A ten-plus mile float on the St. Croix River yesterday coughed up a couple smallmouth and this big girl to an eight inch pink and white single hook Buford.

 

 

Smallies would have been more active, but cool temps up here have them still in their post-spawn funk.

 

We started about 9:30 AM, at the Noeway Landing, and got off the water about 7:40 PM, did the shuttle and got on the road about 8:30 PM for the two hour drive home.  Great weather, good conditions, but the cooler than normal water had us hunting hard for fish that were not in the places they would normally be this time of year.

 

Gear was 8, 10, and 12 wt, fly rods with sinking and intermediate lines.

Nice musky!

Nice fish. I bet that was one heck of a fight on the fly.

53 minutes ago, Basser2021 said:

Nice fish. I bet that was one heck of a fight on the fly.

Musky don't fight all that much, and we're not using noodley light weight fly rods.

This was on a stout 10 wt.  (probably closer to an 11 or 12 wt. in "regular" fly rods. 

"Use enough rod" is a thing with musky.

Maybe 5 - 7 minutes from eat to net.

Here's the Rod, and the fly:

That is awesome!?