Fish Pictures

Observations on the Weekend

I've just added compound bow preparation/ adjustment and baitcasting reel repair to my ever expanding list of skills for which I could make up to minimum wage!

I was in northern Wisconsin and happened pass lots of tourists on the bike trails.  I noticed that all the overweight women were alone, and all the average or thin ones had family around.

Why've so many former fishing towns become t-shirt and ice cream selling tourist destinations?

Why would anyone drive for hours to hike/ bike some stupid trails?

What's the point of an RV?  "We're going camping, but we've forgotten to bring something, what was it?  Oh yeah. The house."

The trick in fishing is having all of your equipment work, being where the fish are, and being there at the right time.  The right time is generally two weeks ago while you were at work.

There's an art to holding fish for pictures.  Its hard to explain when the fish holder is to happy to listen.

 

 

 

Doesn't look like 17", does it?

How to Catch The World Record Muskie

Many people who fish for muskies spend time thinking about when and where the next world record may be caught.

The first problem with this is we don't know what the biggest muskie ever caught was.  There was an awful lot of lying and cheating in the forties when it came to the biggest muskies ever caught.  Some of those fish were still quite big, and one is still widely recognized as the biggest ever at a little over 69 pounds.  There is much speculation about whether or not that fish is as big as we're told or if Indians speared it or about other problems with it.

The next few biggest fish also have questions about their authenticity.  The 65 pounder caught in the Georgian Bay in Lake Huron in the late eighties has new questions about its genuineness.  And the 61 pounder from the same place in 2000 was not weighed as well as those who care about this record would like.

All this leaves us with, possibly, a 58 pound fish caught in Michigan last year.

I find all of that uninteresting.  (If you find it interesting, you might read A Compendium of Musky Angling History.)

One reason I don't find the subject of the biggest fish interesting is because there are many people attempting to determine the biggest fish by calling everyone liars and cheats.  They may be right, but they're still dicks.

(Another fun subject is the Indian spearing in northern WI.  If I find the pictures of dozens of fish bigger than you'll ever catch that were speared by the indians when the cold blooded fish were too slow to move, then I'll post on it.  They're able to just about kill every fish in a lake, and they've done a fair job of killing off lots of fish.  It'll be another anti-PC post.)

A lot of warm-up, here's the post:

The places where 60+ pound muskies live is likely: the Great lakes, the St. Lawrence River, and there are a handful in several lakes in Northwest Ontario.

(NW Ontario, for those not in the know, is the southwest corner of the province of Ontario.  Northern Ontario seems to be in the middle....)

That's where the biggest fish are.  Then you'll need to consider the size limits on the fish in the various places.

In an attempt to manage the fish population, many have successfully lobbied politicians to put large minimum size limits on muskies.  In many parts of Ontario (which includes NW Ontario and half the great lakes, including the Georgian Bay) the size limit is 54 inches.

In order for a fish to be properly weighed in order to count towards the world record it needs to be killed, and in order to be legally killed it needs to be bigger than the minimum size limit.

This size limit leads us to the interesting situation where the 61 pound fish caught in 2000 was, depending on how it was measured, would have been around 54 inches, and may well have been undersized had it been caught and kept the following year, after the size limit was increased.  Possibly the biggest muskie ever caught was borderline too small to be legally kept!

It seems to me that size limits in excess of 50 inches may just as well be "no kill."

Oh you caught the first legitimate 70 pound muskie ever?  Well its too small to be legally kept. - many muskie activists would like to say

1. laws stink
2. the government is evil
3. people who advocate muskie regulations are no better than the wefare moms demanding stuff from the government

All this leads us to the biggest muskies in the world and the size limits necessary to count towards a really big fish pointing us towards a handful of NW Ontario lakes and the southern half (US side) of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.

Much to the dismay of muskie casters, the two ways most likely to hook a really big fish are with live bait and trolling.  (Many of those casters would like nothing better than to ban both.)

