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- Apr 5, 2011
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- 4
I caught my first smallmouth bass on Crescent Lake Maine about 1945. I was fishing for perch with a couple of my camp-mates. We were dropping baits with hand lines onto a rock bar leading out of a weed bed. I suddenly though I was snagged, then there was a strong jerk and a fish shot out of the water right in front of me! It wasn't particularly big, though it seemed huge at the time to a 9 year old. After a few minutes struggle while getting shouted advice from all directions I brought the fish aboard our canoe. Oh, my! What a gorgeous fish. I had caught a few largemouth bass on a willow pole, but none of them fought like that.
Fifty years later my son and I arrived at Angle Outpost in the northwest angle of Minnesota on Lake of the Woods. It was our first trip there, planned as the fishing trip of a lifetime. It turned out to be only the first of many trips of a lifetime.
On the first day we went out with our guide, intent on catching muskies. We chose lures often considered small for musky. I was using a lure of my own design, a #5 Mepps spinner blade and body with tandem trebles dressed with firetiger spinnerbait skirts. I call it "Esox Doom". I also brought a lightweight rod with a Bagley DDKB II small deep diver in firetiger.
At our second stop I caught a small musky on the spinner and a nice walleye on the plug.
Several stops later we addressed an emergent rock. It looked like a musky hangout to me. I cast the spinner onto the rock, jumped it into the water, and started a retrieve. BANG! It stopped abruptly and for a fraction of a second I thought I had snagged the rock. Then it took off and a fat smallie shot into the air. A few minutes later she was in the net.
After reorganizing myself I tossed the spinner near the rock again and again I got a strike immediately. Another fine smallmouth bass exercised my gear and warmed my heart.
On my third attempt to lure a musky out of there I caught my third nice smallie on consecutive casts. To this day I call that place "Three Bass Rock".
My strategy in fishing LOTW is to be equipped for anything, even when fishing primarily for muskies. That means a rod slightly heavy for bass/walleye and quite light for big muskies. I almost always use lures considered light for muskies and a bit large for bass/walleye. My favorites in this class are single hook Mepps musky killers, Esox Doom and 18cm floating Rapalas. My favorite patterns are firetiger.
I also always have my light rod with the firetiger Bagley DDKB II close at hand. I use that one when deliberately looking for walleye, though I have caught several muskies on it.
Going so light I guess it is no wonder that I haven't caught a 50" musky, though I have lost a couple in that class at boatside. Trying to boat them green (at a guide's insistence) is the cause in my opinion.
Smallies are always a bonus when fishing musky, and they are always good size and full of more fight and stamina than any other fresh water fish I have experienced.
I fully realize that my fishing strategies are not the "right way" to fish for muskies or smallies, or even the occasional walleye that hits my musky lures. If I used the "right" musky tackle I wouldn't catch smallies. I dearly love catching fish that fight hard and I think my approach allows me to catch more fish.
[EDITOR'S NOTE] Find all your fishing supplies at iboats.com
(JB Cornwell writes from "The Hideout" in Whitt, TX, and is also an expert moderator, instructor, and fountain-of-knowledge in the iboats.com Boating Forums, where he may occasionally share a yarn of his own.)