Smell that musk

[Nick Swingle]

Lucked out while bass fishing on the New River. Landing this 42" behemoth was interesting. On a kayak with no net, using a 6 wt, 0x, and no wire bite guard. Not exactly a textbook musky rig. This was one for the People. Hit a sz 2 clouser minnow.

[John Bilotta]

Nicely done.

Sent from my iPhone

On May 25, 2015, at 9:50 PM, Nick Swingle <nick.s...@gmail.com> wrote:

Lucked out while bass fishing on the New River. Landing this 42" behemoth was interesting. On a kayak with no net, using a 6 wt, 0x, and no wire bite guard. Not exactly a textbook musky rig. This was one for the People. Hit a sz 2 clouser minnow.

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[Charles.Tapp]

You win. Great fish.

[Joe Mathews]

NICK, amazing fish!  Congrats!   It took a smallmouth fly?  Or maybe you caught a bass and didn't realize it and then caught a musky immediately afterward ;)   I can't imagine landing one of those things from a kayak without tipping over and/or drowning.  Were you floating alone, or was Kami with you?

Jeff Silvan and I have done a couple of musky trips to the James River with Matt Miles, and so far we're batting .500 on landing musky (although none as big as that one!). 

[Charlie Church]

Nice job Nick!

Did you take him into shallow water to land? Not exactly the ideal fish to "leg" into your kayak. 

[Nick Swingle]

Joe,

Good theory on the musky eating a bass. I kinda wish it was that scenario, cuz that would be epic. When the line went tight initially, I thought I was stuck on the bottom as that had already happened numerous times. Then the bottom started moving. So, I think it was the musky from the get-go. I was floating in a single kayak, another friend was in a single, and Kami was with his wife in a tandem kayak. We were just winging it this past weekend, but I'd love to fish with Matt sometime in the future. I think he guides on the New River as well as the James.

Charlie,

Yeah, I hooked the fish in a deep hole. We ferry'd it over to a nearby island in a borrowed net to get the fish in hand.  Not surprisingly, the musky broke the net on the first attempt. It must have looked like a circus of fools to any onlookers.  The final score: three kayaks, one net assist from friendly strangers, two net attempts -- it took a village to land this one.  We did paddle over another musky, larger than the one I landed, later in the float that was in relatively shallow water (guessing ~5-6 ft deep).

[namfos]

Any sort of Esox, pike or musky, will make you feel foolish while landing. That's half the fun. Ever try it with an open tackle box in the boat? Not a pretty sight. ;-)

Mark

[Carl Z.]

Great fish,  That's a story for a lifetime.

On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 7:40 AM, Joe Mathews <joseph.t...@gmail.com> wrote:

NICK, amazing fish!  Congrats!   It took a smallmouth fly?  Or maybe you caught a bass and didn't realize it and then caught a musky immediately afterward ;)  

I have had something like this happen while crappie fishing.  I was feeling the little peck peck peck on my line when all of a sudden the rod was almost jerked out of my hand and I ended up catching a 5 pound catfish.  However a size 2 Clouser is probably big enough to irritate a Musky :-)    

All those pike seem to come in close and then start to put up a fight.  Landing it on 0x tippet with out any wire or shock leader is pretty impressive.  I bet he towed you around a bit.