Jed “Big Musky” Buelow
Tomahawk Leader Co-Editor, Sports and Nature Editor
Between the garden, lawn mowing and all the many other things that take up time in the summer, it once again had sadly happened that this past weekend was the first time out for the season for this musky angler.
Pretty much having no lead on where the fish were or what they might be biting on, I decided it might be as good a time as any to follow up on a tip that had been passed along about a small lake in the Tomahawk area that I was told had lots of them as well as some big fish. After a short drive from town, we slipped the boat into the lake and immediately started fishing to take advantage of a solunar major that was quickly coming to an end. My buddy started the day throwing his favorite Top Raider while I figured I would try a bit of everything to see if I could get hit.
A steady wind provided some good chop on the water, but the mostly bluebird sky had me thinking the conditions could prove a challenge. As the major came to an end, I switched inline spinners to an Inhaler with an orange blade and it didn’t take long before I was rewarded. Casting the weed line of a wind-swept bay, a giant head emerged from the stained water at boat side and t-boned the lure. Before I had even realized what had happened I was yelling for my friend to get the net.
Seeing as the fish hit as I started into my figure eight, it left little line to work with as an intense next few seconds unfolded with the fish violently thrashing at the side of the boat. I tried to release additional line as I fought the fish, but due to the amount of pressure from the fish on the reel, I was unable to give an inch as I worked it around trolling motor and the front of the boat. Once there, my fishing partner quickly scooped up the fish and the battle was over in less than a minute.
A quick measurement put the fish at around 46” and after a few quicker photos the fish was put back still with plenty of green to swim off nicely.
If only musky fishing were always that easy. I remember this happening a few years back when I also scored a 40 plus inch musky on my first trip out of the season. I’m not going to reveal how the rest of that season went other than to say musky fishing can be a real humbling hobby.
Later in the day we switched over to a Tomahawk area flowage to hopefully find a topwater bite and it just never materialized for us. After trying a couple stops on the regular milk run we tucked into a woody bay with some much quieter water than the busy weekend boat traffic being experienced on the rest of the lake. Some really nice structure was discovered, but unfortunately none of it held any fish that wanted to play. We fished through the rest of the evening with nothing else to show for our efforts.
What a fun way to start the season. While I don’t expect I will be catching a musky every time out the rest of the season, I hope it isn’t like a couple of years ago when it was the one and only fish caught the entire year.