I was thinking about trying my hand at musky and pike fly fishing and had even conjured up some ratty patterns that I thought would work and one day I had seen an episode of Wild on the Fly. Brad Bohen of Musky Country Outfitters in Wisconsin was fishing with the hosts. This got my blood going a little bit and I then bought and watched Brad's movie Zero to Hero. From this point on I told myself I was going to catch a musky or a pike.
So I picked up my first 10 wt at the local fly shop in Clearfield Jim's Sports Center which of course had to be ordered because a 10 wt in PA is just blasphemy. A friend of mine Corey Siple was interested as well and we decided to try it together. He and I went to a local pike fishing spot and were skunked after a few hrs of trying not to kill ourselves with the large flies we tied. We had lost the battle but not the war.
On a cold March day we decided to give it a try again and something amazing happened. As I was daydreaming I saw a huge slash behind my fly and I nearly crapped my pants and about 2 seconds later it happened again but this time it ate the fly. I set the hook and the battle ensued. Neither Corey or I had ever landed a toothy critter so we were having a little trouble. We beached it up on the bank and the rest was history. A 36" pike which is a damn respectable pike for PA was my first toothy critter. It would not be my last. From that point on I was pretty much ruined for life. When the toothy critter bug bites, it bites REAL hard. Ever since then I have pretty much dedicated myself to the pursuit of predatory fish. I have now caught and landed well over 100 pike and musky and even some very large chain pickerel. I have no intentions of ever stopping unless my body will not allow.
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