And reports!

[JRedig]

Alrighty, well Cjac and I got a jump on the weekend tonight playing hookey from work (i was anyways)and fishing a west metro lake. One of the COOLEST nights of fishing for me, we had an event i've always wanted to see!

We moved 3 fish for the night, 2 pushing or over 50 and one mid 40's fish. One of the big girls came in chasing a mid-20's pike I hooked into. Fishing a weed edge, using a bulldawg, something tapped the line, drove the hooks home and started playing/bringing the fish in. Turned out it was a FAT 25 or so inch pike. About 30 feet from the boat, I noticed something below the pike in the water and sure as heck it was a pig of a muskie. I've always heard about this happening and have wanted to be a witness!

So the pike sat there in the water swimming near the boat and after about a minute, the muskie came unglued and t-boned the pike!!! Chris was going for the net and we both were yapping about getting them both in! This is where it turns down, my reel, a curado 300, takes a dump and breaks. I could hit the thumb bar but no line would feed out, something snapped inside the reel. (upon inspection once home, a nylon yoke busted, glued it back together and it works for now) So the muskie was pulling on about 10 feet of line trying to swim off with the pike! After about 30 seconds it lets go and turns around, the pike just kind of laid there in the water. At this point, i'm thinking I just wanna catch that HUNGRY muskie, chris grabs the biggest bait we have, 11" curly sue. He puts it on the line, the whole time the muskie sat there eye balling the pike. As soon as he dropped it in the lake, the muskie turned towards that, then the pike started thrashing around again and the muskie came back to that. About that time we drifted over the thick weeds and the muskie was gone. Released the pike, swam off just fine with hardly a scratch which is astounding.

It was awesome, i'd pay good money for a front seat like that again, Chris and I were both dumbfounded and had about a million "what if" comments!

And now i'm seriously redefining what I consider a big bait. I need a 20 inch pike minnow/crank bait...where to get one??!!

Hope it's a good sign for the rest of the weekend for everyone else! Let's hear how you all do!

-Jeff

EDIT: And a big thanks to Chris for bringing the boat and beer, we should do this more often...

[crazyice]

Awesome story! I've had similar happenings with much smaller fish. I've had plenty of bluegills ripped in half by invisible culprits.

[BoxMN]

Wow. that would be awesome to see. Sounds like a great afternoon!

[b1gf1sh1]

awsome when that happens aint it. memmories are what keeps a muskie fisherman a muskie fisherman. nice work, too bad about the equipment failure. oh well... next fish please.

Quote:

And now i'm seriously redefining what I consider a big bait. I need a 20 inch pike minnow/crank bait...where to get one??!!

over the winter i'm planning to try and do just that. i need to figure out several things. try and keep the cost reasonable to the customer, make it fishable without trolling, and works, lol. but a 20'' tri-blade green/flash bucktail aint hard to do. expensive, but not hard. blade placement is critical though. anyway, good luck next time man.

[Esox_Magnum]

Wishmaster, Dansyk ( sp), Grunt all make extra large crankbaits. Congrats on the neat experience, so far I have seen muskies eat a bass, walleye, and gills on my line. Had a few try eating my wifes Aqua Vu to.

[propster]

Jeff, don't you know you're not supposed to use game fish as bait?

[polarsusd81]

Sounds awesome. If you call Shimano you can get a new yoke for about 50 cents, shipping hurts though. You would think they could just throw it in an envelope and send it, but its like 10 bucks for shipping. I broke the yoke on a Citica.

I had a big muskie do something like that on Bald Eagle many years ago. Upper 40s fish T-boned an 18" bass. Awesome sight to see.

[Tippman]

That would have been fun!

[cjac]

It was crazy!

I told Jeff I would have read this and thought "Another JRedig story...." Ha ha!

I've never seen anything like it, and it was a BIG fish for sure! Something inside that little pea-sized brain tripped that fish to get that pike!

Fun afternoon, looking to head out soon and see if I can get one of those big ones to go!

[dfricke1010]

Early August this year I had this happen and ended up catching the 2 pound pike and the 48" muskie. It is an amazing site, the muskie let go twice only to come back at it again until I finally got it in the net.

[b1gf1sh1]

it definatly scares the bejeezes out ya. especially if you don't know it's coming. i've had em whack sauger, walleye, white bass, pike, crappie, catfish, sunnies, bass, sheepshead and another muskie twice. i've found plenty of spots accidently this way, lol. i know this may sound like a fish story but it's true. the only reason i'm even saying anything is that it can give you a free ''muskie hunting grounds'' if you remember where you got whacked while fishing something else and that area is more than likely a good spot to visit with heftier gear, or right then if you have some already. i'm sitting here smileing remembering the moments. thanks jeff.

