A couple years ago my wife Julie decided to set a personal objective to catch a musky, so that was added to her already crowded bucket list. Soon thereafter she attended a PA estate auction for a man named John McDermott, who had been a respected local angler and excellent wood carver. Some of his fish carvings were sold that day, and she bought the Muskellunge pictured below. It was placed in the living room to serve not only as a decoration, but also a reminder of her new objective.
Next we acquired a dozen or so musky lures, which were hung on the wall and made a very nice display. A couple of them were briefly moved into a tackle box, but they took up too much space so were returned to the wall, where they remained high and dry.
For a while not much else happened toward completing the musky objective. Then in mid-September Julie treated her kids and grandkids to a long weekend on Raytown Lake, which is an impoundment of the Juniata River in PA. We had two lakefront cabins, and the grandkids kayak fished and went tubing behind Julie's boat. On Sunday the kids and grandkids had to leave to return to work and school, but Julie and I stayed another day to fish from her 16.5' Smoker Craft.
Raystown is a deep, clear water mountain lake. As far as gamefish go, it has all the usual suspects of southern lakes, plus rainbow trout, brown trout, lake trout, stripers up to 50 lbs., and native muskies. We were fishing in a no-wake cove called Coffee Run, and had caught one decent bass and several bream. As we worked along a rocky section of the bank, Julie spotted a long, slender fish between the boat and shore. She had three rods rigged, and one of them had a yellow Rooster Tail larger than the ones we typically use. There was no time or space to make a cast, so she dropped a few inches of line, stuck the rod tip into the water, and started a figure 8. She only got about 1/4 way through the figure 8 when the fish hit, and a few seconds later was in the boat. It was a 22" musky, see second picture below.
So now Julie's objective has been met, we have some musky lures for sale, and she is going to give the Muskellunge wood carving to the grandkids.
Next we acquired a dozen or so musky lures, which were hung on the wall and made a very nice display. A couple of them were briefly moved into a tackle box, but they took up too much space so were returned to the wall, where they remained high and dry.
For a while not much else happened toward completing the musky objective. Then in mid-September Julie treated her kids and grandkids to a long weekend on Raytown Lake, which is an impoundment of the Juniata River in PA. We had two lakefront cabins, and the grandkids kayak fished and went tubing behind Julie's boat. On Sunday the kids and grandkids had to leave to return to work and school, but Julie and I stayed another day to fish from her 16.5' Smoker Craft.
Raystown is a deep, clear water mountain lake. As far as gamefish go, it has all the usual suspects of southern lakes, plus rainbow trout, brown trout, lake trout, stripers up to 50 lbs., and native muskies. We were fishing in a no-wake cove called Coffee Run, and had caught one decent bass and several bream. As we worked along a rocky section of the bank, Julie spotted a long, slender fish between the boat and shore. She had three rods rigged, and one of them had a yellow Rooster Tail larger than the ones we typically use. There was no time or space to make a cast, so she dropped a few inches of line, stuck the rod tip into the water, and started a figure 8. She only got about 1/4 way through the figure 8 when the fish hit, and a few seconds later was in the boat. It was a 22" musky, see second picture below.
So now Julie's objective has been met, we have some musky lures for sale, and she is going to give the Muskellunge wood carving to the grandkids.
