The challenge of the muskellunge

LAKE MILLE LACS - The "Topraider" sputtered and waddled across the water. Not far away, the real thing paddled nonchalantly through the shallows.

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It was a good day to be a duckling on Lake Mille Lacs.

But for those of us fishing for muskies with topwater lures that mimicked the movement of a duckling or gosling, it wasn't so good.

It was, however, a beautiful July morning. Also not good for finding muskies, I was told.

Sometimes a guy just can't catch a break.

But that's how it goes with muskie fishing. Coming into our recent muskie fishing adventure - my first - we knew there was a good chance we would come up empty. But the chance to catch the fish of a lifetime recently lured me and three buddies to one of the top muskie fisheries in Minnesota for a half-day of fishing with one of the premier muskie fishermen/guides in the state.

Travis Frank's tackle box is jammed full with monstrous muskie lures.

» Purchase reprints of this photo.Brainerd Dispatch/Brian S. Peterson

It was like a "Double-Bladed Cowgirl" blasting through the weeds.

If you didn't know - as I didn't - muskies can't resist the action of this nasty bucktail lure.

But somehow, on this day, they did.

Not even "The Pounder" could draw in The Fish of 10,000 Casts. But I learned that if it does, indeed, take 10,000 casts to catch a muskie, as the story goes, I wouldn't want to be throwing "The Pounder" all that time. It's a rubber lure shaped like a bullhead - a muskie favorite - and gets its name because, well, it weighs about a pound.

After about a half-hour of tossing this pig, I was more than ready to switch to the "Cowgirl." But at a trolling speed of 2-3 mph, this monster bucktail with two monster spinners puts up a good fight all on its own. Once you cast it out and engage the spinners, the idea is to blast it through the weeds, shredding what muskies call home and ultimately prompting the fish to strike, whether out of anger or because of the lure's wicked affect.

With Travis Frank and Mike Tengwall of Trophy Encounters each captaining boats, we fished two anglers per boat, which would give us plenty of room to land a muskie should one of us hook into one. We fished 8-foot rods with 80-pound braided line and 110-pound leaders and Shimano Calcutta baitcasting reels. Big-time stuff.

"Go big or go home," says Frank, who although only 25, has been fishing for muskies for more than a decade and has caught several - mostly on Mille Lacs - rivaling the state record of 54 pounds caught on Lake Winnibigoshish way back in 1957.

That means being alert. And keeping a strong hold on your fishing rod - the butt of the rod secured between your left side and left elbow, and your left hand securely on the reel or the cork fronting the reel. Because any cast could be the cast.

Should the fish strike, Frank, who was to my right, said the idea was to try to knock him out of the boat - to violently pull the rod toward my body to set the hook and maintain a strong position for the fight. It's typically a short fight, Frank said, but a fight it is, and treating it as such will ensure one's chances of landing the fish of a lifetime. If not, well, you can bet you'll be bemoaning the big one that got away.

For the most part, muskies can't resist a "Cowgirl."

» Purchase reprints of this photo.Brainerd Dispatch/Brian S. Peterson

Between the two boats, we landed a nice-sized northern pike, had another pike follow a lure and had two muskie follows. The northern was landed in Tengwall's boat about 15 minutes in, at about 5:30 a.m. We had high hopes.

Both boats started on Vineland Bay on the southwest side of Mille Lacs. The Tengwall boat mostly stayed put for the morning. But in the Frank boat, we fished Vineland for two hours or so before zipping across to St. Albans Bay just off U.S. Highway 169, south of Garrison, for about an hour, throwing topwaters and "The Pounder" and trolling with the "Cowgirl," and fished the last hour near Wahkon Bay, on Mille Lacs' southeast side, again throwing topwaters. For the most part, we fished in no more than a few feet of water, including casting up into the weeds in about a foot of water in Vineland Bay.

But no luck.

We weren't alone.

"Sometimes that is just the way it goes with them (muskies)," Frank said in an e-mail soon after the outing. "My partner and I experienced more of the same for the next two days. Brutal fishing is all I can say. I guess it brings a guy back to reality to run into cold slumps."

To me, the reality has always been that muskies are an extreme rarity - almost mythical. I've seen a few swim by the boat in my lifetime, even had a smallish one follow my topwater frog while casting off the dock at a Wisconsin lake a couple years back. But I'm yet to catch one.

Stocking programs have made muskies more accessible in recent years, I'm told. But to me, they remain The Fish of 10,000 Casts.

I'm guessing I've got 9,500-plus to go. And I'm OK with that - minus "The Pounder," of course.

BRIAN S. PETERSON, outdoors editor, may be reached at brian.peterson@brainerd dispatch.com or 855-5864.