All, another Musky Mania is in the
books, total of 7 teams fished this past weekend out of North Twin
Lodge fishing North and South Twin as the host lake until noon on
Saturday.
Par for the course, the weatherman were right on with their
forecast, as instead of the light and variable winds, Saturday a.m.
saw some pretty stiff winds making fishing a bit more challenging, but
guess that's why they call it "fishing". Hopes were pretty high for
Saturday fishing as folks pre-fishing on Friday had some good success,
even though it was on other lakes, we all know Twin has some good fish
to look forward to trying to catch. Weather conditions were pretty
ideal for good "lunge" fishing; especially if you like strong winds,
rain/hail, and a little thunder and lightning thrown in.
Roger Olson and Ken Swick teamed up for a two fish day, believe they
had a 36 and a 34, Ken's fish coming on his second cast of the day, great
way to start the day, what's so hard about musky fishing ? The Dave Nickel
group also teamed up for two fish, fish were caught out of two separate
boats within a short time of one another, a 36 and a 45 inch beauty, hope
to have some pics to show.
Yours truly continued to provide his guide services to partner Gary
Borkowski, who had a two fish afternoon, fish of 32 and 30 inches; one
fish being caught during the major with the skies opening up, a good deal
of lightning and thunder, and oh yes the wind was howling; ideal
conditions !!
The Skeeter Two team, better known as "Team Stranger", of Jim Jessup
and Musky Pete , you asked them what that's about, I'm not going there,
battled the winds on Vieux DeSert. What an opportunity to break in Jimmy's
new Skeeter, when you get a chance, ask him about the dock that got in the
way, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to share the details with you !
Tom Hickson of North Twin Lodge, was again an outstanding host and NTL
provided great accommodations; regretfully it may have been our last Musky
Mania out of NTL, more on that later. Saturday lunch was a hearty one with
some spicy chili and Gary Borkowski's hot elk sandwiches, very tasty. Door
prizes were won by everyone and again Musky Pete provided some original "JAZ
MA TAZ" bucktails as special door prizes.
Pete from the Sportsman had provided us a good deal on a rod and reel
for raffle prizes, and we had additional items from Musky Hunter and Musky
Pete. Ask Gary who won the Diawa Millionaire reel, all I know is he
informed Christine that he needed a new rod ! Musky Pete provided some
Musky Mania history with video clips of past outings and also premiered
the lead-in for Musky Mania, all I know is I definitely need a heavy rod
for the fish in the video and a much bigger boat.
Again, we had a good number of new participants for Musky Mania and
hopefully they enjoyed themselves and we will see them back again for
future Musky Mania's. In spite of the challenging conditions and slow
fishing overall, Mr. Musky did not win MM34, a total of 3 fish were caught
securing the prize money for 1st through 3rd place.
The younger generation showed up the old timers again with "Bucktail
Bill" Justmann taking 1st place honors, way to go Bill ! By the way, when
you get a chance, ask Dave why he was asking if anyone had room in their
boat for Bill to fish with on Sunday! Even though no fish were caught out
of Twin, folks did have some action there on Saturday.
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The team of Mark Hawkins and Danny Gracyalany had a teaser bite on a
sucker, he wanted it, he didn't, he wanted it, he didn't and in the end he
didn't. The Dave Nickel team had some sucker action too, fishing suspended
fish in 45 feet of water with the sucker 12 feet down, major bite with
teeth marks to prove it, but no fish. We also heard they had a fish hit a
Jake and the hook set was so hard that the gears stripped on the reel
resulting in a major "birdsnest", we didn't catch the reel make?
Danny Gracyalany, this spring's winner, graciously handed off the Musky
Mania plaque and traveling vest to Bucktail Bill to be worn with pride
until next springs outing. During the awards presentation, we heard Ken
Swick, the 3rd place winner say he was going right to Wal-Mart with his
winnings and purchase the Bucktail Bill caught his fish on.
Thanks again to all the folks that
participated and turned up for the awards on Sunday (100%) and a
special thanks to Gary Borkowski, Jim Jessup, and Musky Pete for all
their help in organizing and coordinating MM34, we are already looking
forward to MM35.
With regard to the timing/location of
MM35 that is a TBD at this time. As I noted above MM34 might have been
our last MM outing at North Twin Lodge as I think a good number of you
know already that Tom has it up for sale. In talking with Tom this
past weekend he indicated he's had a lot of lookers, but at this time
nothing is in the works for a sale. We have indicated that we would
like to have our spring outing there, same timing as this past spring,
which is the second weekend of the Musky Season, weekend after
Memorial Day if the opportunity still exists. He will be back in touch
by the end of November/early December to provide us an update on the
status of the lodge. It did sound regardless if he was still operating
this spring that the opportunity to have another fall outing there is
pretty remote as he would only stay open through Labor Day.
In the meantime, Dave Justmann is
starting to gather information on other possible lakes, lodges, etc to
be proactive in having options available if NTL does not work out for
the spring. Lakes already being considered are the Three Lakes Chain,
Eagle Chain, Vieux De Sert, High/Fishtrap, Pelican, Manitowish Chain,
and the Cisco Chain. If anyone has suggestions/recommendations on lake
areas to fish and especially lodging opportunities please pass on to
Dave Justmann.
Just some points of information
regarding the spring outing; we would probably be looking at 25-30
participants, and would need lake sizes to accommodate 12-15 teams.
Again, not all of the folks have to stay at one location, but if
possible it provides the opportunity for a greater level of
camaraderie.
Also for MM35 we are looking into
getting hats made up as 35 will be another milestone in Musky Mania
history, we will keep you updated on ordering info/costs as things get
firmed up. One added note, we are always looking for opportunities to
obtain door/raffle prize items as we need to start working on that
ASAP, so if you have or know of opportunities, please feel free to
pass on to Dave Justmann, Gary Borkowski, or myself. Have a great rest
of a lunge season and catch a big one and hope to see you all in the
spring at MM35.
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