After my last musky adventure, and the accompanying trip to the hospital, I was a little nervous about going after musky again. To be fair that’s not entirely true, I was just worried what I would do when I landed one. The itch was just too great and I had to get back on that horse, so I headed back to the Otonabee River in Peterborough.
My buddy Josh joined me again and we hit a section of river in which I had only actually landed one musky before, but where I’ve seen a pile of them - so I knew we would be around fish. We hit the water as the sun was coming up and there was a fog over the river, but as soon as the sun was fully in the sky it cleared right up.
I started with a top Raider to see if I could get a fish on top water. I then switched to a Handlebarz double 8 in white/gold and very quickly connected with a small fish. It came off on a jump but gave me confidence that they were active. I ended up switching a few more times through the day to find something that they would eat. I had several fish hooked on a red and black Sledge but couldn’t keep them hooked up. One of the disadvantages to fishing out of a kayak is that you have a hard time setting the hook with big baits.
I was starting to get frustrated. I was doing everything right but just wasn’t getting good hook sets. I ended up putting on a single bladed orange/black bucktail, sharpened my hooks, put my head down and started casting. It didn’t take long before I had a bump and a follow from a little guy. I stayed in the area and after a few more casts he committed next to the Kayak.
Landing just one musky can make an entire day worth it, and this little fella did just that. I ended the day with 1 landed, 2 hooked & lost, several hits and a follow. All things considered: a pretty good day musky fishing.
Josh unfortunately hooked and lost a nice fish but didn’t see much other action. I have been trying for years to get him to switch to “conventional tackle” but he just doesn’t see the light 😄.
And here's the video of the day:
- Randaller