Toothy Critter Success Thread

Had a good two day float with TD, Bilg25 and another buddy. I personally missed 3 musky and huge smally and this pike before he have me a second chance. Not bad for blue bird days IE worst musky weather ever!
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Nice pike. We have some pike in my neck of the woods here in SC, but they're not widespread. They're easy to catch in springtime if you time it right, but usually by this time of year they're pretty deep. Some gear guys trolling for muskies on a local lake will sometimes get a big pike in summer. I would think that river pike may be more susceptible to fly fishing in summer(?). The North Branch of the Susky has some pike but they are rare downriver around here.
 
I've managed to catch river pike every month of the year. They take flys readily and give you a second chance I ya miss em usually. Unlike there big cousins the musky. The time for the big pike (30 in plus) is the spring and the fall before snow.
 
Nice pike paco! That fly looks a lot like the one you caught that Musky on this spring when you floated with Jake. I might have to whip some up...

Good work
 
Thanks T' it wasn't the same fly I just like putting black heads on my musky flys. Kinda the anti-hotspot.
Believe it or not I was throwing a single that day. I'm not a really big fan on non articulated flys but when your fly and approach is getting no love. Ya gotta be willing to change it up.
 
Pike on the fly #2!!! My brother and I both had some action yesterday, then I went back this afternoon and had one more follow. I think I may have a new sickness. This can get ugly..........

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My first toothy on the fly. Was fishing the Glendale tourney and had to give the arm a break, was tossing a blue foam popper. Once while stripping it back in it went under water, and the result was a little chain pickerel. Maybe the skunk is off for me and toothies and the tide will be turning,

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Way to go guys. Gotta love the toothy critters in all shapes, sizes, and colors!!

Crotalus,

Were any of the Musky caught during that tournament on flies??
 
CPRASAP wrote:
Way to go guys. Gotta love the toothy critters in all shapes, sizes, and colors!!

Crotalus,

Were any of the Musky caught during that tournament on flies??
Click to expand...

Unfortunately no, all came from trolling I think. I know Paco had several follows.

Next year I might just paddle up and down the lake trolling a Gamechanger behind me 😉
 
Thats cool that you guys at least got some follows. That lake can be tough, especially with the flyrod.

LOL I'm betting the trolling with the gamechanger could get you some serious action!!
 
My buddy and I put serious time in 10 hrs the first day. Wich between us we had over 13 follows. Two were mid 30s. We just couldn't convert em boat side. The second day fished from bell to bell & nothing. Musky fly fishing is a fickle b@tch.

But we got together had a good time and started laying the ground work for a new central PA chapter of Muskys Inc.
 
Thats awesome to get that kind of action even tho you couldnt get em to eat. I finally successfully landed my first on the 8 with a flyrod in April up there. They definitely seem to like to inspect the flies for quite a long time. LOL

I still wish I could have made that trip. Oh well, I'll try to get there next year.
 
Hey Hey I havent been on here in awhile as I f@@@ed a disc up in my back. Congrats to everyone on here catching some toothies recently. Good stuff. I finally got out over fathers day weekend. Full moon and stained water conditions are what I love to fish. Since I can walk normalish now it was worth a shot.

Well it was mid afternoon, started off casting doubles but wasnt getting any love (that I could see), downsized a little to a single ghetto tramp and I am fishing an eddy I know holds muskies and start working the top of the pool, get to about mid pool, doing a pretty erratic retrieve and got stopped dead with a brutal strike, I had a solid hook set, and it was on, big head shakes and a lot of weight on the other end, the fish surfaced after a short burst, by far the biggest muskie Ive had on, a fat fish pushing mid 40's. Took me on a long run, started to head shake and then went to run again and I had too much pressure on her and she shook the hook. I really thought I had a solid hook set and it turns out I didnt. That fish really hurt to lose, the good news is I now know that fish is in the area. This is the first time where I really felt outgunned with my 8wt. After thinking about it more, I feel like had I had a 10wt I would have been able to put the screws to her on the hook set a little more. Im getting beat up this season so far. Muskies 2- Dave- 0. And I am 0-3 on fish over 40 in my first two seasons. FUBAR.
 
Damn dave that's a bummer. Sounds like it was a great fish. I agree with the 8wt being a bit too light. First fish I ever hooked (and lost) was on an 8wt. It's not that an 8wt can't handle fighting the fish, it's like you said...the hookset. How is casting with that messed up disc?
 
Crawdad,

Oh man, those definitely hurt. It sucks to lose any, let alone a beast like that.

I'm certainly no expert, but a couple things I did over the last few years have REALLY helped my hookup/in the net ration. My first issue was really getting used to the strip strike hookset. That tortured me for the first couple of years because I had been fishing only trout for about 20yrs before the Toothy addiction. The Tarpon/saltwater guys really have this down.

Another HUGE help for me has been sharpening my hooks regularly throughout the day after any fish/snags. I think both of these things have helped tremendously.

Yep, a 10wt might help you out too. Sometimes though, you do everything right and still don't get the fish in. My hookup ratio over the last couple of years was ridiculously high. However, this year I am running at about 25% so far. LOL Sometimes we have their number, and sometimes they have ours I guess. Good luck man, I'm sure you'll get em.


Jay
 
@Tloomis, I agree with you two areas my 8wt holds back, hook setting on large fish and turning a running fish with side pressure. In regards to the disc issues, the cast isn't the problem, wading is a slow business for me now, I can't slip or twist or try to catch myself, all of those activites hurt a lot, if I flat out fell I don't want to know how that would feel. I'm only 31 but now I wade like an old man. Lol. Can't keep me away from the Muskie during prime conditions for very long. You know how it is.

@Jay, I did buy cheap hooks, that is a little bit of a limiting factor, however I feel like I could sharpen them a little more then the factory, what do you use to sharpen them? Just a metal file? I feel like I have the strip set down, however I will watch a bunch of tarpon videos on YouTube though to see how I can improve. I agree with you to I felt like I had an awesome hook set, but a fish that big and lots of head shaking will loose hooks. I can think of plenty of smallmouth that on spinning gear that I hammered crank baits home and still ended up seeing my lure coming back at me.

Best part I know that fish is in my favorite fishing hole. 🙂
 
I haven't posted in a while since I slowed down musky FFing. Wading the lake this time of year is miserable with all the traffic, and I started focusing more on trout. I went out today with my father on his boat he just finished remodeling and finally saw a musky while musky fishing. I got 3 follows and 3 takes all in about 15 minutes. I think 2 of the takes were from the same fish. Unfortunately I couldn't get out if my trout habits. I got excited and yanked the fly out of the fishes mouth all 3 times lol. Fish were small but it was still exciting. I was throwing a pink hang time double that I posted in the tying thread a while back. Today just lit my fire for musky fishing again!
 
Congrats..that's a good day chasing musky..days like that grab ya. All you think about fishing is musky until you land one...then that's what you think about. Musky. Once you land one everything clicks. Keep up the good work.
 
Thanks Crawdad. Musky have definitely been dominating what I've been thinking and dreaming about. I can't wait to get back out there. Time to start tying again, pink is my new favorite color.
Sorry to hear about your back issues. I know what your going through I had surgery to correct a disc issue last year. It slowed down my fishing quite a bit and made things a little tough.
 
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