Where are the tiger muskies? Very few are up on the shorelines right now, and musky action has been very slow. It's not completely dead, though. I lost one last week that I should have caught, because of a bungled hookset. Our party of three (myself, Mike Nielsen, and Tony Welch) have been fishing since last Tuesday, and finally boated our first tiger tonight, after 6 days of frustrating effort under blue skies -- these weather conditions usually make for tough fishing. Other musky fishermen on Lake Merwin this week also report slow action, but have caught a couple small ones. Last night we got a brief flurry of activity shortly after 5 PM -- 1 follow and 3 taps -- so we went back to that spot today and I caught a 43 1/2-inch, 22-lb. tiger at 5:15 PM, which of course was released. Mike caught a 22-incher tonight, as well. The trick to my fish was that it was laying very deep on a tree, and I swam a bucktail down the length of the trunk, retrieving just fast enough to turn the blade, so it would drop. The fish was about 12 to 15 feet down. So, under these blue-sky conditions, the key seems to be fish slow and down around trees in late afternoon. Early morning might work too, but us old men usually don't get out of bed before 10 AM, so we wouldn't know. Rain is forecast for later this week, and we're hoping that will turn things around for the musky men plying Merwin this bright September. Unlike last year, I won't be posting daily reports because the house where we're staying doesn't have a computer or phone line.

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