This week I'm fishing for tiger muskies at Merwin Lake with Mike Nielsen of Ariel, and today was our third day on the lake. Water temperatures are 66 to 69 degrees, and many muskies are actively feeding now. We did not boat a fish yesterday, but Mike caught a 20-pounder today, and I hooked and lost a 15-pounder. The biggest excitement today, though, occurred when Mike hooked and played a very heavy fish that finally got off by snagging the lure on a log 35 feet deep. The fish immediately sounded, so we never got a good look at it, but Mike was unable to pull it up and it broke a 30-pound line. Mike has caught 40-pound salmon and feels this muskie was over 30 pounds. I'm inclined to believe Mike may have had a new state record tiger musky on his line today, which is not bad for a beginning muskie fisherman's second fish! I got a glimpse of it, and I know it was a very large fish! Merwin Lake is full of sunken wood (trees, stumps, and logs), and if you hook a big musky here, my advice is to put pressure on the fish and try to force him to fight close to the surface, because if he reaches the bottom you're going to lose him. But Mike's fish was just too strong for him to stop its runs or get it up to the surface. All three of these fish were hooked in the same area between 2:00 and 2:30 PM. Mike and I will continue to fish Merwin for at least the next couple days, and if anything exciting happens, I'll file another report.

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