4-Oct-1996 - 38.5" Purebred

The last day of the trip we were back to where the first musky had been caught, and we were doing about the same thing except this time I was using a sucker for bait. It turns out the suckers had congregated in the same area we were fishing, so we caught a few and picked one out that seemed about the right size for bait, about 14" long. We had been soaking him for a while on a 3 hook quick strike rig with a large single hook though the sucker's lip and two trebles at different points along one side.

I had been suffering from too much fun and was barely paying attention when Mike starting exclaiming about something and I gradually realized I should pike up my rod. I perceived that my float was under water somewhere so I took up slack and laid into it. The fish fought back for a second or two then got off.  I immediately let the line go slack and waited. After a few seconds the Musky burst upon the wounded sucker and took off again in another wild run. I waited a moment the set the hook a second time. There was much cranking and splashing and scooping of fish by Mike using our new, larger net, and the fish was in the boat

It turns out the the fish was barely hooked by one of the trebles that had caught on the outside of the fish's mouth and the fish was actually immobilized by the leader and line that had wrapped around its body. Oh well, the fish was quite spunky and took off like a torpedo as soon as it touched the water.