Musky on the fly

[SteveP]

So I have been at this for a few years now on my own and am beginning to become frustrated.... I have one lake about 30 minutes from me that was stocked with Tiger muskies and I want more than anything in the world to get one to hand on the fly. I have hooked 2 now but have yet to get one to hand. I have a nice Fenwick 10wt. with a good Okuma reel and sinking, floating, and intermediate lines. I really am at a bit of a loss to find anyone around me that does actually try and catch these guys, being as the next closest body off water with muskies is several hours away. Not to mention most guys that see me in my boat fly fishing think it is necessary to come over and tell me that they didn't know that there were trout in this lake!!!! I usually tell them that there are and I heard there are some absolute monster purple speckled orange trout from the Himalayas that were trans planted a couple years back.... most look at me funny wish me luck and go about their merry way. So I reckon I should get on to my question huh???

So what Flies are you all using to catch musky?? I need some inspiration and to know that "THE" Mr Larry Dahlberg is possibly going to read and reply to this is just so exciting to me... I mean the inventor of all the BEST fly tying materials in the world and some of the coolest flies.... I get giddy every time I think of something worthy of a post here. Thanks for you time all and keep you back cast up.

Steve

[flyfishing1]

Please don't stop reading Steve but I have yet to catch a musky myself. They just aren't around my location in south Jersey :( But I can feel your pain about loosing hook ups. If your problem is the hook comnig loose I have found something that helps me a lot. Whenever I get or tie a new fly these days I bend the hook open about 3 or 4 degrees from how I got it. I was bass fishing in a local pond here and lost three fish after I thought the hook was set. I then open the hook up just a little and land the biggest bluegill of my life. I promptly went home and did so to the resy of my flys and haven't lost a hook up to that since.

Of course this is if you are loosing fish after hook-up. If they are breaking/biting off that is a whole other monster. If you could tell us more I'm sure we could help you pin point the problem.

Also keeping your hooks sharp could help a lot too.

[dahlberg]

Hi Steve
I'm not boasting, but I've caught hundreds of muskies on flies, and, depending on how successful you already are at catching muskies on conventional tackle, and how good a fly caster you can become, it can be either pretty tough, or pretty easy. For me the keys have been formulating large appearing flies that are easy enough to cast that I can cast them 90' with a 7 or 8 line. Most of the time I use mega divers when I'm blind casting, smaller rabbit strip tails when I'm sight casting.
I use both floating and sinking lines (full sink and wet tip). Never rods heavier than ten weight, and often that because of need for faster sinking line.
I've found size and speed to be important, plus of course not "puckering" when you get a follow, but rather convert it into a strike.
I did a show or two on musky fly several years ago and when the HFBF video library of dvd's is ready it will be included.
Also, I might mention to anyone reading this, the myth of over tiring a musky because a fly rod is being used is just that. An angler who knows what he's doing can land them almost as quickly as with musky gear.
Bringing them in totally green and letting them tangle in a net or beat themselves scaleless is not any better than "playing" them for too long on light tackle.
I recommend using a minimum of 20# tippet attached to wire of course, and pulling on the fish to just short of what the tackle will allow. For a musky on a 7-10 flyrod that's usually a couple of minutes at most and they blast away on release because the little 4/0 hook with the tiny barb is usually pretty low trauma.
No matter how you catch them, please don't "over document" your fish, as my friend Bob Turgeon would say!

good luck!
best
L

[rick_rudder]

where do you fish steve?

[AftonAngler]

Larry Rocks...

He laid it down and showed us how to get it done with the fly. Pioneer is a way to describe his work.

Fly fishing for musky kicks ass. It works and is a great way to take these fish on another level. It's pure and like hand to hand combat.

I boated 161 fish on the fly this season guiding in Northern Wisco. We worked with a couple different film crews and put many on film this season.

A teaser...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIzFLt65eHo

2011 will be interesting.

[flyfishing1]

I just saw that trailer last week on thirdyearflyfisher.com and instantly knew I was buying that video when it comes out.

[SteveP]

Well guys I never gave up on this topic, I've just been out doing my thing this last winter taking care of business. I have a bunch of flies tied and ready in the box. In answer to Larry's questions, I have never attempted to take a musky on anything other than a fly rod. I feel as though my fish fighting abilities are good to excellent, I normally fish for carp with either a 7 or 8 wt and have landed fish in excess of 20 lbs on both rods without stressing the fish too much. I really believe 90% of my problem is the "pucker" factor when you see one running at your fly. I always test the line strength to the maximum I think I can get away with when I have a fish on. Almost all of my lost muskies has been from spitting the fly and that's just annoying but I attribute it to setting the hook to fast or rather premature hook setting. I only have one place near the house to fish for them but they are huge there and when i get the time I want to go to a larger lake with many more fish but it's about 4 hrs away and I'll need a guide and most of the guides think I'm nuts trying to fish with fly tackle so I have to find just the right guy. I just ordered the video mentioned below and I'm way over excited to get it and watch with all the guys at the shop while tying some massive bugs. Thanks all for the info and I'll try and keep you posted on how things go.

Steve

[dahlberg]

what hook are you using?
L

[Questor]

For me, the key with muskies has been to find a body of water where they are abundant. After that, they are pretty easy to catch. I think a lot of guys try to fish marginal water or water where some fish have been stocked. Seems like a bad idea. There has to be a good population of the fish.

[SteveP]

Larry,

Most of the hooks I am using are shorter shank J hooks owner and Gamakatsu, a few are some off the wall something or another that I make sure have been sharpened very well.

Questor,

Unfortunately all I have without a 4+hr drive is one lake that was intensively stocked 11-12 yrs ago and 1 lake that was stocked once 15yrs ago. I wish I had a chance to fish water where there was some form of quantity of fish for me to fish for but I do not have that luxury, I'm not disappointed or frustrated but just incredibly determined to do it and do it my way or not at all.

Steve

[SteveP]

Here are a couple of flies I tied last night at out tying club meeting for a guy that was asking about big nasties, they are both tied on a Gamakatsu 4/0 finesse wide gap. I will tie the same thing on a 1/0 for bass but they run about 2-3" instead of the 5+ I get here.

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv22 ... orebig.jpg

Steve

[Questor]

SteveP:

I can relate to that! Good luck in your quest! You will succeed!. I don't specialize in muskies, but I've found that a subsurface presentation with a stop-pause-go retrieve works better than the steadier popping retrieve I use for northern pike and bass.

You may want to ask somebody about presentation tips (i.e., somebody that knows a lot more about this than I do.)

[osg2729]

My experiences with Musky on the fly started last year. I wasn't actually fishing for them that day, but that's all changed thanks to this incident: http://stflyfisher.wordpress.com/2010/0 ... last-cast/. This year I'll be sure to fish bigger streamers when I hit the river. I've found even smallmouth prefer bigger: http://stflyfisher.wordpress.com/2010/0 ... last-cast/.

Keep at it - you just never ever know!