Lonnie (CA)

 Last year I was fishing for mooneyes with a good friend Ed Jarvis. I had only every caught mooneye incidentally before, so we were having great fun figuring out how to specifically hook into them. Starting off with worms under a float, we graduated up to more aggressive presentations such as jigs and spinners, and ultimately settled on a ‘0’ Mepps silver spinner as the best presentation for the day. The mooneyes were rising everywhere, so fishing was quite fast and furious. Not surprisingly the numbers of mooneye in the area had also attracted the attention of few larger predators as well; namely muskies. We had caught a glimpse of one nice fish cruise by the boat earlier in the day, maybe only 10 lbs or so, so I wasn’t at all surprised when, while fighting a mooneye, my rod suddenly doubled over and started screaming off line. ‘Musky On’ I reported to Ed. There wasn’t much I could do, so I continued to fight the duo for about 5 minutes or so, until, much to my surprise, the mooneye floated up to the surface. My partner scooped up the mooneye for closer inspection. Sure enough there were vicious and ultimately fatal gashes on either side of it. I on the other hand continued fighting the musky. I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow the hook had jumped from the mooneyes mouth to the muskies mouth. I was only using 4 lb test monofilament line (Mustad Thor to be exact) but with steady pressure and no obstructions to interfere with us, it was only a matter of time before we had a beautiful musky at the side of the boat and sliding into the cradle. This was not the first time I have had a musky or pike attack fish that I was fighting, but it is really something when you actually land it!

Cheers,
Lonnie
P.S. Check ‘My Pictures’ for photos of the fish.