In September, 2010, I bought a thick rod and a heavy line and made my first attempt to find Tiger Muskie on a lake near my home. I still swear that the lone bump I felt on the line was one of those silent monsters. Of course, I'll never know. But the idea of a big Muskie has been lodged in my mind since that time and I don't know how I let last year slip by without trying again.
So I went out during the first week of May and made my second play for one of these fish. After a couple hours of casting in a strong wind on a very gray day, I was getting tired. Or maybe a little frustrated. Or both... I knew the fish of a thousand casts can be ten times that for a fly fisherman but I was questioning, for the first time, my ability to stick with the task at hand. Could I really cast and cast and cast all day, likely over the course of several outings, in order to earn this coveted prize?
God may have known that I wasn't capable of such fortitude.
I was fighting the wind as it repeatedly blew my pontoon boat in toward the brush-covered shoreline in front of me. I wanted to work my way along and try this entire stretch so I had decided not to drop the anchor. But that meant that I only got one or two casts in and then had to grab the oars to move back out. At one point I cast within a foot of a several branches that had fallen into two feet of water. One or two stuck up to mark the spot. I made four or five strips and felt the line hang up. I didn't have time to wonder if I had snagged a branch because the line started to vibrate and move. Fish on.
The fish flashed and I saw it wasn't that big. I then immediately assumed that golden gleam couldn't be a Muskie and must be a Smallmouth Bass. But I was confused because if it was a Bass then it was a big one.
It wasn't long and I got a better look, the long body giving away its identity. I knew then that I had hooked a small Muskie. Small by Musky standards, that is. He would measure 28 inches. Nothing to sneeze at for a guy's first Muskellunge. And I was tickled.
I'd done it. And on only my second outing. I'm a lucky boy... And I'm still grinning.
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