Muskies in Lake Ovid!

[DaveW731]

I know there is at least one, because I caught and released it last night (I think...will describe it below, and would appreciate confirmation or correction)!
My buddy and I were bass fishing. I was using a medium weight baitcasting outfit, 10# Triline mono and a 1/4oz bargain bin crankbait. Fourth or fifth cast of the day, the the fish hit....first seemed like a good size bass; solid thump, but nothing spectacular. Then, the pole bent double and the fish takes off! After about three minutes I saw the fish...the bait was exactly in the corner of its mouth, with line running away. I was still sure that a breakoff was a matter of time, but was able to keep enough pressure to tire it without it rolling over the line. The fish ran under the boat a couple of times, surfaced twice and pulled us around a bit.
My buddy had a small net stuffed in the bottom of his boat and I was able to tire the fish enough to lead it into the net. With over half of the fish hanging out, we were able to lift it into the boat, but not before some thrashing that gave us both a shower. After admiring the fish for a minute, we let it go and watched it swim away. We did not have a measuring tape and were too pumped to think about finding other ways to measure it but my buddy swears it was at least 40"....I am not sure, but I AM sure it outweighed my 10lb line by a good bit, and I could be convinced that it was 42"....there was not much room left in the 48" long section of the boat where the fish was laying. The rest of the night, we only caught 4 bass, all less than 14". For some reason, that was OK with me :)
Anyway, I am NOT a muskie expert. I knew that Tiger Muskies were planted in Ovid, but hadn't seen one in years. Heard rumors that there were purebred Muskies, too. Also, I have caught pike in there as well, so when I first saw the outline, I thought it was a big pike, till I noticed the color. The fish was reddish-brown colored on top, with some faint spots in a verticle pattern. The belly was white, but with a more silver than yellow tint. The fins were a uniform reddish color. Didn't think to count the pores under the jaw. I had thought the color patterns on a tiger muskie were more pronounced, which is why I am thinking it is a purebred. Any other ideas?
Regardless, IT WAS A RUSH to catch that thing on such light tackle! :) :)

[shametamer]

Way to go Dave! They been planting the northern(purebreds) musky in there since 99. The length you describe would make him easily a 15 lber,certainly over your line strength by 50%!..What were the winds and air temps like?

[just ducky]

Dave
I'm no muskie expert, but I've caught a fair number of pike in my life. The evidence of "vertical" spots or bars would indicate to me it was a Musky.

Here are some links from the DNR website....kind of poor renderings though.

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10364_18958-45684--,00.html

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10364_18958-45685--,00.html

In my experience, a pike's markings are more horizontal, not vertical. So I'm betting you had a musky. They did stock them in there several years ago, but I haven't heard much about anyone catching one lately.

[shametamer]

take a look at rocket mans site...http://www.muskie-lures.com/rocketman/index9.htm..in the photo section match ur catch to a picture!

[DaveW731]

Pretty sure it was a Northern Muskie, based on the info you guys provided.
As far as conditions: it was about 3:30 pm, partly sunny, high winds, temp about 80 degrees. Somewhat sheltered from the wind, however. Caught it along edge of river channel, casting parallel to the emergent weedline. Pretty classic cover.
15 pounds, eh....? I thought it was at least 12. :) :)

[Mike Rathnow]

On how to tell a Pike from a Musky. The one way was, to look at the color. A pike will be a dark background with light spots, and a musky will have a light background with dark spots. But if you really want to be sure what fish you have is to look at the bottom jaw. A will musky have 12 to 18 sensor pores, where a pike will usually have only 10. Sensor Pore's are small opening on the bottom jaw.

[patcheroo]

The biggest fish that I have ever seen was in that lake! I was over there fishing gills and this fish ( musky ) came swimming by the boat at about 15', right on the surface with his eyes and top jaw out of the water. My estimates were that it was 8 to 10" accross the head and 50+ inches long. I don't go over there now without a big rod ready to go.............Patch

[DaveW731]

I hear ya, Patch!
In fact, I may even get a bit radical about this. I am disappointed with my bass catching at Ovid, so maybe I can change targets.
I think I may buy a couple Muskie-size bucktail spinners and start trolling the weedlines. I have salmon poles that should do the job.
For you Muskie experts....Am I correct that Muskies orient to the edges of cover and are usually near the surface? What about trolling speed? Are there times when casting is more effective than trolling? If I pick up a couple of body baits, any suggestions?
Thanks,
Dave

[shametamer]

i live and die with big bucktails(occassionally nets a big bass as well). Paul likes tiger tubes on the pond some...essentially u r correct! trolling speed somewhere between 2 and 5 mph...on any given lake you will have to play with that to find what they prefer...you might also check out muskie central or rocketmans site for more info

[ESOX]

Muskies- dark spots on a light backround. Pike- light spots on a darker backround. Tigers- usually wild vertical darker "barring" that is actually close together spots on a lighter backround, but I have caught tigers that look wildly different from each other. Once you know your pike and muskie for sure, there is no mistaking a tiger.

Body baits, shallow running super shad raps are great for casting or trolling.

[Duke]

Welcome to the madness that is the mighty muskie!! The purebred, northern strain muskies that the DNR has planted in Ovid 3 times now since 99 are doing very well indeed actually (the one you caught would from that 99 year class, 5 years old). They are growing at a very good rate and all fish seem to be fat healthy & happy. The DNR conducted a lake survey via trap nets earlier this summer and found some suckers and carp, which is good thing and most likely the reason for the fast growing fat muskies. Without these fish there is no way the muskies would be growing as well as they are because they simply don't grow fast or ultimately huge on panfish & perch. Good luck with them and if you are going to target them I might suggest bulking up on your tackle. In mid-summer high water temps often a big fish like a muskie that has to be fought to exhaustion to get it to the boat and then pulled out of the water for a long period while trying to unhook will not survive.

[DaveW731]

Duke:
I had been concerned about that. My plan is to use my salmon outfit w/30# spiderwire and 20# mono leader, for that exact reason. Want to stress these big guys as little as possible. I was even considering barbless hooks, being willing to risk losing fish, vs. risk of killing them. What do you (or anyone else) think of these ideas?

[Duke]

I know people who have gone barbless and they are believers in it, but I can't bring myself to do it. I just cut hooks whenever they don't pop right out with mini bolt cutters for my heavy duty 3/0 4/0 muskie hooks. Wire/side cutters will work on lighter hooks. This is just about as fast as barbless I would think. Hooks are fairly cheap and it ensures that you have good sharp points when they are being replaced every so often. The majority of the time the big hooks can pop out pretty quick though- you just gotta have the right tools. Bakers Hook-Outs and my bolt cutters and once in a great while the jaw spreaders.

Congrats on the nice fish and good luck- BUT, beware!! Muskie hunting (it really is more like hunting than fishing) is a disease, it is extremely addicting and causes absolute obsession! I used to be a perfectly normal bass, trout, panfish guy until muskies grabbed ahold of me 5 years ago (and A LOT of $$$ ago, about 2000 fishing hours ago...) it is very rare when I can pull myself away from muskies for even a couple hours of fishing for something else. and if you do go down the slippery slope, stop on over to http://www.michiganmuskiealliance.org - there is a great group of muskie nuts there that will help you out with any questions you got. By the way I tried to race the storm out to Ovid last night and lost- and managed to see only one small muskie (~30-32") after the downpour. But I live close and try to get out there pretty often...