Once a giant fish is located live bait is the way to go, but the places where those fish are likely to be are places where there are not a lot of fish.  Lifetimes could be spent in search of one of those big fish and you'll not find one at the speed with which a live bait fishermen covers the water.

This leaves us with trolling in the above mentioned places.

However there are yet more laws to contend with.

Most places allow one line in the water per person.  Because of the way ice fishing works, Wisconsin allows three line per person (where trolling is allowed, and there are new one line trolling places available this year, and laws still suck).  Michigan allows one line per person; Ontario allows one, and I don't know about Ohio, New York, or Minnesota.

More lines in the water means more chances at fish, so if my goal was to catch the biggest muskie ever, I'd troll Lake Superior in Wisconsin territories.  Perhaps also the St. Lawrence in New York waters.

Then we're limited to the fall.  Fish eat lots in the fall to bulk up before a slow winter when they lose lots of weight.  They eat some in the spring and summer, but it is in the fall when the fish are the biggest in these colder climates.

We're now narrowed to trolling Wisconsin waters in Lake Superior, and depending on New York trolling laws, the St. Lawrence River in NY.

The way to troll for muskies is almost certainly the way its done on Lake St. Clair.  Possibly with some modifications.

Finally the subject of the post:

If my goal was to catch the biggest muskie ever, I'd by a boat like the Canadian trollers on Lake St. Clair (the American trollers use smaller boats, I think) rig it like they do there, and I'd troll around Lake Superior in Wisconsin waters.  I'd hire a bunch of people to ride around in the boat with me too, so I could get the maximum number of lines in the water.  I'd want to do this from the middle of September through whenever the season ends or the ice becomes too much.  (Boating in lake Superior in November isn't a great idea.  Just ask the Edmund Fitzgerald and many other large ships.)

The Apostle Islands and any other structure would be where I'd start.

So that's what I'd do, if that was my goal (it isn't) and its time of the year didn't interfere with deer hunting (it does).

I wish you good luck if you want to try it.  I'll pass on the idea for the many, many, many days it would require for even the slightest hope of success.  But I'd travel up there to spend a handful of days trying it out.  It wouldn't be the worst way to spend your time.  Let me know how you do.

tldr: fishing laws suck too, deer > muskies

The Milwaukee Muskie Expo

I visited the Milwaukee Muskie Expo on Saturday.

I thought that I saw a new fishing lure that I liked.  But it turned out to be an ice scraper.  Oh well. 



What's the point of a small lip when you can get a big one?

Also: Musky fishing news: 2012 was the worst year of muskie fishing that anyone can remember.  This means that 2013 will be better.  Or worse.  Or about the same.

Fish Picture

I was going through my outdoor pictures and noticed this one:

Sometimes they don't like being held.  And the camera guy often takes, seemingly, forever to take the pictures.  You can feel a fish "winding up" before it moves, btw.

 

I've caught about a dozen 24" or longer walleyes despite never fishing for them.  The one pictured looks like about 28".  I caught a 31" walleye a day, or so, later.

Great lakes fish are not colored very prettily.

Stuff!

One of my reasons for creating this blog was to have add a website where you can find expert information on deer hunting and muskie fishing.  I hoped to do for deer and muskies what Roosh has done for girls.

Its still a work in progress and their are gaps in the information, the quality of my writing is improving, and the arrangement of this website needs work.

But there are now three links below the blog's header for my posts on: Deer Hunting, Muskie Fishing, and Books.  They are arranged in ways that, I think, make learning about these subjects easier.

Check them out and let me know if you have any suggestions, or have questions, or would like to see a post on a particular hunting or fishing subject.

Slow Fishing

I was fishing on Green Bay this past week, and Lake St. Claire a few weeks ago.  Each of those two days the air temperature dropped 30 degrees from the day before.  And 0 fish were caught.

