Fishing Forum

Jacksonman and I went on a 3 day fishing excursion this week. We started Wednesday and finished up Friday. First, we fished at Pineview at 5:30am. We trolled around the shoreline, but not much success. We landed a few tiny perch, but one was keepable at about 10". We headed back to our starting point, trolling along the way. Jacksonman was casting a mepps spinner, when it broke off and the top half of his poll flew off and sank into the depths. He was fairly upset, but set up a new rig with a spinnerbait, and we kept trolling. We came around a point when it looked like his poll had caught bottom. I told him "dude, you're on the bottom." We cut the engine and he started reeling in, pulling the boat backwards. "I think its a fish..." he said. "No way. Bottom" I replied. Then it pulled back. Hard. It didn't put up much of a fight, sort of like pulling in a log. Having a small 8' alluminum boat helped much, as it pulled the boat and kept the tension off the line. When it reached surface, we were both shocked. It looked like a crocodile in the water. It dove down again, but we got it up and into the net. We were only a few feet off shore so we hurried in and beached. Jacksonman, in the excitment, jumped into the water with the fish, effectively soaking his wallet AND phone. The phone is ruined, but he says its worth it. We snapped a few photos and swamit back out. He took a minute or two to revive, but he swam off to bite another day.
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Here's the proof that it is still off and swimming...
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So here's the thing. We didn't have a measuring tape or a scale. We took a rough estimate using a rod and a leatherman, but it's far from accurate. Our estimate was 48" and probably 25 lbs. What does it look like to everyone else? We're rookies to the muskie world, since this is the first one either of us have ever caught. Aside from this monster, we didn't catch much else. 15 perch and 2 mudders.

We headed off for some tiger trout action at a certain lake that we were told not to disclose the location of. We were expecting fast action all evening, but we were disapointed to only catch 4 in 3 hours. Here's one of them...
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After the tiger-fest[pirate], we drove to Buckboard at Flaming Gorge to get an early start on the Kokes the next morning. Despite all the expert advice we recieved, we rented a boat and headed out at 7:00am. We would have liked to leave earlier, but hey, at least we got a boat. We used our fish finder first, which meant following the other boats to find fish. It didn't really work, as we only caught one in the first 2 hours. This particular fish decided to eat the lure from the wrong end. i'm just glad it stayed in him long enought to get to the net.
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After little success following everyone else, we decided to do what we thought of before we set out and troll along the cliffs. MUCH better. We had 3x as many bites, and caught 4 more in the next 3 hours, but missed at least 15 bites. These guys are hard to keep on. Here's the biggest of the day...
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The Koke fishing ended for us at about 1pm and we headed in to camp to take a nap. We had some loud neighbors roll in after sleeping for only an hour, so we packed up camp and drove down to Anvil. We thought we might have a chance aat some Lakers, so we launche our little 8' tin can and jigged for about 2 hours. Nothing. We came closer to shore, and the Smallies were biting like crazy! As the night came closer, the bite got hotter. We marked tons of fish on the finder, and they were all biting. Unfortunatley, we didnt take many pictures. the only one we took was of the first one, the smallest one.
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Most were around 16" and fought hard! So fun. We fished until it was too dark to see, and the fish were still biting. We pulled out at about 9:30 and drove down to Startvation. Yes, its a long way. No, we didn't sleep much that night. not to mentino that it rained on us that night. I had the comfort of sleeping in the car, Jacksonman threw his sleeping bag on the ground and got drenched. Oh well. We spent our last day trolling for Walleye, but nothing. not a bite. we were NOT going to be skunked, so we pulled in close to the launch ramp and jigged for perch. they were in thick. You could see them right under the water. We brought home 7 for eating, but caught probably 30 that afternoon. We packed up and drove back to Provo roung 1pm. Since we didn't catch any Walleye, but tried all morning, we are wondering if we were in the wrong spot. We trolled the south east shoreline, up and down. Is that a bad spot? Neither of us are familiar with the lake, so we'd like to know a bit more about it. Any help would be appreciated. Ill catch a Walleye one of these days.
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[black][size 3]Great report on a good trip. Your success was better than I would have thought for fishing strange waters.[/size][/black]
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[size 3]That Musky is a giant!!! Biggest that I have seen come from PV.[/size]
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[size 3]congrats. on a trip with several different methods of fishing.[/size]
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Hey there drewski, thats some story and trip. Way to go guys, thanks for sharing.

