Dave,

Your welcome,

And I am glad you worked one of my big girls off “Motor Block”.

That’s a great fish you hooked up on; please keep the spot in your hip pocket of milk run spots from now on, and enjoy the fruit it can provide for years to come.

Until last year that spot held the largest girl I have ever seen on LOTW’s at well over four and a half feet and a girth that haunts me to this day.

It’s a small reef structure adjacent to deep water with other great structure nearby; it can be over worked but can pay big with fish of both size and big water girth.

(Note the great large water girth and rock markings on your fish, she’s very clean, thick and silver)

I remember a day like yesterday some years ago before I had my own boat. I was running a camp Lund 17’ tiller over that spot with a howling wind out of the south West.

White capping waves where breaking that point and I had no hope of dropping the bow mount trolling motor and holding so I shot the point with the big motor and held it as well as I could so Alex could cast it quick.

I handed him a rod rigged with a Fire Tiger Double Tail Stomper, a very large Top Water Bait made by Holcombe Tackle, it stretched over 10” long and could stand up to the heavy chop.

The lure looked ridiculous but was perfect because it could handle the large waves with a great combination of top water commotion and the ability to dive the next incoming wave for some real distress features.

On Alex’s second cast he had to rip the bait back to the boat as we washed towards the rock point.

The boat spun quickly around after I slipped it in neutral and I had to shift it into forward and gun it a bit to avoid the point.

I remember seeing this tanker of a Muskie with gill’s flared rising quickly on his bait right over my shoulder boat side as he ripped the lure back to the boat.

She broke the surface after his bait as it popped out of the water and all Alex caught was her giant red tail floping back towards the deep but I saw her true size and mass in full glory just feet from my body.

This grotesque lure was half way down her throat and had I waited a second longer this fish was ours, a massive mid 50’s Muskie as hot on a bait as one fish could be.

It’s what keeps me working hard every trip, a true fish of a lifetime!

We missed her that year but will see her again I know and hope the ball fumbles our way that day.

Dreaming of October again now after writing this post.
RTL