Way back in the early 90’s I took a guided trip with muskie pro Pete Maina. He introduced me to Burt – a jerk bait that he created. Burt was pretty new back then, but the bait looked hot and so I went out and bought one.
I had a chance to watch the master work it for a day and I tucked that image in the back of my mind until a couple of years later when my dad and I were fishing Dryberry during a stretch of hot and sunny weather with very slow muskie action. All the while, I had this brand-spankin’ new Burt sitting in my tackle box.
One day we got the condition changes we were looking for and set out in a cloudy drizzle with high hopes. I thought a lure change would help the luck along and when I opened my bait-filled box Burt just screamed, “Zilla, pick me!” So indeed I did hook that new Burt to my leader and began to cast.
I made only about three casts when a nice pike hit. Soon after, another pike and then another ate Burt. We fished until it was almost dark boating a bunch of pike. I had our boat drifting through a cabbage-infested neck down in between two rock reefs and wind pushing current through the area. I put a cast on the heaviest clump of weeds I could find and wouldn’t you know it, a 51-inch muskie came out of the thick cover and absolutely crushed Burt.
I boated four nice muskies on that trip, including a fat 48-incher the next evening. On subsequent trips Burt would be the star of my show, luring toothy creatures from the deep to strike. I can’t even estimate how many big muskies and pike Burt caught over the years, but there have been quite a few.
