Water temp was down to 38 degrees today, my friends and I went out to try for some sauger and walleye. Fishing 4" keitech swing impacts on 1/4oz heads on a slow lift/drop retrieve in 15-20FOW. My buddy hooked a musky within 15 minutes of us getting to our spot, and the hook came out while I was trying to get the fish grips on the fish's jaw.

 

5 minutes later and I hook a brute of a musky, luckily it was just as a boat arrived that was targeting musky, and they netted the fish for me. They were stunned that I caught it on "that little jig". 10 minutes after releasing the first one I feel a "tick" and lean back into something that is also clearly not a walleye! The guys in the boat were happy to come net the fish for me, and we got more pictures. 15 minutes later and I am dumbfounded when I hook yet another musky. I told the guys in the boat to just keep fishing but they helped me out again and scooped the fish up once it was tired. Somehow I managed to land all three on a 10lb test mono leader.

 

So today the spinning rod with a keitech outfished 3 guys throwing big musky lures from a boat, they never had a bite! Must be the cold water.

 

Might I add that I can see the buildings where I take classes from where I am catching these fish!

 

This fish very easily could have been my PB (43") but we didn't measure it, things were chaotic enough to begin with!

 

25 minutes ago, everythingthatswims said:

 

 

This fish very easily could have been my PB (43") but we didn't measure it, things were chaotic enough to begin with!

"Might I add that I can see the buildings where I take classes from where I am catching these fish!"

 

You don't need me to tell you how impressive that is - You are Well Aware !

Nice Job

Congrats

btw ~  when you combine your attached mutant muskie photos with your quoted text above - I'd say you'd have the makings of a fairly blinding distraction in that class every day.

A-Jay

 

Congrats, man!  

you might be on to something. I fish the Shanandoah and caught two large Muskies on a 1/2 oz jig and trailer the week before Christmas.

Nice. Way to go. 

3 hours ago, Djohn said:

you might be on to something. I fish the Shanandoah and caught two large Muskies on a 1/2 oz jig and trailer the week before Christmas.

I bet a big musky wasn't the only thing you caught. Love that river!!!

Wow, that's fantastic.  If the fishing is that good there, you may end up sticking around to get your PHD

Wow!  Way to go!  That takes finesse fishing to a whole new level.

nice! great fish! your killing them man. that looks like great fun!

Nice Monongahela River Muskies.They sure are fun to catch.

11 hours ago, RichPenNY said:

Wow, that's fantastic.  If the fishing is that good there, you may end up sticking around to get your PHD

I might get to stick around and work on a masters but they'll definitely send me to terrorize fish somewhere else if I decide to take it further than that!

You picked the right college!

Really nice looking Fish!!! 

 

That's the one thing I found interesting about musky fisherman in the early season.  I have caught several musky in the Spring when the water temps are still in the 30's very slowly dragging small swimbaits along the bottom in prime prespawn locations.  That type of fishing is too slow of a pace for most musky guys and they insist on throwing rubber, jigging baits, or rattle baits instead.  As you saw, when the water temps are that cold, keeping the bait on the bottom and smaller in size yields big dividends.  Great work!!   

Wicked 

Congrats on those huge musky's! Its great when your not even targeting them and you land one of those giants let alone 3 of them!