waneta,10/13

[old man]

casted waneta today from 7 to 2:30. one follow. half dozen other boats out,didn't see any caught.

i messed this one up last week at chataqua. i caught it on a creeper. it ate the whole thing;had all the hooks in it. it swam away ok,but i put that bait in the junkpile.

[Stinky Finger]

Nice muskie. It happens, they are aggressive predators and sometimes really slam a bait.

Some wind up getting a bit tweeked. Have seen leaders cut gill rakers, rip upper lips off, one treble in the mouth and one outside dangling winds up in the eye, it happens. Don't feel bad. Bad is rare but it happens.

All we can do is get them back in as easy as possible and hope for the best.

At least on the whole we are a far cry from the old days when the way to go was a big plastic red & white tennis ball bobber with a sucker or chub and once it went down wait a half hour before setting the hook. It always meant deeply hooked fish and the mentality of those days -backed up by what was printed in the DEC regs- was to "cut the line, the hook will dissolve". Fortunately now we know that is false and it means dead fish.

Musky Hunter Magazine ran a series of articles documenting in depth studies done in Wisconsin and Minnesota about ten years ago that bore this out with radio tagged muskies that had been gut hooked. Every case was the same, fish caught, fish released and "swam off real strong and healthy". The series proved a real eye opener and changed muskie fishing with live bait on the whole. ALL of those fish turned up dead on the bottom within days, every one of them.

Your fish might have looked real bad in the boat but I'll bet she's o.k. becase it was hoked in the mouth and not ingested. If her gills weren't really gauled she is probably gonna be waiting for you next year. Dan.

[icelegend09]

FLOATER!!!

[NitroMusky]

I'm sure I saw you out there but didn't know it Old Man. I got out there before dawn. Glad I have a GPS. That fog was incredible. I would have been driving in circles for hours called it a day round 2:30- after the supposed minor period, which did nothing for me.

It was a tough day for sure. I heard of one on that got away but didn't see any caught either. I trolled fast slow, high low, deep and as shallow as 4 ft. Casted a bunch as well.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[zach]

went down yesterday and i believe waneta is done turning over. 54 degree water temps, water is clearer than 2 weeks ago and most fish are located on the bottom. did a really nice 47" in the rain on a firetiger bait i make in the first 30 minutes and nothing after for the rest of the day. lots of bait and big hooks w/ in 2 feet of the bottom. trolling speed was slow when i got hit. only boat out there all day yesterday. if engulfed the lure, was bleeding pretty bad and had to cut hooks and no pic. you'll just have to take my word for it i guess. looks like waneta is all set up for fall fishing now and i would expect the best is yet to come. ever notice how the bigger fish have lots of black spots on their belly? bigger baits did nothing-

[NitroMusky]

Sounds like a nice fish zach

but what were YOU doing with a firetiger anyway??? welcome to the club!!

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[zach]

firetiger just seemed right for the off tint water and overcast/rainy conditions. seeing that not as many people have been fishing also help me make that choice. if i saw some other boats out there i promise i wouldn't have been running it. not another hit all afternoon after starting off hot. the way the fish we set up it was bottom grinding for me and i just bet jigging tubes w/ suckers soaking deep would be just deadly. finally got a trip w/ larry planned for november 2 on the harbor. larry is the man and i hope i can take in all the info i am going to get out of him that day. he is the best on the harbor and has years and years of fishing it. i am do excited to get to finally fish w/ him after all of these years of wanting to. its like an early x-mas present. i am going to try to make a huge deep diver for him to fish w/ by the time we go out. something like a huge 12-13" deep diver that will hit 30'. yesterdays fish was my 4th over 47" this year and it has been my best bigger fish year to date. i also talked to lisa from the happy hooker after cpt larry said they we trying to get a hold of me and she said that she is sold out of the plugs i just restocked for her on 10/2 and that people are catching fish on them and she needs more asap. i thought this was cool since i just restocked them 2.5 weeks ago in the shop and the season is winding down with not too many people even fishing anymore. take care and good fishing/hunting to all!