Tait’s 1st Musky

There are many firsts you never forget, your first love, your first car, your first heartache and especially, your first Musky. Much like other firsts , your first musky comes out of nowhere when you’re least expecting it. The allusive fish comes with a bit of controversy and despite many eradication efforts, the fish are here to stay. I have embraced the fishery and consider myself lucky for another opportunity to do what I love, catch fish on a fly.  

My oldest son Tait was accompanying me this trip that started at 5 a.m. with a drive up through the sparsely populated countryside of Maine.   Fort Kent is our destination for these toothy predators.  October can bring unpredictable weather here in Maine.  I’ve seen snow, rain and high winds but I’ve also seen beautifully sunny days.  The weatherman was calling for occasional rain with a light wind.  This seemed promising. I’m always up for a challenge and today was no exception. 

Tait had never fished for musky so l took full advantage on our 4 hour drive north to explain what to expect.  We’d be using 10,11 and 12 weight fly rods with 300 to 500 grain sinking lines, casting 6” to 14” flies. For some, this task can be challenging, fortunately, Tait has been casting a fly rod since he was 3 so I wasn’t concerned. There are many aspects of musky fishing that are extremely different than other species. For example,  the figure 8.  The goal with each cast is to throw your line as far as you can, strip the fly in quickly with strategic pauses causing the fly to kick sideways giving a larger side profile and finish with the figure 8. This is something I knew he had never done yet I was sure he could handle it. 

After arriving at our location, Tait practiced casting and worked on the figure 8. Three cast in he excitedly whispers, “There’s a three foot musky following my fly!”  And as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared. “So much for practicing” he said.  I quickly hooked up and the lined slipped out of my finger when setting the hook.  We continued to fish until 4 p.m. and ended our first day with three follows, three eats and none in the net. We were both exhausted. 

Day two started much like day one had ended. It was 50 degrees with a light rain and wind.  The boat ride was cold and miserable. We were anxious to get casting so we could warm ourselves up. We had been casting and striping for hours without any hits, I was about to call it a day and head home early when we had a follow.  Things started to look up, the rain had stoppped, the wind died down and the sun came out.  We had a renewed energy to keep going. I’ve found in my experiences, Musky seem to haunt the same locations and I find them close to where I have caught or moved musky in the past.  We tried for that fish a few more times without any success so we decided to change locations, one I had caught a musky and seen a 50”er in before.  As I rolled into the new spot, I could see the water level was up and what was typically out of water was now under water, making it hard to determine the drop off. After figuring out the drop, we started casting and retrieving. As my fly came into view right in front of Tait, a musky breaches the water and attacks my fly.  Much to my dismay the fish had only the back 3/4 of my fly in it’s mouth.  The hook for my fly is the front 1/4 of the fly, this translates into a missed fish.  Needlesss to say it was a tying mistake I will never make again.  Two hooks are a must for these elusive fish.  After reliving what just happen we get back to casting and retrieving as we cover water and worked our way down the shoreline.  We come to an area where we can see some bait fish close to the surface and I tell Tait to cast into the bait fish. His cast lands a foot away and with two strips in his line goes tight. I ask “fish?”. You can see him pull tight but nothing happens but then it pulls back and he yells, “its a fish!”  There is big swirl as the fish tries to free its self. I yell, “set it hard and then set it again! Strip, strip it’s coming right at us!” I frantically dig for the net that’s buried under the yeti cooler and bags. With the net in hand the fish finally comes into view.  “I’m loosing my sh!@#!” Tait yells. I responded with a “we got this, relax.” The musky makes a run for it and Tait was able to wrangle it towards the net but it quickly takes off again when it sees the net. This made me a little nervous but before I knew it the fish is in the net. “LETS GO! LETS GO!” Tait exclaimed with excitement.  We fist bump and celebrate! He did it. Tait managed to land a musky on his first trip out for these challenging fish.  It taped out at 35”.  A perfect first fish.  We snapped a couple of quick photos and released the predator to be caught another day. 

Musky fishing is unpredictable and frustrating and can challenge even the experienced fishers. The key is to stay focused, even when it can become tedious and robotic.  Cast where you think there would never in a million years be a fish and finish with the figure 8, a technique I never would have thought would work and who knows, maybe you’ll find yourself in a tug of war battle with the infamous fish of 10,000 casts.