Newton, Baby Brush Hogs, Bass, and the Elusive Tiger Muskie

My buddy Andy lives right above me, so we headed out to Newton this morning and were on the water by 7 am. Thermometer said 50 degrees when we got there. It was a very nice morning. I started off with a buzz bait, and a muskie nearly took it, scaring the crap out of me and almost knocking me off the front deck of my boat. I tried a little more but couldn't seem to entice one anymore with that.

Here is a distant pic of Andy and me taken by a friend who was also out there.

We started focusing on the bass after that. I put on the baby brush hog, and behold, the bass were hungry - again. Not sure how many we ended up catching, but it was a fair amount. I had a bass take away my baby brush hog, so I had to put a new one on. The very next cast, I caught a bass - the one that had taken my plastic. It was stuck there in its throat.

We headed up the lake a ways and caught more bass. We were hoping to land a muskie, and we saw quite a few. But none were wanting to bite. I hooked up another fish on my baby brush hog, hoping it was a keeper. Well, it wasn't a keeper, but it was a muskie. I got it about 10 feet out from the boat, and it got off. CRAP!! But it was still hungry. It immediately turned around and hammered it again. Hookset once again, and it was soon in the net. A super-skinny 31-incher that might have broken the 5 or 6 pound mark. By far the skinniest one I have ever seen.

We headed back south on the lake and saw another one swimming around on the surface. We motored over to it, and it dove under. Both of us threw our plastics out. It swam right by Andy's before it turned around and nailed his baby brush hog. Well, it got netted, and he got his muskie for the day - a healthier 32-incher.

Here is a pic of his muskie just hanging out after we released it.

After that, we caught a few more bass to take home for dinner. My wife loves bass, and so do I. I brought home a limit, and Andy and his wife joined us for some fish tacos. All in all, it was a great day on the water.

Dinner.