A full week of Musky

(I'm listening to Buckcherry 15 as I write)

Nick is late and I'm jonesing to get out to do what I've hear is "the impossible". As I sit in a vacant parking lot anxiously waiting for Pujic to show up, I turn the XM radio on.. what's playing is a song that literally makes me laugh out loud… not a word of a lie, it's a little ditty by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers called "The Waiting" where the first line of the chorus is "the waiting is the hardest part" And how!

(You've been Jingle Bombed - you'll be singing that song all day now… haha.)

Nick shows up at our pre-determined meeting area and we ship off to destination musky. 

Nick Pujic is an accomplished fly angler, he's young, energetic and always quick with a one liner or quip.  He's built a multi media company around the sport of fishing on the fly.  From Canadian Fly Fisher Magazine to the Fish Porn tv show Fly Max, Nick's not your average fly angler, nor is his arsenal of young professional anglers.  Attitude oozes from everything that comes out of the company… they have made fly fishing cool, hip, rock and roll even! This isn't your grandfather's fishing show.

So we get to a small river in eastern Ontario, Canada.  We pump up the pontoon boats and set out to fly fish for the fish of ten thousand casts.

I'm rigged up with a 9'6 Flying Carrot Stix 9 weight fly rod and a Nick Pujic hand tied fly mimicking a walleye tied to Vicious Fluorocarbon 20 lb leader material.  It's big tackle! That, coupled with the fact it's my first experience using a stand-up pontoon boat built for 1, I'm very nervous I'm going for a swim. And I definitely look the part of a newbie… I'm tangled, twisted, frustrated and blown around in every possible direction but where I want to be.  It took some time before I got the hang of it… but once I got comfortable, it was FUN!  Talk about stealth!

So the river system we're on is a nursery for musky.  The hydrology of the water is unbelievable, jetting from 40 feet deep to inches in a matter of a couple of feet - it's structure heaven! There are small fish and GIANTS in the river…

On the day, we went 4 for 6, I lost 2 fish, Nick landed 2 and our photographer Glen Hales CastAway Guides - 613.396.6797 landed 2.  The fish of ten thousand casts? Nope - not with Pujic and canflyfish.com

Later that week, we traveled to northern Wisconsin shooting RRT. I was enrolled in the University of Esox - Musky School.  Jim Saric - AKA the Musky Hunter hosts a school session at various times of year to teach the nuisances of musky fishing. This weekend was titled the Fall Trophy Hunt. 

Musky School is remarkable… it's packed with everything musky.  Up early for in-class sessions, full days on the water and post-fishing in-class sessions ensure your immersed in musky for hours on end!   Jim Saric and his team of musky experts cover the gamut with each info-packed session.  When not in class, you're on the water putting your new found knowledge to the test…

Day 1 on the water was a day I don't think I will ever forget.  I was throwing a giant Bulldawg by Musky Innovations with my 8' XXH 21 Carrot Gold Carrot Stix with 100 lb vicious braid.  We worked all day and didn't see a fish.  In the class that morning, we learned about increased musky activity around moon rise and moon set. Well sure enough half an hour before moon rise, about 3:25 pm I switched to a jerkbait and 2 casts in, it happened.  About 5 feet from the boat, I was just about to start my figure 8, a giant came up and seemingly took the jerkbait.  I remember this in slow motion high definition… Its mouth was wide agape with gills flared and I could see the bait suspended in the water inside the mouth of this fish. And then she looked at me - no kidding  looked at me right in the eye.  She turned her still open mouth to the right and swam away… the fish had the bait but never closed her mouth on it.  I didn't sleep that night after making eye contact with a giant Wisconsin Musky.  It's an image that haunts me today.

Day 2 was a very different story.

We went 2 for 3 on fish.  I caught a 42.5 inch musky on a quick strike rigged sucker, Jim got a 39 inch musky on a jerkbait and we lost the 3^rd fish at the end of the day on a live sucker.  Catching a musky on a sucker rig is as heart pounding as it gets… there isn't any immediacy to set the hook, you can actually enjoy the entire experience.  It starts off with the fish slowly pulling line out… click….click…click.  You pick up the rod out of the holder and thumb the spool.  (If you're very careful with the rig, you can actually pull the musky to the surface.)  after letting the fish instinctually swim to deeper water, you position the boat between the land and the fish keeping slight tension on the line, but not in any way restricting the fishes decent to the deep… when the line gets to be as close to 45 degrees to you as possible, engage your reel, take all slack out of the line by reeling down and do your very best to break the rod on your hookset.

Here is the result. 

So the University of Esox draws years of fishing experience and knowledge and presents it to you in a relaxed and motivating setting. It's a course anyone should take if you want to key into the nuances of musky fishing that will result in more fish in your boat.  Jim Saric and his Musky Hunting team have it dialed in.  To go 2 for 3 in one day is testament to the school's ability to educate.

Here are the final stats of the course.

A total of 12 muskies — six on livebait and six on artificials — were caught by students, who came from five states as well as Ontario. The fish boated included a first musky for one student as well as two personal bests.  So it was an incredibly successful weekend… Special thanks goes to Angler's Haven Resort www.anglershavenresort.com and of course the Musky Hunter, Jim Saric. www.muskyhunter.com

Mark Melnyk