Went out on a guided trip today for Musky on Lake Chautauqua. Overall a slow day but we still got two fish, both within 5-7 minutes of each other in the middle of the 9 hour trip lol. By far the best charter I've ever been on, since my dad and I both have trolling experience the guide let us help with a lot of the stuff (setting rods, changing lures, attaching planers, etc) which helps cure boredom a lot when there's hours between fish lol. Anyway, the first fish was around noon. I had just set out a big crankbait on the right planer and went to work on one of the flat lines on the left side. Seconds after finishing up with that rod I look over to see that a fish had sucked the right planer several feet underwater and was taking drag off quick. I grabbed it out of the holder and sure enough there was a big fish on the end (well average size for musky but big compared to our normal catch
). After a 3 minute fight the guide unclipped the board and another 2 minutes later the fish was boatside. It was just barely hooked in the corner of the mouth but we still got it in the net and in to the boat. The fish measured 34" long (lower end of average but still a great fish, average for this lake being 33-38") and weighed 11 pounds. A few pictures later and the fish was released to fight another day. Finally got my first Musky after 2 years of targeting Esox, and all it took was a nice crankbait trolled through the right lake
. After that fish was released we started putting the right lines back in (3 lines on each side). We finish those up and we start checking the left side for weeds. I bring up one of the flatlines and start picking weeds up and what do you know, the left planer board line is jumping up and down! The guide was busy taking the other lure out to check for weeds and my dad was frantically texting pictures of the first fish to his friends so I put down the flatline rod and grabbed this one. It's still got some fight to it, but I could tell it wasn't as big as the first one. About 2.5 minutes in to unclip the board and another 1 to bring it boatside. After on board we measure it, 24.5" and weigh it, 6 pounds. Not a monster but still a nice fish. They're not all born 40" haha. We slip him back and he takes off faster than the first one. Sadly, we didn't have any action for the rest of the day, trolling or casting. The guide said it was a slow day for big ones but we still caught an average amount of fish which is 2-3 a day on good bodies of water. Regardless of numbers or size we had a great time and will definitely be heading out with him again sometime. Thanks to Todd from Muddy Creek Musky Guides!
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