For me, the 5-minute YouTube video below is a breath of fresh air. Many of today’s anglers for bass, muskies, walleyes, crappies and more have become so dependent on modern electronics that, in my opinion, the “fair chase” component of fishing has been left in the dust.
Muskies used to be known as “the fish of 10,000 casts,” but due to technological advances in fishfinders such as forward-facing sonar (FFS), today’s musky anglers can slowly cruise around a lake with their outboard motor simply looking for fish (usually suspended) on their FFS screens. After a musky is spotted, the angler then lowers the trolling motor, quietly slips within casting distance, and then makes a pinpoint cast just ahead of the fish.
This is not a misprint: I know a musky guide who recently took out a client on a well-known musky lake in northern Minnesota, and using FFS exclusively for 8 hours, the guide made 12 casts — all day! — for muskies that he spotted on his fishfinder. The client never made a cast because the guide doesn’t want him to “mess things up.” After the lure landed, the guide handed the rod to the client and then explained how to work the lure to entice the musky to strike. With FFS, the guys could see the fish, see the lure, and watch the fish’s reaction to the lure. That day, the client hooked 10 muskies and landed seven of them. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether this is fair chase — I’ve already stated my opinion.
I suspect that Jim Olson, who is featured below, shares my opinion. In the video, you’ll learn how Jim got hooked on musky fishing, and see how he targets them by rowing around northern Wisconsin’s Crab Lake in his wooden 14-foot boat, which he built, trailing three fishing lines in the water behind him. (Note: Yes, Jim uses an inexpensive depthfinder; it shows him depth and weed growth so he knows where to row.)
Jim caught his first musky (33 inches) at the age of 10 in 1949 — then it took him 17 years to catch his second one. Now that’s persistence!
Take the time to check out this wonderful video.
