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| Spanky Joe with a 42-inch Dryberry muskie. |
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BREAK THE RULES
by Bob Chochola
MUSKIE Magazine (April 2005 Issue)
My partner and I have been making the trek into Canada to hunt the mighty musky for about ten years. There is no doubt that if you were to ask either one of us why we go all that way to pursue a beast that can be found in this day and age in many States across North America, you would get a long diatribe about the magic that lies beyond our northern border complete with pictorial. It is a complex answer that is really just a product of the passion we both have, that is a result of the great successes documented by the pictures of our adventures.
A much more simple explanation, however, is what I will offer you here – we are blessed. Not lucky, not experts, not authorities holding some great secret that has put so many big fish in our boat that even seasoned musky anglers who have been going to our favorite water for decades are left scratching their heads and wondering, “How do they do it?” If ten years on the same lake has taught us anything, it is that we don’t know the first thing about musky fishing. Now this statement may seem odd coming from two guys who have a whole bunch of 50-inch-plus fish on record, but it is how we like to approach each trip. It keeps us open to changing patterns and never allows us to slip into the same-old-same-old every time out. In fact, we believe that in seeking ”patterns” most musky anglers fail to explore the pressing question, “What if?”
The “what if” I’m talking about is directly related to our ritual of hitting a “milk run” of favorite spots. We believe that a great spot is a great spot and it will continue to be a great spot year after year. If it holds fish now, it will always hold fish… period. Many anglers think that breaking ritual and seeking new patterns involves finding NEW territory and sometimes even a new lake altogether. We disagree completely.
Ignoring the “rules” that develop from habit and become reinforced by sheer repetition, my partner and I have spent a good deal of time on the water refining the way we approach the same spots year after year with some incredible results. We find and catch big muskies with regularity because we do not abandon our usual haunts, but rather we find new ways to work the same places with greater efficiency. This involves spending some quality time probing each spot during slow times. For example, it’s hot, the sun is high, and the rest of our party is copping Z’s… we’re out exploring bottom structure – every rock point and weed edge – taking notes that we incorporate later in future visits to that place. We have been surprised at what we have learned and it often pays off.
This past fall we found ourselves confined by heavy wind to a small portion of the lake. We had to hit fewer spots more frequently. As a result, we also spent more time on each spot. One place in particular that is passed over by 95% of the other anglers we’ve seen out there, is a jewel. It is a place we have known about and have stopped to fish once in a while with minor success. It is a classic spot overlooked and may turn out to be one of the best on the lake.
Until last fall we thought it was a small weed bed in a tiny “garage” bay on a branch that opens to some of the deepest water on the lake. I’ve seen gulls frequently feeding there and have often wondered if the current and wind direction cause schools of baitfish to congregate in the pocket-like area.
One calm evening my partner and I stopped to observe shad breaking surface in an area about the size of a football field adjacent to the bay. We began drifting the tiny weed bed (and a second even smaller line of weeds across the channel). We raised a musky in the area and observed a behemoth right out in the middle of the channel breaking surface chasing shad.
We started to work further out and discovered weeds, more weeds, and even more weeds. It was a cabbage forest. In fact, although we couldn’t see down far enough, we decided that what we thought were two tiny beds could in fact be one giant bed extending across the entire channel, you guessed it, about the size of a football field. But that’s not all… In between the large weed bed and the deep water we found a huge rock reef that we didn’t know about. Hey, we (and probably everyone else) have been roaring over the reef in our boats for years and never knew it existed. Needless to say we began working the spot with greater efficiency and it was about to pay off big time.
The next day it was sunny and hot. We hit the area in the early afternoon and my partner took a small musky from the deep weeds we had been parking the boat over until today. Later that evening I raised a nice fish deep in the cove, after casting out to the middle of the channel. I had her up on a figure eight several times, while junior raised two more fish off the bow.
Day three found us back again in the early evening. My partner cast a small crank bait right to some down timber along the shore and must have hit the big musky right in the head. She blew-up grabbing the block of wood and got off after a few head shakes. I still have a piece of the tooth she left behind in the bait as a souvenir.
