Minnesota’s Moonstruck Monster Muskies
Talk About Moonstruck…
Luke Ellis with a 52-inch musky caught and released this week while fishing with Guide Jason Hamernick and Muskie Breath Guide Service in Minnesota.
How about 50.5-inch and 52-inch muskies caught and released 20 minutes apart during the moonset/sunset period? And enough action on other fish caught, seen or lost in one day to last an average summer? More than 20, in fact, including 44 and 47 inch muskies caught and released.
So, just what does Minnesota Super Guide Jason Hamernick know about musky fishing, moon phases, and big fish?
Guide Jason Hamernick, owner of Muskie Breath Guide Service, prepares to release the 50-inch musky caught within 20 minutes of a 50-inch fish during a moonset/sunset period.
Readers of On Wisconsin Outdoors (OWO) already know from recent issues that our own super guides, Clayton Heller and Phil Schweik, draw a direct correlation of moon phases and successful musky fishing. In his column, “Moonstruck Muskies”, published in the July-August 2015 issue of OWO (page 7) Heller in part details the fast and furious action within a small window of opportunity to define why he believes the moon phases are crucial to successful musky fishing.
In his column, “Three Steps to Musky Success-Planning for Bigger Fall Fish” published on page 29 of the current September-October OWO, Schweik tells us when we should be on the water, based on his personal research, the calendar and moon phases. If you follow Schweik’s weekly fishing reports posted under “Inland Fishing” onwww.onwisconsinoutdoors.com you know that the guide and his clients catch and release an incredible number of very big muskies every year.
Native Badgers; my brother Jim Ellis and nephew Luke Ellis, with friend Josh Docken all of Minnesota, and Ellis cousin Dave Dlobik of Sussex, Wisconsin fished this week with Jason Hamernick on a Minnesota Lake that we will respectfully leave to Hamernick to divulge. The result was 44-inch, 47-inch, 50.5-inch and 52-inch fish caught and released.
Josh Docken shows off his 47-inch fish during a day of musky fishing that included approximately 20 strikes or follows and several very big fish boated and released.
“If we caught every fish that actually hit the lures, although many of those strikes were half-hearted efforts where the fish just nipped the lures, we would have caught 11 fish,” Jim Ellis said. “We had many more follows; maybe a dozen.”
“The 50.5 inch fish and he 52-inch fish came 20 minutes apart during the moonset/sunset period. The fish got real active and aggressive during that 45 minutes compared to the rest of the day. We hooked one but the reel broke during the fight and the fish got away, and had another hit at boat side which got off.”
Connect with Jason Hamernick and Muskie Breath Guide Service at
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Muskie-Breath.../119548861407994
Muskiebreath96@gmail.com or 612-209-0608.