Well, I hit the water hard with the Flyrod over the weekend and the Musky were there to teach me a few lessons. These fish were crushing these flies like I had never seen before. Most of the action I had before this consisted of the fly being inhaled on the pause during the strip. Not this time. I was stripping the fly in about 1-3 ft below the surface. Next thing I know, I see a low-mid 40's fish shoot right past the fly and about 3ft out of the water with a perfect dolphin dive back in!!! LOL
There was another that slammed the fly so hard right next to the boat that it very nearly took the rod out of my hand. I just wasn't really prepared for these kinds of attacks on such a slow moving bait. But to witness this all so near the boat was FANTASTIC!!
I lost a couple of fish before finally being able to land the one in the pic. I learned that even if I believe that my hookset was not good, never, and I mean NEVER point the rod toward the fish to attempt another hookset. I tried this and lost a very nice one. Should have just kept a bend in the rod and rode it out.
Anyhow, the fish in the pic drilled the fly just as I was ready to yank it out of the water and head to a new spot. Gave a great battle with some very energetic runs in there. One of the crazy things was that I decided to try a new knot when I bought this new fly rig. About 10 minutes after I released this fish, the knot came apart and I lost my whole leader!! LOL And that was just from casting. Lady Luck can be quite interesting. Needless to say, I went back to my old knot.
Congrats on your first. Days like that make the sore arms worthwhile. I have been struggling with fishing stained water. Anyone ever put rattles iin their flies? If so what type?
i just kind of had that feeling over the last week or so that I was gonna see some action. As i mentioned, a couple of fish taught me some VERY important lessons.
Riverrunt,
The fly I was using was an 8" streamer with a Yellow Perch pattern, which is now laying at the bottom of the lake. LOL But I also had action on a similar streamer in a Shad pattern.
Gary,
The knot was my first attempt at an Albright. It felt secure initially, but seemed to slip on the new flyline. I have a feeling that I just don't know how to tie it properly yet. I went back to the blood knot, but I sometimes have a tough time with that one sliding through the eyes.
Toothy,
You're right, those fish were definitely fired up. I am still having dreams of seeing them just flying through the water and hammering the fly. Heck, most of the time they just kept right on going. It was incredible!!
GreatLakes,
I have started working on my own rattle chamber, but have not used it yet. I have a couple of Bass buddies that claim there are some on the market that might work. I have not tried those either.
Awesome man, hope you get some action on those! The exact patterns I have been using are on the wetieit.com website under the Figure-8 flies. But I also had some action on another perch pattern Bucktail bunny fly, also on that site.
I plan to be back at 'em this weekend!! Good luck, hopefully we both have some stories to report in the near future
Musky Education, and Oh yeah, first on the Fly!!
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