Becoming a Musky Fisherman

As a young boy the first fishing I can remember was at a spillway behind a nearby elementary school in Naperville, IL. I had to be around 3 years old and my my dad would take me for anything that would bite, worm and bobber, and we would really slay some giant largemouth there. After we moved to Colorado we would fish a few ponds, but the highlight of my life each year was our annual trip to my grandparents cottage in UP of Michigan.

My dad, my grandpa (papa) and my cousin would go there every year and fish. We would hammer the salmon run, catch plenty of perch and bass and the occasional pike! This is where I learned to fish, my passion began and the same place my musky fire was ignited.

Growing up going to the cottage I heard some stories about big pike and the occasional giant musky being seen and caught there. The musky lore was that of 5 foot fish spawning near the raspberry bushes in the bay so thick you could walk on their backs. I wanted to catch one. I wanted to see one. It sparked a lot of intrigue. I must have been about 12. That year we went to the tackle store which was the local Ace Hardware. I got my first musky bait, a grim reaper orange black double 7 bladed bucktail. I didn't have any clue or any musky fisherman in the family. I tried throwing it on an ugly stick bass rod with a Walmart reel. 10 casts in I was done with that setup it wouldn't take the pull of the blades and I ended up putting the bait back in my tackle box, and while still dreaming of Muskies the ability to target them was still pretty far away. With a combination of only going once a year and not knowing anything I didn't see a musky in that lake until 15 years later. The fire to find the spirit of the lake was inside, but it had not lit yet.

I chased a life of rugby, was a first mate on a striped bass charter, and fished hard for any fish on any water, we still visited the cottage every year. We caught some absolute tank smallies there. But musky was still on my mind and in my heart.

We had caught some st clair Muskies on a trolling charter but I found myself thinking and thinking about catching one casting. But where to begin. 3 years ago in 2020 is when I really started researching and thinking about HOW will I target one. I needed to learn about the fish, the seasons, the baits, the gear, all of the above, basically starting from scratch. I did just that, I'll go into detail in the future, but it became an obsession.

My next trip to the cottage, October of 2020 combined with plenty of research, hours casting, and searching in our little 12' row boat on the lake, ran into one. The lore was true. I saw it, swimming off a weedbed, and it looked right at me. Zero fear it slowly swam off the break line into the deep. The spirit of the lake had shown herself. It wasn't 5' like the stories but it was all of 48" close to that 4ft mark and thick. The next day at moon rise at the same bed, I hooked her. White Medusa. GIANT. I know from the striped bass fishing what 48"+ looks like. She was big. I lost her at the boat. Pulled out the net fishing solo in a 12' tub she shook the hooks and was gone. This story doesn't end with success on this lake, YET, but this is the exact moment I became a musky fisherman and what truely ignited my Muskie passion.

In 2023 I got my first real boat, an 18 foot satrweld and my wife and our girls moved to Michigan the year prior. Here I continued my researched for hours, days, months and put the time in. It took three years from that 2020 moment for me to land my first fish casting. What an unbelievable feeling after so much work. A giant of lore by no means, at 41", but it was my boat, my decisions, my gear, my choice on lake time of day lure to throw cover to throw at- all of my research and effort and desire coming together in the chess game to finally bag one. It was a great day, and only just the beginning.