Virginia musky fishing

Here in Virginia winter time means musky fishing. Musky fishing isn’t easy but can be heart pounding excitement for those willing to put in the time and hard work. I always like to be straight forward with clients looking to catch a musky. First and foremost making sure they understand that they can fish hard all day and may never even see a fish, they are called the fish of 10,000 cast! As hard as it is to say it’s the truth, musky can go 3 to five days without eating and for an apex predator they really pick and choose their times to eat. You can have a very small window in the day to have the best action. Time and time again I have seen little to no action in a day only to have a brief period of time of multiple fish all trying to eat at the same time. making sure you stay in the game the whole time will help you capitalize on those windows.

You truly have to fish every cast like you will catch a fish , the moment you loose focus is when that fish will try and eat. Figure 8s is another thing I find clients struggling with, the figure 8 boat side is very crucial to finding success . These fish will follow your fly back to the boat waiting for that perfect moment to eat your fly. I always stress that your retrieve should flow directly to the figure 8. A smooth transition to wide turns with a moment of hang time will trigger a fish to eat. Wide turns are a must, asking a 40 inch fish to make a tight turn will cause him to loose the fly and turn off. musky tend to follow below and behind your fly so always looking behind and below your fly and not at it will tell you a lot of information . Adjusting your depth on your figure 8 to the fish will help increase that hook up rate. If that fish is deep dip your rod deeper in the water to keep that fish down and not seeing the boat is the key. The hook set is another thing I see anglers mess up. This is not a trout set kinda fish they have a vey tough mouth and getting a good strip set in will seat that hook in the sweet spot. Setting on any kind of bump or resistance is also key. these fish will knock a lot of slack into your line so it feels less intense than the eat actually was. Following through and keep stripping till you're tight to a fish or stuck on that rock!

with as tough as I make this sound it can be very rewarding to finally hook and land a musky. We fish musky from late fall to about mid March. once water temps reach that magic number these fish will start to spawn and we leave them alone . if you're looking to check this fish off your list or your a seasoned musky angler we can get you out on the water for a fun day of fishing!