I just told you about Miles and Harry from Philly and the great time and beautiful fish they caught last week. This week’s PA ‪#‎musky‬ lottery winners arrived in the form on Gail and Pat. Gail’s a veteran of good fishing trips up here and thus he knew what to expect. Pat was in for some serious learning and his biggest ever fish.

Again this week with water temps hovering around the 73 degree mark our‪#‎muskies‬ are as strong as they can be. Bad attitude abounds and the big girls were showing up at the side of the boat frequently. We had some 50 muskies up but most of the time the girls just laughed and gave us the fin. Lots of fish on, lots of heart break, and some truly remarkable musky experiences.

Pat watched Gail catch multiple muskies on day 1 and I think he figured some stuff out. It only took 20 minutes on day 2 for Pat to catch his first ever musky casting. Yup, it was on a PDeez. The big girl ate about 20 feet from the boat and she had her way with Pat for a long time before he got any kind of control. After a quick turn and run to the boat, Pat learned that when a big fresh fish wants to swim under your boat to the other side there is not much you can do about it. Pat contorted try to keep the St. Croix rod off the side of the boat so it wouldn’t break while the fish peeled line. It took several minutes of mad motor raising and jossling about before we could get this baby in the net. Best ever musky, BEST ever fight for Pat. Check out the deer in the headlights photo. Wow!

Gail was lucky enough to get his ass wopped by a pretty French girl too (caught on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River..). Not to be out done by Pat Gail covered more of my boat during a single fish fight than any other angler this year. Gail’s PDeez got smoked as soon as it hit the water off a deep drop off so you knew it was going to be a big fish. She bolted completely out of the water twice in the first moments of the battle and then ran hard at the boat as well. With the fish firmly in control at this point she headed from 20 feet out in front of the boat straight towards the big Merc at the back. Without any warning and for reasons yet to be explained Gail decided that he should get to the back of the boat as quick as possible. Two sprinter steps were quickly followed by the realization that there is a steep step down to the back deck. This resulted in a spectacular face plant and a picture that I will never get out of my head; Gail lying full out on the floor gripping only the butt grip of is rod while it is straight out of the back of the boat and the fish is peeling line. Gail recovered like a college running back in a pile at the line and in a flash he was up and back in the fight. As the picture shows, she was more than worth the effort.

Ottawa muskies love the boys from PA this year. John Bresnan where are you?

Another fish that deserves a name coming up in the next post.

Chimo,
JA