Catch Her If You Can
You’ve been stalking this fish all summer, or has she been stalking you? She’s been by the stick up on the hump in Beaver Bay practically every time you’ve been there. You still remember the first time. Gliding silently past the big weed bed on the right as you cast the buck tail into, over, and around the weeds. Slowly heading over towards the hump with the dead wood stick up on the south end. Throwing the white bladed, black buck tail up the old creek channel so that it almost gets hung on the stick up during the retrieve. You’ve made this cast about a hundred times before with no particularly exciting results, but this time! The buck tail clears the wood and a mini sub falls in behind and a little below the lure. You don’t know she’s there yet but she knows you’re there, and doesn’t care. Her entire concentration is on the buck tail and whether it’s food or not. If you had only sped up or let the buck tail drop back into her face at this time, she’d have probably hit, but you still have a chance! It’s really exciting catching a ski on a figure eight and you always figure eight.
You see the white blade turning and get ready to finish the cast when you see her. Eyes that look to be as big as a fifty cent piece and a girth that looks as big around as a basketball. Upper 40’s at least. Hope she hits on the eight!!! CLANK as the blade on the buck tail hits the rod tip, and so ends your first encounter with the fish of your dreams.
That was several months ago. Since the fish first appeared you have raised her on jerk baits, crank baits, and once on a glide bait. You even thought you had her on the jig and creature, but you were hung up on the wood. She’s even followed the figure eight a couple of times, but not often. You have to make the cast to exactly to the right spot at the right angle or she won’t show herself. It’s almost like a game to her.
It’s cold now, hardly a leaf on the trees. This is going to be the last chance to put “the fish” in the boat. You don’t slow at the dead weed bed or mess with the creek channel, you head straight to the hump. The stick up looks stark against the late fall sky, the conditions are perfect. You’ve retied the line, checked the leader and got the net ready. You put on the white bladed buck tail and make the exact cast you need to make. You start cranking while hoping she hits as the buck tail passes the stick up. No such luck. You are concentrating on the turning blade so hard that you almost miss the flash. A fish has made a pass at the buck tail and missed. Every nerve in your body is on edge. You start the figure eight and there she is, closing the distance faster than you can imagine. She turns as you make the first turn and charges the lure……..(insert your own ending here.)
In my ending the fish never followed the turn, she just slowly sank out of sight never to be seen again. The stick up didn’t survive the winter, and even though the hump and old channel are still there and I’ve made that cast thousands of times, it’s just not the same. I hope somewhere she’s laying behind a stick up just waiting for a buck tail to go past.
Soon, we hope, these pages will be filled with lures but for now please bear with us.
You can find jerk baits, crank baits, glide baits, and other baits at musky105.com.
Questions are welcome.
Powered by Fast Secure Contact Form