Musky Mania 34, October 2004
Tournament Winners
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All, another Musky Mania is in the books, total of 7 teams fished this past weekend out of North Twin Lodge fishing North and South Twin as the host lake until noon on Saturday.
Par for the course, the weatherman were right on with their forecast, as instead of the light and variable winds, Saturday a.m. saw some pretty stiff winds making fishing a bit more challenging, but guess that's why they call it "fishing". Hopes were pretty high for Saturday fishing as folks pre-fishing on Friday had some good success, even though it was on other lakes, we all know Twin has some good fish to look forward to trying to catch. Weather conditions were pretty ideal for good "lunge" fishing; especially if you like strong winds, rain/hail, and a little thunder and lightning thrown in. |
Roger Olson and Ken Swick teamed up for a two fish day, believe they had a 36 and a 34, Ken's fish coming on his second cast of the day, great way to start the day, what's so hard about musky fishing ?
The Dave Nickel group also teamed up for two fish, fish were caught out of two separate boats within a short time of one another, a 36 and a 45 inch beauty, hope to have some pics to show.
Yours truly continued to provide his guide services to partner Gary Borkowski, who had a two fish afternoon, fish of 32 and 30 inches; one fish being caught during the major with the skies opening up, a good deal of lightning and thunder, and oh yes the wind was howling; ideal conditions !!
The Skeeter Two team, better known as "Team Stranger", of Jim Jessup and Musky Pete , you asked them what that's about, I'm not going there, battled the winds on Vieux DeSert. What an opportunity to break in Jimmy's new Skeeter, when you get a chance, ask him about the dock that got in the way, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to share the details with you !
Tom Hickson of North Twin Lodge, was again an outstanding host and NTL provided great accommodations; regretfully it may have been our last Musky Mania out of NTL, more on that later. Saturday lunch was a hearty one with some spicy chili and Gary Borkowski's hot elk sandwiches, very tasty. Door prizes were won by everyone and again Musky Pete provided some original "JAZ MA TAZ" bucktails as special door prizes.
Pete from the Sportsman had provided us a good deal on a rod and reel for raffle prizes, and we had additional items from Musky Hunter and Musky Pete. Ask Gary who won the Diawa Millionaire reel, all I know is he informed Christine that he needed a new rod ! Musky Pete provided some Musky Mania history with video clips of past outings and also premiered the lead-in for Musky Mania, all I know is I definitely need a heavy rod for the fish in the video and a much bigger boat.
Again, we had a good number of new participants for Musky Mania and hopefully they enjoyed themselves and we will see them back again for future Musky Mania's. In spite of the challenging conditions and slow fishing overall, Mr. Musky did not win MM34, a total of 3 fish were caught securing the prize money for 1st through 3rd place. The younger generation showed up the old timers again with "Bucktail Bill" Justmann taking 1st place honors, way to go Bill!
By the way, when you get a chance, ask Dave why he was asking if anyone had room in their boat for Bill to fish with on Sunday! Even though no fish were caught out of Twin, folks did have some action there on Saturday.
The team of Mark Hawkins and Danny Gracyalany had a teaser bite on a sucker, he wanted it, he didn't, he wanted it, he didn't and in the end he didn't. The Dave Nickel team had some sucker action too, fishing suspended fish in 45 feet of water with the sucker 12 feet down, major bite with teeth marks to prove it, but no fish. We also heard they had a fish hit a Jake and the hook set was so hard that the gears stripped on the reel resulting in a major "birdsnest", we didn't catch the reel make?
Danny Gracyalany, this spring's winner, graciously handed off the Musky Mania plaque and traveling vest to Bucktail Bill to be worn with pride until next springs outing. During the awards presentation, we heard Ken Swick, the 3rd place winner say he was going right to Wal-Mart with his winnings and purchase the Bucktail Bill caught his fish on.
Thanks again to all the folks that participated and turned up for the awards on Sunday (100%) and a special thanks to Gary Borkowski, Jim Jessup, and Musky Pete for all their help in organizing and coordinating MM34, we are already looking forward to MM35.
With regard to the timing/location of MM35 that is a TBD at this time. As I noted above MM34 might have been our last MM outing at North Twin Lodge as I think a good number of you know already that Tom has it up for sale. In talking with Tom this past weekend he indicated he's had a lot of lookers, but at this time nothing is in the works for a sale. We have indicated that we would like to have our spring outing there, same timing as this past spring, which is the second weekend of the Musky Season, weekend after Memorial Day if the opportunity still exists. He will be back in touch by the end of November/early December to provide us an update on the status of the lodge. It did sound regardless if he was still operating this spring that the opportunity to have another fall outing there is pretty remote as he would only stay open through Labor Day.
In the meantime, Dave Justmann is starting to gather information on other possible lakes, lodges, etc to be proactive in having options available if NTL does not work out for the spring. Lakes already being considered are the Three Lakes Chain, Eagle Chain, Vieux De Sert, High/Fishtrap, Pelican, Manitowish Chain, and the Cisco Chain. If anyone has suggestions/recommendations on lake areas to fish and especially lodging opportunities please pass on to Dave Justmann.
Just some points of information regarding the spring outing; we would probably be looking at 25-30 participants, and would need lake sizes to accommodate 12-15 teams. Again, not all of the folks have to stay at one location, but if possible it provides the opportunity for a greater level of camaraderie.
