"There's a bump......here's one......GOT IT" those were my words last night to my boat Partner/client Pete as a fish connected to my SuperModel Lure under the cover of darkness on an extended figure 8. I first felt the fish bump the lure saw a bit of a swirl and three turns later the fish connected. The fish was of average size...about 42" but hooking one on a foot of line next to the boat in darkness manages to magnify the experience quite a bit. A bit later Pete had a strike mid retrieve and had a fish on for a while that somehow managed to twist off, I told him that is why they call it fishin not gettin........ we regrouped and continued. Unknown to Pete I repositioned the boat so his cast would connect with a GPS icon I had placed earlier in the day when a large fish had followed but not struck. A couple casts later during an extended figure 8 Pete yelled "I got one" ...this was actually unneeded comentary as there was nearly four feet and somwhere around 30 pounds of Muskie in the air right next to boat! After a brief shortline battle we got the fish in the net and Pete's first figure 8, first after dark and biggest lifetime fish to date was in the books. After the high fives, unhooking, pictures and release the discussion turned to the effectivness of the figure 8 after dark as both of the fish caught had struck well into the 4th or 5th turn of blind figure 8's...we had no idea they were there until contact was made.
So if you want some full on X-Games style excitement make sure you do an extended figure 8 when you are fishing muskies...especially after the sun goes down.
Bob Turgeon
FishMuskies@aol.com