"One of the legends of musky fishing is that the nastier the weather, the better the fishing. I'm beginning to think that's a cruel hoax cooked up by musky guides, who have to be out there every day anyway and want the rest of us to suffer along with them. Most of my keepers have been caught on pleasant, sunny days, and none of them was caught on a really nasty day. I've braved the cold and rain many times and all I got for it was cold and wet."
-Bill Gardner
Brad...Andy and I once fished with a guide who believed that foul weather produced good fishing. He preferred conditions that were, "rougher than a cobb". Unfortunately, we encountered conditions that were near perfect from this guide's perspective. Big winds, big waves, driving rain with a little sleet, and a transition from low light to darkness.
ReplyDeleteWe fished for several hours and caught nothing. Fortunately, nobody became hypothermic, got a hook imbedded or fell overboard. This was one of the few times I was frightened to be on the water.
Andy...you and I could have been drinking vodka gimlets instead of testing the "rougher than a cobb" hypothesis. That was some serious shit.
Professor, while I enjoy "fighting the good fight" when it comes to chasing muskie, one needs to carefully walk the line between excitement, anticipation of an exceptional fish and a feeling of "having done something", with real danger to yourself or others. I'm glad you survived the trip. Besides, as Bill notes, I've not found really foul weather to be some kind of muskie magic, either. That said, if you want to fish sometime when others tell you you're nuts, chances are you'll find a willing boatmate in me.
ReplyDeleteProfessor, I had to laugh. I posted something almost identical to yours but for some reason it didn't get posted. What I still find scary was the thought of our fearless guide looking out on what I thought was pretty rough water and declaring that it needed to be rougher than a cob. The thought of how rough that cob must have been in the old outhouse (the origin of this saying), scares me. Just thank God that the "3 sisters" didn't bring us a rogue wave that day.
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