11/15/15 Cause It's Never, Gettin' Any Better Than This!

During the week last week, the weather forecast looked absolutely amazing for the weekend. Mid 50s on Saturday and 60s on Sunday. I got an invite to go Musky fishing on Saturday and had been texting some friends about Pike fishing on Sunday. So with high hopes I set out on Saturday to begin my 'Esox Weekend'. The goal was to catch a nice Muskie and Pike both in the same weekend. Randy and I started out fishing Webster Lake on Saturday. I began the day throwing my usual Bucktail. Despite having a follow on the bucktail, I made the decision to downsize and throw a 4" Rapala X-Rap. Not too long after the switch I had a hit and it was fish on! Just after setting the hook though I began to realize that it was not going to be a big fish. As it approached the boat, it was obvious that we weren't even going to need the net for this Muskie. It was maybe a 20" fish. Pretty neat to catch one but we were obviously looking for something a little bigger. After a quick lunch at Pizza King on the lake, we picked up Randy's son-in-law Erich and headed out for round two. We fished a different area and had no luck for several hours. Just before getting ready to leave to head back to the area we had fished earlier, Randy all of a sudden had a fish on! This fish was in direct competition with my fish for big fish of the day. Randy leveraged it off at the boat and away we went back to the first area we had fished in the morning. Randy and Erich were both saying how they were feeling good about the area we were fishing and were expecting something good to happen. I wasn't feeling it and told them that I wasn't. As if on cue, during my next cast, I felt that familiar thump and set the hooks into what felt like a very nice fish. I think that they both thought I was joking, especially after all the talk about not feeling good about the fishing. When I stepped down to the 4" X-Rap I was using a lighter rod as well so when this fish made it to the boat, it made it a much more interesting fight. It had the rod doubled over into the water and was pulling for the bottom for all it's worth. It also made things interesting by trying to get the line around the trolling motor several times. Every time the fish took another run all I could think was "stay on there, stay on there". It was an amazing battle and one I will not soon forget. Before long the fish came to the surface and my 42.5" Muskie was in the net! After only a few minutes of fighting, photographing, and releasing the fish, I was completely drained. What a rush! The rest of the evening we had several more follows but no other fish in the boat. The next morning I had plans to meet up with Larry to fish my favorite northern Indiana Pike river. After an extremely stellar day of fishing last weekend, I was expecting great things from the day. So with my kayak in tow, I made my way up to the river. It was such a nice day that by the time we made it on the water, the temperature had already risen above 50 degrees. We fished a section of river that I had not had much luck on previously but had always looked good to me. I was again throwing the 4" X-Rap. The key with this kind of fishing is to really let the lure pause between jerks. Give it a few jerks then let it sit, give it a few jerks then let it sit. The fish almost always hit on the pause. Before long we were seeing Pike and we landed 3 within just a few hours the nicest being just under 30 inches. The 30" fish completely inhaled the X-Rap so much so that I was worried that it was going to be hooked badly. Much to my surprise though, the fish was not hooked at all but the lure itself was wedged in the fishes jaw. I could not believe it. I've never seen anything quite like it. At any rate it made 'unhooking' the fish easy and the fish released very well. Before long I got a call from Mike that he was headed out to meet up with us, so Larry and I got back to the launch and loaded our kayaks to head for a different section of river. I was anticipating catching a lot of fish at our next spot but when we got on the water, I was puzzled when we were having a hard time finding any fish. I eventually did get a decent fish from a deep run. Not too long after that, I was fishing a fast section of water. I felt a fish hit my lure and set the hook. There's a fish. Oh! It's a big fish! When hooked the fish immediately started thrashing it's head side to side like all big Pike and Muskies do when first hooked. Then it began bulldogging and running into the fast current. Before long my kayak and the fish were both out in the current getting pushed downstream while still battling each other. With a lot of luck and some skill I managed to keep the fish from wrapping around any of the numerous laydowns in this section. I could see that the fish was not hooked very well. Only one hook from the back treble was in the corner of the fishes jaw. I was so nervous that it was going to come off. Every time I reached out with the grips to attempt to land the fish it would thrash. Each time that happened I was just thinking how the next time it thrashed I was sure to lose it. Through some miracle it stayed on and I finally managed to land the fish after a battle of several minutes. It was a magnificent fish. It measured out at 35 inches, had admirable girth, and beautiful, dark coloring. Larry was nice enough to get some pictures for me. I stood there for quite a while holding the fish in the water and just looking at it in awe. Before long the fish was kicking and I released it back to the river. Cool deal. I got a big Musky AND a big Pike in the same weekend. It doesn't get any better than that. The rest of the day passed and Larry and I each caught another fish and had a few more chances apiece but mostly we just enjoyed the nice weather.