Tony's story in Tony's words:
It took about 15 years, but it was worth the wait. On October 6, 2012 I finally broke the seal on my quest for the Muskellunge with a dandy 48”er to take home the green jacket at ESOX XVIII where I/we were “seeing double” – almost. The spot: Onigum on Leech Lake between “fallen tree and Higgin’s daik”. The lure: sauger patterned double (bull) daig. The story: After I lost a nice 45”+ fish, Mike Ringer, Karl (K-Ral) Reynolds and myself puttered our abysmal rental, that could go no faster than idle and came with a dead trolling motor, back up to the top of our drift on Onigum. Accustomed to disappointment, I managed to shake it off and kept throwing the double daid. Twenty minutes later a broad-shouldered musky followed the daig, mesmerized, infuriated, or both by the tantalizing twin tails. After several figure eights, I switched to a slow large circle and the musk took the bait. I fought the fish for maybe five minutes and then Ringer sacrificed the body and hand-landed the monster. K-Ral manned my phone’s camera like any good Best Buy executive would. A careful reader will notice the key to our success: broken boat, no net, and no camera. I’m hopeful this was the first of many, but if not at least I can look forward to defending my title in song at ESOX XIX “the musical”.
**normally we only post fish stalked on the fly, exceptions are made for fish of a life time and for Tony