If you want to know what the worst fishing conditions are: a temperature drop of 30 degrees in one day is it.

Muskie Size

I'd like to tell all of you young muskie fishermen out there that its not a good idea to read fishing magazines or watch fishing shows if you want to get a realistic idea of how big the muskies that are caught are.

I heard this quote once and it makes all the sense in the world:

"All magazines are pictures of things that you can't have."

I bring this up because of how often I hear that someone new to the sport catches a nice fish and then grossly overestimates its weight because everything that he has heard about fish weight is wildly inaccurate.

I often hear that someone I know has caught, say, a 45" muskie.  This is a good fish and one to be proud of.  They then want to guess the weight and invariably guess somewhere around 25 pounds for that fish.  Here we have a case of a guy catching a fish to be proud of and he's led to believe that it weighs ten pounds more than it actually does.  And he'll be disappointed if he hears how much it actually weighs.  Rather than being proud, he ends up disappointed because he has been misled by the fishing media.

Another area for size questions is how amazing it is that many people who are prominent in the sport catch lots of 50 inch muskies and how few 48" or 49" they catch.  This is easily researched in the Muskies, Inc. website, and its amazing how all of these guys have caught all of their fish on the far right side of a natural curve.  Many of them catch lots of 50"s but don't seem to need to sort through the 50 or so 45"-49" fish that the rest of us do in order to catch a 50".  I wonder how they do it.

One more area for concern is that if you look at the pictures of the 50 pound fish that are caught most do not even compare to my dad's 47 pound fish.  They must have gotten poor pictures.

The moral of this story is that if you see an estimated weight next to a picture a fish, or an estimated weight table, understand that those are the weights of fish that have not been weighed in actuality.

Outdoorsy Stuff

Black Bear

Here you can see how a Covert trail camera takes pictures at night.  Some cameras take better night pictures and they cost more.  The quality of the night, dawn, and dusk pictures is one thing that separates good cameras from bad ones.

Incidentally, my cousin had a good week.  She shot her first bear and caught her first muskie.  (Someone may have screwed up the net job on what would have been her first muskie a few years ago. But I don't want to point fingers.)

49.5" Muskie

The Best Things Are Often Cheap and Simple

Did you know that there are musky lures for sale for more than $70?  And yet you can buy excellent lures like a Jointed Rapala for less than $9 and Suicks for less than $20

In the movie The Warring States, about Sun Pin, the enemy of Sun Pin could not believe that the answer to his questions, about The Art of War, were as simple as they are.  Even if we read the introduction to the Art of War, we'll hear that some people have ignored it because it is too old.  How can striking your enemy where he's weakest get old?

Many, particularly on the left, think that the U.S. Constitution is outdated.  But is freedom of speech an idea that is too old to be of value anymore?

I like things that are simple.  And they are often better than what is expensive.

Top 20 Muskie Lures

My personal list of top 20 muskie lures.  Although if I were putting together at tackle box with only 20 lures it look more like 3 each of the first 7.

This is a list of lures that you can buy new today.  Some good lures are not made anymore and would have made this list were they still being made today.  Slammer's Loc-A-motive, for example.  There are also some lures that look good.  But I'm not going to spend much more than  $20 on one when I know that I'll still prefer one of these.

17.-20. I can't think of anything else.  Buy one extra of numbers 1-4, and we'll call it 20.

16. Rapala Magnum 18

Deep Diving Rapala

15. Shallow Raider

Shallowraider

14. Reef Runner Ripstick

Reef Runner Ripstick

13. Super Rap

Super Rap

12. Bobbie Bait

Another good jerkbait.

11. Double Cowgirl

Double Cowgirl

10. Rapala Super Shad Rap

Another good crankbait from Rapala.

Rapala Shad Rap

10. Stalker

The original isn't made anymore, but there are some reproductions being made.

