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| Bobzilla with a 48-inch Webster Lake muskie. |
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A NEW MUSKIE ATTITUDE
by Bob Chochola
MUSKIE Magazine (April 2006 issue)
I just love this time of year. While all you guys are out there fishing through a hole in the ice, battling sub-zero wind chill, and hoping your shanty doesn’t blow into the next county, I simply put on a light jacket and head to the nearest North Texas lake with a cooler full of cold brew. Love to catch those fat Lone Star large mouth bass. When I really feel adventurous, I gather a couple of close friends and head to East Texas’ pristine and somewhat infamous Caddo Lake (see my web site www.bobzilla.tv and click on the “Caddo Corner” tab for details) for a battle with an even larger version of said species.
All jokes about me being the Caddo Lake Critter aside, living down south does have its advantages when the mercury dips below say, the point where even a penguin would complain about the cold. Heck, we’re talkin’ long johns with a trap door wearin’ weather and the one time of year when I get some zingers in about the lousy conditions up north. I’m always hearing, “Hey, you guys cookin’ steaks on the sidewalk yet?” Then there’s the old standard, “But it’s a dry heat, right?” Bah ha! It’s all very funny. So, what’s it like catching frozen fish? I know, I know, “Ice fishing is fun.” Not! Some folks think it’s fun to go swimming when it is ten-below outside too, but you won’t find me doing that any time soon either.
You know what else I like about winter? I’m not wondering who is fishing my best muskie spots. If they want to, they’d better bring along a shovel, an auger with about a 4-foot bit, and it wouldn’t hurt to have a St. Bernard with a keg of brandy dangling around its neck along for the trip either.
Winter is for reminiscing. Winter is for looking at pictures of last year’s huge fish and wishing you could go make a few more casts – right now. We all have at least one special moment every season that plays over-and-over in our minds and winter is the time to sit back and enjoy the view. We all also have at least one moment each season that haunts us – a lost fish, or a missed opportunity. It’s okay to remember those times too.
Haunts from my Canada trip outnumber my victories this winter. Heck, it’s that way most every winter. Seems like muskies have a knack for getting the better of an angler, no matter how successful the season. I know I always head home thinking about the one that got away – because it’s more often than not the biggest fish I saw on the trip. One such stubborn muskie in particular got my attention this year I had raised on a bucktail, not once, not ten times, but over the course of at least twenty consecutive casts this fish would charge after my lure like she was gonna eat, then she would stop and swim away slowly. At one point I put a muskie jig on a second rod and when she stopped, I dropped the lead head and hit her right in the snout.
Yet another fish (this was a monster too) chased a few times and at one point seemed to stop and look at me. That’s right, she just sat there treading water and I even hit her in the face with a figure eight and she didn’t move an inch until she was good and ready. We returned to the spot a few times and didn’t see her again and then she came up on a point across the bay from the first place we raised her. After that she was gone for good.
A third muskie blew-up on my bait on a figure eight just before dark, but I didn’t see her coming and missed. A couple of casts later I felt a strike (well, kind of like a strike) and I set the hook with what felt like the lure bumping or scraping a fish. When I brought the lure back, there was a scale stuck on the tip of one of the hooks.
I’m not making this stuff up – it all really happened. In fact, most of it happened before I boated a fish. It was like the muskies had planned the whole thing and it was pay back for catching so many big fish in the past. I waited and waited and waited some more. I was so desperate that I even calculated how long I had to stay in Canada if it was indeed going to take me ten thousand casts to catch a muskie…
“Let me see… I make about 40 casts per hour (a conservative estimate considering drive time and breaks) and fish about twelve hours a day. Hmmm? That’s roughly 480 casts a day… it’ll take me 20 days to hit 9,600 and it’ll be evening of my 21st day… oh, my gosh, I’m not gonna be here that long - I’d better cast more.”
All’s well that ends well and I finally nailed a 49-incher on the evening of my eleventh day. That’s a total of 5,280 casts, in case you were wondering. It was considerably longer than I am used to waiting, but now I have a great memory to keep me warm all winter.
