 |
| Photos by Bob Chochola |
|
THE NEXT CAST
By Bob Chochola
It’s getting closer-and-closer to muskie season again everyone. It’s time to get motivated. I know I start getting impatient about mid-January when we plan our trip. Well, we’ve put most of winter behind us and before long it’ll be time to stop talkin’ and start chasing…
“The fish of ten thousand casts.”
This ominous statement is the credo muskie hunters have lived by for a very long time and is as threatening as it sounds to newcomer and veteran alike. The words suggest that if you pursue the elusive beast, you’d best be prepared for much work and little reward.
To some degree the muskie is indeed a mysterious creature. Unlike other species, the adult muskie sits atop the food chain an unchallenged Queen among commoners, a master of her domain, and a predator amidst her prey. A musky is fearless, because there are no natural enemies found lurking the deep; no hungry foes hiding in the rocks and weeds on her journey. A muskie moves freely and without hesitation for she is the stalker, while anything else that swims, treads water, or splashes about on the surface above, represents nothing more to her than a potential meal.
“Muskie: other fish are just bait.”
A muskie is an eating machine and will do little in her lifetime to disprove the theory. She swims, eats, and makes babies and that’s pretty much the end of it.
These are the characteristics that make muskie fishing seem complex and simple all at the same time. If she’s an “eating machine” striking anything that moves without fear, then forget the “ten thousand casts” thing, for all one has to do is drop a lure in front of her and have the camera ready, right? Wrong! Being the ultimate predator has its advantages and it is the unsuspecting angler who is more often than not at the mercy of this magnificent toothy critter.
So, which is it going be for you? Will it really take thousands of casts to catch a muskie, or is there a way to tap-into the feeding frenzy and boost your success rate right now?
Over the years I have found that just when I think I’m about to figure things out, the sly beast finds a way to send me back to the old drawing board. That’s the mystery of the mighty muskie and it keeps me coming back year after year. It’s what makes hunting the muskie cooler than fishing for any other species of fish in fresh water. The fact that we “hunt” for muskies and rarely use the word “fish” should tell you something.
My fishing partner and best friend, Pat Elza, puts it best, “There are those who like to sit on the dock and wait for life to come to them, but there are still others who go out and hunt life down.” It wasn’t until I had been muskie hunting for a long time that I would come to understand what he was talking about. I am not a “sit on the dock and wait” kind of a guy – not anymore. I live for the hunt these days, for the explosive strike on a weed bed just before dark, for the bone-crushing jolt trolling a rock wall at three-o’clock in the afternoon, for the sight of those jaws appearing from out of nowhere to inhale my lure. I sure do like to go out and get ‘em.
Does it really take ten thousand casts to catch a muskie?
Sometimes it sure seems like it does. I like to think that it only takes ONE cast – the next one – to put a muskie in the boat. This philosophy keeps me casting long after everyone else is back at camp coping Z’s. It’s all about the one saying that certainly rings true without any debate:
“You won’t catch a muskie if your bait isn’t in the water.”
How true. Get out there and cast until you can’t cast anymore… then make one more.
|