Wow, Where Do I Start

Tonight was a night of muskie fishing that I will never forget.  Where do I start?  I was joined tonight by Matt Rauenhorst who is a long time friend that I went to high school with.  It was great to get back in the boat with Matt and catch up.  Historically when he and I hook up to fish or hunt we make lots of memories.  So we had high expectaitons when we saw the fishing conditions today.  I stated to Matt that we would catch 5 muskies and probably see 5 others.  All he did was smile and shrug like..."let's go do it then!".  I really thought we could do it with the way the night started.  I lost a fish at the first spot and then again at the second spot.  Then before we could leave the second spot I was hooked up and doing battle.  After a few pics and a measure (51") we had her back in the lake and the count started at one muskie. 

About 75 yards later I was hooked up again, this time I wasn't even watching when the fish hit.  Matt just said, "dude you going to catch that one?".  After a short battle, a few pics, a measure (51 1/2") we had her back in the water and on her way.  We now had 2 fish and were on our way to 5.  Both fish ran on the skinny side but were still great fish.  Needless to say there was some energy and excitement in my boat.  I told Matt, "if there is one fish there, then there are more!".  It only took 10 more casts and Matt had a giant fish coming on his bait.  I could see the fish coming so I was telling him to get ready.  Unfortunately his bait caught some weeds half way back to the boat and caused the fish not to eat.  It still followed the bait to the boat and we got a good look at her.  She was a giant, over 50 and was very fat!  If I was a guessing man I would say she pushed 53".  Without a doubt bigger than the two I had just caught.  We then headed for spot # 3 and all hell broke loose.  Matt had a big girl attack his cow girl about two casts into the spot only to have it miss.  About 75 yards farther and Matt had a giant attack his cow girl only to have it eat and miss in one motion.  We got a good look at her and she looked well into the 50" range.  Matt made a statement about how that was the biggest one he had seen in quite some time.  About 25 yards farther down the spot and I get a mid 40" fish to eat my cow girl boat side, but once again it eats and spits it all in one motion.  At this point Matt and I were buzzing.  We were getting the fish to take our baits we just weren't hooking up.  If we didn't change our luck soon we were not going to get to 5 fish for the night.  We finished the spot with no hook ups.  As we headed to spot 4 we realized we were running out of light.  We were going to need to get back to catching quick.  We were only on the 4th area for 5 minutes and Matt had another fish attempt to eat only to miss.  Then I had one miss, then another, then Matt had another miss, then he had one eat and he pulled it out of her mouth.  We were seeing fish every where just could not get a hook into any of them.  We finished the night with a total count of 12 muskies, 10 of which tried to eat and only two of them were landed.  What a great night!  I will report back soon.  I have a streak of 8 trips going.  I am not going to let that end tomorrow.  Fish On!             

Comments

[Travis Frank]

You are my hero! Nice work buddy!