang!  For the first two hours, we saw nothing, but then things really let loose.  Allen landed his first fish ever at roughly 40 inches.  Not a giant, but a great fish, and the strike was unbelievable.   We'll just say that this muskie cleared the surface by a good 2 feet.  After that excitement, Allen had another one nearly take the goods, but fall just short.  3 fish in 10 minutes was pretty sweet.  We left that spot, and Allen instantly had a very large fish screaming to the boat.  I would put it at about 50 inches.  
A few casts later it was Jim's turn, and you would swear that he had a sumo wrestler do a cannonball the way that the fish moved the water around his bait.  Somehow Jim came up empty after the dust settled, but he was a shakin!  A few more spots, and a couple encounters from some more 50 plus inchers, and it was nothin but laughs and good times  To see that many huge fish in one short outing is almost unheard of.  As our day was approaching and end, we were reminiscing about the morning when all of the sudden I spotted one coming out of the depths towards Allen's bait.  I told him to get ready, and just like a champ, he sweet talked his second muskie into biting.  It was so cool to see that 46 incher come from so far down, and in the clear water and high sun, everything was crystal clear.  Almost too perfect, and on that note, we decided to end the day with a slimy handshake.  Nothin but great times when these two boys jump in the boat.  Now Allen has bragging rights over a few buddies, and Jim has some pressure on him for the next time out in a couple of weeks.  Thanks for the fun boys!  See ya again soon!  Until next time, Let's keep on livin' the dream!

Short Trip...Worth Every Minute!

The question my buddy Matt asked me as we laid his new personal best back in the water last night.  "Is it a 50?" Well, the answer was nope, but it was very close to reaching that magical mark.  Last night we snuck out on the water to give a couple of casts before bedtime.  We hit the water at about 8 pm knowing that there was only time to fish maybe a couple of spots.  While I haven't been fishing as much as in the past, I have snuck out for an hour here and an hour there the last couple of weeks, and I have located some really nice fish.  Last night, my goal was to put a beast in the boat, and with the help of Matt, we did just that.  Matt, Katie, and Myself (with Woody watching of course) were fishing spot number two just before dark when the fish struck and the battle was on.  This was a very cool battle for the simple fact that it was Katies first time seeing it happen.  Up until this point she had only heard me talk about it, and I must admit, I think she was a little surprised by the insanity that takes place.  It was funny when everything was said and done, she looked over at me, shaking her head and said "I can't do that. are you crazy!"  This 49.5 incher went airborn 4 times and tail-walked the surface for half of the battle.  A great sight to see, a good hour on the water, and now Matt has a new personal best.  As he put it, "Man am I glad we came out tonight!"  Keep on Livin The Dream!

Time To Break The Record...

So the question has been risen more and more, when will the record be broken and what does it take to beat the 54 pounder???  It almost seems inevitable that this is the season that somebody will break the 51 year old record for the biggest muskie ever caught in Minnesota.  It has been talked about for the last few seasons, and has probably been caught as well, just never kept.  The size of fish have never been what they are today, and there are legitamate state records swimming around in a few of our lakes.  Not that this is at all a secret to many of you, but Lake Mille Lacs is my number one choice for giving up the record.  In fact, I would actually be surprised if somebody doesn't break the record this season from that lake.  I personally have landed a fish out of there that possibly broke the record (forgot the scale), but I give it a solid 52 pounder (not incher), which is just 2 pounds shy of the mark.  The funny thing about it is that I saw a few other  fish last fall that were even larger than the behemouth that I did land. 

As the size and frequency of these fish are being caught, one has to sit back and really understand just how big that fish needs to be to shatter the record.  Before I caught the huge fish last fall, I had hauled in literally hundreds of big muskies.  I would catch a nice 52 or 53 inch fish and say, well, that must be 40 to 45 pounds.  Wow was I wrong!  Yes I was catching big fish, and some of them were definitely in the 40 pound class, but I wasn't quite aware of the size of a fish in the 50 pound class.  Let's just say that I couldn't lift the darn beasts when I tried to take pictures with them.  It was far more of a struggle than I had imagined, and while I see a ton of pictures come in to me, most of them are guessing about 10 to 15 pounds high on the size of their fish.  It is fun to catch a huge fish, but even though we catch a fish that looks huge, we might be wrong to say that just because it was 50 inches long and somebody's biggest fish ever, that it was a 50 pounder.  Unless you are an extreme body builder, it just isn't feasible to hold something that heavy and odd shaped out away from your body.  The dead weight of something so fat and heavy makes it hard to lift and hold, which you can tell in several pictures.  I'm not putting anybody's fish down, because I think that every muskie is absolutely amazing and I love congratulating everybody on their catch, however I will say that the camera angles and such have made fish size hard to judge.

