muskiemike

I'm gonna get to work on my peanut butter corn doughball recipe. Maybe I'll mince up some anchochovies too

So I'm working with an older gentleman  (Physical therapist) and we got to talking fishing.  It's always great when patients have a passion for fishing - talking fishing sure makes the workday fly by.  He's 89 years old and was  more of a pan fisherman "because that's what we ate, I didn't have time for sport fishing" but he did share with me the story of the first musky he ever saw. 

He was a young boy, he believes around 8 y.o. He was with his dad in a row boat in a bay off of the St. Lawrence. 

"I remember seeing it in the water and as soon as my dad got it in the boat I was out !". 

I thought he was kidding and asked if he jumped out of the boat. He was not. "As soon as that fish came out of the water and into the boat I jumped out". 

I had to ask if he considered there may be more in the water. "I didn't care, that I was right in front of me and that's all I cared about"

I was dieing laughing, but the next parts were just as good.

I asked "what did your dad say?"

His dad's response, "I didn't think I raised a pu$$&".  

When his grandfather found out "he started calling me juney. He would say juuuneyyy, junneyyyy"

"Well I had to fight my cousin because he thought it would be funny to start calling me juney too"

"I believe that fish would measure close to 48 inches". I asked how they got it in?

 His dad used the net and grabbed the fish with his hands. 

I can hardly imagine landing a fish that large with tackle from 80 years ago.  He said they had strong line, 20-30# test. I asked what they were fishing for ? 

Catfish !

What did you catch it on ?!?!

Corn and a doughball

I might start dragging a hook with corn and a doughball from now on when I'm casting shore 

My mistake, uploaded wrong image. Look at the bottom

Did they used to permit / encourage harvesting of Pike out of there ? Could that have aided in creating a "larger fish" fishery vs "numbers" ? 

Don't get me wrong I'm 100% catch and release esox but I do subscribe to a system only being able to support a limited amount of predators - fewer larger or more smaller fish

I would love to see another pic of a verified 45+ Pike from NY

I have "heard" of 50's pulled out of Cranberry but can anyone on here substantiate any of these claims or weigh on Pike this large in Cranberry or anywhere in NY for that matter ?

Good looking tiger !

1 hour ago, NPike said:

But the boat up this wk. However I'm highly surprised that it's turning over. Both Conesus and Chautauqua turned over some time back.

I could be way off, still learning this stuff. I was going off water temp at 55 and water much murkier than typical

How is everyone doing with cold weather outings so far ? I haven't been out much. Had a skunk last week. Seems Onondaga was in the midst of turnover. Water was quite cloudy, temps were 55.

Yeah certainly better than nothing.  I was equally as pleased to trailer the boat 4 hrs each way without any issues. That was the first time I've trailered anything close to that distance

All in all the trip was successful. Saturday was cold and rainy most of day but we did land a little guy.  It was a boatside hookup after dragging a paddle tail slowly across bottom through the weeds. 

Winds shifted direction overnight and water temps dropped considerably. 64 Sat down to 55 Sunday AM. Contacted two fish around 1pm but no connection. One miss due to lazy figure 8. Managed to hook up boatside around 4pm but she dropped it before making it into the net. All fish were within 100yds of each other. Tuff shad was the number on Sunday. Didn't see anything over 40.

Heading out to Chautauqua for the first time this weekend. As much as I enjoy the convenience of nice weather fishing, I'm looking forward to the cold and rain to add to the fall time musky experience !! Planning to mix up some casting and trolling. 

pretty wet and a little slow but sometimes that's how she likes it 

My stats may be a little off but I think it was 45 anglers, 10 fish and one short. Two gentleman we're good enough to boat 44". Tie breaker went to first to catch his for big fish - I believe that gentleman also won tourney with another catch in the 30's. A few other single catches in low 40s reported. 

As first time tourney participants my partner and I had a great time despite not boating any fish. It was nice to meet some of the guys from Ch. 69. Everyone was very friendly.  Clint, Zach and another gentleman made registration easy. Rules and questions were addressed effectively.  Hats off and thank you to those guys for putting in the extra time and effort to make events like this happen.

The rain wasn't around too long, but it came down pretty hard a few times. Local conditions seemed favorable for a good bite with overcast skies and a light chop for most of the day but water clarity was not great.  Looking forward to the next event

Is check in and launch also at 9226 wixson road ? 

Thanks for posting Zach. I'm really looking forward to this weekend. This will be my first time at Waneta and first Muskies Inc tourney.  I typically chase tigers in Onondaga so the opportunity for 30+# pures definitely adds to the excitement

.  I'll post results next week if they're any good.  Thanks again for the input !! Tight lines !

Thanks for all the input guys.  We will be starting out with Cassadaga.  Depending how it goes we may take an early morning crack at Chautauqua on Sunday as recommended by Nalod.  It would be a bit of a shame to be in the area and not get out there.  

Now that we have that narrowed down and it seems most of you guys will likely by at Chautauqua, would anyone care to divulge any specifics for Cassadaga ?    Would you spend  the most time on Upper, middle, lower ? Any good landmarks to try out or techniques you would recommend ?   Totally cool if nobody wants to share that info on a public forum, figured it wouldn't  hurt to ask .

Thanks for the input, it is greatly appreciated !! Any experience or opinions on Cassadaga or Bear and how they stack up against Chautauqua ?

Hi all, 

I'll be heading to Jamestown this weekend to fish with my cousin. We're both relatively new to chasing muskies and I was looking for your input/experience. He lives very near Chautauqua but Cassadaga and Bear are quite close as well.  We have Saturday and Sunday to fish.  We'll be using his 12' boat.   We've each only boated 1 musky so we need not to catch a 50" to be happy(although that would be great). Catching multiple 30"-40" esox would be plenty fun.

Given memorial weekend boat traffic, your experience / knowledge of any of these waters, how would you spend your time as a novice this weekend ?  Prefer casting to trolling.  Any and all input appreciated ! Thanks and tight lines !!