This report comes from Marlon Prince and was submitted as part of our 2012 Contributor Contest.
As I know you guys are aware musky can give you a beat down, and I was getting banged up pretty good this year. Most of the season I was attempting the impossible, landing a musky on the fly. With countless follows, eats, a few hookups but no fish landed, I was beginning to think my boat had some kind of anti-musky stank on it. Most of the time I’m fishing with friends throwing gear and still no musky in the boat. I drove from Halfax, NS to Fredericton, NB almost every weekend to fish for the big musky. After the time and gas money spent, logging well over a couple hundred hours this season I started to wonder “Why am I doing this?”
Fast forward to Oct 13, 2012 in Meductic, NB. I booked an extra long weekend off work in hopes the cool fall weather would turn the fish on and maybe I’d be at the right place at the right time. My girlfriend and I fished two days with no sign of fish. Saturday morning we took our time and made a big breakfast around the fire before hitting the water. I knew it was going to be a good day when my girlfriend landed her biggest smallie to date on her second or third cast. We fished the morning and landed some good size smallmouth bass up untill around noon when the water started getting rough. The Saint John River was at her meanest, throwing 2-4ft swells at us. No way I can throw a fly in this stuff! With no sign of musky and the waves crashing, I decided to switch my gear and troll. I threw on a 8″ hellhound “triple d” in walleye colour, which had been a proven musky producer for me the previous fall. I made the call to troll a shady shoreline with a steep 30′ drop off. My girlfriend was doubtful.
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