[cjac]

Redig and I moved a lot of fish today, but a lot of deep and lagging follows. Couple were somewhat warm/hot, but turned off. Fish would show interest and hang around, but never really would come in or should I say come up. We managed one little guy, but what a day to be out....almost too nice! Fun day none the less......

Sounds like we should've went topside a bit more.....

[Nick Kuhn]

Just a 35" today.

About the follows, I'm surprised I've never seen it happen on a caught fish. Granted I've only been hunting skis for a few years, but I've caught tens of thousands of panfish that would be fair game for even smaller pike.

[b1gf1sh1]

yeah vahn, that is strange. but don't feel left out, it almost never happens. just be patient, your time will come. then be sure to have something to get your toung back up from your stomache, and your heart back in your chest. just hope to whoever you revere it doesn't happen on the top of the water as your reaching down to grab a smallmouth. that might just send you home to change.

[JRedig]

Sunday was great, moved over a dozen fish but they were certainly cautious with it being so flat! They'd rush up to the boat and then just kinda quietly linger and drift off. Couple were real nice one's, couple of them oh how I wish i would've had 20 yards longer to retrieve!!! Oh well, can't say we didn't have our chances.

Come January I'll be VERY happy to think back and remember one of the nicest fall days and that I was fortunate enough to [PoorWordUsage] off my wife not doing yard work and went fishing instead!

[fishcast]

thats quite the story!

I was out a lot this weekend, and had something completely inhale a 9" fly but it didn't stick good and popped out after a sec. That was all I saw. I also went through some prime water with a suick and saw nothing. My partner caught his first descent sized skie at 38" twitching a super shad rap on his fifth cast of the morning on the "spot on the spot". Also another guy I was with had a big fish strike three times in three casts and didn't hook it while casting a believer. He also had another big fish go through a figure 8 and half but then it left.

[b1gf1sh1]

Quote:

They'd rush up to the boat and then just kinda quietly linger and drift off. Coup

something you may want to consider, if you'll allow me.

little thing grandpappy Amos beat into my head early on was my hooks. used to harp on me all the time about them. great grandpappy Amos harped the same on him. and maybe even before that too i don't know. interested in what they said? good i get to harp.

''a feesh will taste 'dat roost from a long wais-away. no madder how little dere' iss, day' will taste it like us chewin' on teen'foil with fillins' in our toots.'' pounded it in my head continuously. pretty soon i made sure i took care of my hooks. no wet lures in the box or i heard about it. and i've found over the years they were right. not just 'skis but any fish. if i find a little tiny speck of rust i change it and toss it.(or re-hab it if i can) immediatly. this is the reason you'll never see me sharpen a hook. no coating at the tip means rust, i just buy good hooks. the worst place i've found for rust to go unnoticed is inside the eye. cheap split rings get tossed out before i even fish them. so hooks aren't the ony place that can rust. i've fished with people that will tell me straight to my face their hooks are fine. show them the rust and a-lot just shrug. just a tiny bit. no biggy. i just shake my head and keep fishing. really i think this may be why i get a lot of the fish that hit on a pre-rigged rod with a tube or other plastic after a rush and dash. i see rust i missed on the lure they shyed away from alot. tiny specks i just did'nt see at first inspection. just something to think about.

ok. harp/rant over.

[JRedig]

I replied elsewhere too, but my lures that the fish were following are 2-3 weeks old TOPS. 1 of them had new hooks put on right before we went out!

[b1gf1sh1]

Quote:

I replied elsewhere too, but my lures that the fish were following are 2-3 weeks old TOPS. 1 of them had new hooks put on right before we went out!

maybe the line stinks

rustless hooks are a major confidence thing for me. half my baits are saltwater hooks and by next spring the rest will be too. see, i bought a gross of VMC 5/0s awhile back and it's just been too easy to use them, lol.

so that said... i can see why you do well at this little muskie game. just the fact you changed those hooks is enough information for me. i know i'm kind of a nut case about some things but in my defense i did have Grandpappy Amos hammering me when i screwed up. Great Grandpappy Amos was more subtle. he'd just snicker a little bit and give his famous ''ach-ahem-ah''.

i hope you get a few more yet, good luck... YOU TOO CHRIS!!!