Pardon the extra load time on this post…it just happens to be a Mega Muskie Roundup Extravaganza Spectacular of the Century – which obviously contains a gratuitous amount of muskie porn. We’ve been spending some time chasing toothies this spring at Pineview Reservoir and Newton Reservoir. Anyone who’s fished for them knows that you often want to kick them in the face as much as you want to catch them.  Amongst the millions of follows and countless stare downs (that often take place 2-6 inches from your fly) we managed to wrangle a few in. We wrote up some of the memorables. Hope you enjoy the stories and the pics! Special thanks to Cort over at Blue Halo for hooking it up with much of the imagery in this post! You can see more of his rad pics HERE.

Sometimes the mornings are perfect. Sometimes the glass is to nice to be broken. Or not.



Sometimes the morning light is redonkulous.


Sometimes good fishing mojo is key.

fish mojo

Sometimes good karma is rewarded.


Sometimes sight fishing is included.










Sometimes you fish with new friends. Sometimes those friends have bass boats and are awesome. Utah Stillwaters is a scholar and a gentleman. Check him out!






Sometimes you run into old friends.

I met this fish two years ago.

Sometimes you fish with sketchy people that are extremely handsome.

Sometimes you fish from wakeboard boats.


Sometimes Rainy’s Flies get it done. Sometimes it’s all the time.




Sometimes the fish are so happy to see you it’s just creepy.

happy-fish

Sometimes when the fishing is slow you just take your clothes off and take pictures of each other.






Sometimes Phil catches fish…

T’was one of those surreal moments when nothing could get better. The smooth water showed the beasts easily like looking through green glass. I wanted to scream just because I was there… witnessing the “apexness” of an incredible predator. Over and over, hundreds of baitfish blew up on the surface in near slow motion as giant silver tigers crashed through their small helpless bodies… Unreal. I thought to myself, “How do we compete with the real thing?” Then, out of nowhere, a massive shadow moved in to inspect my over-sized streamer… Game time.

The fish were playing the quiet game with their lips pursed so tightly you couldn’t have rammed a hook between them. Just the same, it was an incredible scene as they turned onto flies, then, pompous in their demeanor,… rejected them just to crash on another school of the real thing. There is just something about seeing a fish this big move that fast in clear water less than 15′ away… Cold chills for some, pure happiness for others, …utter bliss for me. The environment was dreamy as we moved and stalked, looking for players.

A silhouette slowly cruised parallel to shore about 10′ out. I casted a solid 20′ in front of him and got my fly down. It was easily my 50th decent presentation of the day. I watched my line and his “line” as he moved toward my motionless bug. The fish was close and I knew he was inspecting. TWITCH! ESCAPE! Instinct took over as the fly tried to run, and the muskie charged nearly 20 feet to DESTROY the fly.

Over-sized gills flared like gallon bucket lids, the fly vanished, CHROME glistened for a split second in the sunlit glass, and time went slow… I strip set into a brick wall… Surreal…

Sometimes Nate catches fish…

I’d been walking and stalking for hours with limited “success”. I was walking beneath a tall tree when I spotted a smaller tiger laying in a mix of son and shade. It was ignorantly facing the other direction waiting to meet my new little friend. I ripped some line off the reel and placed a cast past his head. The red “chupacabra” fluttered as it slowly sank. I gave it a few slow strips and as usual the lazy tiger started to engage. This looked familiar. It wasn’t until I gave it its first twitch on the bottom that I knew I had a player. It inched closer and stalled. Another twitch, another inch. Awww yeah. One more twitch resulted in a jolt to my system. I Roland Martin’d him and he didn’t like it one bit. He shot off and I pulled back. It was only a moment and I was tailing the young beast calmly in the shallows. The new 4/0 piercing in its lip seemed fitting for a teenager.


Sometimes Derek catches the biggest fish…

You never know when that moment will come so be ready. It might come as you cut the engine and are still gliding into position when off the rear of the boat you spot a beast lurking just below the surface. Standing on the rear casting platform of a bassboat you can’t believe that a 46″ fish would eat the fly you just dropped, not cast, dropped right in front its face. When it disappears into the depths you think; well, what else did I expect? Certainly not that it was simply getting a better angle to destroy the feathered baitfish pretending to die. Disbelief is a certainty as she bursts into a blur of speed turning upside down from the lake bottom slash ambush point crushing your chupacabra. Remember to apply a powerful strip set and repeat until your hook is buried deep in the corner of her toothy grin. Now, prepare for launch as over 20 pounds of killing machine blows out of the water, shaking its head mid-air trying to dislodge the impostor stuck in its mouth. These are the moments that turn frustration into the silliest grin to ever grace your face!



tiger-muskie-pineview-reservoir
tiger-muskie-newton-reservoir

Sometimes you gotta pass the torch and help others get into their first muskie.

Blue Halo‘s Cort Boice getting beardy with his first muskie! Thanks to Utah Stillwaters!

Our good friend Tana tagged into this punk while 7-months pregnant. Must have been the motherly instinct.

Sometimes your friends get stoked and catch a personal best.




Sometimes there are still pics left over for you to view.

Sometimes muskie will try your patience. Sometimes getting after them with good friends will ease the pain on those days when you’re convinced that you suck at fishing (I suck at fishing). Try it sometime and I’m sure you’ll want to kick something in the face at some point. There’s a good chance that if you stick at it though, you may end up wanting to kiss something on the face too. Holler.
celebration

And….sometimes you have the longest tiger muskie post ever in the history of fishing and fish and ever. The end.

About The Author

Chinese Boy
Google+

The ringleader at OSF, Nathan likes well-proportioned fish, moonlit walks by the river, and stripping streamers through dark lies on the dreariest of days. View full bio.

14 Responses

  1. Matt

    Sometimes Derek catches the biggest fish – everytime. GREAT STUFF DUDES!

    Reply
  2. Cort

    I shed one single tear when I saw how beautiful this post was! Well done over there fellas.

    Reply
    • Nathan

      Ya, we try to protect the integrity of the waters we fish – as well as the anglers that cherish the same spots. We figured it’s pretty much common knowledge since there are only a handful of places to catch them in Utah and these are the most popular. Hopefully we didn’t make anyone mad!

      Reply
  3. Tana

    Awesome job Nate! I’ve been meaning to tell ya for awhile but this post was amazing! Good work and thanks for the props though I hardly deserve it! Ha ha I look forward to fishing with ya one day!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.