Today must have been "Tiger Musky Day" at Silver! Motor1 and I fished in the morning, in our usual area of 40' of water. Initially, we experienced a decent perch bite, getting several keepers apiece. Immediately after pulling a perch through his hole, Motor1 sees a large tiger musky flash across the bottom of his hole. A few minutes later, he gets another perch and it happens again. He's unable to tell exactly how big this fish is but knows it's big enough to cover his hole from edge to edge as he sees it pass. The perch bite collapses immediately, whether from this fish or timing we're unsure. We did manage 20 or so keeper perch.

I went back down at 3:00 hoping for an afternoon bite. Another gentlemen, Mike, joined me. I had several holes drilled and was moving from hole to hole, hoping to find a school. At every move I'm cleaning the ice from my eyelets and the hole. After about my 20th move, I drop my lure in and watch as line feeds into the water. Suddenly it stops after only 15 feet or so. I verified it wasn't stick on the hole's edge and double-checked my eyelets. Thinking I've maybe found a suspended crappie, I close the bail and take up the slack. The line goes taut and I set the hook. Immediately, 24" of ultralight jigging rod doubles completely over and the drags begins deliberately clicking away! Whatever I hooked was big, heavy, fearless and unconcerned with ongoing events. It just continued to swim away at a leisurely pace, taking line. I tightened my drag as much as possible in a futile effort to slow him down. This went on for 2-3 minutes and there was absolutely nothing I could do. Just about the time I thought "I'm gonna be here all night", the line went slack as it spit the hook.

Folks, I've caught a lot of large bass, trout, and even chain pickerel up to 10 lbs through the ice before, and nothing came close to comparing to this beast! Other fish fight. This one acted as though it didn't know it was hooked! Had to have been a tiger musky! What a hoot it was despite the fact I lost it and could never have iced it through a 6" hole!!!

P.S. I did not catch a single perch during the afternoon trip.

The Jigmiester

2/2/2011 9:07:00 PM

Sounds like a Tiger Musky got you... that would have been an awesome photo if it was! Thanks for the report, Jiggy

Jay K

2/2/2011 10:02:00 PM

Nice job plugging away at Silver; Reaping rewards. Was hoping to join y'all Thur, but prob no dice. PS, got your pm's ; Was looking to changeup the rigs.

needATmusk

2/3/2011 1:14:00 AM

yup probably a tiger. while fishing perch this past summer i've been with a couple buddies who not only hooked but landed them with no more than a jig and worm. i've been fishing that lake for the better part of a decade and never had the luck of getting one. congrats.

lonnie197272

2/3/2011 7:05:00 AM

Just curious what the depth and condition of the ice. Would be nice if that was included in reports for ice fishing for us that are a little leary about getting on the hardwater. Good job man sounds like you had a good time.

raffensg64

2/3/2011 11:30:00 AM

Holy Moly! I went back this morning. Linked up with two other guys who I'd fished with before. We were getting incredible action for 15 minutes, with several apiece on the ice. Suddenly I saw a tiger flash by under my hole. A minute later, Jerry sets the hook on something that doubles up his rod! Thankfully for him, it's a full size rod with 12# test. After a few minutes he gets a tiger musky to the hole and eventually manages to get his head turned up, where his buddy Mike grabbed the toothy critters jaw and iced him. Not a true monster, but an honest 41" and the only tiger any of us had seen caught ice fishing!!! Being well under the 50" minimum, he was released to fight another day. Sorry no pics....none of us had a camera.

Dafishslayer

2/3/2011 12:05:00 PM

Wow, I bet that was pretty exciting. That might explain why the perch fishing all a sudden goes cold, because there is a T. M. in the area. I know if I was a perch I would swimming for my life if T. M. was after me.

raffensg64

2/3/2011 5:06:00 PM

After 2 days of this nonsense, I'm gonna attempt to target them! I just finished rigging up one of my heavy 30" jigging rods. It's now armed with a Mitchell 300 Excellence loaded with fresh 10 lb. Trilene. Hopefully this will be enough. Jerry's fish was at the hole in just a few minutes, it really didn't fight much. Terminal end is a perch colored spoon. As soon as I see another one of these characters through a hole, or when they bite suddenly crashes, I'm putting it in. It's worth a shot considering I'm seeing a lot of tigers lately.

Kfedka

2/3/2011 11:03:00 PM

How this is the ice?

raffensg64

2/4/2011 3:12:00 AM

Ice is 5-9", depending on where you're at. As usual it's thickest near the bank. The day before this latest cold front moved in, after several days of mid-40s, two guys walked completely across the lake! I wouldn't have tried it in 100 years, myself. It's good, hard, safe ice right now, though.

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