Rob and I were entered in
the Lake Chippewa Flowage Musky Tournament and this was the second day of
the event. Day one was a “skunk” day for us but it was good to be on the
water doing what Musky anglers do.
As we drank our coffee and
donned our rain gear, we discussed where a Musky might grace us with a
little action. The day before, I had a dance card for us that covered
productive water with minimal scooting around. I told Rob that I had good
confidence in yesterday’s dance card even though we did not have any action
and I suggested that we give those locations another try. Rob agreed, and
with a plan in hand we set off for the boat so we could be on our first spot
at the start of the tournament day at 6:00 am.
As we crept up on our first
spot, the light of day was beginning to break. We were early so we took the
time to double check our lines, re-tie as needed, and make our lure
selections. We were poised on a large bar that ranged in depth from 11 feet
to 2 feet so we had lots of options for lure selection. The overcast, rainy
and relatively calm wind conditions made surface baits, bucktails and
twitching crank baits all good choices.
As 6:00 am rolled around,
we began our slow troll from the 11 foot edge up toward the more shallow
areas of the bar where weeds were in evidence. Even though the water on the
Chippewa Flowage was down about 24 inches, we could still fish over the top
of the weeds on this particular bar. Rob elected to toss a small black
Skimmer with a green blade and I put on a black and yellow Best American
Topper.
As we fished our way into
the shallows, the persistent drizzle was almost refreshing in the mid-60
degree temperature. I commented to Rob that I had had success on this bar in
these conditions throwing a yellow surface lure and that I felt good about
our chances to produce a fish. Rob chided me with a friendly comment: “I
have heard that before.”
We were now about 50
minutes into working over this spot and Rob began to bulge his Skimmer over
the weeds that populated the shallower water. I tossed my topper toward the
edge of the weed line and began my retrieve when I felt a slight resistance
on the lure. It could have been a weed or the characteristic nip of a small
mouth bass…I just kept the lure coming at the slow methodical pace that is
encouraged by so many good Chippewa Flowage fishermen. A couple more cranks
of the reel and a Musky was all over the lure. I set the hook and the water
foamed as the Musky sought to make his get away.
The
Musky went down as it charged the boat and it was all I could do to kept the
line tight. Rob’s line was in and he had the net at the ready being careful
not to get in the middle of the tussle. The boat was moving toward deeper
water, which was just fine with me, when I got my first good look at this
fish. He had a lot of beef to him with nice big shoulders. I could see him
under the surface violently shaking his head from side to side in an attempt to
break loose from the 3/0 Owner Stinger treble hooks. The Musky was still
pretty fresh as he came to the surface with head thrashing and gills flared.
I pushed my rod tip down
into the water in an effort to keep him from rocketing skyward. He stripped
line from my reel as he led me around the boat a couple of times.
All this time, Rob was at
the ready with the net waiting for the opportune moment to scoop up this
scrapping Musky. I finally got some control over the fish and led him into
the waiting arms of my fishing partner…there is no substitute for a good net
man. Rob calmly put the net in the water and in an instant the fight was
over.
As I starting working to
free the hooks from the Musky, Rob got on the radio and called for the judge
boat because there wasn’t another boat anywhere that could witness the fish
for the tournament paper work.
