ALWAYS BE PREPARED

Your partner screaming, “Fish On!” isn’t the time to start to wonder if you remembered the bolt cutters… the camera… where you stuck the net. If you grab the net and thirty-seven lures are tangled in it and the soft cooler with today’s lunch is at the bottom of the bag – well, then you’ve got problems. Not the least of which will be a very angry partner if the muskie gets away while you’re trying to undo the damage.

There are muskie hunters who have got their act together – tools in one pre-determined compartment, camera in dry storage, and lures away except for maybe a half-dozen in use and well away from the net. Net will be situated for quick release and easy one-step assembly.

Then there are those muskie hunters who leave for a day on the water with more tackle boxes full of lures and unnecessary gear than five people could use in a month. By lunch they have a treble hook nightmare as far as the eye can see – hooks in the net, stuck in the deck carpet, and hanging from the sides of the boat. They have rain gear and gloves and coolers stacked on top of things they might need – like the net or the dry store hatch. Where’s the camera again?

Be those boy scouts. Always be prepared. Never take what you don’t need. If you have been muskie hunting for any length of time you have enough gear to sink the Titanic, but you can find and catch big muskies just by sticking to the eighty pound weight limit that many fly-in camps require for a week’s stay.

Keep it simple. The sure way to make everyone think you are “in the know” is to be organized and keep a tidy deck out on the water. If you don’t have it narrowed to a three lure attack by day five you are having a bad week anyway.