Toothy Critter Success Thread

[bilg25]

tyeager dont worry about getting a bigger stick for musky......they wont take you anywhere with them anyways, they hog the fish! haha

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

Hey we offered. Ya rather go chase trout! We not toothy critter elitists.

 

[tyeager]

bilg25 I heard they won't even take family members anymore
thats how competitive its become

 

[TD55]

Hey you gotta put your big boy pants on and leave those trout alone for a while. Trout are bait. haha

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

Its a vicious game and if your affraid of getting bit and mabe sticking yourself with hooks maybe you should stay with your sow bugs and nimps. HAHAHA!

 

[bilg25]

Instead of my big boy pants and putting them on I'm gonna give paco spelling lessons haha. Married to an english teacher even! I may as well tie some flies with some goose biops for my nimps! haha

 

[bilg25]

Nah we are going to go out Sunday for sure see what we can get in to! Should be fun!

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

BILG:

Speaking of lessons I'm teach ya some when me make it out next.

 

[TD55]

Since this weekend was opening weekend of trout season I decided to go musky fishing. I had a very good weekend. Friday I caught 1 musky and 1 pike. Those pics are below. Saturday I caught a really nice fish right at 40 inches but unfortunately my brother was not "smart" enough to use my "smart" phone and he thought he took a pic of the fish and then I released it. I then looked at my phone and unfortunately he did not get the pics 🙁 Today I went again and I was having a total brain fart and missed a good fish twice on a streamer. I switched to top water and got a strike. The fish gods were not kind to me and I got my first bite off on 80lb flouro. The leader looked like it was cut with scalpel. This fish was a real hog folks. It swallowed a 6-7 inch popper plus a few inches of leader whole. Got 14 fish now (11 Pike, 2 Musky, 1 Chain). I'm so pumped about how well the weekend went I'm thinking about taking off tomorrow and going again.

I liked this pic. Even God loves his toothy nasties

 

[Fishidiot]

Toothy success! Here's wishing you many more for the 2012 season.

I've been out twice for muskies this year and have only had a follow from a little punk. My day of pike fishing was a zero. Gotta keep trying.

Dang. Bite off on 80lb flouro.....that's a rare event. I still use short wire leaders but have long thought to switch to flouro as that seems to be the standard for musky FFers. Hhmmm....

 

[TD55]

I have done some research on the pros and cons of wire vs. flouro. The wire I have heard even a good fish can break off wire and it if it kinks it is significantly weakened. The flouro can obviously get cut too but from what I can tell from talking to other people it is very rare. The flouro gives you a little bit of an advantage over wire when catching inadvertent fish (bass, walleye). It seems that the guys that do use the wire dont get as many "bonus" fish. The fish I missed because of the bite off was a monster but it just gets my blood boiling to get out again after her. Either way if you are targeting musky it doesn't matter what you use they are not leader shy at all so I guess it is just personal preference.

 

[jay348]

Very nice fish! It's been too long since I've taken the big flies for a swim.

 

[Ramcatt]

http://www.aquateko.com/Knot_2_Kinky_Titanium_Fishing_Leader_Wire_s/1.htm
this stuff will not kink and is super strong

the heavy floro will get shreded by small fish = small sharper teeth
for the siz of the fish in this area... wire

 

[TD55]

I do know that smaller fish have the sharper teeth but I saw this fish right after it happened and it was well over 40" It must have just got one of it's teeth perfectly on that leader. The flouro will shred some on fish teeth but I have had nothing come close to going all the way thru untill yesterday.

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

Td & I have got over 50 toothy fish on 80 pound floro & never had 1 close to making through it. Even settin the hook acrossed the mouth on a couple. I was awsome none the less 2 topwater takes on the day. I had 1 on the same popper 5 min before his strike. And the best thing is that I got my fly back after it bit TD off.

 

[Deuterium]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I hope I can get some advice so that I too can have a toothy critter success story.

On Saturday, I was fishing a local stream for blue gills. I had my one weight and was wading along the bank in a long slow back eddy. I looked down and at my feet was a large toothy critter, not sure if it was a pike or musky, but I would guess it was 30". I continued to fish upstream (I thought briefly how I could cast the 2 feet to the fish at my feet, but with a 1 wt...) and the fish continued to move with me, facing away, just a few feet ahead. I felt like it was waiting for me to flush some sunnies.

About 30 feet upstream, another toothy critter broke the surface chasing something, I think a pan fish. The fish at my feet stayed with me for about 5 minutes before swimming off and during that time, the other fish "busted bait" twice more.

So, on Sunday, I went back with a 9 wt and the biggest flies I had. I fished the pool for a couple of hours, but did not have a take, but did see one of these fish chasing bait a couple of times.

So, I have never fished for pike or musky before Sunday. I would appreciate some suggestions on how to go about hunting these fish with a fly rod. Flies, leaders, casts, retrieves, etc.

Thanks.

 

[TD55]

Deuterium,
As difficult as it sounds it really is not. The hardest thing is learning musky and pike habitat. Then the rest is really chuck and duck. I like a ten wt but a 9 is adequate. I think an 8 is a little small if you are throwing really big flies and sinking lines. When it comes to fly lines I either use a 400 gr (350 for 9 probably) streamer express, or an full intermediate line. The flies are all preference. Some like the synthetics and others like natural like bucktail. I prefer bucktail flies 10-12 inches and articulated. I do have some singles like 6-7inches. Big fish eat big flies. Leaders, keep them pretty short like 5-6 feet. You can do a tapered leader but rather than buying a whole bunch of different sizes I just run 5-6 feet of 80lb flouro off of my fly line. I also use a 25 lb break point between my line and leader so if I do get stuck on a log or rock and cant get it off I have something that will break before my line or my rod breaks. As far as the rest goes learn to do a double haul so that you can make good cast, and just vary your retrieve. Sometimes they like it slow or fast and steady or eratic you just have to figure that out at that point in time. And the number one most important thing to do is keep the faith you are going to get frustrated but just keep casting and eventually it will happen.

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

If ya have a buddy drag him along for the ride. Its alot easier to get started in this. I had a really hard time hooking my first musky last yr. TD jumped out to 10 musky lead before I stuck a pig. I was there for just about everyone he caught. Thats the part the sucks.....The total randomness of the fish outta 2 people fiahing together 1 guy can have fallows swipes and even caught fish. The other dude is caught holding the bag. Thats the way it is.....Its mental toughness, not to lose focus on your fly and the water around it. They always catch ya day dreaming and bs with your buddies. I swear these fish are masters of cathing ya off guard!

 

[wgmiller]

What part of the state are you guys fishing?

I was in "Muskie water" my past few fishing trips in Lancaster County (Conestoga River), but had no sightings. I think I'll probably sh*t myself when I see the profile in the water someday. I can't imagine the fight!

 

[TD55]

I would consider our home waters the northwest, northcentral, and central PA. There is decent musky water in the entire state you just gotta do a little researching and exploring. It's a little like brookie fishing except for the fact that these things are like alligators.