I spent two weeks on Lake Vermilion this year, but I could easily take a month to tell you all about it. Fishing Vermilion is the Super Bowl of the musky season for me because it’s the place where I am going to catch the biggest fish of my life. I just don’t know when that is going to happen. To mix sports metaphors, catching a musky up there is the equivalent of hitting a major league homerun. 

This year’s trip produced a record number of musky sightings which added to both the frustration and the excitement. Seeing a world class fish is a thrill but seeing that monster laying there in the water, ignoring my bait, is maddening. I had to continually remind myself that it is all about the hunt. 

There is a giant rock reef in the middle of nowhere on the Big V and I had seen a couple of fish in that spot. A musky angler is the most optimistic of all those who fish and with each cast made comes the hope that this one is the one. Hundreds and I suppose thousands of casts are made. I’ve never kept track myself for fear of learning the exact number. This is all important background so that you understand how awesome it is to say with urgency: “GOT ONE!!!” 

So what happened next for me? After setting the hook and announcing that I had a musky on the line a fight broke out. The fish threw its head from side to side but the hooks held firm. Finally the fish came closer to the netting zone but when that happens, there’s always that brief moment of uncertainty when you don’t know if the fish is going to slide quietly into the net or thrash about one more time. Thankfully my fish slid quietly into the net and it was official: I had hit my home run on Lake Vermilion. 

Not much else matters when you put a musky in the boat. Simple things that bother you every other day of the year become frivolous. Everything just seems to work out on the day you catch a musky, even a photo where something went wrong with the flash turns into a pretty cool thing. 

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