Toothy Critter Success Thread

[TLoomis]

Just got caught up in the musky craze this year. Caught my first ever musky on conventional gear this spring and then caught my second about an hour after! I will post a picture later (at work now) but it was 40 inches on the dot and the girth calculator says around 22lbs. A beautiful tiger that took a bomber long A stick bait.

So after having a bit of confidence, I put the spinning gear down, grabbed my 9 wt, and borrowed some flies. I got to fish three times pretty soon after that and managed to get 14 follows and one hookup. Casted at a gaping ~35" fish and he took it almost right away. Didn't get a strip set in though and he just slurped it so there wasnt a good hook set. Still kicking myself.

Anyways....work has settled down again and I've been readying the troops. Got a 10wt HDT from Cabelas last night, ordered an Allen Alpha II reel, some Teeny fly line, and I've honed my tying skills. Headed out tomorrow at 4am to try to get a couple hours of fishing in before work. Hopefully me and/or my buddy can stick one!

I've never been so excited to go fishing.

 

[afishinado]

TLoomis wrote:
I've never been so excited to go fishing.

Excitement, enthusiasm and confidence often translates into success.

Good luck, Ty.

 

[TLoomis]

Thanks A.

Me and two of my buddies got up at 3 this morning and got the boat on the water by 4. Fished until about 7 because I had to be at work by 8.

The water was really really green. Not much visibility. Fished a fire tiger pattern (about 13 inches) all morning and my buddies threw a bunch of different colors. We had one definite follow and one hit. The thing nailed my buddies fly but not enough to get a good hookset apparently. Who knows if we had more follows...the film on top of the water plus the cloudy water made visibilty basically nothing.

Good morning though. Man it hurt having to get off the water at 7. Could've been there all day....or atleast until I couldn't cast any longer

 

[TLoomis]

Headed back out after work! Thunderstorms around 3:30 and the moon sets at 4:30 so its oooonnnnnnnnnn

 

[Crawdad31]

Good Sh#t TLoomis! This thread makes me smile! Especially when other people have the musky bug...it's like herpes once you have it, it ain't go away! Ha! Can't wait to see pictures.. Haven't been able to fish my favorite musky spot or pike spot for that matter with all the #%*#$@@ rain....

 

[TLoomis]

Haha it really is! I love fishing, and I've always been excited to go fishing...but this is like...something totally different. I'll be sitting at my desk looking at a big ol' Musky fly in front of me and I can feel my heart rate start to go up. Its awesome haha. It's kind of like the feeling you get when you see a buck when you're bowhunting. Even when I hooked that one on the fly rod, I was shaking way more than after I landed the 40 on spinning gear. Gotta love it!

No luck last night. The water is too cloudy and warm at the spot I was at. I need to get a drift boat...

 

[TLoomis]

Is there a "Toothy Critter *** Beating" thread?

8 hours on the water yesterday with one follow and a bass hookup. I'm sore and burnt

 

[Fishidiot]

TLoomis wrote:
8 hours on the water yesterday with one follow and a bass hookup. I'm sore and burnt

int:
This is why muskie fishing isn't for everyone.

I've been out for toothies on the fly two or three times this year and haven't had a strike yet.
The bass or pike hookups do help keep up some of the motivation IMO.

 

[TLoomis]

Yeah I am suprised we didn't land more bass. It was supposed to be a "Big Bass Lake" too. We threw some smaller flies, but I guess the 60lb bite tippet with the big loop knots isn't too appealing in the water.

No pike in these waters unfortunately. I may be headed up to Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence at the end of August so hopefully I can get into some up there with the flyrod. It'll be nice to do some catching for once :lol:

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

Ya pay your dues. Hours, days & weeks add up. Most guys cant handle the "grind" of it day in day out. I look at this way if ya want action fish for bluegills & brookies. Ill fish all year and be tickled with 8 or 10 shots at musky.

 

[TLoomis]

Couldn't agree more! I mean, even just a follow gets my heart pumping as much as getting a big trout on a dry fly. Sunday was pretty brutal, but like you said, we're paying our dues.

 

[TLoomis]

Some pictures od a double I just tied and me fishin the new setup. Its only a matter of time

 

[TLoomis]

Sorry for clogging up this thread with banter but I'm stuck at work and all I can think about are these greased pigs!

Headed out Friday night to a local lake. I've been reading a lot about summer musky fishing and night fishing, and with the heavy sun we're getting this week, and the water clearing up a bit since it's finally not raining daily, I think we will have a good shot at sticking one of these bad boys at night. Going to get on the water around 730 and fish until the trolling motors are just about dead.

Going to be tying up a few sponge bob square heads tonight...thats for sure.

I'll tell ya what, if this enthusiam doesn't wear out, I don't know that I will be able to spend my fishing time chasing anything other than musky. I haven't even landed one and I love it! I think that first day when we got 12 follows from what seemed like 5 different fish is what did it for me.

 

[Crawdad31]

FINALLYYYYYYYYY!!! Got the first one. Ill be smiling for quite some time..stuck this one on a brown trout colored Buford.. Hooked up on the figure 8, fought well too, ran a couple times, lots of head shaking, some bulldogging and came completely out of the water which was AWESOME!!! Measured at 36in.

 

[Fishidiot]

Congrats Crawdad on your first fly rod muskie - she's a beauty!

 

[TLoomis]

Awesome! Congrats crawdad. I bet it feels good to be on the board. I'm gonna try to do the same tonight. I've got a good feeling

 

[greenghost]

Crawdad31 wrote:
FINALLYYYYYYYYY!!! Got the first one. Ill be smiling for quite some time..stuck this one on a brown trout colored Buford.. Hooked up on the figure 8, fought well too, ran a couple times, lots of head shaking, some bulldogging and came completely out of the water which was AWESOME!!! Measured at 36in.

Congrats! Cool stuff! You were able to do a figure 8 while wading? I assume it was a river you were wading?

 

[Crawdad31]

Thanks Guys! @TLoomis it does feel good.. I fell asleep last night smiling. Lol. It has been tough for me in the Musky department I've lost a hog around 40-42 and had a low 30's hammer a figure 8 and didn't get a great hook set and lost him after a few head shakes. Tons of follows..I'll be smiling for awhile!

@greenghost I was wading a large creek, almost a river, I have found water needs to be stained or it needs to be raining to figure 8 them. It's not easy and they get so close they see you and drop off, getting a good hook set with just the leader out of the tip top is not easy either, this one hit on one of the loops just as the fly slowed down.

 

[Crawdad31]

I am by no means an expert..I've missed a lot of opportunities on following fish by screwing up the 8..it's toughest to do in current, I'm using an 8wt because I don't have the dough for a 10wt. A stouter rod would no doubt help. This fish didn't follow the fly in he came from another angle and hit on one of the loops of the 8. It was really kool I had no idea he was there water was coffee with creamer colored.

 

[TLoomis]

Awesome! I'm right there with ya. 14 follows and one hookup, but it was a false hookset (synthetic fly) and it popped after a minute. I'm dying to stick one of these things....they're even haunting me in my dreams! I had like 10 follows last night.....:lol: