Giving in to temptation... giant lures.

It's the fall season here in the Midwest and many species big and powerful are lurking in the waters. I should be chasing steelheads, but so far I'm having difficulty finding quality time to go out. So instead, I am hitting closer waters and in closer waters, the prize fish is the northern pike and if lucky, the good old mr. Muskellunge. I recently visited the local lake near my house and threw out the biggest lures I had (big for bass standards), and hooked a few small bass and a northern. Then on one particular cast, I saw it... a big dark shadow chasing the lure right up to my feet, then dropping and fading into the deeper water.... I've heard that I am supposed to do that figure 8 with the lure, since they often strike at the last moment, but the sight of the big fish had me too excited to do anything. I was able to repeat this (chase but no take) a few more times during the next couple of hours and that was exciting in itself.

As I was about to leave, I ran into a fellow fisherman with one of them giant lures... the kind that I pass by at BassPro Shop and think, "is that for decoration?". He cast the giant lure, splash, slow/ medium retrieve...then the 2nd splash... he had a big fish on. The 2nd splash turned out to be a 39" muskie... a very angry one. The guy is one of the board members at Muskies Inc in Chicago, the same group my friend PeteK is active in. He was friendly to give me some pointers on lure fishing for muskie and we spoke about Robert Tomes (Muskie on the Fly), who gave a talk at Muskies Inc. Fast forward ... I find myself looking at these big lures & steel leaders next to my coffee cup and thinking... wow, that just happened.

I love a little lure fishing action once in a while...