ATTN Students

If there's anyone working on muskie-related projects in Canada, here's a link to student funding through Muskies Canada: Dr. Ed Crossman Research Grant.

Prairie Home Companions

My weekends throughout high school and college usually involved fishing somewhere with friends and/or Dad. This weekend, after a nail-biter week, was no different. At 5AM, Dad and I hooked up the boat and headed out through the vast expanse of corn and soybean fields, now barren after the fall harvest, and scattered with glinting eyes of coyotes.

Shortly after sun-up we swung by my friend Ryan Jozwiak's house. I met Ryan in my first year of college, where both of us were members of the Fighting Illini Bass Club. We shared a passion for muskies and had the opportunity to fish a few times together. Since he's begun chasing these toothy critters, Ryan's angling prowess has grown tremendously. He now quietly boats big Illinois muskies every year, though he's too humble to tell many people. When I told him I was coming home we made plans to fish together, which brings us to today's shenanigans.

The day began with quite a bit of wind. We needed to figure out how the fish were behaving so the plan was to throw a variety of baits. Ryan had a small follow early on an erratic bait accentuated by many pauses. As we continued casting throughout the day, I began drawing from some of the information gleaned in my studies, particularly the use of vegetation by muskies no matter what time of year and regardless of forage base. OK, so not ground breaking, but when faced with coves full of great looking timber it was a necessary move. Sometime midday as we drifted down a shoreline, my bait was thumped hard and I was fast into a scrappy little muskie. A quick de-hooking and photo process led to a speedy release. The day yielded little action after that, save for a few follows here and there.

We left the lake as the sun blazed its twilight glory - a dazzling light show of purples, oranges, and reds. Watching the sun set over the prairies of Illinois brought back a flood of memories and I felt fortunate to be reminiscing in the company of friends and family.

So Far So...

Good.

My samples arrived today and I've begun conducting the remainder of the analyses. I have to isolate three plasma ion concentrations - sodium, potassium, and chloride - and quantify cortisol concentrations. I was able to finish analyzing sodium and potassium ions today in a few hours.

I compared the values obtained today to those from last year's data and they are very similar. There's nothing out of whack... yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next several days will yield similar results with our other physiological parameters.

Major Bummer Update

Online tracking tells me the samples are en route to Illinois. Hopefully the samples arrive today and I can begin working tomorrow. Only until I process the samples will I know whether the plasma has been compromised or not.

If you've got fingers and toes, cross them for me. Wood nearby? I'd appreciate a couple knocks on it in my honor.

Apparently the online tracking system lied. It's a day later and the package is STILL in Memphis, Tennessee. I was told last night that the package would be shipped today and yet it has not. US Fish and Wildlife approved it, but FedEx must be having fun flinging poop around their warehouse because it's still not in the air! Looks like tomorrow will be the day, or maybe the next day, or maybe the next day after that, or maybe never! YAY FOR FEDEX!

Major Bummer

Tomorrow I am headed to Illinois for a combination family visit and to finish analyzing my blood samples. Last Tuesday I shipped them FedEx from Carleton, packaged in dry ice with the appropriate documentation stating what the blood was (fish) and that it was taken with authorization from the MNR. The folks at Carleton figured it would take 1-2 days to get to Illinois.

My samples are still sitting in a customs agency in Memphis, Tennessee, chilling in a refrigerator (despite my insistence that they be frozen) awaiting clearance by the Fish and Wildlife Service. I'm sure at this point the dry ice has evaporated and it's possible the samples may slowly be degrading. As the title of this post suggests, it's a major bummer. I worked all summer for these blood samples and, although not all will be lost if the blood goes to crap, to think that my data is being compromised by a "system" is nauseating. No problems last year, but then again this year isn't last year.

The good news is cortisol, the one physiological parameter I'm most interested in (it's the body's primary stress hormone), is fairly robust. If the temperature gets too high or the samples stay unfrozen for too long, however, the properties of the hormone may change and artificially increase or decrease concentrations in the plasma (not sure which way).

I hope they arrive tomorrow...

80 Pounds

I'm not convinced weight calculators are very accurate, but in the absence of a scale they provide a better estimate than simply pulling a number out of thin air. Using the standard weight formula - (Length x Girth x Girth)/800 - the three fish Wally Robbins and I (err... scratch the "I" part) caught yesterday weighed, in total, 80 pounds!

Having learned from some of the best, including "Big" Jim McLaughlin, and putting in hundreds of hours on the water, Wally is quite intimate with the system we fished yesterday. He employs tactics that many of today's fast-paced anglers tend to scoff at or simply ignore. His methods give him the ability to unveil tiny nuances along vast weedlines, making him a much more efficient angler in a system that can often be overwhelming due to its seemingly uniform nature (i.e., very few "fishy" looking areas).

Wally primed me on his approach prior to stepping foot in his Lund, but I would probably consider myself the aforementioned fast-paced angler and had to see it to believe it...

