I
am a confessed musky fisherman and have been for over 40 years, but the fever
has been the most intense in the last 25 years. The obsession to musky fishing
has dominated virtually all of my available fishing time resulting in me not
fishing for anything else. While I have been known to catch a couple
of walleye for dinner or put a few crappie in the freezer, the time fishing
for these would be considered as a slight diversion at best.
About six months ago, Tim Mead asked me whether I would be interested in going with him and his friends, Bill Kraft and Clyde Osbourne (pictured at the right respectively), to Pipestone Lake in Ontario, Canada. Tim might argue that it took less than 30 seconds for me to accept, but for the record I believe it was 35 seconds. The trip was to be a smallmouth bass / pike trip. As I said in the opening, I haven't done much fishing for anything but musky in a lot of years. The prospect of catching numbers of fish a day admittedly had a certain allure, as it is not uncommon to go without a musky for days even weeks at a time. In addition to the bass and pike fishing, I knew that Tim was quite handy with a fly rod so I had asked him if he would be willing to teach me a little more than I knew on fly fishing (which wouldn't take much, by the way). I had tried fly fishing maybe twelve years ago, but when you are not good at it and you don't know anyone to properly instruct you, it doesn't take long to set it aside. I was sure that if I got better with it, I would enjoy it.
During
my many years of fishing I have accumulated a lot of tackle and tackle boxes,
I was sure that I had everything covered for the trip. My first
disappointment came quickly as I couldn't find the box of flies that I had,
when I attempted to fly fish years ago. The wife and I literally
tore up the house looking, but no cigar. Tim told me he could help me
out with that problem. With regards to standard spinning and casting
lures, I selected a tacklebox I was sure had enough to get me by. It
would be proved later that over the years I moved many of the smaller lures
to other tackleboxes and I hadn't kept up with the latest trends in tackle for
bass, such as tube jigs and twitch baits. While I did have a selection
of good baits, tube jigs proved to be the correct ticket for catching almost
everything including small mouth, large mouth, northern, musky and even a lake
trout. The guys were kind enough to help me out with this problem
as well.
Our discussions prior to the trip involved our hope to still find the pike
in shallow water as we had been having a cold spring and we had hoped the water
hadn't warmed enough to push the pike deep. When we arrived we found
that the water was still fairly cold (estimated upper 40's), but the larger
pike had already moved to deeper water. Given this fact we focused
our efforts on the smallmouth bass. The fact that the water temperature
was still cold and we had rain virtually everyday, the smallmouth bass were
not yet on their spawning beds.
We saw indications that the bass had started clearing areas of the
bottom for spawning, but they were not defending the beds, nor were they yet
spawning. We estimated that we were one to two weeks early to truly
hit the spawing periods. Even
though the bass were not on the spawning beds, I would estimate that we cumulatively
boated probably 600 - 700 smallmouth during the week of fishing.
In addition to the smallmouth, we also managed to catch maybe 25 smaller pike (up to 28 inches). Bill Kraft also caught a healthy 41 inch musky with a very large girth as well as a 24 inch walleye. Clyde Osbourne also caught a 44 inch musky and I caught a 30 inch lake trout. I will post the pictures of the muskies when I receive the pictures.
On the second to the last day, Tim told me that we were going to try fishing with a fly rod for pike regardless of the weather. It had been raining steady with fairly high winds for past five days. On the day of the fly fishing, it rained a little in the morning and then started to clear as a cold front moved into the area. The winds hadn't died down a lot, but we looked for protected bays where I could try my hand at fly fishing. Tim proved to be a good and patient teacher. He told me that I was bringing my backcast to far back and wasn't waiting for the line to straighten out behind me. He also told me to start my forward motion when I felt the line and excelerate my arm to about the 10:00 position. I also had a tendency to use the rod tip to move the fly, which is another no - no. As I told Tim, I didn't want to thank him for teaching me to fly fish as I didn't want to be to presumptious in saying the I knew how, but I did appreciate the exposure that he had given me. Tim told me that I did alright, but like most things I would have to practice to get better. I was able to catch 3 northern pike (up to about 22 - 24 inches, and one smallmouth on the fly rod. I have to admit that it was an experience catching fish on the fly rod, even the smaller pike seemed like monsters.
I thoroughly enjoyed the entire trip and the new friends that I made. While I am still a confirmed musky nut, it was really great to catch fish consistently on a daily basis. While this type of fishing will not replace my musky enthuiasm, I am convinced that I need to do more of this type of fishing in the future.
My final words are a big thanks to Tim, Bill and Clyde for a great trip. I hope that we can do it again.
Click the mailbox to e-mail. Last updated on ... August 14, 2004