Also for MM35 we are looking into getting hats made up as 35 will be another milestone in Musky Mania history, we will keep you updated on ordering info/costs as things get firmed up. One added note, we are always looking for opportunities to obtain door/raffle prize items as we need to start working on that ASAP, so if you have or know of opportunities, please feel free to pass on to Dave Justmann, Gary Borkowski, or myself. Have a great rest of a lunge season and catch a big one and hope to see you all in the spring at MM35.
The Dave Nickel group also teamed up for two fish, fish were caught out of two separate boats within a short time of one another, a 36 and a 45 inch beauty, hope to have some pics to show.
Yours truly continued to provide his guide services to partner Gary Borkowski, who had a two fish afternoon, fish of 32 and 30 inches; one fish being caught during the major with the skies opening up, a good deal of lightning and thunder, and oh yes the wind was howling; ideal conditions !!
The Skeeter Two team, better known as "Team Stranger", of Jim Jessup and Musky Pete , you asked them what that's about, I'm not going there, battled the winds on Vieux DeSert. What an opportunity to break in Jimmy's new Skeeter, when you get a chance, ask him about the dock that got in the way, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to share the details with you !
Tom Hickson of North Twin Lodge, was again an outstanding host and NTL provided great accommodations; regretfully it may have been our last Musky Mania out of NTL, more on that later. Saturday lunch was a hearty one with some spicy chili and Gary Borkowski's hot elk sandwiches, very tasty. Door prizes were won by everyone and again Musky Pete provided some original "JAZ MA TAZ" bucktails as special door prizes.
Pete from the Sportsman had provided us a good deal on a rod and reel for raffle prizes, and we had additional items from Musky Hunter and Musky Pete. Ask Gary who won the Diawa Millionaire reel, all I know is he informed Christine that he needed a new rod ! Musky Pete provided some Musky Mania history with video clips of past outings and also premiered the lead-in for Musky Mania, all I know is I definitely need a heavy rod for the fish in the video and a much bigger boat.
Again, we had a good number of new participants for Musky Mania and hopefully they enjoyed themselves and we will see them back again for future Musky Mania's. In spite of the challenging conditions and slow fishing overall, Mr. Musky did not win MM34, a total of 3 fish were caught securing the prize money for 1st through 3rd place. The younger generation showed up the old timers again with "Bucktail Bill" Justmann taking 1st place honors, way to go Bill!
By the way, when you get a chance, ask Dave why he was asking if anyone had room in their boat for Bill to fish with on Sunday! Even though no fish were caught out of Twin, folks did have some action there on Saturday.
The team of Mark Hawkins and Danny Gracyalany had a teaser bite on a sucker, he wanted it, he didn't, he wanted it, he didn't and in the end he didn't. The Dave Nickel team had some sucker action too, fishing suspended fish in 45 feet of water with the sucker 12 feet down, major bite with teeth marks to prove it, but no fish. We also heard they had a fish hit a Jake and the hook set was so hard that the gears stripped on the reel resulting in a major "birdsnest", we didn't catch the reel make?
Danny Gracyalany, this spring's winner, graciously handed off the Musky Mania plaque and traveling vest to Bucktail Bill to be worn with pride until next springs outing. During the awards presentation, we heard Ken Swick, the 3rd place winner say he was going right to Wal-Mart with his winnings and purchase the Bucktail Bill caught his fish on.
Thanks again to all the folks that participated and turned up for the awards on Sunday (100%) and a special thanks to Gary Borkowski, Jim Jessup, and Musky Pete for all their help in organizing and coordinating MM34, we are already looking forward to MM35.
With regard to the timing/location of MM35 that is a TBD at this time. As I noted above MM34 might have been our last MM outing at North Twin Lodge as I think a good number of you know already that Tom has it up for sale. In talking with Tom this past weekend he indicated he's had a lot of lookers, but at this time nothing is in the works for a sale. We have indicated that we would like to have our spring outing there, same timing as this past spring, which is the second weekend of the Musky Season, weekend after Memorial Day if the opportunity still exists. He will be back in touch by the end of November/early December to provide us an update on the status of the lodge. It did sound regardless if he was still operating this spring that the opportunity to have another fall outing there is pretty remote as he would only stay open through Labor Day.
In the meantime, Dave Justmann is starting to gather information on other possible lakes, lodges, etc to be proactive in having options available if NTL does not work out for the spring. Lakes already being considered are the Three Lakes Chain, Eagle Chain, Vieux De Sert, High/Fishtrap, Pelican, Manitowish Chain, and the Cisco Chain. If anyone has suggestions/recommendations on lake areas to fish and especially lodging opportunities please pass on to Dave Justmann.
Just some points of information regarding the spring outing; we would probably be looking at 25-30 participants, and would need lake sizes to accommodate 12-15 teams. Again, not all of the folks have to stay at one location, but if possible it provides the opportunity for a greater level of camaraderie.
Also for MM35 we are looking into getting hats made up as 35 will be another milestone in Musky Mania history, we will keep you updated on ordering info/costs as things get firmed up. One added note, we are always looking for opportunities to obtain door/raffle prize items as we need to start working on that ASAP, so if you have or know of opportunities, please feel free to pass on to Dave Justmann, Gary Borkowski, or myself. Have a great rest of a lunge season and catch a big one and hope to see you all in the spring at MM35.