What can I say… Fishing today was below average if you only count the ten bass, seven pike and one small mouth between Greg and me. On previous occasions we have done much better.

The day started early around 4:30 a.m. We decided not to fish the channel because the weather was rainy and there was a slight wind that chopped the water enough to make the shallow bays fishable without detection. We fished the North bay by the golf course and caught a few pike and bass. We traveled down to the end of the bay to where you pass under the road to another shallow bay. We found spawning bass everywhere and decided to leave them alone. Moving farther into the bay until it was too shallow produced a couple of small pike. The weather was starting to clear so we decided to move into our favorite bay North of the Island on the west side of the lake. We had several pike follow and caught a few bass after the sun came out. Maybe the sun is what they wanted. We moved around to the south side and the weeds were perfect but covered in witches hair and unfishable. Algae bloom mucks up everything including top water baits. We continued to fish outside the bay slinging our spinners to find no fish. The clouds had come back and the wind picked up and shut the fish off.

NAIFC Champion Mike McNett with his 51 - inch Lake Delavan Muskie - May 26, 2005

Going back to the North bay where we had all the fish follow our baits was all we had as long as the sun would shine. As soon as we entered past the no wake buoys the sun beamed out across the water and the wind settled. We started back up by slinging the popular bait of the day, a silver double willow bladed spinner bait. I noticed the water was getting a little deeper and the weeds were more sparse. I chose a small manns rattler that only dives a couple of feet. Its the slender model (can’t remember the name). It was about the brightest thing in my box (yellow fire tiger). On the first cast I thought I was hung up on a large weed, the bait just stopped. I gave it a tug to rip through the weeds and it tugged back. Seconds later the monster showed himself and a smaller muskie (45 or46″) was at his side.

Greg had trouble getting the camera to operate properly in the beginning but he managed to get about ten minutes of footage that I am excited to get on DVD and share with you at a later date. Midway through the fight I thought I had lost the fish. I believe that the lure re-positioned and after landing the fish myself without a net it popped out of his mouth. The single hook that held him for the final ten minutes of the fight didn’t even pierce the flesh. It was merely lodged in the side of his mouth. What an awesome experience catching a monster 51″ muskie on a 6′-6″ medium-lite St. Croix SC II special edition rod built by my dear friend and sometimes cameraman Greg Wilczynski. After landing the fish Greg took a few shots of me that I have enclosed. We weighed the fish at 20lbs but the scale kept reading error. It took several minutes to revive the fish and he swam away to fight another day. After talking to Todd Berg we decided that this fish was around 10-12 years old and beat the lake record of 46″. He also thought the fish’s weight was probably closer to the thirty pound range.

Hopefully I will be able to experience catching such a massive fish in the pike or muskie family again. Including the Muskie, the day will not soon be forgotten.

Hope this finds everyone in high spirits. If not give me a call I still have some energy to burn.

Excerpted from an article published in Midwest Outdoor