Thursday, March 10, 2011

More "Time on the Water"

Quote #2: "So what keeps these guys going, throwing heavy baits hour after hour for nothing while waiting for that one special cast? Your average musky addict will tell you that one musky is well worth 10,000 casts. The long wait for a fish is part of the musky mystique, and anglers frequently talk of "paying your dues.".....If muskies are so dadblamed hard to catch, why bother? Why not try for something easier, like trout or bass? Let me put it this way: Would I quit my job and move 2,200 miles to go trout fishing? What do think I am, crazy? No, it's muskies for me. I've got the fever. I'm looking for one a little over four feet long with sharp, inch-long teeth that could make mincemeat out of the average trout. That's right, I came here for one fish. I want one big musky. Some men want to be President, others seek the Nobel Prize. I can't help it if they are short on ambition. I believe in setting goals high--I want to catch one of the ten biggest muskies in Vilas County this year."

-Bill Gardner

7 comments:

  1. Teal River Brad..."Your average musky addict will tell you that one musky is well worth 10,000 casts." That must mean there are some musky anglers well outside of the average. I get a bit concerned about those who would be good with making 18,000 casts, or more, for a single fish.

    Gord/Chuck--how do you guys hang in there?

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  2. Hey Bill;
    Thanks for telling it like it really is.
    Disciple determination and a lot of luck...
    When your tired of casting try trolling on Eagle Lake!

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  3. Professor, I do considerably better than one fish per 10,000 casts. Nevertheless, muskie fishing in an edurance race and fish often come in bunches with long stretches of inactivity. I live on memories of past fish caught or seen when times are tough. Like deer hunting, if it was too easy I'd lose interest. Someone once said that the muskie is King and the King doesn't come to town often. Amen!

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  4. The muskie may be King, but the real big ones are Queens! It's good to be reminded of the old school view of muskie fishing. Personally I prefer the hard approach. I relish in not being able to catch one at will. That way after thirty years of fishing and finally losing the big one, it doesn't seem all that bad. Plus, like Teal River, I can live off that memory for a heck of a long time.

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  5. One cannot forget that Eagle Lake is not an average lake. It shouldn't take any where near the "average" number of casts to catch a musky on Eagle. More often than not you don't have to throw a single cast to catch nice musky on Eagle. Accidents happen on a regular basis. If you target this species on Eagle, you not only have a much better than average chance of catching a musky, but a good chancing of catching what the Professor would call "a nice one". This in part is due to the regulations on Eagle. Thousands of musky go hungry every day on Eagle.

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  6. Andy, you may be playing Devil's advocate, but I'll take the bait anyway. While what you say about Eagle has some truth in it, if I HAD to catch a muskie to save my soul and had a limited amount of time to do so, there are lakes in Wisconsin that I would choose over Eagle and it isn't even close. However, if I had to catch a trophy muskie, let's say 48" or better, Eagle would be near the top of my list of destinations. Except on that rarest of days when the muskie god let's us catch almost at will, muskie fishing is never easy. Now, about those thousands of "hungry musky", care to share your secret?

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  7. I get a little sad every time Andy reminds me of the hungry muskies on Eagle. This simply is not right. No muskie should have to go to bed hungry. Gord, can't something be done to alieve the suffering?

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