Nice work matt! I try and musky fish with my brother when I get up by my parents cabin by spooner/hayward area which is pretty tough anymore. My biggest is a 38 pounder 49 1/2 inches caught out of the same fishing hole that my brother caught a 51 1/4 inch 42 pounds 4oz. the week before mine. This was back in 97' or 98' He won the wisconsin lucky 13 contests that year for the musky category. great pics man, you don't ever have to catch the biggest fish to have a great time!
Its a little creepy. Between the double, and that being one of the biggest fish I've ever caught, things got a little crazy.
Real cool fish. We have them up here in a few lakes. Great photos and congrats, you're a fishing machine Vito, and an artist with the flyrod and camera too! Thanks for sharing.
That's nothing... take a look at this MONSTER!!! haha. Great fish congrats! And good luck "hunting" the rest of Muskie season!
Outstanding Matt!! I've "hunted" for these fish a good dozen times In northern Minnesota on the rivers up there. Nothing to show for It yet, some day though I hope. My dad landed a 40 some Inch musky 10 years ago, It's now on his wall. To catch yours on a fly rod even makes It more special. You've got some great talent there Matt with your fishing. Kudo's to you!!
Matt, heck yeah! If we had a fishing competition thread on here I would hope to be on your team my friend. You are fishing machine.
I just got back from my week-long camping/fishing trip on the river and don't have any muskies to show. I did see one in the water (at least 3' long) and he casually came right to my kayak. Not skeered. Anyway....congrats. This post is definitely inspiration for me to get back out there.
Congrats Vito, the entire Esox family is by far my favorite fish and those are some fantastic specimens. Cool colors too on a couple of them. Is that one where your buddy is throwing the "horns" a Tiger? We just don't have numbers of musky here in my area, but there are a few pockets of tigers around. With that said, we have some world class sized pike here. We don't get the numbers of fish here, but out of the group of guys we fish with we ended up with a 49 3/4" fish (just short of that magical number), 46", and I ended up with a 38" fish. Our season is done though, we typically only have that window of water temps between 52-54 degrees before they go deep and dormant for the summer.
Vito.... what weight leader do you have on those flys? What weight rods, line and tippets????? 7 or 8 weight rods??? Haven't gotten into the big Northern/muskie fishing and flies yet. Still trying to learn how to catch a steelhead here and there. LOL
Muskies are a blast. I caught one last year my first time ever fishing for them. I have since struck out on about 8 other outings. Here is a pic...
That is a barred musky. They used to classify them as northern musky. Now they break the strain up as "barred" and "unbarred". The spotted were always know as great lakes musky. They used to plant tigers quite a bit in the 80s and 90s, but they don't anymore. The ones that are still around are quite large, as you would imagine. I had one eat a rockbass as I fighting it about 3 years ago. We got it to the boat twice. Easily low 50s and around 30 lbs. It eventually spit the rockbass out, but very cool to see. Those huge pike sound like a lot of fun! We use 26# surflon. Its like a braid and ties well. 8 and/or 9 weight rods. The bigger rods are more necessary to throw the flies than it is to fight the fish. Musky really don't fight that hard for their size. Nice fish, Cooter!
Very cool Vito... You and your kids are my fly fishing idols. LOL You do seem to do it right and have fun. I always enjoy your pictures and stories. Thanks. Do you do much with spey rods????
Sure do! I love spey casting. I mostly swing for steelhead, but also break the small speys out for smallies and trout, occasionally.
That there is awesome Matt. We don't have many around here. There is some in the Susquehanna, but I've never caught one.
