Johnny Hearns (15) with healthy 44" Pigeon Lake October musky.

Cool fall afternoons are great for fishing and even better for family. I was able to get both. My daughter and I took the 2 hour drive to our favorite musky spot to see if there were any lurkers with our name on them. At 5:30am as we I rolled out of bed my wife said "I hope you catch one". My reply was that as long as Taylor (14) caught one, I'd be happy. I was wrong, I'm still jealous of her family record 42" 21lbs musky! It was breezy and overcast as the sun should have been coming up. Breezy turned into very windy by the time my little 14' tinner slipped into the water. We talked about not fishing due to the wind but since we'd driven the 2 hours anyways, we figured we'd give it a shot. We fished the calmer side of an island and a large bay to stay out of the wind with no success. Trolling was not an option as the waves were nearing 30"-36". We moved into 15' of water over a bed of submerged cabbage, we had about 18" of clearance above the weeds. I missed one small one and feared that was all that the day would offer. I was throwing a musky size spinner bait and was testing all of the muscles in my arm and back to keep at it. Meanwhile, my Taylor was fishing a lighter lure and rod. She was casting a 7' 6" medium stiff rod with a Quantam reel. She was about to put the 80lbs braid that was wrapped on that reel to the test. A disappointing "miss" in her opinion, was a grab from the weeds in my opinion but she insisted she felt "a bite". My response was, "Tales, if a musky bites, you'll know!" This being her first musky, she'd not felt the full force of that wallop before! As she cranked on the inline bucktail it seemed to catch on some weeds again...Then her rod shot straight down into the water and she was barely hanging on. "Daaaaaaad!" Her voice was 1/2 fear and 1/2 excitement, her arms were shaking as the water beast shook it's head back and forth and darted for the weeds. All I could offer was a little fatherly advice "keep your rod tip up honey, don't let any slack in the line!" For about 5 or 6 minutes they battled, our boat turned and turned as this monster searched for cover. The musky dragged us into slightly deeper water and into the wind. We now set sail at the wind's pace for the far bank. After about 10 minutes she had wrestled this huge fish to the surface and when I finally got a look at the shadow in the water I couldn't help but shriek like I was the 14 year old girl! It was massive and I was excited. I had the oversized musky net ready and scooped her up on the first pass by the boat. We left her in the water while I took out the hook and we gathered our thoughts. Taylor was not much interested in holding this fish but there was no way her monster was going back without the picture of what may be her entire lifetime. (it sure would have been the picture of my lifetime). I clamped the jaw grabbers on and hoisted this beauty out of the water and handed it to my daughter like a doctor handing over a baby to a new mom. As she proudly and nervously cradled her giant bundle of joy, a man at the shore left his excavator where he was perched digging out the makings of a new cottage, and came for a peek. We were all pretty impressed. We took a quick measure and weigh and settled the fish back into her frigid home. I held her for close to 10 minutes while she recovered her strength, I lost pretty well all feeling in my hand as the water was only about 1C. It took a long time to get back to the dock working against that wind and those waves. We were up early, home late and frozen through...and it was one of the best days I've ever had. Can't wait for the 2018 season to open, I'm angling for my own cover story in 2019! Happy fishing and tight lines to all in 2018! Matt and Taylor Young

45 inch 24 pound musky week...

45 inch 24 pound musky week before I put boat away