Stalker

9.  Windel's Harasser

A bucktail that makes my list because my dad's first two four footers came on a Harasser on consecutive days, a 48" and 52".  And its, generally, a bit bigger than my #1 lure.

Harasser

8.  Cisco Kid

Deep diving crankbait that always works well.  Also an original muskie lure; not a copy of somebody else's design.

7. Woodchopper and Big Game Woodchopper

The only surface bait that I've used in about 3 years.  I once had a 45" muskie fly after it, past and under the boat, so I casted out the other side, it flew under again, and I caught it off the first side on the third cast.  They are really hard to find.

Woodchopper

6.  Slammer

Most Rapalas aren't terribly big, but you can get big Slammers and they work very well.

Slammer

I am buying two new muskie lures in 2012.  A Jointed Rapala and a deep diving Slammer.

5. Jointed Rapala

You can't go wrong with a Rapala.  I've probably caught more fish on one of these than anything else.

Jointed Rapala

4. Bull Dawg

If you're new to musky fishing you can't go wrong with one of these.  Reel it straight in, jerk it, jig it, fast, slow...you can do no wrong with one.

Bull Dawg

Buy several micro dawgs for the spring (a fish or two will destroy one), and big ones for the summer and fall.

3. Rapala Original Floating Minnow

Speaks for itself.

Rapala Original Floating Minnow

2. Suick

One of the original jerkbaits.  Other than live bait, these have probably caught more 50" muskies than any other lure.

Suick

You need to make several hundred casts before you discover if you have a good one.  But when you get one, you'll really like it.

I knew a guide that threw a 10" model every cast for a whole season.

Buy a weighted one.  Check to make sure that the tail is straight before you buy it.

1. Rizzo Wiz (or Whiz, Whizz, Wizz)

My vote for the best muskie lure.

Rizzo Wizzes

There are several varieties, colors, and sizes.  Put a small one on in the spring and a big one on during the summer and fall.  Expect to catch pike and bass too.  I don't think that my dad uses anything else until the end of summer.

Musky Fishing Small Weedy Lakes

I spent some of the day musky fishing Lake Wingra, in Madison Wisconsin.  It is supposed to have the highest density of muskies of any lake in Wisconsin.  It is a very fertile lake.  It has lots of fish and plant life in it.  Being fertile means, bye the way, that there will be a large number of life forms, but few big ones; there is too much competition for the amount of food available.

As it is near the end of August, and therefore the summer, I thought that the muskies would be hanging out in the deeper water, where it is cooler.  That may be the case for the bigger fish in the lake, but I now think that the smaller, and medium, muskies are still in the shallow weeds looking for food.

If we're going to fish a weedy lake, the early spring will be your best bet.  In the spring there will be a whole lot fewer weeds.  Fishing a weedline is good, but when nearly the whole lake is full of weeds it is difficult to catch anything other than the weeds.  Fish there before they grow. 

Traditional spinners, as opposed to in-line spinners, are a good bet for fishing the weeds because they are weed resistant.  But you still want to avoid the dense weeds.  Otherwise, all musky lures will work, when they are cast along a weed edge.  Lake Wingra has few defined weed edges and is difficult to fish, for that reason.

You can cast into the thick weeds with "weedless" lures but even if you don't get tangled, any fish you hook will.

Look for the weed edges in the small weedy lakes, and cast along them.  The muskies will be lying in wait, for the baitfish to swim past.  While you are there, don't forget to cast at any points, humps, any man made structure you find.

My day on Lake Wingra was slow and dealing with the weeds was tiring.  But a 38" muskie hit a lure twice, and I caught a nice largemouth bass.  (If you catch a big fish take lots of pictures; this picture does not do the fish justice.  Read my thoughts on better picture taking here.)

Largemouth Bass

These weedy lakes are not the places to catch monstrous fish, so you may as well enjoy trying to catch many smaller ones.

(On a side note: sunburn hurts.)

