Trolling motor got attacked!

[berfish]

I was fishing on a crystal clear lake yesterday in central MN when I noticed a follow. When my bucktail got to about 20 feet from the boat the lower 30 inch fish took a lazy swipe at it and I jumped the gun with an early hookset. Just as I jerked the bait a 45-50 inch fish came out of the weeds and went after the 30 incher. The smaller of the two took off under the boat back to the bottom of the lake in the weeds. Then the big girl took off right at me in the front of the boat. She ran directly into the bow mounted trolling motor like a battering ram...it shook the whole boat. Not to mention it was running. I was fishing with my cousin and he said he had heard of a muskie following a bait in and striking the trolling motor before. Anybody else seen this before? Just curious.

[brmuskie]

yep - a few times.

[AWH]

Had it happen once before. Time to start running some stinger hooks off the trolling motor!

Aaron

[smeese]

Time to make some bigger baits.....maybe a stainless steel prop attached to a boat bumper buoy for a super duper top raider. Hope the fish did not take on too much of a battle scar, I have heard that the noise emitted from trolling motors can make grumpy muskies snap but thought it was pretty unlikely.