#MuskyResolutions2015

2015 is upon us. This year many anglers will rest on their laurels — they'll go out and throw the same baits at the same spots that worked last year. Where's the growth and progression in that? In the interest of becoming the most holistic musky anglers possible, Steve and I have put together a list of goals and resolutions to help push ourselves in the upcoming fishing season and provide direction for our gear purchases.

Casey’s #MuskyResolutions2015

• Trolling Musky: Catch a musky while trolling (40”+)

My first resolution is one of two carryovers from last year: I need to grow my fishing competency to incorporate trolling. I’ve had my share of all-day casting grinds where I come up with nothing. However had I trolled and covered more water, perhaps I would have contacted an active fish. This season I plan on putting in good time on Lake Miltona, the St. Croix River, and several larger West Metro Lakes to dig in and really learn the art of trolling. I’m committed!

43" musky caught while not trolling...

• Figure-8 Musky: Catch a musky on a figure-8 (36”+)

The thorn in my figurative musky fishing side! Converting a follow into a fish in the bag by means of the figure-8 is one of the most stereotypical accomplishments of the sport. But it's one that has evaded me for years, and in my mind discredits my reputability when measuring up to other musky anglers. I came close last year, but didn't connect. This is the year I change all that.

**Note: I've set my measurement bar of success at 36”. Obviously the bigger the better, but at this point I’ll be happy with almost any fish I manage to figure-8; the 36” mark is simply the compromise of pride and desperation.**

• Open Water Musky: Catch a suspending musky in open water (40”+)

Be it while trolling (knock out two resolutions with one fish) or by casting/jigging plastics at open water bait balls of forage fish, I need to push myself out of my comfort zone (structure/weeds) and learn how to target suspending musky.

• Night Fishing Musky: Catch a musky during night/low visibility conditions (40”+)

I have yet to catch a fish that warrants the headlamps. Granted I don’t fish the graveyard shift too often…

Steve’s #MuskyResolutions2015

• Wisconsin Musky: Catch a musky on Wisconsin Waters (36”+)

Steve has had a bit of an unlucky run in his two years of fishing for Wisconsin musky. His best opportunities were in 2013 while pre-fishing and fishing the Hayward Lakes tournament, where he dumped one at the boat and missed a couple hits.
**Note: The mark is set at 36” — this is because that's a scoring fish in two of the Wisconsin tournaments we might fish this year.**

Steve's 42" Tiger #MuskyResolutions2014

• Topwater Musky: Catch a musky on a topwater lure (40”+)

 One of Steve’s carryover near miss resolutions from last year, the 40"+ Topwater musky, has narrowly evaded his Whopper Ploppers for too long. Secretly I think this is Steve’s inner bass angler craving the topwater strikes of froggin’ bass, but amplified to the scale of the musky.

• Vertical Jig Musky: Catch a musky while vertical jigging (40”+)

We have Bondy Baits, Bondy Wobblers, and this year we’ll likely be picking up a couple other lures capable of vertical applications. Time to put them to good use!

• West Metro Musky: Target and catch a musky on West Metro waters (40”+)

Steve ran out of resolution ideas and I wanted us to have four each, so this one is a little weak, but not without merit. We rarely make it to the other side of the Mississippi, but there are giants to be chased in the West Metro. We really missed out last year during the “no wake” times on Minnetonka...


 Good stuff coming... As we ramp up to the Minnesota/Wisconsin season openers, we'll make our #GetList2015, individual dockets of gear and lures we intend to purchase. We'll also start planning our upcoming fishing trips for the season where you'll be able to see the influences of our #MuskyResolutions play out. In the meantime, I encourage all of you to do the same! How will you measure your own growth and success in the upcoming season, and what will you do to prepare for it?

Year End Reflection

The season is done for us northerners, and 2014 has come and gone. With that I’d like to reflect on the year as it has definitely been one like no other.

Coming into the 2014 season we were riding high off several new techniques we learned, several notable fish, new gear and lures, and even a bit of tournament success. To help prepare for the season, I came up with an idea to try to direct our enthusiasm and pre-season purchases by having Steve and I put together our own individual “New Year’s Musky Resolutions.” We identified goals for the upcoming season based upon accomplishments and milestones that would ultimately encourage and push our musky angling abilities.

