Muskies Out West

Kevin and I had some big plans to head East and chase some new species. We left Sunday morning with some high hopes and made the long drive to a new lake. When we got there in the late afternoon we were greeted with some prettier sights than what we imagined, but some less than ideal water conditions. The lake was borderline chocolate milk and the wind made things a little more challenging to fish, but we hit it hard that evening. Then very hard the next morning and into the afternoon, before the wind blew us off the water. I had been throwing a variety of large baits in hopes of landing my first Tiger Musky. Kevin switched it up a little and was using some smaller baits hoping for a Wiper or Walleye. I had zero encounters with our main target, but Kevin did get a couple small Catfish and one Walleye. But that was it, so we had a decision to make. Do we stay and keep at it, or make a change?

We decided to make a change and hit a lake that Kevin had never fished and I had only fished for a couple hours. Despite me being less than prepared for targeting trout, with only heavy rods and big baits, we left for this new lake getting there just as it became dark. The next morning Kevin struck first getting a solid Brown to the kayak while trolling. I moved around and tried several different baits that seemed to get no interest and I wasn’t really seeing anything on the finder. I was already pretty discouraged and decided I needed to make a switch. I moved on to a new spot and on the way I noticed a couple larger marks near the bottom, so I put on a larger lure I had brought for Musky and worked a nice drop I found. I was almost immediately rewarded with a hit and realized it wasn’t the normal trout I catch! I get it to the surface and let out a scream to Kevin “It’s big!!”. But when I go to grab my net behind me, I realize its tangled in a rod/lure! I’m so concerned I’m going to lose the fish if I let any pressure off that I don’t bother trying to untangle the mess and just call for Kevin to hurry. He races over and passes me his net and I officially land the biggest trout I’ve ever caught and easily the biggest Brown!! We snap a few pics and I began letting the fish recoup a bit and Kevin ends up hooking up right near me on a good fish! That one got away after it jumped but Kevin redeemed that loss by landing a monster!

We both continued using big baits and had a slow pick at some very solid Browns. Something we saw that was pretty neat was some surface activity, where injured baitfish were at the surface and Browns were coming up to eat them. Not something I’ve ever seen before! I ended the trip with three solid Browns and probably triple that in opportunities. Kevin got 5-6 fish I think, with most being well above average of what we normally catch. The change in lakes definitely saved the trip, being we both crushed our PB Browns! Looking forward to fall!