My season in review

[musky_tail05]

Well, I hate to say it, but my dad is putting our boat in storage this week. And so ends our first year of chasing muskies. We opened up the season on Cass, with no follows or hits to show for it, even though we did see a real monster in very shallow water when we didn't have our muskie gear in the boat. After opening week, we didn't get out again until July 4th, when my dad got his first one, a 39 incher on a old, beat-up Harasser we got for $1.50 from a garage sale. After a struggle to get it in the cradle, we got the fish unhooked, took a picture of it and let her go (that experience taught us to buy a net). The fish was out of the water longer than either of us wanted it to be, due in part to the unhooking process, but after some coaxing next to the boat, then fish swam away nicely. About 45 minutes later, my dad had another upper 30's fish follow to the boat. Five more weekend trips to a local lake produced a 45"er follow on an Invader, and a 40 to 45"er follow on a Bulldawg for me. My dad had something pretty good sized swirl on the same bucktail on another trip, too. Labor day weekend we hit Cass again and I had a 40"er follow on a Suick and I lost a 40 to 45"er on a Jackpot at the side of the boat. That shocked the both of us because we were doing some "Hail Mary" casts in front of the resort at 8:20 p.m. on the last day with a strong storm rolling in. But at least I got the chance to hook up and fight one. After that trip, we fished about four times, with only a 30 some incher taking a swipe at a Jackpot. So, the totals for our first year are about 12 to 14 days of muskie fishing, averaging only about 4 hours per day. One C&R 39"er and about 7 follows ranging in size from 30 inches to about 45 inches. I would have liked to get out alot more, but with both our work schedules, it was really hard to. But we agreed that next year (due in part to buying a camper on Cass) we are going to attempt to get out every weekend. So, did we do pretty good for our first year? I'm not too sure, but I think we did O.K. What do you guys think?

I also would like to thank everyone on this board who gave me some excellent information on chasing muskies. I think now the both of us are hooked for good.