King Midas Disguised as Matt Clay?

It would appear that Matt Clay's presence - be it in the form of physical presence in a boat, or residual presence as in merely touching a lure - brings good luck.

Physical presence examples: the first time with Matt in the boat we processed one muskie caught by Robert Wight and Hedrik; I caught another the same night that we got good blood from (but no transmitter); and the next time out Matt catches the previous entry's dandy 48".

Residual presence example... I was using one of his Cowgirls the other day and forgot to take it off my rod. When I arrived at the launch today to track his fish, and bumped into Matt, he told me to keep the Cowgirl in the boat. I brought along a couple rods to do a little "fun fishing" (hey, I need a break every once in a while too!). So I tracked his 48" and outran an incoming storm, stopping at another spot along the way (I am by myself) just for a few casts. It was between throwing a Top Raider, Weagle, or Matt's Cowgirl for the duration of my short stay at that spot. I went with the Cowgirl. Not 15 minutes into fishing the spot, I am watching Matt's Cowgirl spinning toward the boat when a mouth full of huge teeth appears without warning, grabs the bait, and starts headshaking at Mach 3.

Up until this point I'd never had to net my own fish from a boat (from shore, yes, but not a boat). And when I grabbed the Big Kahuna I realized just how unbelievably huge the net is, particularly with an angry muskie attached to the rod in my free hand. My first try fails as the muskie just turns around and swims away, but the second netting attempt went better and I soon had the fish subdued.

After realizing I couldn't take any data on the fish without someone's assistance, I set up the camera and snapped this quick picture. I had to Photoshop my upright middle finger from the fish's midsection... Someone may have taken that the wrong way :P LOL