Fished 6am-9:30am
Water temp 75, visibility about 4 feet with a green film on the surface. Lots of floating grassy stuff, and not much milfoil present compared to the previous couple years.
Fish kill is occuring with hundreds, maybe thousands of panfish floating (bluegills, pumpkinseed, and black crappies seen… no bigger fish/muskies). Still tons of panfish alive, might be overpopulated with panfish causing the kill???… I will contact DNR.
No follows, one 36" ate a dawg and hit the net… Thanks for the tips on the bulldawgs… they paid immediate dividends for me!!!!
To start I was the only boat on the water, then at about 8am another muskie fisherman with 3 children launched. He might have seen me net the fish because he motored within 25 yards of me and began casting 👿 👿 . Along with all the kids casting. After I felt I had properly fished the area (while he was still withing a cast length) I did a figure 8 for about a minute straight pretending that I was about to get a fish to eat. He asked me if I had a follow… I said "Yah, and it was BIG!!!" He immediately tossed his crankbait within 10 feet of my boat. [smilie=brickwall.gif]
Shortly after I moved to avoid a fight and he camped on that spot. This guy had an Illinois plate "Musky 54". The worst thing about it was the fishing ettequette he was teaching his children.
I had a similar experience a few years ago in MI bass fishing. We are all waiting first thing in the a.m. to launch our boats when a guy and his partner in their $50K boat pass the line and launch in front of everyone. I went up and explained that normal people wait in line and he told me they were prefishing a tournament and had to get on the water.
For the rest of the day whenever we would see them fishing my buddy and I would take turns screaming and yelling get the net, get the net. As we were pulling out these guys took the bait. They came over and asked how we did. I told them we had (12) bass over 5 lbs and it was a great day. You know what he asked next….what were you throwing? Luckily, I had my 1 oz pink Daredevil already out and showed it to him. Told him the key was the pink color and that they could only be purchased from the Daredevil store in Dearborn. He tried to buy it from me but I told him it was just too valuable to sell. I like to think he was waiting outside Eppinger's the next morning and threw that bait during the tournament.
You really can tell alot about a person by how they act while they fish and I feel sorry for those kids. I know from reading about certain guides on this site that I will not hire them to take myself and my customers out. I think you handled this well and if we drive around with MMA stickers on our boats, trucks and trailers then we should try and set a good example.
Yea reading that pissed me off too, ive had some of the same problems with people like that before.. my dad runs charter fishing out of Holland and he has had people who know who he is fishing out on lake michigan and they will try to fish as close to us as possible to where they have cut my dads line before while trolling. I am also wondering scott, under your profile it says your from Holland, so am I and i was wondering how far away that Osterhout Lake is from Holland and does it hold a lot of muskies? I have cousins who live on Murray so i go there a lot, but i wouldnt mind going to Osterhout if it holds a decent amount of muskies. Any info would be appreciated. thanks
People never cease to amaze me. Just when you think you've seen it all some IDIOT out idiots the previous idiot. [smilie=brickwall.gif] My partner and I had a similar situation on Oosterhout, the only time we have even been there! Mr. Pontoon SS Oblivious motored 15 feet from our vessel While working a spot. Had to hold my partner back on that one. I've had several shouting matches and only one invitation to fight thus far. TIP OF THE FALL – DUCK HUNTERS [smilie=tomato.gif] WILL SHOOT AND ITS NOT A FIGHT WITH A 12 GAUGE…..DECOYS OF MY POINT!
52
35