How long did it take before you.........

[Red Childress]

How long did it take you to catch your first musky?

*I moved to Warren in Oct. of '93. After about 2-3 months of getting the right tackle, experimenting with certain lures and learning the river, I finally connected in Late-January. It was a boatside strike. I was using a plain jig tipped with a 8-9-inch dead shad. That moment is forever burning in my brain.

[Joe M]

I was fishing for about 5 or 6 months before I got my 1st ski. I got it at the Tionesta outflow Labor day weekend. I didnt have the correct release tools or net. After I dropped it twice I decided to keep it. It was 40". I got it mounted. I caught it on a 10" suick. I still remember seeing that fish attack the bait as I screamed for my wife to get over here!!!! I have the lure hanging in the basement retired.

[cband]

I caught my first muskie in 1995, at the age of twelve. I made an order to bass pro consisting of a blue fox bucktail, suick, daredevel spoon and a black bulldawg. I caught my first muskie on the river a month later that summer on the blue fox bucktail. My dad fished muskies on the river and kinzua for many years, so I did have some of the right equipment to start with. But it was kinda neat catching it on a lure I picked out and bought myself. I still catch fish from the same location.

Red, I thought I read an article one time that your first muskie was caught on a swim wizz...I probably am confused though...any of your early fish caught on a swim wizz

[ppalko]

I can't remember my first musky for sure....it was definitely nonlegal. Probably caught in the lower Allegheny while walleye fishing; I would have been around 10-12. My first legal fish was caught at Tionesta (39 inch) when I was 13 (I think). We caught 10 fish from 25-39 that day in January.

Anyone ever land a legal musky on 4lb test??? I've landed a few while walleye fishing with jigs in the winter...none over 40.

Phil

[Bob S.]

My first musky was caught my first year fishing for them. It was caught in the Susquehanna River. 43 " 17.5 lb. caught using a Perch colored J-13 Rapala with 8 lb. flourocarbon line and no leader. I caught two other ones that year a 29 " and a 35 " I have learned alot since then and continue to learn more....I don't use flourocarbon and do use a leader on my braided line. Still like those J-13 in Perch color though.

Bob S.

[muskie52]

It was 1988 and I was 17 years old. I decided to actually try and target catching a musky specifically. I went after school 3 evenings in a row armed with a bucket of creek chubs. The first evening I caught a 20 inch largemouth and also had a musky bite me off. I was only using 6 inch steel leaders and learned a lesson that day. The 2nd evening was uneventful. The third evening I landed a 36 inch hybrid. This was out of Connoquenessing Creek not very far from Howard Wagner's place.

I did catch a 34 inch hybrid prior to this, but I was fishing for smallmouth. It ate a crawfish.

I really didn't fish for muskies again until 2004. I caught the musky bug before leaving for our yearly Ontario trip, and my brother and I spent a good portion of that week fishing for them. We caught 3 that week. My brother got his first (a 50.5 incher) midweek. The next day I caught 2 mid thirty inchers. Oh, I also lost a big one that week. It hit a suick and immediately went airborne. While it was in the air, it threw the suick back at me. That one left my knees shaking! I've been hooked since!!!!!

[Red Childress]

CBand,

My first fish was caught on that "hillbilly jig rig".....the next 10-15 were caught casting a Swim Whizz. After casting and cranking that Whizz on the deep setting for about 6 months my body told me that there must be a better way, I got on the Bomber Long-A gig. Then, I started catching many more muskies but usually nothing larger than 42 or so. When I started beefing up my tackle and spending money on nicer baits, I (we) started hitting upper 40 inch fish and a few fish in the 50 inch range that we never got in the net. It was hard to get any local info on musky fishing around here in the mid-90's because musky fishing was not that popular and still is not. Most guys were just throwing out a chunk of live bait and waiting them out.

Obviously, learning the river and meeting different guys who helped narrow down the good musky spots helped me tremendously. Then a friend from VA started telling me about night fishing and spotlighting them. Then I started catching more fish during summer months until I got married and started a family.......now that my kids are more manageable, I will start doing the summer night fishing gig again. The spotlighting part is a riot. It is amazing how close you can get to them.

I sometimes think about those early days as I am drifting along the river thinking to myself, "I actually used to fish for muskies there". I fished everything that was deeper than 3 feet no matter what.

