5/1/16 May First Muskie Firsts

I got back from vacation on Saturday night. I began sending out text messages to see who wanted to go fishing on Sunday. The weather was pretty bad on Saturday and Northern Indiana received a decent amount of rainfall. With that in mind, Mike and I decided to forego fishing any rivers and to fish a lake instead. On my suggestion, he met me at the public access for one of Indiana's premier Muskie lakes. Mike was looking to catch his first ever Muskie. I arrived a few minutes early and by the time Mike got there, I was already unloaded and ready to get on the water. While he was getting his equipment around, I decided to paddle out into the creek that leads to the lake and throw a few casts. I was throwing a jerkbait and within a few casts I caught a small Largemouth Bass. By that time, Mike was ready to go and we began fishing our way down the creek. About 20 minutes in, we hadn't caught anything or even seen much to get excited about. I threw a cast and got snagged on a lily pad. When I paddled over to get it free, I noticed a large Muskie sitting in the current about 2 feet to the left of my snagged lure. When I got closer, the fish spooked and headed slowly upstream. I told Mike to look on the right side of his boat and he might catch a glimpse of the fish. He immediately dropped the rod he was using and picked up his other rod which had a small inline spinner on it. I went back to fishing but less than 30 seconds later I hear from behind me "Fish on! It's a Muskie!" I thought there is no way that he caught that Muskie, but when I turned around, sure enough he had a Muskie on. The unfortunate part is that just seconds after I turned around, the fish broke his line. I actually saw the fish swim past me with the inline spinner still buried in the corner of it's mouth. Mike was pretty heartbroken and many of the usual lines like "I can't believe that happened" and "That'll be the only fish like that I see all day" were thrown around.  I tried to console him and told him to keep fishing and something would be bound to happen eventually. We finished our journey down the creek and got out into the first lake. The wind was blowing the wrong direction to start a drift where we were so I decided to paddle to a nearby channel and fish the next lake over in the chain. After about 45 minutes of casting, it happened. My lure hit the water and within 5 turns of the handle, I felt a thump and set the hook. It was obvious pretty quickly that the fish was either not a Muskie or at least not a very big Muskie. As it approached the boat, I could tell that it was a Northern Pike and not a Muskie. Before long I had the 24" fish in the net, unhooked, photographed, and released. At least I caught something! I went back to fishing and within 3 casts, I had a follow from a nice Muskie. It came following in but stopped cold when it got close to the kayak and then suddenly swam off. A little disappointing but at least I got to see one. Less than 5 casts later, during the middle of my retrieve my lure got absolutely smashed. It was clear right away that this was a much nicer fish. It began heading towards the kayak, thrashing it's massive head, and throwing water everywhere. After that the fish took a few runs before it was subdued and I was able to get it on the grips. It was relatively easy to fight and land the fish but trying to get it unhooked sure was an adventure! The fish had my entire spinner in it's mouth and one of the two treble hooks was around it's gills. After looking at it, I decided to cut the hook off that was around the fish's gills and then pull the rest of the lure out of it's mouth. I got out my bolts cutters and clamped onto the back treble. The hook was harder to cut than I though it would be but eventually it snapped under the pressure. When that happened, the fish thrashed and the entire lure came out through the fishes gills. I've NEVER seen that happen before but it actually made the rest of the process a lot easier. I snapped my lure off of the leader and threw it into the boat and then just pulled my leader back out through the fishes mouth. Fortunately the fish was absolutely fine and the bad hook placement didn't seem to hurt the fish too much as it was no longer bleeding. I called Mike over and snapped a couple of pictures before releasing the fish. The fish didn't release as well as I would have liked so I paddled next to it until it recovered and swam off into deeper water. First Muskie of the year successfully caught and released! So I caught a Pike, had a follow, and caught a Muskie all within 10 minutes of each other! Mike was in awe and was really hoping to get one by the end of the day. He was using a small spoon as he had his spinner broken off by the first fish. I offered him a few of the smaller spinners in my box and he took the small firetiger spinner that I caught my first Muskie on several years ago. Maybe the lure I caught my first Muskie on would bring Mike some luck and he would get his first Muskie on it too! We paddled back to the point where I caught the Pike and drifted the same bank again hoping to cash in on the "hot" bite. After a few minutes of casting, for the second time that day I heard "Fish on! It's a Muskie!" from behind me. I turned around and sure enough, Mike had another Muskie on. This time though he had it in deep water with plenty of room to work with. I paddled over, watched, and helped Mike land the fish after a battle of several minutes. It was really difficult to use fish grips from one kayak on a fish that was being caught from a different kayak! We managed it though and Mike had caught his first ever Muskie! I am so glad and excited that I was there to witness and help land his first Muskie! I am sure he was and still is super excited about the whole experience. He had a little trouble holding the fish for some pictures but was still grinning ear to ear the whole time. Before long the fish struggled out of his hands and swam away to be caught another day. We fished a little while longer with not much else to show for it. Before long we paddled out content in knowing that we had both managed to land a nice Muskie. I am sure that both of us will not forget this memorable trip anytime soon!