After Wally's first fall fatty, I tried duplicating his tactic, but to no avail. I quickly went back to throwing faster paced lures telling myself, "Hey, one fish doesn't make a pattern."

When I slid the net under Wally's second fall fatty, I decided "OK, I get it now!" And after Wally's third fall fatty (our biggest of the day), I was thoroughly convinced. Although we did not catch any more fish, a trifecta of heavy muskies made for a great day!

Here Comes the Sun!

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes... NOT!

The rain began the moment we started driving to our destination today and is still coming down as I type. I hate cold rain...

That didn't stop us from putting five in the boat. Nothing huge though, in fact this body of water is not known to produce many fish over 40". Nevertheless, it was a blast. And I got a bonus 25" walleye to boot!

Cheers!

Afternoon Delight

"....Started out this morning feeling so polite; I always thought a fish could not be caught who didn't bite; But you've got some bait a waitin' and I think I might try nibbling;
a little afternoon delight." (Starland Vocal Band)

OK, so this is a different afternoon delight than what's referred to in the song, but it was still oh-so-sweet. Following a few hours of desk work for me and a visit to the Doc's office for Hedrik, the two of us reverted back to simplicity and fished from his little portable boat - no gas powered motor, no electronics and only a handful of lures. We silently drifted down the river with rush hour traffic whizzing by behind us. Ah, the joys of urban fishing.

As we finished our drift Hedrik suggested trolling back upstream. I hopped on the trolling motor and we proceeded forth. Just past a bridge abutment my rod buckled. Thinking my Grandma snagged bottom (previously my Depthraider had last year when we fished the same area), I half-heartedly reefed back. When the rod responded with a couple solid thumps I knew I was not snagged! A couple minutes later after a great fight - lots of twists, spirals, and rolls - the 38.75" muskie was safely secured. It looked quite gnarly sporting a rather nasty mucous coat, but upon release it bolted out of my hand like bullet from a handgun.

After fishing the remainer of the river stretch we drifted back down to the bridge and anchored just upstream of a couple bridge abutments. I fired my Grandma past the abutment and worked it upstream. Just as the lure cleared the base of the abutment my rod loaded up. I slammed the hooks home and the fight was on. It didn't take long for this scrappy 37.75" to relinquish itself to my firm grasp. The out-of-body experience, or should I say out-of-water, didn't last long for the fish and again it swam back to whence it came.

Afternoon delights (plural)!

Triple Whammy and Tim Allard's Photos

Did a bit of relaxing fun fishing today with friend Eric Fontaine. Headed out to the river this morning with a couple rods and a box of lures. Before leaving the storage room I grabbed a few quick-strike rigs with the intention of stopping to grab a few suckers. We are doing a small side project to assess the viability of alternatives to J-hook rigged live-bait fishing for muskies. (For those in the greater Ottawa area who might be concerned about what our "agenda" might be, I can assure you that we are NOT trying to take away your privileges of using suckers for muskies).

I made my way over to Manotick Bait and Tackle and had a nice chat with the owner. She pumps a bit of compressed oxygen into the bait bags for you which is a nice little gesture. The bait was plenty lively and overall high quality. With three suckers in tow I headed to the ramp.

Eric arrived with his slick Stratos 285 bass boat rigged with an adrenaline pumping 150 E-Tec. It's not everyday that I get to go 50mph down the river (contrast that with a whopping 22mph top speed in our jon boat)! Anyway, once we arrived at our first spot I rigged up a sucker and dropped it in the drink hoping it would work its magic. After a couple hours sucker #1 was grabbed by something. With my heart pumping extra hard I slammed the hooks home. The result? A swing and a miss (pretty much what my entire batting career was like when I played baseball). Bummed but not totally discouraged, I rigged another one up.

Eric was tossing a Bulldawg and hammered the steel to a fish as we drifted a weedline. He looked like Kevin VanDam setting the hook into a 5 lb smallmouth! In fact, I'm pretty sure he delivered a knock-out punch to the fish; it barely fought! A quick scoop with the net and Eric had himself a nice 38" fish. It was Eric's birthday today, too!

We switched weedlines a short while later and in mid-sentence I was jolted by a swishing noise behind the boat. I turned to see a boil on the water's surface and my float gone. The muskie must have chased my sucker to the surface and gobbled it there. We positioned ourselves over the fish and I made sure this time I did not miss. I drove the hooks home and nearly whipped a 30"er across the bow. The little tike was quickly in the net, just as quickly unhooked, admired for a couple seconds (the little ones are always so fascinatingly pretty!), and released. Shortly thereafter Eric put another 38" in the net, this one quite a bit heavier and much uglier (weird crackly mucous coat and red sores on its body).

When I got home I found an email from outdoor writer and photographer, Tim Allard, in my inbox. A few blog posts down you'll see one about Tim, his photography, and new ice fishing book that was just released. If you're an ice fishing newbie (like me), seasoned vet, or just a fishing/outdoor enthusiast, check it out! As promised, below are some of Tim's photos from last week's excursion. The last two images portray what all our gear looks like when it's laid out.