Resolutions:
My personal resolutions stemmed from my background as a casting-oriented musky angler from northwest Wisconsin. Though I’ve fished musky for years now, my personal best was a 47"er, the only tiger I ever caught was a sub-30”er, and I only ever accidentally caught one small sub-30" musky trolling a topwater (Whopper Plopper). Full disclosure — with over 11 years of fishing musky, I’ve sadly never hooked a musky on the figure-8’d. I've also never capitalized on sucker fishing. With all that weighing on me, here were my 2014 Musky Resolutions:

• Personal Best Musky: Catch a musky longer than my long-standing largest musky (47”+).
• Tiger Musky: Catch a Tiger Musky (40”+)
• Sucker Musky: Catch a musky while soaking quickset rigged suckers (40”+)
• Figure-8 Musky: Catch a musky on the Figure-8 (At least 36”, but the bigger the better)
• Trolling Musky: Catch a musky while trolling (40”+)

Hailing from the Twin Cities and Alexandria, Minn., my fishing partner Steve came up as a bass-oriented multi-species angler. As of 2013, I pushed him to shed all other fish distractions and chase the big girls, now he identifies as a musky angler who occasionally fishes for other things. Several quality muskies and countless dollars in gear later, Steve’s resolution list stemmed not from the downfalls of a slow learning curve and excuses, but from only having spent one full season really chasing muskies. Steve’s 2014 Resolutions:

• Soft Plastics Musky: Catch a musky on a soft plastic lure (40”+)
• Tiger Musky:Catch a Tiger Musky (40”+)
• Sucker Musky: Catch a musky while soaking quickset rigged suckers (40”+)
• Topwater Musky: Catch a musky on a topwater lure (40”+)
• Catch a Wisconsin Musky (36”+)

Story of the Year:
Overall I’d say this year was a tough one with patches of awesomeness. We definitely put our time in and worked for every fish we caught. I caught less fish this year, while Steve caught more. Overall the size of fish we caught and encountered increased, too.

The Good

Mike's first musky, a 46" spotted beauty
-Guided by Casey on Leech Lake

Leech Lake: On two trips up we caught three great fish (50.5, 46, and 45) and marked several other quality fish, too.

Costa Del Mar’s Sunrise Lens: This season Steve and I both wore new Consta shades with the sunrise lens. They were a musky fishermen’s dream. It’s a bit light on the brightest of days, but for most ideal musky fishing conditions it's a must-have.

Medussas: After going the entire 2013 season without catching a fish on soft plastics, Steve found his stride with Chaos Tackle’s Medussa. He boated multiple fish with their lures. He liked the mini’s for Tigers and had a tough trip on Lake Vermillion saved by a 44”er on a Monster Medussa.

I caught my new personal best, a pretty 50.5”er during this year’s Frank Schneider Tournament, which earned me a $100 Tournament award bonus to add to the awesomeness.

Tigers: Steve spent a good part of the summer and early fall honing his craft of targeting metro tiger muskies with suckers and soft plastics (mostly Medussas) on Gervais and Lake Johanna. For those of you who have not taken a stab at tiger muskies, I highly recommend it! Once we dialed in the tiger musky pattern (steep sloped main lake points and particular edges of flats), we could target and catch fish with a pretty good success rate. This held true for most of July to October — even in less than ideal weather patterns. When the bite was on, it wasn't uncommon for us to have a multiple 35”- 42” tiger day with some fatty pike mixed in.

Somewhere in Between

I didn't catch as many fish with my confidence lure, the Red October Baits 7.5” Ninja tubes, this year. However I did catch my 50.5” (personal best), had two very large follows on Leech, and lost a lower 40”er at the boat during the Wisconsin Musky Opener.

Follows: Man did we have a lot of follows! There were several days where we wouldn’t catch anything, but we’d have a dozen follows, and there were plenty of quality mid and upper 40” fish in that mix. Steve converted a decent sized pike, and his 49”er on the figure-8. I had two decent fish that went a couple of laps on the 8, but didn’t get them to bite.

Steve's topwater musky caught during the George Wahl Tourney
(About an inch shy of the 40" mark)

Minn Kota Terrova: I don’t want to look too deep into this, but while this motor allowed me way better control and freedom over my old cable steer trolling motor, my brand new Terrova seemed to have trouble keeping the
“Spot Lock” and “Co-Pilot” features running true. I’m not too concerned, this should be covered under warranty and corrected for the upcoming season.

The Bad

Wisconsin: We both got skunked. Didn’t see many fish, lost every one we had on, and didn’t come across anything of great size (nothing larger than a lower 40”er).

I lost the biggest fish of the season and my fishing career (estimated 53+). The flashbacks still plague me...

Trolling: We didn’t do enough of it. I tried it out on Waconia in a deluge during the Metro Musky Tournament only to find myself on the wrong side of the lake facing five-foot crashing waves that put my trolling efforts to a quick halt. We also gave it a try mid-day on Leech during the Frank Schneider tournament, but I wouldn’t say that we gave it our all, and had no success.

In the end, here's how our resolutions played out:

Casey’s Resolutions	Achieved?	Steve’s Resolutions	Achieved?
Personal Best Musky	Yes	Soft Plastics Musky	Yes
Tiger Musky (40”+)	Yes	Tiger Musky (40”+)	Yes
Sucker Musky (40”+)	Yes	Sucker Musky (40”+)	Yes
Figure-8 Musky (36”+)	No, but almost!	Wisconsin Musky (40”+)	No
Trolling Musky (40”+)	No	Topwater Musky (40”+)	No, but almost!