I really had an eye opener to what the state record fish consists of.  Many other muskie fisherman have as well, and its only a matter of days before it happens, and trust me, it will happen soon.  The condition of our lakes are possibly the best that they will ever be.  The intense stocking efforts in our state have given us fish that people from all over the country come for.   The lure of the state record is dangling in front of us all, and it sure is fun catching those 25 - 40 pounders with regularity.  The above pictures are a perfect example of what is almost common in our state.  A good fishing buddy of mine named Muskie Mike (Tengwall) had a night to remember last week.  While out with a couple of fishing buddies, they landed a 51, 52, and 53.5 inchers, and boy did these fish have the girth.  This is almost rare to see such girth at this time of the year, but solid thick fish with 26 inches of girth and that length get you in the high 40's for pounds.  The 52 incher was the largest weighing 46 pounds.  The 53.5 incher was next at 44 pounds, and the 51 wasn't weighed, but less girthy and in the upper 30's.  Girth on these fish are what makes them incredible, and to get into the mid 40 pound range, you need a fish with a 25+ girth.  I'm not talking about a two pound fish hanging in their bellies, i'm talking about solid girth from head to toe.  You can find these fish on lakes that have tullibee and whitefish.  This forage is what makes them fatten up.  I look at the Tullibee as a Big Mac, compared to a bullhead (muskies favorite non tullibee snack) which must be like a healthy choice meal.  The lakes with these forage will surely produce the fish with a big enough girth and mass to break the record.  This will likely happen this fall when the muskies put on their fall feedbag.  Tullibees spawn in the fall when the water temps drop into the high 30's.  The muskies follow them up and literally gordge on them putting on an additional 10 to 15 pounds.  That is why it just blows me away to hear about 46 pounders being caught in July.

That fish will be caught this fall without a doubt, the only question that remains...who will be the guy to keep it???

Tools for Battle...

While I love fishing for just about anything, many of you are aware that I have a special craving for those toothy critters known as the Mighty Muskellunge!  I'm not sure if it is the thrill of the hunt, or the unbelievable excitement when they attack, but it is a fish that has changed my life forever.  With that being said, one of the most frequently asked questions that I get is, what kind of equipment do you need to catch one?

I often answer with the simple response of "The biggest and heaviest stuff they make!"  While that might sound kinda foolish, I am not exaggerating one bit.  When I first started fishing muskies years ago, I remember fishing for a whole summer, and when I finally had that first fish on, I lost it from having a bad leader on my line.  It literally snapped my wire leader in half.  The feeling that I got after all that effort just made me sick to my stomach, and since that day, I have vowed to never let that happen again.  Muskies aren't a fish to take lightly, and chincing on any of the tackle is not acceptable.  They seem to find a way through your weaknesses, and leave you sleepless for nights reliving every moment of the loss.

So here's the shake down on what I do to prepare myself for battle.  Starting with the rod and reel.  The first and most important part is the reel you choose.  I recommend a Calcutta 400.  I'm not sponsored by them or anything, but I just have found Shimano as the number one brand of reels.  They cost more, but you have a great reel that will withstand the thousands of casts you make.  I have burnt up numerous other reels in no time, so that's where its at period!  The Rod is simple.  Find something heavy duty, the longer the better (even 8+ feet).  The key is finding something very light.  Your arm will fall off if you are throwing a ten pound 2 X 4 all day.  I have found some great rods for about $60 - $70 at Gander Mountain. 

Once you have the rod and reel combo, you need some line.  As a wise man once told me, "the only thing between you and that fish, is that line."  Don't slack here either, or you will be staring at the ceiling in your bed wondering what you almost had.  I use 80lb Power Pro.  This stuff has been great for me over the years.  It never breaks, and lasts a long time.  The leader is the last point of contact with you and the fish, I go heavy duty here as well with 100 + pound leaders and heavy duty ball bearing swivels.

That will get you on the water with the right equipment, the next part is picking through the thousands of lures to find the ones that really work the best.  Since I could spend days on that one, I will just have to wait for another time to elaborate.  As always, feel free to ask me any questions about this topic, cuz I love every second of muskie talk.  Good luck, Catch a big one, Let it go, then send me a picture!

Travis Frank - Livin The Dream!