Three weeks on the lake 2012

[Bill Hedden]

I am writing to try to continue the glow from my recent three week trip to AML. The lake, the fish, and the folks at AML served up everything I was hoping for. I saw the kinds of wonders that make a day on the lake what it is. One early morning Scotty and I followed an eagle for four hundred yards as it swam to shore after some kind of unsuccessful encounter with a big fish. The bird was going 2.5 mph and was obviously tired, but hopped up on the rocks, shook itself off and glared at us. You don't soon forget something like that. I also won't soon forget brother Tom's first muskie. We jumped on a weed bed in the middle of one apparently average afternoon and suddenly fish were coming in with almost every cast. The fourth, and largest, was ready to eat and Tom got her at boatside on the fourth turn, so he learned patience along with the importance of good boatside maneuvers. In all, he caught four fine fish in six days and had hooks in two giants, one of which just went airborne as soon as he hooked her. She delivered the bait back to him from about two feet from his face. One late evening in Portage he worried that he wouldn't be able to see a follow and after I assured him that he would a monster followed his next cast, practically glowing in the clear water. Knee shaking stuff.

The fish were using the weeds and rocks about equally, and I can't recall a day when one or the other predominated all day. One day I fished a good rock spot that was holding fish and boated a nice one early in the morning, and then, about moonset in the late morning, I went to a beautiful weed bed in a small bay and quickly caught another. My second cast into the weeds brought out another fish that nearly ate, and then I hopped to an adjacent bay with good weeds and caught another on my third cast...that's two boated in five casts with an excellent chance for three. That doesn't happen very often in muky fishing. One point to note is that, with rusty crayfish gradually diminishing the cabbage beds over years, the tobacco weed is taking on much greater importance. Baits have to be bulged on the surface at great speed and steered through the weeds, but when you manage a good cast, look for a huge boil and a fish coming after the bait in a very serious mood. Speed on the rocks was key to turning the fish from window shoppers to eaters (this may change as the lake cools down), and in the weeds it was essential. I fished a lot of double 9 bucktails for speed and they seemed to like them as well as double 10s except perhaps late in the evening. Black and smoke, black with a pearl underskirt and smoke, and black and brown with gold blades for dark days were good bait choices. Herbie has developed a trick of hanging the first hook on a split ring attached to a swivel and then a second split ring to the hook that seems to greatly increase hooking percentages. Be aware that the fish are nipping and biting in what you might call the 8 o'clock part of the circle, as opposed to the 2 o'clock portion of the turn we all hope for. This was very consistent and your hooks have to be razor sharp and you just have to do the turn very briskly and then haul the fish toward the front of the boat when they suddenly start shaking their heads at hook-up. You won't really see the take. Grandmas and Triple Ds were raising and catching fish, Tennessee shad, of course, but also the reddish version for VBay when the wind roils up the water; and bulldawgs were also bringing them up for a look, at least on the days when bucktails weren't moving fish.

The weather was seeming to change, with big storms and geese beginning to flock up and head south on my last day, so everything will be in flux, but the fishing was wonderful. I boated 31 muskies in 19 days and had two fish over 45 pounds on the line, one briefly and a bigger one one fought all the way to the boat and lost at the net by my incompetent netman...me. What more could you ask for? Many thanks to everybody at AML for being wonderful hosts and friends.
Bill

[EagleNewbie]

Bill,
Thanks for serving as my guide and ensuring that I had some excellent opportunities! The "glowing" fish and the back-to-back monsters in Portage now haunt my dreams...

Thank you, Herbie, and the everyone at AML, for checking in on my muskie-crazed brother and making sure he survived. You folks are the best!
Tom