Predator “Eats” Prey

I hit the water this morning with Norm & Alison, to se if we couldn’t get into a few big smallies as Norm needed to beat his personal best. The weather was a cool 45 degrees at the start with a light S/W wind of less than 5 K. Sunshine greeted us pretty much all day long bringing the air temps into the 60’s by days end. The water temps started out at 58.5 degrees, but also warmed to just over 60 degrees before we were done. It didn’t take long before the action started and both Alison & Norm were hooking up on multiple bass in the 2 to 4 pound range. This went on for quite a while throughout the morning and then it just slowed down completely. I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t like it! I changed up to several colours and they picked a fish here & there, but it just didn’t feel right. I had a feeling there was a higher power responsible for this and decided to relocate to another area not too far away. As luck would have it, this turned out to be the right decision. Almost immediately, Alison was into a bass on her first cast and Norm was soon to follow. There were a mixed bag of both smallmouth & largemouth bass in this area, but I was after the big smallies. Norm had a shot at 3 or more of these giants, but unfortunately they all came unpinned when they took to the air. I know that at least two of them were in the mid to upper 5 pound range as we had a great look at them during the short battle. Alison did manage to personal best hers though with a nice smallie in the upper 4-pound range and that was great to see. To all our amazement, Norm was left empty handed with about 6 chances and they all came off! We decided to run back to the other area for a little while before we called it a day and Norm hooked into a smallie within the first minute. It may not have been one of the giants he kept losing, but it was a decent fish of a couple of pounds. About the time the fish took to the air on it’s first jump, my suspicions were confirmed. There was an enormous surface explosion about 20 feet from the boat as a huge musky decided this was an easy meal and grabbed the bass crossways in its mouth. It actually looked more like a shark attack than anything else as we all stared in amazement. I’m not sure why, but the musky didn’t want to let the bass go and after a couple of minutes of battle, I was able to net the beast and bring it aboard. I quickly locked onto her with the boga to ensure everyone’s safety, fish included and to my surprise, the bass was gone and the jig was holding in the musky’s jaw. A couple of quick pics and a measurement and the 48-inch monster was released unharmed to feed another day. I told them that after this, everything else would be just downhill. We stayed for a brief period longer and soon after decided to leave for home. This was not only a productive day for bass, but an exciting one with the musky as well! It’s not too often that you get to experience this first hand and rarely do you ever end up landing the fish, especially on 10 pound line. I’m sure that all of us won’t forget this anytime soon!!