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!!!!!