My obsession with muskie began to grow one evening while fishing the dark, tannic waters of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. A giant muskie ambushed a rock bass I was reeling in. I fought the fish for several minutes until it ultimately decided to release its prey. As the fatally wounded rock bass approached the boat, the muskie appeared suddenly, attacking its prey from below. It removed the fish clean off the hook and disappeared back down to the depths. That moment was burned into my memory, and I wanted more of those moments. Muskie went from a fish I had an interest in fishing for occasionally, and was elevated to the only fish that consumed my thoughts.
As a kid, I was exposed to a number of different fishing techniques. Drowning bait, casting lures, trolling, and fly fishing. I enjoyed all of them, but I was particularly drawn to casting lures. Especially for predatory fish. The thought of having the fish hunt down my lure gave me more enjoyment in the pursuit. I wouldn’t know it at the time, but this would be the start of my attraction to streamer fishing.
During my late teens, fly fishing began to dominate how I fished. This is when my passion for tying flies began. During those years, my strongest draw to fishing was for trout. Particularly large, predatory brown trout that haunted the rivers of Michigan. Throwing streamers for them was a natural transition. As my fly tying and streamer fishing improved, I began to tie larger and larger streamers. Not because I thought I could catch bigger trout, but because I enjoyed working with a large canvas. I also got a kick out of pushing the boundaries for how large of a fly I could convince a big trout to eat.
I have a tendency to get bored easily. While I have thoroughly enjoyed fishing for a number of different species, at some point, the draw to them began to fade somewhat. This has never happened with muskie. At times you can be fooled into thinking you have them figured out, and then they do something completely different. They are very intriguing to me, and tying flies to fool them became equally intriguing. The large canvas of hooks measured in aught allows for more creativity and thought. For me, each muskie pattern needs to solve a three part equation. 1) Can you cast it effectively? 2) Does it hold its profile? 3) Can you easily manipulate it in the water? Lets break those down a little…