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Doug Austen Blog - Day 6
Musky Fishing
Follow Commission Executive Director Doug Austen as he spends time on and around the water throughout Pennsylvania to celebrate National Fishing and Boating Week.

Today is fun day, with the exception of the 5 a.m. alarm clock. Normally that wouldn’t be too bad but after the banquet last night and blogging until about midnight, the five hours of sleep just isn’t cutting it for me. Road weary is getting a new meaning. But today is musky fishing, something that I have never done. My host is Dave Huemmrich, president of Three Rivers Chapter of Muskies, Incorporated. This is a group of about 350 musky fanatics, and I use that term in a way that is, well, true, but also is in admiration of their devotion. These folks put on a great musky show in the off season, raise money to buy minnows for our musky rearing program (young musky need live food as opposed to pellets that would be used for trout or tiger musky), and they fish throughout the northeast and Canada.

We met at the Harmarville access area on the Allegheny River about 12 miles upstream from the point in Pittsburgh and started our hunt for the largest freshwater predator. While getting the boat ready I asked Dave if I should bring my tackle along. Of course, being the polite person that he is, he agreed and I started to pull out my gear. This is where my learning began. My idea of heavyweight gear is bass fishing tackle. This includes a medium heavy baitcasting setup with 15-20 pound braided line and assorted spin tackle with 8 to 12 pound test. I need to thank Dave for not laughing out loud at my naiveté. He thanked me for the offer of the gear and politely suggested that I use his equipment.

Good idea. Dave’s gear is more what I would think of as saltwater tackle. He uses spinning and baitcasting setups with 80 pound braided line. The rods are made to cast 2 ounce lures and only bend if you step on them. The lures were the size of a nice brookie caught on our wild trout streams; 8-10 inch plugs that make a splash when they hit the water and cost up to $25 each. This was real fishing for serious people. He has more invested in one box of musky plugs than I have in my entire collection of fishing gear. It was way cool and I loved it. But Dave also pointed out that you can also musky fish with a couple of lures, one fairly stout rod and reel, and a pair of old tennis shoes wading in streams. This is an equal opportunity sport.

Dave had not fished this section of the Allegheny much, if at all before, so for both of us it was a new experience. We hit the water hard for four hours up and down from the launch area. Good habitat was the entry points of feeder streams, heads of island, large woody debris such a fallen trees and other structure along the shore. These other structures included the huge steel piling used to control barges. One inlet that we fished was the site of an old coke mill and it was somewhat bizarre fishing in the skeletal remains of the old industrial age. But it was a great way to spend the morning. Musky fishing is labeled by some as the fish of a thousand casts and the general success rate is somewhere around one fish per 20 or 30 hours. On great days, the ones that memories are made of, maybe a couple of fish are landed. On lesser days, like today, we were thrilled to have one 35-inch fish give a follow to Dave’s lure. He describes musky fishing as hours and sometimes days of steady casting, often testing your resolve and tenacity, interrupted by minutes of shear adrenalin when the fish decides to attack your offering. Today my resolve was tested but it was fun enough that I know that I’ll return. I want to see what it’s like to hook into one of these monsters and have the story to share with the other musky fisherman after the long day of pursuit.