I could go on about stories from my fishing career, and there are plenty to tell. Perhaps some day I’ll even write a book about all of these crazy experiences. But, I have to admit that this particular story ranks right up there with the best musky stories of them all. Thank goodness I have this crazy encounter recorded on camera because it truly is hard to believe
I am going to preface this story with events that occurred just prior. It was the day of the full moon in mid August, and only an hour or so before actual moon rise. As most of you know by now, this can be one of the primest conditions of them all. Prior to this day, we had very poor fishing overall. Lots of hours with no action once so ever. We’d been at it for days, but the fish just weren’t cooperating. But everything suddenly changed when I caught a 49 incher on a figure 8 at about 5:30 p.m. I wrote about this fish awhile ago, and how I had it exploded on my TopRaider, but did not hook-up. I then went through a routine of cast-back techniques before nailing the fish on a SlopMaster spinnerbait at boatside. Anyway, I had to revisit this story in order to set the stage for what happened next.
Right after releasing the 49 incher, my cameraman Brach Pulver and I quickly headed for another high percentage spot. Our hope was that this fish broke our fishless curse and now we were going to experience hot fishing in multiple areas as the full moon rise neared. Moments after the engine stopped, and the trolling motor was put down, I climbed up onto the deck to begin our approach to the new spot. At the same time, Brach was setting up our various cameras for the upcoming shoot. Within short order he was recording and checking microphone levels.
As he did so, he looked over to me and asked, “So is that the biggest musky you’ve ever taken on a figure eight?”. I answered “actually no. Believe it or not I’ve taken several much bigger including one in this exact spot.” I then proceed to tell him the story of how I had this huge 53 inch behemoth smash my lure at boatside and nearly jerk me completely out of the boat. As I am telling him the story, I acted out the memory by starting a figure eight before making any casts. In fact, I even bent over to demonstrate how I held onto the gunwale to avoid being yanked overboard. This is where the old story ends and the new one begins!
As I’m bent over the side of the boat holding on to the gunwale with my rod almost completely submerged in the water on this demonstration, a musky suddenly takes a shot at my lure and misses. Amazed by the sudden opportunity, I quickly move into a better position, got serious and began a tactical figure eight. I bark out to Brach, “Oh my gosh. I just had a fish take a shot at my lure”. I’m not sure what Brach thought was really going on at this point--- if he thought I was still telling a story, or what – but before I could explain, the water exploded in a fury. I was now locked up, toe-to-toe, with another musky! I was so amazed by what had just happened that I was speechless and just did all I could to hold onto the rod and keep myself from being jerked overboard again!
Surprisingly, the battle lasted only seconds and I quickly grabbed my big net and snatched up the prize — a dandy tiger musky! The old story was now forever linked to this new story. Best of all, this entire calamity was captured on camera. Now, how’s that for a fish story?
This crazy encounter and the net result (no pun intended) probably begs an even bigger question at this point. Just how good is the figure eight? I never made a cast here. I was simply standing on the deck telling my cameraman a story and demonstrating the figure 8 technique and how I handled the story fish after the strike. Only a real live tiger musky came up and nailed the bait while I was demonstrating the technique. I actually caught this musky without ever making a cast.
Joe Bucher