[ThreeRiversEsox]

I started fishing for muskies a couple years ago, mostly targeting the spillways of the bigger local lakes. I caught my first musky on the shenango below pymatuning on a rapala fat rap. I was bouncing the bottom and thought I got snagged, only to have it start moving... My second fish was out of arthur's spillway and crushed a husky jerk, which is the one I will definitely never forget!

[jah1317]

It took me about 1.5 weeks, I started in october of '06 and caught one on my 3rd time out while my wife was at a concert with her friend....... 30" caught on a 6" firetiger jake while I was using a pull/stop retrieve, all I thought was " holy s#!tI caught one!". The REALLY kinda cool thing was that I could see the spot where my dad had caught his first one about 40 years before from where I was standing. Now, it's my homewaters and I can't stop fishing for the darn things, infact, reading this thread has made me change my mind about chaseing trout today.... I think I am going to explore some new turf for musky....

jacob

[cband]

We love the spotlighting gig as well. We have been real close to some real tanks. I still have an image of a walleye etched into my mind from last July. Wow, was it large.

[Red Childress]

I saw a brown trout in 98 or 99 that was incredible. It was laying at the top of the Glade riffle above where Brown Run dumps in....probably 2 or 3 am in 12 inches of water. She just laid there as we went over her. This fish had to be in the low-30 inch class. It probably felt the heat from the light because I was laying on my casting deck with the light just above her.

Have you noticed all the crayfish that come out after dark? I bet the alpha trout and walleye are just hammering those things during the dark hours.

[cband]

One of the largest browns we have caught came on a crayfish a few years ago and another one on corn fishing for carp. The walleye was in about 24" of water and less than 10' away. We have caught are share of dandy walleye and this one takes the cake.

As for trout, we do not see too many at nite as far south as where we are...

[NitroMusky]

Last year was my first season targeting 'skis. took about 3 months to get the first one, once the fall rush started-did have a tank on a few weeks earlier but lost it boat side.

still wish I had pures closer than 1.5 hours away, probably have more notches in the belt by now...

Spotlighting huh. I was wondering about that after I talked to some folks out on kinzua last weekend that were going to do just that. I assume it must be legal, but how exactly does it work? never heard of it up here

[RiverRunt]

This morning at my house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxxtEnI72Hw

[ppalko]

When I was a kid we'd fish a trib mouth to the lower Allegheny in the evenings during the fall. After dark, you could spotlight hundreds of walleyes (glowing eyes) from the train bridge over the creek. It was really amazing. You could catch fish by twitching rapalas. There were few fish bigger than 15 inches but it was fun. OK, Red....third thing to do this summer in addition to finding endangered darters and if the water stratifies on the river....fish all night. I did run my canoe at night on the river once...that truly tested my memory of rocks and the like. A few carp about scared me to death while wading. Should I wear a blinker if I'm wading a riffle in the dark this summer...don't want to be run over by a jet boat!

ppalko

[Red Childress]

If you are in water that is at least 3 ft deep, instead of trying to run just go under water and let the jetboat skim right over you. I did this while water skiing one time to keep my friend from killing me. It worked to perfection.

[Trauts]

Wait...the object of Musky fishing is to actually CATCH them???

Dang...and all this time I though the goal was to just get them to follow your lure! I though I was REALLY successful!

Now you tell me I actually need them to EAT the lure!!

I have been wondering how you people kept getting pictures of you actually HOLDING the fish!

That all being said, I STILL haven't caught one...though Red has given his word that is going to end the first week of June!!!

Right Red?

[Red Childress]

I wish to invoke my 5th Amendment Rights.

[Chris Streich]

I have been a serious walleye chaser for years now, but have never caught or targeted musky. I have been in the same boat a couple times when my partner has accidently caught a musky but has never happened to me. Living as close to the starbrick launch as i do, i have told myself that a couple weekends this year are going to be devoted to strictly chasing musky.

[Larry Jones]

Well I was lucky to be taken muskie fishing on the Niagara River back in July of 1975 by my boss at the land job.Musky Joe Nemeth took me out trolling near Strawberry Island.Using glass-eyed 2600 Series Pikie Minnows in Horned-Ace color,with modified lip bends by Musky Joe.My 1st Muskie was a scrapy 37"er and came after being on the water for one hour.We boated and released five muskies to 43 inches in just three hours.I became hooked on musky fishing from that day on.Those were the good old days on the Niagara River when the water was always tinted and we fished in 7 to 12 ft. of water and there were large numbers of muskies.Multiple fish days were common just about every time out.