World Record Deer & Muskies

If I am fortunate enough to shoot a deer or to catch a fish that could be close to a world record, than I won't tell anyone the size of that animal.  Only my dad and I will ever know how big that animal is.  And I will refuse to ever talk about it.

Here's why:

When someone shoots a buck big enough to possibly be a world record, then that hunter needs to jump through all sorts of hoops just to get scored correctly, after the required drying period, by several panels of experts, at several places and at multiple times and places.

Here's a story on a great big buck shot in Southwest Wisconsin, in 2005.

King Deer: Biggest ever Buck

Because of the, understandable, rules about what is typical, and non-typical this big buck was decided that one of the tines (points) was non-typical and therefore not the typical world record.  (I happen to disagree with that particular application of the rule, but that's neither here nor there.)

Rather than continue to argue, the hunter has decided to remove his buck from consideration as a world record.

And that's just for starters.

I have hunted within  the laws of the State of Wisconsin.  But I just know that if I shoot a potential world record deer, then everything that I have ever done would be called into question.  Rumors will start saying that I shot it illegally some way, or some other nonsense.  Not only would that sort of investigation not be fun, but there are still more problems.

Imagine if you become, somewhat, famous for shooting a world record.  Other people may decide that they want to hunt where you do.  This would be good, if you want to sell your property and they drive up the land price.  But if you just want to hunt in peace, you'll constantly need to worry about trespassers, etc.

You may even face extra scrutiny when you are outdoors, any misstep will call your record into question.  Look how much extra scrutiny Ted Nugent gets, when I'd bet money he's attempting to follow all of the rules and is only getting caught on violations that the average person would never have been made aware of.

There has been a lot of controversy about the biggest muskies ever caught.  An excerpt from this article on a record muskie controversy: 

"The photographs are measured and assayed from almost every imaginable angle and perspective. I am reminded of the Warren Report and their analysis of the personal photos of Lee Harvey Oswald holding firearms that were taken in the assassin’s backyard. This is the magnitude that this disputed record has risen to."

Many of the muskies once called world records have been proven not to be so.  I wouldn't dispute that Louis Spray's record muskie has some fishiness, but I doubt that all of the attempts to disprove are good for the sport.

The World Muskie Alliance seems to have been founded in order to remove Spray's record from the record books.  It would be nice if we could know what the actual world record is for muskies, but this alliance seems to have a dickish goal for itself.

Incidentally, the fish that very well could be the world record muskie, 61 pounds caught by Martin Williamson in 2000, was almost an undersized fish.  The size limit was changed the next year to 54".  The fish was first measured at 53.5", but later discovered to be 55.5" when the correct measurement was taken.  Can you imagine the world record muskie being too small to keep?  With that fish it was very close to happening.  

Biggest ever Muskie

A fisherman who caught a world record muskie would have the same problems a shooter of the biggest deer would have: increased scrutiny, character questions, etc.

One of the founders of the World Muskie Alliance has been a big supporter of bigger muskie size limits.  Pete Maina also started the magazine Esox Angler.  He said that he would be open to new ideas, unlike the established Musky Hunter magazine.  So of course when someone submitted an argument against a 50" inch size limit, that well respected fishermen was told to never send any more articles for publication in the magazine.

For my money the buck pictured here, and fish pictured here, are the biggest shot and caught without serious questions about their authenticity.  If I get an animal comparable I'll not be involved in any of the mess we have with records.

Muskie Lures

In a recent issue of Musky Hunter the editor, Jim Saric, says that he has about 350 muskie lures in his boat becasue he uses them all to catch fish.  He also said that every guide he knows has lots and lots of lures in their boats.

It has always seemed to me that the guides that I have fished with have indeed had many lures in their boats.  Generally, a bunch of bucktails, in a few colors, a few of the same crankbaits, in a few colors, and possibly a few of the same jerkbaits, in a few colors.  It makes sense that if you are a guide you do not want to get caught short a few lures when some people are paying you for your time.