AFdan52
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Very cool! Love that muskie! Sounds like you guys had a great time despite a couple mishaps, but then again it's usually the mishaps that make the best fish stories, right? Thanks for the great pics, it adds so much to an already great report.
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Very nice report Drew, that is a whopper of a musky, thanks for sharing. For being new at the koke fishing you did great, should be some good eating. WH2
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I would say that tiger is probably close to 50" considering your shoulders are probably about 22" wide. It is much heavier than most so i would say closer to 28# to 30#. What a monster! As for the tiger trout "area", good choice in keeping it low-pro. Nice job on the kokes too. Sounds like an exciting trip all around.
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Nice Tiger !!! and good handling on a fish that big. that fish was for sure over the 42in. mark, later chuck
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Nice Tiger. My Wifes Pike fought the same way.
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big, real big. nice fish. wow!
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You need to put this on the pike, musky, and walleye board. There are alot of guys over there that would love to see these pics.
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Just posted it on the walleye pike musky board with a link to this post. So the estimates are from 44-50 inches. We know the state record is 49" and 33 odd lbs. but the state record looks much longer than 49" but it is definitely bigger than the one we caught. I still think 48" is a good estimate and 25 lbs but it is really hard to guess. Maybe I will measure my shoulders and then compare. Next big one I get if ever will probably be mounted (if we have more money at that time and if I ever catch another one like that considering i'm a newbie and they've stopped stocking them). Thanks for all your help.
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Nice report and pics. Looks like a great way to spend a few days off of work.
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The only thing better than having three days off for fishing would be ah oh I cant think of anything[] Nice tiger thanks for letting me have a crack at him.
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Sounds like a great trip, thanks for sharing. And that is a very nice tiger...wow.. As far as starvation goes I have only floated it a couple of times in my tube and we always go over to Rabbit gultch. HOw was the water level at Starvation?
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The water level was pretty low and all the vegatation was out of water. We launched at the boat ramp on the north east side and we found lots of smb and perch but not the infamous walleye that is supposed to be in abundance up there. Maybe next time.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 2][#002850]I loved your report and pictures. For newbees at the musky business, looks like you handled and cared for that big ole boy just like the pros ... with TLC. Great catch ... good on ya guys.
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WOW. Nice catch!!! I was there the w/e before I nailed a 40". I was alittle excited until i've seen yours... Wtg
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Nice report and Nice Muskie!
That little tiger trout lake is no secret, Everyone knows about that damn lake, no one cares. It's in the fishing report at Sportsmans and in the newspaper too. Why is this little lake sooo special to you guys? Sure, it has some really nice Tigers in it (possibly records), but for the most part everything is small. Once in a great while you will hook into a Tiger, but why not just go to Huntington?
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Sounds like the report has hit someone's sore spot. We have been asked not to reveal the identity of the lake by the person who helped us find it. I usually wouldn't care but some lakes can handle only so much pressure. Believe me I reveal my few secrets to any of the bigger lakes - they can handle it. The fishing wasn't great at the tiger lake but it probably will be in the fall. Welive too far away to go more than once or so a year but for all those who enjoy that lake, I do hope that the lake doesn't get overrun.
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Dont worry about it Brimhall he has been a little bit grumpy lately. He just need s to get out and do a lot more fishing.[] I actually respect that you were asked not to say and you didn't. Keep up the good fishing.
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