March 11 and 12, 2008

Muskie Fishing at Spring Lake North, near Peoria IL

Brad "Hawg Czar" Wooddell with a plump 34 incher.

Brad "Hawg Czar" Wooddell with a TWIN 34.5 incher !!!

March 11 , 2008 Spring Lake North

Well, after a long cold February, the ice finally came off the lakes. Mom, Dad and I hit the water at 11 AM and were back on the trailer at 2:30 PM. I fished the Rat-L-Trap for about an hour with no takers, then switched up to a Rapala Shallow Shad Rap. Bingo !!! Started with a 31 incher, and followed up with a 35 incher. The 35 incher was a little disappointing though. When I set the hook, he just kind of shook around and rolled, but didn't even make an attempt at a run ??? When he got to the boat I saw why...... The upper half of his tail was completely missing and scarred over, and he was bizarrely skinny (skinnier than a pike by far). The lack of a functional tail had definitely affected his feeding, he looked like a snake. Then our luck got even worse: Mom finally hooked a decent fish, but he shook free and the wind kicked up to 25 mph !!! And that wasn't the worst part.... back home that night I was looking at the pics and inadvertently destroyed the file. BOOOO!!!!

March 12 , 2008 Spring Lake North

Mom, Hawg Czar and I hit the launch at 11:30 AM. We started the day feeling confident that we had a solid pattern to work with. Fishing again with the Rapala Shallow Shad Raps, we had 5 strikes, 4 hook-ups, and 2 fish in the boat. Brad (Hawg Czar) hooked what would have been the Fish of the Day, but it charged the boat and rapped up on the outboard prop. Ouch, that was really painful. Looked like a 38-40 incher. We'll be back for revenge.

Here's a Video Clip from March 12,2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBgh--KA2h8

Good Luck Everybody !!!

I hope to see you on the water very soon.

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