Stay tuned for our 2015 Resolutions.

Weathering the Storm – Part 1: The Winternet

It’s that time of year again. Musky fishing in northern Minnesota/Wisconsin officially closed down a little over a month ago, but unofficially Mother Nature cut off even the bravest of us well before that. So begins the long haul of winter...what the heck do we do now!?

The end of the musky fishing season marks the beginning of my grind season, but just because I can’t be on the water casting doesn’t mean I can’t refine my craft. Over the next few months I’ll bide my time tirelessly scrutinizing everything musky online. I’m on continual watch for new products and gear, important dates and locations for the upcoming season, and searching for anything to get a competitive jump on big fish. Here’s my process:

Social Networks

Spend your downtime connecting with the fishing world — guides, gear and lure companies, fishing teams, and other fellow anglers. Content floods the web this time of year as companies and guides gear up for the upcoming season. 

Scan the social web for new techniques, lakes/spots, and ideas to apply to your game. Every picture and description posted contains details that may hold clues to make you a better angler. Some takeaways are easy to spot, while others require you to look past simple descriptions and Sherlock Holmes all pictures for clues: What body of water are they on? Where are they in relation to shore? Can you see any details on the electronics? Notice any key landmark features? What are the weather conditions? Any notable gear or lures in sight? 

New lure by Chaos Tackle - The Pegassus (Hot Perch)

While browsing the web and social networks, keep an eye out for gear and lures to start putting together your personal #GetList2015. With the major musky expos coming up (Chicago, Milwaukee, and Twin Cities), there’s plenty of new product details starting to surface. Assess what you can add to your arsenal and start forming a plan of attack for the coming season.

Lastly, cash in on free swag! Facebook and Twitter not only offer up a great platform to connect with like-minded anglers, but there always seems to be some kind of contest offered by a guide or company. After a few weeks I’ve already won VIP passes to the Chicago Musky Expo and a half-day Green Bay guided fishing trip. Opportunity abounds! 

Forums

Need advice on what kind of gear to invest in or how to fish a certain lake? How about creating a custom lure for the upcoming season? The forums are your best bet to discuss all things musky related. There are plenty to pick from (The NextBite, Musky Hunter, Facebook groups, etc.), but I’ve found the most traffic and up-to-date content on MuskieFIRST. Unload your questions —there’s definitely a person who can field an answer.

Video

For those privy to proper television channel packages, winter is the time to settle in and watch new seasons of Keyes Outdoors, The Musky Hunter, The Next Bite, Fishing with Joe Bucher, and more. Sponge up as much as you can from these guys; they’re pro’s for a reason. While some of them solely fish the best unpressured waters Canada has to offer, every episode usually has something to apply to your angling approach.

For everyone else, there’s Youtube. Thank God for fishermen with GoPros! These anglers aren’t totally tied down by sponsorship pressure, so you can see lures at work that might not have the marketing budgets to make the limelight of the network TV shows. Here’s our watch list:

• Keyes Outdoors
• Uncut Angling
• The Next Bite: You used to be able to watch entire episodes from the first five seasons, but now all you get is clips with tips. 
• ProFishermanJones: Mega! 
• Team Predator Nation
• GEOBASS by Costa Sunglasses: Not actually musky fishing, but pretty entertaining. 
• Musky Tube
• Bigtooth Tackle Company
• Team Rhino Outdoors
• SemiProFishing: Content coming soon! 

Take a look at the people SemiPro follows on Twitter, or scroll down to the bottom right of our Facebook page to see who we like to get an idea of where to start. 

There is no off-season — just the half you fish and the half where you prepare for the upcoming season. Just because you’re not on the water doesn’t mean you can’t grow as an angler.

What Is SemiProFishing?

SemiProFishing is a lot of things… 

At the core we’re a couple of goofs who really like to fish, particularly for musky (Muskellunge [Esox Masquinongy]). Though occasionally, by intent or accident, we’ll catch other fish, too. We rise and grind to catch big fish, have a good time, and unite with those who share our passion for all things musky.

We hope to be a fresh resource, both educating and entertaining, for musky anglers. We’ll keep you posted on all the details of our fishing exploits, and bring you news from the fishing community around us. We'll do our due diligence to provide you with a complete disclosure report — in as close to real time as possible — so that you can apply what we provide and hopefully get on a good bite yourself. Most competitive fishermen and guides cringe at this scenario; we choose to welcome it. 

Together we’ll push the learning curve and ourselves to gain the upper hand on the "Fish of 10,000 Casts." 

Catch us on Facebook and Twitter (#SemiPro) right now, and coming soon — Instagram and our very own Youtube channel.

Stay tuned for awesomeness...