Plattsburgh, New York

My 10th musky! Today I had tons of time after my final exam, so of course I had to hit the water. My first goal was to catch some bowfin at an old honey hole, so I caught bait and made my way to the spot. However, the water was too low, which meant there was no water in this hole that is typically only about a foot or two deep. I decided to transition to musky, and I spent the rest of the afternoon targeting them. After a while with no bites, I spotted a ton of smallmouth close to shore, so I tied on Gino Rosauri ’s special lure, and it worked like a charm! I eventually moved to a different spot and quickly got a bite from a very large musky on my glidebait, but I pulled the hooks out of his mouth. About 20 minutes later, I hooked into this gorgeous 37 inch muskellunge on my glidebait! I only have one morning left of upstate New York fishing, so I will be taking full advantage. What an incredible spring it has been thus far.

No better way to unwind after a final exam than to go fishing. I had been curious to find out if there were any bowfin biting lately, so I decided to spend my evening targeting some. The first step was getting bait (fallfish) from the river, which was quite easy on the fly rod. I even managed to run into a little Atlantic Salmon. Once I made my way to the swamp, I strapped my waders on and found a nice downed tree to stand on. I very quickly hooked into a fish, and it was surprisingly a largemouth that wanted the cut bait. At about sunset, I finally hooked into my target species on my medium-light rod. I was in for quite a battle with submerged logs everywhere around me. He managed to get hung up in the trees numerous times, but somehow, I was able to bring him in on ten-pound line. This gorgeous Bowfin is my new personal best, weighing in at 6.6lbs!

Tried for musky again this afternoon and got a very surprising bite on my big swimbait! Sure enough, I found myself in the same hole where I’ve been having tons of musky action, and this time, instead of a musky, I hooked into this gorgeous walleye on my 6” swimbait. I thought for sure that I had hooked another muskellunge, and he put up quite the fight too.

I landed another river beast yesterday! After catching a fish of a lifetime the day prior, I had to head back to see if I could do it again. This time, it took no time at all. After making my way to the hole where I hooked two during my previous trip, I got bit on the first cast. I set the hook and brought in this 38” beast! This fish is my second biggest musky ever! The smallies weren’t biting as well this time, but I eventually hooked a very nice one, coming in at around 4 pounds, likely my third biggest ever.

Probably my single greatest catch so far in my near 6 years of fishing! My day started off very well as I landed tons of smallmouth bass on big glidebaits and swimbaits, but secretly, each time I caught one, I was a bit disappointed that they weren’t a bigger river beast. About an hour into my morning of fishing, I set the hook into a much heavier fish. Its head immediately surfaced, and he thrashed a few times. I immediately knew what it was. I fought it for a little under a minute until suddenly, I felt my line loosen. I had lost what would have been a PB musky after getting bit off on my 40lb leader. I had never been concerned about my thick leader, as I’ve caught musky on 6lb and 8lb test, so I was extremely disappointed after this happened. I knew that it was the only leader material I had, so I had to keep pushing. About ten minutes and a few smallmouth later, I saw a musky rise to the surface. I quickly casted my glide bait at him, and he bit. Unfortunately, I didn’t get an ample hookset, and he quickly came off, but I kept working the bait slowly to see if he’d follow. Sure enough, he followed it to my feet and wasn’t spooked by my presence. I continued to twitch my bait back and forth for nearly two minutes, and with each twitch, he would dart his head back and forth, completely honed in on the lure. He eventually lost interest and swam away, but he would reappear a few times and follow my glidebait, only to now spook when he saw me. It was tough moving on from a spot that I knew had tons of large river monsters, but I had to make my way back to my bike that I had stashed in the woods, and I thought there may be some more fish upstream. I was right, but not in a hole that I expected. After passing a few more large holes that I was hoping to get bit in, I thought I had lost my chance to get one. My bike finally came into view, and I was simply casting around for fun. I tossed my glide bait into a tiny little pocket in the back corner of a waterfall, and wasn’t paying much attention. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large object roll out of the water, and thought, wow there’s actually a sizable fish in here. And then it was on the line. I was completely outgunned, as this fish weighed likely double the breaking strength of my main line. After an epic battle that almost ended in disaster countless times, I landed my personal best Muskellunge at 43 inches long, weighing in at an estimated 23 to 24 pounds! Not only was this a personal best musky, but it is my largest fish on artificial by about 10 pounds. I think I can finally sleep despite not getting my 10-pound walleye.

Caught my second biggest smallmouth ever today! This gorgeous 4lb 8oz smallmouth bass ate my 8” glidebait, and so did about 15 other smallmouth. These fish were eating every single big bait I put in front of their faces. Smallmouth, however, were not my target for the day. I successfully managed to land another, more desirable species…

Hit the river after class today at 8 pm, but didn’t get my first fish of the day until midnight. Thankfully, the effort paid off as this gorgeous 7.6 lb walleye finally decided to eat my bait after 4 hours of repeated casting. In the hours prior, I managed only a few small bites but couldn’t keep anything hooked. I’m hoping the bite heats up a little bit, but the rapidly dropping water level is making the fishing tricky.

I unfortunately got skunked last night, so I had to get revenge at the river tonight. Very early into my session, I landed this gorgeous five-pound walleye! I fished for another three hours and only yielded one more bite. Prior to fishing for walleye, I put my waders on to retrieve a lure I had lost yesterday, which I managed to find very quickly. I was also able to snatch a new jerkbait, spinnerbait, little cleo, and a bicycle from the bottom of the river. Now I know what I kept getting snagged on!