We decided to return after dark. I tossed my bucktail in the same direction as I did the day before when I raised a monster. When I made my figure eight I saw a flash of fish just under my lure in the moonlight. I made a huge circle and saw another flash. I was bringing the large loop around again from the back of the boat when she came right out from beneath where I was hunched over searching and ate my lure right before my eyes. It was my fist boat side hookup and 51.5-inches of fire breathing musky. What a thrill it was to be a steel leader away from all that thrashing musky and white water.
The lesson here is that we used typically slow conditions to explore an old spot and learned that the spot had much more to offer than simply a quick stop and a few casts. Certainly it was a shame how often we had just blown right past without stopping at all. We learned that this place could indeed hold giant predators even during slow times and in unfavorable conditions. In fact, this is now at the top of our list when it comes to big fish potential and we owe that to breaking the rules.
Too often anglers “run and gun” when it would be more to their advantage to probe and take extra time to use the penetrating light and learn more about their frequent haunts. Move out twenty, fifty, or one hundred yards in every direction – you’d be surprised at what you might find. The other “rule” we challenged here was to hit the same spot several times during the course of the day. I have been doing this for years and have reaped rewards for my persistence. Just because you didn’t see a fish at 3pm does not mean you won’t find one at 6pm or at 9pm. If it holds fish – as this one obviously does – sooner or later there will be a musky in the area. My partner and I believe the odds of making contact with fish go up by returning to proven hunting grounds several times a day.
Maybe the most important lesson my partner and I learned last fall was the location of active fish. This trip’s light bulb moment would change the way we approach musky fishing forever. For years we have made our point of attack the deep weed edge or rock point farthest from shore, set our drift about a cast off that place, then we would work our way to shore.
This has been a pretty standard tactic, however, we’re often frustrated by lack of toothy critters, or teased by lookers who don’t bite in the shallow water. On this trip we decided to work deeper water – between twenty and fifty yards farther back from where we normally would begin a drift. Several long casts off the deep side of the boat produced rather large chasing muskies and that inspired us to explore deeper water.
Casting the open water adjacent to our usual spots turned out to be the charm (pattern if you want) and would produce multiple fish on almost every spot our entire trip. Looking back over the years I can remember a number of casts into the middle of nowhere only to have a monster blow up on my bait. This final “rule” I will encourage you to break is that of sticking too close to traditional cover. Back off! If it’s a slow go, set your drifts (and trolls) three or four casts out and make long fan casts as you approach your normal area. I guarantee you’ll find more fish this way. And don’t be afraid to pull your boat out for a second pass. We have had much success on a second and even third pass through a spot. I don’t think the muskies care, so why should we, right?
Next time I am going to be more in depth about how we work our traditional spots and how we approach unusual conditions. I’m gonna shatter a couple of MUSKY MYTHS.
Until then, get out on the water and have FUN!
One thing my partner and I talk about all the time is how serious many anglers can be. This is not to say we are not serious about musky fishing. We eat, sleep, and breathe the sport twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. We actually count days to our next trip sometimes six months in advance. Believe me, when you have a countdown on your bulletin board at work that reads “229 DAYS TO GO!” (Like mine did this year) coworkers think you’re a little over the top.
What I’m talking about is going out to have fun above all else. Don’t compete. Don’t become outraged over the success of the guys in the cabin two doors down (you know, unless they take beer out of your cooler and celebrate without asking you first). For us it is a feeling of being blessed to be out on the water, because we both have had personal real life experiences that had us wondering if we’d ever be able to musky fish again. Events like that tend to put life into perspective and while it may seem like we’re a couple of very strange individuals, we are out there just havin’ fun. That’s what it’s all about.
In having such a great time we become relaxed and that allows us to spend an unbelievable amount of time out there casting. After all, rule number one of musky fishing has always been: you won’t catch one if your bait isn’t in the water. It’s one rule we even live by. Our relaxed attitude keeps our muscles loose, our heads in the game, and our baits splashing… I listen sometimes when we’re not goofin’ on each other and all I hear is “zing – splash – crank, crank, crank…” over and over and over again. It’s like being inside a casting machine. It’s one secret to our success with no real proof other than the pictures, of course.
So, get out there and have a great time and if a boat speeds past you with two grown men laughing and carrying on like a couple of school boys on holiday, it’s just us on our way to the next hot spot.
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