Northwest Fishing Reports

Marc had talked about fly fishing for muskies and was curios about this as Im sure it would be a big fight on a fly pole. Im assuming a wire leader would be needed. Would you tie this up as you would regular leader using a nail knot?

What patterns would work best? Im assuming patterns that resemble smaller prey like flashers, streamers, etc?

I can just picture myself hooking into one and being dragged all over the lake, so how do you land such a creature?

I'm not expert, but here is one of the flies I tied for Tigers.

I'm not expert, but here is one of the flies I tied for Tigers.



Here's another.

now did you catch anything with those? Are those patterns you made up yourself? That top one looks really cool

ruthven78 wrote:Marc had talked about fly fishing for muskies and was curios about this as Im sure it would be a big fight on a fly pole. Im assuming a wire leader would be needed. Would you tie this up as you would regular leader using a nail knot?

What patterns would work best? Im assuming patterns that resemble smaller prey like flashers, streamers, etc?

I can just picture myself hooking into one and being dragged all over the lake, so how do you land such a creature?

Well, we are still novices at the art of fly fishing for Tiger Muskies. We are using 9wt rods and line with about 6' of straight mono for a leader with 12" of steel leader for tippet. The connection of the leader is a loop-to-loop, the same for leader to steel tippet and a knotted loop to attach the fly. The fly to steel tippet connection is a knot that Barry Reynolds uses that is easy to tie and seems to work well. I will have to show it to you to explain.
Mike and I went out to Silver a couple of times and on the second trip we spotted 4 that were in size up to about 45". Mike was beside himself the rest of the day. Needless to say, he was excited just to spot some.

You apparently have to find them when they are "on the hunt" for food. The ones we encountered could have been "digesting". That may be the reason they say that the Muskies are the "fish of 1,000 casts." We learned a lot and had a good time. Now that the weather is hot, we are going to wait until the weather cools a bit in the fall and try it again. They are most likely in deeper water now.

Guys do land them in a pontoon boat. Many grab them under the gill plate and raise them a bit to release the hook. Many guys, including us are using barbless hooks. The flies are tied on either 2/0 or 3/0 hooks and are about 7" long. In casting those, we did have many follow ups by bass, perch and crappie. Red and white, green and purple seems to attract the most attention.

We are not discouraged because we are still learning the game. Our day will arrive and when it does, we will be excited. Until then, we will continue trying.

Here is Barry Reynold's website.

http://www.barryreynoldsflyfishing.com/

Watch the trailer to his latest video: "In Pursuit of The Water Wolf". Select it from the video play list.

This video should spark some interest. It did with me. I bought the DVD, love it and have watched it several times.

I haven't been fishing for them yet. I told you I was no expert. The top fly is a copy from the Orvis website. The second fly I made up myself. I call it the Brook Trout. Maybe I'll go hit Silver Lake this weekend?

I have not fished for them myslef but I just had a buddy move to Michigan. He tied up a ton of these things that were similar to what the top pictured fly is. Except he took huge Grub tails and tied those on. These things are like 9 inches long. I will get a picture of them if I can.

Thanks for the input Custom. It would be great to see the photos.

Custom wrote:I have not fished for them myslef but I just had a buddy move to Michigan. He tied up a ton of these things that were similar to what the top pictured fly is. Except he took huge Grub tails and tied those on. These things are like 9 inches long. I will get a picture of them if I can.

Hey Custom
I think I may know your buddy. He's in the U.S.C.G. and I believe he was headed to St.Clair?

What are grub tails?

Marc Martyn wrote: What are grub tails?

Here ya go Marc. I think, a little too heavy for a fly rod.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/store ... _100007000

Thanks Joe, I think you are right........

Yeah those are them.

Yeah, he went there a couple months ago. I haven't seen too many pics of all the fish he's catching. He has alot more of the pics of flys too.

He has been cutting the tails off of the grubs and incorpotating them into the fly. You should see some of the other ones with the blades on them.

Found some of the big boys with the blades on them. These things look just like bass lures only fancier.