I even knew a guide who used exactly one Suick for the whole year.

Having a handful of lures that you are confident in seems to me to be a better plan than constantly looking for and switching to something else.  If you have a few good lures then they should spend the maximum time in the water.

Dad's tackle box for his big fish, fly-in trip to Canada:

His spring/ early summer tackle box (change colors around and multiply by a few):

Modifying Muskie Lures

A lot of stories have been written about how one guy, or another, modifies a certain lure in order to get it to do what you want.  I know one guy who spends hours weighting Suicks and testing them in his bathtub before he takes it out fishing.

How much will modifying a lure help your odds at catching fish?

There are some lures that are just better at catching fish, like Rapalas, some that work well, but don't seem to have that fish catching magic, like Depthraiders and Shallowraiders, and there are some lures that do not work well at all.

If you buy a lure with the fish catching magic, you'll only make it worse by changing it.

If you buy a lure that is good already then maybe you'll improve it, or maybe you won't. 

In either case you'll be spending fishing time playing with your lure rather than fishing.

If you have a specific case where you want something that doesn't exist, then by all means make it or improve something until you have what you want.  You will miss fishing time, however, because you will be trying to get your new lure to work "just right."

Unless you want to spend hours every time you want to modify your favorite lure, I suggest using lures that work well right out of the box.  Or those that only need minor modifications.

Some minor modifications you might want to make are: switching saltwater hooks for bronze hooks (bronze hooks disolve in fish stainless do not), adding hooks, subtracting hooks that get tangled often.

How hard is it to catch a musky?

Muskies are known as "the fish of ten thousand casts."  That number is an exaggeration, but they very well could be the most difficult freshwater fish species to catch in North America.

But how hard are they, really?

That depends.  Would you be happy with a 30"? Or would it take a 50", like we see in all of the magazines?

Do you want to catch one casting? Or trolling? Would you mind hiring a guide? Or do you want to do it yourself?

Catching a 30"  muskie isn't too difficult.  Its more difficult, however, than catching a similar pike, and more difficult than an average sized bass or walleye.

If you want to catch a 30" muskie casting.  Then you could hire a guide for 2 or 3 days in the spring and probably catch one.  Maybe you'd catch more but one in 2 or 3 days would be a good expectation.

Much will depend on where you fish.  If you just want to catch a muskie casting, then you'll want to find a shallower, weedier, darker lake, or part of a big lake, and fish it in the spring.  You'll not catch a big muskie this way but it would be your best bet to catch a muskie while casting.

What you'll do is cast Rizzo Wizzes and Rapala Original Floating Minnows
 (jointed or solid) around the lake at the edges of the weeds.  Don't be surprised to catch a few pike this way either.

Catching a muskie while trolling will be easier if you are already familiar with trolling for other species, but will be harder than casting if you don't already troll.  Trolling will also require more equipment.  And there are more laws around trolling.  Many places do not even allow motor trolling.  While casting you'll eventually stumble across a fish; if you are going to troll I really would recommend a guide for your first day.

There is one big benefit to trolling, and that is: trolling is what you would do if your goal is to catch as many fish as possible.

If your goal is to catch a 50", like all the fish we see in magazines, then the first thing to know is:  Magazines are nothing but pictures of things that you can't have.

But catching a 50" muskie is possible.

If you want to catch a 50" muskie, then you should either troll Lake St. Claire, or cast Sabaskong Bay in the Lake of the Woods.  (Note: If your goal is fishing do not schedule your fishing trip to Northwest Ontario, Lake of the Woods, etc. in August.  August is the worst month to go fishing in NW Ontario.) Know that while these are the two easiest ways to catch a 50" they will almost certainly be thin fish. 

If you're trolling drag as many bucktails and crankbaits as you are legally able around any structure that you find.

