Muskie Maniac Knows the Tricks

Muskie maniac knows the tricks
Kathy Etling

SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH
12/20/2008

With the holidays rapidly approaching, I sometimes wonder where 2008 went. But then I recall the fun and adventure experienced during the spring and fall turkey seasons, winter trout fishing, on several great float trips, while boating plenty of crappie and bass on numerous day trips, the dawning of each day hunted during archery and firearms deer seasons, and then topped by a whirlwind Florida fishing expedition, and suddenly it was very clear where the last 12 months had gone.The past four weeks passed in a flash, partly because we spent several days pursuing two very different species of big game fish.

During November, we joined renowned muskie guide Earle Hammond on a freshwater muskie safari. A few weeks later we were in a canoe preparing to rendezvous with a redfish expert to see if we might be able to hook up with trophy redfish using just the ordinary bass fishing tackle a Midwest angler might bring along on a trip to Florida. More on that adventure in a future column.

Make no mistake, guides are great, particularly when it comes to helping neophyte anglers hone their skills, or for anyone eager to learn how to fish for an unfamiliar — to them — species. Rest assured, however, you don't need a guide to fish for muskie in Missouri or Illinois, or for redfish on the coastal flats. What hiring a guide can do is help you find productive water and learn good techniques, fast. A guide can help one dispense with rookie mistakes, such as using the wrong line or leader. And a guide will help smooth out a new angler's rougher edges by providing tips on casting, bait selection, fighting and handling fish, all invaluable information.

Muskie, a fish closely associated with more northerly climes, made their Missouri debut in 1966. That was the year fisheries biologists with the Missouri Department of Conservation stocked the toothy predators in Pomme de Terre Lake, not far from the small town of Hermitage. Since then, MDC has also stocked muskies at Pony Express Lake, just west of Cameron; Hazel Creek Lake near Kirksville; Fellows Lake just north of Springfield; Henry Sever Lake near Newark; and Lake 35 at the August A. Busch Conservation Area in Weldon Spring. All but Pony Express are still managed for muskies.

Each year anglers report catching muskie that weigh 25 to 30 pounds and occasionally even more. The state record muskie, which weighed 41 pounds, 2 ounces, was caught in 1981 from Lake of the Ozarks. This fish, which was estimated by biologists at 14 years, was probably one of 249 stocked in the lake in 1967 and 1968.Hammond and other members of the Pomme Chapter of Muskies Inc. have made it their mission to break the muskie code in their home waters. On the organization's website, www.missourimuskies.org, club members last year logged in 94 big muskies caught despite being hampered by many weeks of high water when muskies refused to bite. The largest Missouri muskie taken was a 45.5-inch behemoth boated on Pomme by none other than Hammond, a retired Kansas City police officer who spent 20 years as the force's K-9 Unit trainer. A wonderful fish, yet still 4 inches shorter and quite a few pounds lighter than the state's longstanding record.As we joined Hammond on that cool November morning, wispy clouds streamed overhead while the air felt wildly unsettled. With a forecast calling for severe thunderstorms accompanied by high winds later that night, we were anticipating great things that day.

This was muskie weather!If anyone could lead us to a trophy muskie, it was Hammond — or one of his Muskies Inc. cohorts. These folks aren't normal; not when it comes to muskie fishing. One glance in their tackle boxes proves it. Where we'd had luck in years past catching a few good-sized Pomme muskies on bass lures like the Husky Jerk, Wiggle Wart or Rat-L-Trap, Hammond prefers larger baits. His tackle boxes are crammed full of lures the size of 10-inch shad or bass, lures like the Eddie, Grandma, Jointed Grandma, Glide Bait, Super Stalker and the Jake.After a speedy run up the lake during which Hammond's was the only boat on the water, the guide reached into his bag of muskie tricks and withdrew several huge bucktail spinners. "Try these," he said, giving one to Bob and fastening the other, an oversized #5 Blue Fox in flashy colors of green, orange and black, onto the end of my line. Once he'd finished rigging our rods, Hammond stepped to the bow of the boat, where he would be manning the trolling motor. In minutes, we were back in the furthest and shallowest reaches of a long, narrow, muskie-looking cove, one of three in the immediate area."Caught some good fish here," he confided, expertly easing the boat into position so we could cast to a series of partially submerged logs and bushes. Hammond's cast to a shallow flat resulted in a serious hit as the water swirled, boiled and all but exploded above a muskie that had been moving about in water scarcely 8 inches deep. "That looked like a good fish," Hammond remarked. "Maybe we'll get lucky today."Early on, while hopes were still soaring, Hammond trolled around a favorite point and spotted a trophy-class muskie cruising the shallows not far away. "Look at that fish," Hammond exclaimed, as three rod tips almost instantaneously pointed in its direction and a barrage of lures then descended on the spot where the hapless fish had rather foolishly revealed itself.All day long we fished, using rods the equal of the heavy, $30 and $40 lures that Hammond kept snapping onto our lines and then, just as quickly, discarding.

PowerPro microfilament, from 40- to 80-pound test depending on the lure being used, sometimes with a fluorocarbon leader through which muskies are unable to bite, had been spooled onto our standard-sized spinning reels. The muskies seemed somewhat interested, grabbing at our lures rather half-heartedly on several occasions, but interested would be as good as it got that day. After seven hours of casting big lures on heavy rods, Bob and I felt it, especially in our backs and shoulders."Use your forearm and wrists," Hammond suggested. "Like this." We watched as with barely a flick of his arm his lure soared far from the boat. "It's easy if you cast like this." After a few aborted efforts, we discovered he was right. This was one tip that would serve us well in all of our future fishing.Of course, a muskie maniac like Hammond has to be prepared to do a lot of casting. And to teach casting, too. "I'll get folks out here who can't do a thing right, casting-wise," he said. "With a few lessons, by day's end they're casting like pros." And catching fish like pros, too. That is, if the muskies are biting.