In the coming months/years I intend to try and get as much "cool" footage as I can of my angling pursuits, bought a Go Pro Max and I own a FujiFilm XT4 which takes incredible images and video. I have always really been into landscape photography, videography is a new endeavor for me as is Musky fishing so excited to capture my progression or maybe what is more accurately described as an obsession… When I lived downstate, my only encounters with Muskies were in the pursuit of the much more prevalent Northern Pike on the waters I fished and oddly, I never went out specifically in pursuit of them nor tried to learn much about them. Mostly I fished for Smallmouth Bass and steelhead, but as I have transcended further and further down the rabbit hole that is Musky angling, they are all I really think about.
Thus far, every time I have gone out, I get so excited about fishing I never set the Fuji up on the tripod in the boat and I never bother to set up the GoPro either. I am so excited about going fishing and possibly encountering a Musky I don't want to "waste" any time lol
Anyway, as time goes on I will surely do such things, but for now, here are a couple release videos taken on my cell phone of fish caught on the fly. I definitely need to improve upon my abilities to close the deal at the boat better as I have wasted numerous opportunities by poor execution of fish in hot pursuit at the boat. I have either got too aggressive with the figure eight and watched their body language go from kill mode to I am out of here or I didn't see them and pulled the fly out of the water too soon. On my last outing I had a Musky come 2'+ out of the water after my fly as I pulled it out to make my next cast, talk about a rush!
Anyway, here are a couple quick release videos and some photos of the flies I have been tying to pursue these fish with…
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Flies…
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Thanks!
I use an R.B. Meiser 909 Series two hand rod. It’s a 9’9” 10wt two hand rating or basically a 12wt single hand rated rod with a two hand or Spey style grip if you will. After using this thing, I will never use a true single hand rod again, the two hand overhead cast allows for near effortless casts to 80’, but the 60’-70’ range being more ideal. Once you get beyond 70’ running line management becomes a bit more tedious, especially in the wind and much more prone to tangles. These are short head lines so at 70’ you are shooting at least 30’ of running line on the final release.
Thus far, my favorite line is an Orvis Depth Charge 550 grain line, but this week Cortland is coming out with a new Musky line that will offer a 600 grain version and I’m excited to try it, it will be a faster sinking line than the Orvis too which will be nice with the bulkhead style deer hair flies that tend to be so buoyant. Fly lines over 500 grains that work well in cooler temps aren’t exactly easy to come by so options are limited, but the extra grains sure carries these flies much better than the typical 400-500 grain “Musky” lines…
The two hand cast utilizing these heavier heads is so much less labor intensive, you can cast for hours without tiring much versus double hauling your butt off casting single handed. You could most certainly cast these flies single hand with a 10 or 12 wt too, just gets a little rough on the shoulder, I fished these same type of flies for years for Pike using a 10 wt single hander and a 450 grain line.
Echo has a 9’4” Musky rod that is similar, hear great things about it too and much less expensive than the Meiser. There was even a couple cosmetic blemished ones on eBay for 200 bucks not long ago. If you were looking to try something like this.
Take care!
Few more fly pics…
Mostly, I tie these on three shanks or triple articulated. I make my own shanks in various lengths and diameters, depending on what I am trying to do. I also have been dying my own Bucktail and feathers to come up with some custom colors or just to get "quality" materials in the colors I want because some of these materials are hard to find these days and finding them in specific colors is even harder.
Lately I have been attaching dual split rings between the middle and rear shank and hanging a treble hook off of it. If I happened to tie the fly on a longer one piece shank, I hang it off the rear. Basically I am placing the hook in the middle of the fly and since I began doing this, it has been astonishing how effective this system is at staying hooked up while not doing any damage to the fish. Tiny Pike, larger Pike, Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass as well as Musky. Soft mouths, hard mouths, big mouths or small mouths, doesn't seem to matter, it works really well which isn't surprising as I got the idea from a good Friend that is a very seasoned Musky angler. If you tie, I highly suggest trying this out.
If I do use regular hooks, the front hook is a jig hook and heavily weighted up front to create a jigging motion, caught a lot of nice Pike on this pattern over the years…
That's all I got for now, thanks for viewing!
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