If you're casting Lake of the Woods (LOTW), then get whatever baits that look good to you in the store or magazine.  Then cast them around the structure you find.  Islands and points that are adjacent to deep water will be good bets.

You could go your whole life without catching a 50" and the kid fishing for bluegills could catch one tomorrow, but that's how fishing goes.

Catching a muskie isn't impossible, but it will take a considerable amount of time.  Hire a guide and you'll cut your learning time down dramatically.

How to catch the biggest possible nuskie

If our goal is to catch the biggest possible muskie then what we need to do is:

1. find out where the biggest muskies live
2. fish there a lot
3. use good equipment and techniques

I think that the options for where the biggest fish are: the great lakes, the St. Lawrence River, northern Minnesota, and Northwest Ontario.

There are good and bad points about all of them. 

One thing not to overlook is how far the spot is from where you live.  If it is nearby then you will be inclined to fish it more often.

Finding a likely body of water that you can fish a lot is your first task.

Figure 8 for Muskies

Muskies are more prone than other fish to follow a lure up to a boat.  This makes it easier to find fish when they are not biting, but these fish can sometimes be hard to catch.

The standard way to try and catch a fish that is following is to make a figure 8 at the side of your boat.  The way you do this is to put your rod tip in the water and lead the lure in as big of an 8 shape as you can.  Big fish in particular will have a difficult time making a tight turn; so make your 8 as big as you can.

Some people suggest changing the speed or action because they think that the difference may encourage the fish to strike.  But the advice that makes the most sense to me is to make the lure continue to do what it was doing when it got the fish's attention.

Keep the figure 8 going for as long as the fish is interested, and then a bit longer.  Sometimes the fish will disappear for a minute and then reappear from a different angle.

If it is following for a really long time you might try speeding the lure up, hopefully, if the fish thinks your lure is going to get away it will hit it.  I still advise maintaining the lure's speed and action, from when the fish was first interested, for at least a while before speeding up.

Some guys claim to make a figure 8 after each cast.  This would certainly result in catching a few fish that you'd miss otherwise, but you'll also be making fewer casts.  Fewer casts out to where the fish are is not as good either.  I'll usually make an L-shape at the end of my casts, because if a fish is following and it makes a turn I'll be able to see the flash of the fish's turn.  If the fish are following a long way behind or very slowly one day it might be a good idea to extend your casts alongside the boat for a little longer than normal.

If a fish hits right at the boat, then it will give you a good fight.  You should still net it right away, to prevent tiring it.  This will make picture taking more exiting too.

One of the first fish I ever caught followed a minnow bait with 3 sets of hooks right up to the boat.  When the fish hit the mouth caught the first hook and the tail came around and got caught in the last hook.  The fish then froze and the fight was over.

Record Keeping for Hunting and Fishing

One of the reasons that fishing guides get good is because they keep good records.  If you record the weather, fish activity, fish locations, etc. every day you go fishing, you can learn a lot about how fish behave.  The more records you keep, and the more often you fish, the easier it will be for you to find fish on any given day.  I happen to know that Tony Rizzo has records for every day that he has gone fishing, over 34,000 hours.  If he looks at his records he can tell you: July 25, water temp 73, hot and overcast?  I know right where the fish will be.

My dad and I kept records for the first time for our deer hunting last year.  If nothing else it is interesting.  I saw 35 bucks during archery season last year.  I can look at the records and know specifically what days were best and know exactly which treestand was most productive.

The more information that you have the more about fish and deer you will be able to figure out.

Muskie Baits

Everyone who fishes a lot ends up buying lots, and lots of fishing lures.  Most will then only use a few to actually fish with.

How many do you actually need for a week of muskie fishing?

Every year my dad goes to Canada to catch big muskies.

And this is what his tackle box looks like for a week at a fly-in resort:

A Harasser bucktail, a Suick, a White Knuckle crankbait, and a Stalker jerkbait.

How many lures do you need for a week?  Just a few good ones.