I too have not been at this long, but Ill go with it! I'd say in no particular order would be

My first sucker fish, breaking a horrible curse last december. Even though it pales in comparison to the fish we had on no less than 5 minutes before, that then ate another sucker, and probably even to the one we had on about 30 minutes before… it was the most rewarding fish ever!

Also on murray Id say the fish I caught with my son in the boat. He was 3 and his reaction to it was priceless. I had been hand landing fish for a while, but was having issues with this one, and Jason V helped my by netting it… thanks again J!

And lastly, I'd say my first casting fish on the upper chain after 6-7 hours of intense casting with Will, I got one to hit a bucktail. I was then able to use what I learned there to get my brother his first and only fish the next fall over some conditions that were very similar. applying knowledge is much more rewarding than blind luck. And, I obviously applied it well, since his fish was 4-5 inches bigger than mine at about 45-46"

Love this thread. I haven’t played this muskie game for very long but I suppose I will throw in my top moments as well. I have a really hard time deciding which of my top 2 is my favorite moment so I guess I will just list them in order of occurrence instead. Sorry if this first story is too long to read…

1st/2nd – I used to be an avid pike fisherman. Never fished for food really and was only after the thrill of big pike and was always a big catch and release guy. Back in 2009 I was in a serious top water rut. I would fish top water almost exclusively all day every day and it was working that year. A trip to Craig Lake in the UP was a family tradition every year since I was 10 years old. I always knew there were muskie in there but in all the previous 14 years of fishing that lake I had never seen one so I never really thought much about them. I always figured they were freak occurrences only. Went up there with the family in June that year and lost my first 40+” pike at the side of the canoe. It was on my go to zara spook. I was devastated after losing that fish and talked a buddy and his brother into making a trip up there with me again later in the summer. We did very well the first couple of days catching close to 100 pike that trip and nearly all of them on top water. I fished alone in a canoe while the two of them were in a second canoe. It is about 10AM on day 4 of the 5 day trip, we are working an island and I decide to jet across to a different spot away from them. I position the canoe and toss my go to zara spook up near some lilly pads. As soon as the bait hits the water I see a huge water arrow starting from way far away, like 60 yards from my bait making a bee line right for the spook. I had never seen that before and I just froze as I watched the wake of the arrow running directly for my lure. It gets to the spook and just stops and nothing happens. After several second I realize I hadn’t twitched it yet because I was frozen from seeing this shark wave. I give it one twitch and a giant head explodes on the surface engulfing the little pike lure. I simultaneously set the hook and poop my pants at the same time. I had not seen a fish’s head that big since I saw my grandpa lose a Skegemog giant as it came head shaking out of the water to throw my grandpa’s lure when I was a little kid. I started yelling across the lake to my buddies to come this way while I fought the fish. I didn’t use a net back then since I just hand landed all the pike I got in a canoe so I had nothing to net this thing with. I also had spider wire on my spinning reel then but it was only 6 or 8 pound test so I let it run drag off and it made several runs before I finally got it close to the boat. It wasn’t near tired when I got it close but I saw a chance as it came up from underneath the canoe so I dropped my rod, reached down with both hands and grabbed it around the head and flopped it over into the canoe right as my friends were pulling up in their canoe. They were freaking out because they had never seen a fish that big and my buddy’s brother said he didn’t even know fish like that existed in Michigan. I was pretty much speechless and just sat there in awe for a couple seconds. I had her double hooked with the spook but I popped them out of its mouth easily because the hooks were bent straight from the fight. I didn’t have a camera but luckily my friend did so we took some shots of it and I put it back in the water and measured it against my paddle in the water marking off the wood for a length and then let it swim away. Afterwards I just sat there in amazement, legs shaking and I couldn’t really speak. My friends go back to fishing but I can’t fish any more that day as I sat there with a crazy high so I just slowly paddle around the lake and enjoy the beautiful northern scenery. We took guesses on how long it was and then measured the paddle mark when we got back to camp and it was a tad over 49”. Probably not a very exact measurement but that’s all we had at the time. The coloring of the fish was really unique. It was a dark green with stripes and looked kind of like the tiger muskie on the KTD signs so I sent the pictures into the DNR and asked what kind it was and they confirmed to me that it was a Tiger. It wasn’t until later that I realized that I would probably never catch a tiger like that again. After that first one I researched everything I could about muskie, joined MMA about a month later and I became obsessed.

Number 3 for me at this point is my second muskie ever that I caught just last year in July. It was just a 37 incher from LSC but considering I had spent the previous 3 years since catching that tiger strictly fishing muskie with nothing to show for it, catching that fish was a huge weight off my back.

1st/2nd – I can probably blame part of the reason I spent 3 fishless years after my first on the fact that I spent 90% or more of my time fishing the wonderful overpopulated muskie lake called Skegemog. Part of me was very mad at myself for cheating on Skegs with LSC last summer but I think she took it personally and in an effort to win my affection back she finally rewarded me with a beautiful 48 incher. It might sound weird that I am torn between this fish and the Tiger from Craig as my all-time favorite muskie moment and even though the story of the Tiger is a million times better and it was my first muskie and it was bigger and it was a rare hybrid, this Skeg fish was the most rewarding day of my life. I put countless 8, 10, 12 hour days on this lake over a 3 year span strictly fishing muskie and it finally paid off. It is impossible to describe the feeling of finally succeeding at something you have tried so hard at and continually failed. I don’t think I will ever top my top 1 and 2 moments but a 50+”er casting Elk might just do the trick…

"MattG_braith" said:
Love this thread…
It is impossible to describe the feeling of finally succeeding at something you have tried so hard at and continually failed…

Matt- AWESOME! Love it. So many of your experiences and ideas mirror mine, I really appreciate what you're saying. Except I have a different perspective on the hard life of fishing tough-nut water: you try so hard at it and you continually LEARN- not fail! And I give you a ton of credit because you have chosen the hard musky-life, and have tried harder and LEARNED more than most, especially early in your career.