Moonlight MUSKY Madness

I was lifting the super-sized topwater lure out of the water at the end of a half-hearted figure eight when the fish struck. The moon had just risen above the treetops, and he had slunk in, undetected, in the dark water, surprising me. Startled just short of a heart attack, I set the hook based more on fear than anything and now the big fish thrashed his head against the bow of the kayak. As I struggled to find the free spool and thumb the reel, the musky cartwheeled on 3 feet of line. A second later, I could just make out the rear treble hook tearing out of the musky's bony upper lip.

- Phil Goes

Some crazy people get the notion that fishing for muskies might be fun, so they become muskellunge anglers overnight. I would imagine far more people become hooked on Esox masquinongy because one time they incidentally caught one while fishing for bass or walleyes.

For me, it was watching a large musky T-bone a smallmouth bass my son had hooked. After seeing the behemoth materialize out of the shadows and engulf the 12-inch bass, that pretty much did it. The next four days, we hunted that fish with a free-lined sucker until he finally bit. I handed over the rod, and my son claimed the fish as his own - 46 inches of lean, mean predator.

For a month after that, I fished muskies and only muskies. I saw plenty of fish and only goaded one into striking. After all, I knew it wasn't supposed to be easy.

I expanded my musky fishing knowledge when a friend took me out in his boat one day in late July. He pulled out a topwater plug, proclaiming it a "big fish lure." He tied it on and made a short cast to get the lure's cadence right. On his very next cast, I heard a sickening sound that will forever live in my memory. It was like a "whoosh" mixed with a "roar." A second later, I heard him scream, "Big fish! Big Fish! BIG FISH!" I was attending to a bird's nest in my reel, and by the time I figured out what happened, he had winched the fish halfway to the boat. I fumbled with the net far too long for his liking, but he did boat the fish, a 49-1/4-inch beauty.

True to musky fishing form, he held it for a quick photo, and then it was lowered overboard, the fish speeding up the release process with its remaining power.

Well, after that show, I was sold. I started fishing exclusively topwater lures. The sheer terror I witnessed in his eyes stuck with me. I had a few follows, and then caught a musky in the mid-30-inch class.