Bringing in the new year with some TEETH! :)

Now that it has officially been a month since our winter solstice... it seems like ole' man winter has finally decided to come pay us a visit here in central PA. If you live anywhere nearby, you can probably attest that it has been pretty chilly outside lately! Most mornings have been well below freezing, with temps down into the low teens, and this past week we finally saw our first significant snowfall of the season.

Still, we continue to be fortunate to have flowing water here on our local rivers... Only once have I arrived at a spot and not been able to fish it due to ice. In fact, fishing has been pretty good for us lately.

My Dad and my nephew Bailey decided that January 1st would be the perfect day to get the new year started out right... I spent that day sleeping in bed due to my work schedule, but I awoke to a very interesting text message--it was a picture of a nice musky, hahah. It seemed that Dad and Bailey had picked the right spot for their afternoon angling adventure, as my Dad scored a nice 35 inch muskie... What an awesome way to bring in the new year, congrats Dad!

In my own pursuit of fish with teeth, I had been doing a good job of striking out since mid-December. Still, I had been depositing a fair amount of time in my musky fishing bank account--fishing a few evenings, but mainly stopping on my way home from work to hit a few likely looking eddies. Fortunately, this past week, my time account at the musky bank decided to pay some big dividends... Big, for me at least, haha!

We had a nice front roll through central PA early one morning, which brought with it some rain and milder temps. I happened to be off work that day, so Dad and I decided to make a quick trip out, hoping to find a biter at one of our spots. We fished for about 20 minutes before I happened to make the right cast at the right angle... I could tell that I had a nice fish on at first, but assumed that I had just snagged a carp (which happens quite often) until the large fish came up to the surface and boiled. At that point I got REALLY nervous because I could see that I was hooked up with what was probably the nicest musky I had done battle with in a long time--all I could think about was not loosing it, haha!

Moving on, the fight continued for a few minutes as the fish circled the eddie. The fish was surprisingly strong considering the cold water, and it was hard to find the right moment to lead it in to shore. Eventually, after a bunch of thrashing and nervous moments, the beast came in at the right angle and I was able to slide it in past the outer weedline to the shore. I quickly grabbed her, and that was it... I had my first toothy fish of 2012! She measured 42 inches and was really fat--weighing 22 lbs. Needless to say, I was totally psyched about it and it was equally as exciting watching her swim back to her home after our brief encounter.
If you would have asked me after that fish, I would have thought that my good luck would have ended there... and that I would have needed to start building up more time in my muskie fishing account again before another withdrawal. Still, ya just never know how these things will work out... And somehow, a couple of days later, I was again at the right place at the right time, tossing the same bait that my 42"er ate on my previous outing. This time the fish wasn't quite as big... but it turned out to be a very respectable 35 1/2 inches and put up a great fight with lots of head thrashing. At one point I got really nervous when I saw my 60 lb fluorocarbon leader in its mouth, and it started thrashing its head. Still, all worked out in the end, and my leader actually came back unscathed. I was also very fortunate to meet another, very kind angler on this outing who was happy to hang out with me while I fought the fish, and then take a couple pictures of me with it. Thank you sir! As always, the best part of the experience was watching the fish swim away afterwards.

Well, I guess that concludes this entry for now..... I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it, and re-living the memories. I wish you all a very happy new year! Enjoy the pics, and thanks again for stopping by the site.