August Muskies

By Nick Simonson
I stood at the edge of the dock and sighed as Sunday’s gusty south wind whipped through the pages in my mental calendar. Next weekend is Labor Day with family up north; the next, dove hunting; the one after that, grouse opener, and then bow hunting. Every weekend was filled with [...]

New Musky Lures

Early evidence that three new muskie baits from Northland are living up to all the hype.
Bemidji, MN – Their names are unforgettable. Their performances are undeniable. Not too many moons ago Northland Fishing Tackle broke the news about three seriously savage introductions into the muskie marketplace. Finally, the entire collection is now available at major [...]

Homemade Musky Baits

By Nick Simonson
Muskie anglers love to throw the biggest, flashiest baits. But in these days of dwindling discretionary income, spinners with oversized blades, magnum flashabou skirts and price tags to match are becoming cost-prohibitive. However, you can produce a bait at home for half as much as you’d pay for popular store models [...]

ACE the New Year

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
It sounded like the hardware store jingle as the long-time guide laid out his simple plan for muskie fishing. “ACE is the base for success with muskies – Attitude, Character, Enthusiasm,” he bellowed to those of us in attendance at the banquet. Simply, he summed up what makes a good angler – the [...]

5 Follows

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
Just five casts into Saturday morning, I figured the weekend would have one of two outcomes: either bigger muskies would certainly follow the one in my hand, or I just pre-spent my next 995 casts on the 20-incher with the treble of my homemade pink-and-brass bucktail in its mouth. As it turned out, [...]

Muskie Fishing at Night

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
There’s nothing more primal in our human psyche than fear – or at least a healthy level of cautious respect – for that which we cannot see when the light of day has faded. The haunting cry of a loon at sunset is quickly replaced by the hoot of an owl, filling the [...]

Minnesota Musky Fishing

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
Up until last year, the muskellunge was just a footnote in my fishing journals. Between jigging for walleyes, pitching tubes for bass, and waxing a few panfish on the flyrod, there wasn’t much room for another angling pursuit. Sure, I had a muskie rod, but its use had fallen by the wayside since [...]

Muskie Madness

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson

 
Wearing a pair of old glasses, I peered into the choppy surface of the lake. The gray ceiling of clouds reflected in the trough of each ripple, while the weedtops were visible in the water column with each tiny crest. Despite the weaker prescription, I could clearly see the orange pulsating blade of [...]

Catch and Release 101

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson

 

 
A dead-weight tug on the end of my line signaled that the largemouth bass under the dock was indeed hungry. I swept the rod back and the four-pound fish rocketed up out of the water. She battled every foot of the way to my hand.
I reached down, tweaked the hook and felt it [...]

Start Practicing Catch & Release

By Doug Leier
When I go fishing, I’m a hook and bobber kind of a guy. While I’ve used downriggers, depth finders and detailed contour maps over the years, they don’t help me much and I’ve always been a low-impact type of angler.
While I typically get along with simple tackle for fishing – of bobbers, jigs, [...]