Musky 7/11

[coolkyle]

I headed to my favorite spot on the lower Musconetcong Saturday morning, my first time on the Musky since April. The water was nice and cool and a perfect 180 or so CFS. This had been my favorite spot because of the good water and scenery, though I was convinced it held virtually no fish. It was not a dry fly kind of morning, so I fished nymphs (prince, san juan worm, serendipity, copper john, barr's emerger) all morning without a bump and without seeing a single fish. Around noon I headed downstream to a nice big pool about 6' deep and switched to a #12 bugger and a split shot (don't try this on a 3wt, especially without a helmet) and soon was rewarded with a nice brookie. This gave me that streamer confidence that comes and goes, so I decided to go bolder, with a #8 marabou muddler, again with an awkward split shot to get the fly deep. After getting a few follows in the tail of the pool, I hooked a decent rainbow that fought like hell. Something had obviously tried to eat this SOB, it had some nasty scars. I missed two more nice rainbows in another deep pool before heading out with a growling, empty stomach. Next time, the 5-weight comes along.