Thursday, September 1, 2011

IBASSIN's day on the water: Pigeon Lake Muskie Part 2

Part 2
As we drove closer to the narrows that link Pigeon lake to Buckhorn, the water got cloudy. Milky, chalky water which seemed unhealthy. We headed to one of our proven weedlines but couldn’t located the grass or fish.  The weeds were down and with very poor water clarity, it was awkward to cast precisely. We spent at least 30 minutes working in and out on the flat. One cast would be free of weeds, the next was tangled in globs of grass.  It seemed like we were wasting our time.
There was a set docks with matted weeds along the bank that looked so fishy, so I headed right over to them. Joels’ new boat has a Minn Kota Talon. A Talon is a shallow water anchor. Press a button cause a large spike to plunge into the water and lock the boat in place. I have never used one and was very curious to try it out. Fishing docks was just an excuse to give the Talon a whirl. I must say, it worked like a charm even when large boat wakes rushed us. I was also surprised of its speed and quietness. The spike enters quickly with no splash. We didn’t catch anything except two hungry rock bass and two small largemouth but the Talon sure impressed me. It might be next on the list.

Joel had some areas near the bridge he wanted to try so we headed there. This place has deep water where the fish can filter in all day long. We tried cranks, spinners, jerk baits and I even gave the Thunder Beast a few casts. Nothing again! The fish where there but I feel the water colour messed them up.
Other than a few reckless teens jumping off the bridge, the action was dead. Off to Buckhorn we went in search of our first bite.
About 1 hour and 45 minutes of hard fishing without any sign of life killed us. The water was still chalky but not as bad as on the Pigeon side. We both decided not to venture much deeper into Buckhorn. It was well past 2pm and we wanted to revisit the areas where I had follows.
To end a poor day, Joel did manage to set the hook into a decent muskie along a shallow weed flat. Joel reacted quickly enough but the hooks didn’t hold and it shook free. So disappointing to loose it.  Joel said that this was one of the only days he can recall when no fish was landed. A real bummer. 
We did try about an  hour and a half of bass fishing. We got a few little ones in shallow grass. The largest was about 3 pounds that whacked a jig and craw pitched along some matted grass next to reeds. It was my first pitch to the grass and bam. We excepted to really nail them after that but it was are only hit there. Weird.
The whole day was weird. At least we got to take the Bass Cat boat and Talon for a run. Sorry this story was not filled with 50 inch muskies but that’s how it goes. Oddly enough, this is the third time this summer I encountered very poor water clarity. It seems to really ruin the fishing on lakes that are predominantly clear.

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