Take Stock…
Winter is a good time to inventory your gear. With any luck you found some great muskie catchin’ tools under your tree Christmas morning. Now is the time to decide if you have everything you need for the upcoming season. Believe me it’ll be here before you know it. If the answer is no, then hit the winter sales and muskie shows to stock up. Seems I buy a new rod and a new reel pretty much every year. This way I always have combos that range from the newest innovations to the hardcore road tested models at my disposal – something for every occasion.
I like to get out my tackle boxes on a lazy Sunday afternoon and sort through my lures. If you are anything like me, there are huge balls of tangled and mangled lures in your boxes right now and all you have to do is grab one and pull to remove all the lures from your box at once. Pull ‘em out, sort ‘em out, sharpen or change those hooks, and replace everything in an orderly fashion. You’ll be ready to go at the drop of a hat come spring this way.
Need a change?
I will change line just before I go to Canada in the fall each year, so there’s no need to do it over the off-season. That’s my personal preference, but you may wish to do it over the winter? I usually make a few trips to Webster Lake before I head north of the border and keep using the line from the previous year. I like to have the new stuff on for the “big” trip and believe it or not I actually throw a line changing party about two weeks before I go each year. That’s right, a line changing party and I take care of all my reels myself. Just because a vendor or tackle shop will put line on for you, doesn’t always mean they will do it right. If a line change is in order, now is a good time to just do it. You don’t want to miss a record fish because your braid has a ding 25-feet up from the knot, or that you packed the spool wet and moisture has weakened it. When in doubt, change it out.
The most important off-season activity my partner and I go through ever winter is to plan ahead. I have found that Muskie Hunters in general have a pretty positive attitude when it comes to the possibilities of the year ahead. We stack as many odds as we possibly can in our favor by planning early and preparing a solid game plan well in advance.
I about drive my co-workers nuts by September, because not long after the first of each year we already have our trip dates set and a “countdown to Dryberry” clicking off every day in anticipation. I have a huge calendar on my office wall and at the top the words are written in large letters, “COUNTDOWN TO DRYBERRY” with the number of days to go in red next to it. Last year we started the count at “229 days to go” and needless to say by September 9th, the folks at the office were just happy to see me finally go.
By the time the new 2006 MI calendar hit our mailboxes, Pat and I already knew that we are going to be on the hunt in Canada during the September full moon. After that it’s just a matter of nailing down specific dates. Of course, we plan shorter trips to other places and I have been known to call Pat on a Wednesday to let him know I’m flying up for the weekend.
It’s all about having a good time and having that good time still in front of you. Not a year goes by when we don’t do this because it gives us something to think about besides work. You know as well as I do that every cast is an opportunity to catch a muskie. I have said this a million times. This is also true on a much larger scale for the trip ahead, particularly when you are heading to prime water. If you give yourself the opportunity on a lake that has been known to give up big fish, then who knows what the year ahead will bring?
In 2005 I was humbled. My first eleven days in Canada were spent beating the lake surface into submission with zip to show for it, while all around me were battling huge muskies. Pat released a 50.50-incher. Our friend Mike released a 51.75-incher in conditions that resembled the Mark Whalberg movie The Perfect Storm. Even “Spanky” (our rookie on board) improved upon his personal best of low-thirties with a fat 41-incher.
On the eve of my twelfth day a very fat four-footer relieved my agony. I guess a guy can get used to multiple 50-inchers every year and forget that this species isn’t exactly the most cooperative or forgiving. I have had time to put it into perspective since then and realize that it wasn’t this year that was necessarily “off” for me, but it was I who have been blessed by more big fish in any one given two-week period than most anglers catch in a lifetime. For that I am grateful and humbled and driven to get out there again in 2006 with much hope for yet another big fish (or two… or three) year.
So start getting that gear ready for the new season and every time you show-off the photos of last year’s catch, think about where you are going to find that huge muskie you’ve been dreaming about after the ice melts away in the spring. Don’t forget to dream BIG and when that opportunity does come knocking, set the hooks hard.
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