Sunrise to Sunset at Pineview Reservoir

Joe's 48.5 inch tiger musky that he caught last Monday, 10-01-2012.

Based on Joe's catch this past Monday (pictured above), I'm sure you can imagine just how excited I was when he invited me to join him Friday to go after some tiger musky. I met him at the Port Ramp at Pineview Reservoir. It was a frosty morning at 32 degrees, and we were treated to one the the best sunrises I've seen in a long time.  When we launched, the water was glass with barely a hint of a breeze. We headed out with high hopes of catching another monster tiger musky (hybrid of a northern pike and a muskellunge), and we soon arrived at our first destination on the lake.

 

the sky looked to be on fire as we set out on the water.

calm conditions greeted us for the first few hours of the day.

 We started out casting shorelines. Joe worked subsurface, while I went top-water. As time went by, we started telling fish stroies from adventures past. I started focusing more on the conversation than I did the fishing. It was then, in mid-sentence and not paying attention that I heard an explosion out the the water and my line got heavy. The topic quickly went from fish stories to fighting the first fish of the day! The fish fought a good fight, but it was over quickly.
Since all tiger musky must be released from this reservoir, We were equipped with really heavy line so we could get the fish to the net as quickly as possible. Not dragging out the fight and having the proper equipment to handle these fish is essential for a good release, and the survival of the fish. Joe had everything needed, including one of the biggest nets I have ever seen in person. He could have netted me with that thing! I kept the musky in the water while Joe got the hook out. We got a quick measurement and a few pictures, and released to the musky to be caught another day. The musky measured in at 39 inches. While being on the skinny end of the spectrum, this tiger musky is a new personal best for me. It is also the longest fish I have caught in Utah.



A skinny 39 inch tiger musky; my personal best!

Check out those chompers!

We continued fishing the shorelines for the next several hours. While doing this, something smacked Joe's swim bait, and for a second we got excited thinking we were going to have another musky. Joe quickly realized that it wasn't a musky, but a nice small mouth bass that must have been real hungry going after what Joe was throwing. Around the next bend, Joe had a musky follow his lure all the way to the boat, but he couldn't get the musky to commit. He also missed another musky a short time later. The wind really picked up as the day wore on, and we decided to switch tactics from shoreline to trolling. we trolled for several hours without a bite, so we cast the shorelines the last few hours of the day.
As the sun dipped below the mountains, we called it, and headed back to the marina. Although the fishing screeched to a halt after the first few hours, it was still a great day fishing, and learning more about musky and how to catch them. Joe has put countless hours on this reservoir figuring out these fish, and he has cought a lot of them over the years. I thank him again for the invite and also getting me into the largest musky of my life so far. We have a few more trips planned targeting other fish, but I'm sure we will meet up again to go after "the fish of a thousand casts."

Joes with a nice small mouth bass.

The wind picked up and made for an interesting time manuvering the boat.

The last ray's of light before the sun sank below the mountain-tops.