What To Expect on a Typical Day of Muskie Fishing

Here at Can-Am Charters I will try to explain what you, as the customer, will experience on a typical day with us. I'm sure the not knowing and the thoughts of catching nothing is always in the back of your mind. The thoughts even went through my head as I had booked a charter in Florida, to go fishing for billfish and shark. Let me tell you about disappointment. We caught a two-foot long barracuda and a pelican. Not impressed at all, and we still had to pay full price for the charter. So to help you put your mind at ease, I'll tell you what you can experience with us at Can-Am Charters. I won't go into great detail of our best day, or our worst day, as these don't happen every day, but what I am going to tell you is a typical day, which actually took place last July of 2009.

5:15am: Myself and my mate, arrive at the boat at Belle River Marina. We enjoy our coffee from Tim Hortons and check the boat and all of our tackle to make sure everything is ready to go. The boat is still a bit dirty from us fishing last night, so we finish up cleaning and start warming up the boat.

6:30am: Our guests arrive for our charter and we get everyone introduced and loaded up into the boat. We discuss to our clients about what to expect throughout the charter and go over basic safety rules.

6:50am: The charter begins as we leave the marina and start heading for our sweet spot, as over the past week we have had great success in catching good size and plenty of Muskies in this area.

7:05am: We have reached our fishing spot for the morning and start setting up rods and reels. From the boat dock to our fishing grounds, it is only about a ten to fifteen minute boat ride. We choose Belle River for this very reason, as it is centrally located in the lake.

7:15am: We are still setting up our rods, and bang, FISH ON. It was a nice fish to start off our day, as it was 38" long and was getting everyone excited. It was caught on a Loke nine dollar bass lure.

7:35am: FISH ON, this time it was 42" long and it screamed out a pile of line. This one was caught on the same bait as the last one, Loke, nine dollar bass.

7:39am: DOUBLE HEADER, as the 42" fish still wasn't in the boat yet, as at this time, it was still screaming line out, while the rod on the other side of the boat started screaming. This fish was 40" and caught on a Woodie, perch pattern lure.

8:40am: The boat rod just went off as the fished peeled about 10 feet of line and unfortunately he managed to spit out the lure, as he was no longer at the other end. Checked the hooks, still nice and sharp, guess it just wasn't meant to be.

8:40am - 11:15am: Nothing in the matter of action. Yep, we said it, no action, not even a rip. We changed baits, we changed colors, we changed speed, and we even changed our location. You name it, we did it.

11:20am: FISH ON, finally we were back in the action and this one was a brute. Bulldogging like crazy, as the clients couldn't stop laughing because every time someone went to reel it in, the fish would take off again. After a 15 minute battle, we finally won and got her into the boat. Awesome fish at 49 ½ " and almost 30 lbs. The energy on the boat is really high and can't wait to get some more. Clients help us release the fish and we keep on trolling.

12:30pm: It was a bit after that we caught another, nothing big, but a smaller one around 36", a real good looker though, nice and healthy. While we were admiring this beauty, another knock off took place and we missed that one too.

2pm: FISH ON, we battled with this for a good 10 minutes as it was acting like the "BIG ONE". It was staying down low, as it wouldn't come to the surface ,then gave a couple of headshakes and then nothing. I knew at that point the fish was gone! When you have been chasing Muskies for over 20 years like we have, you'll never forget the look that someone has on their face when they realized what just happened and can't believe it.

2:30pm: The fish are gone and we start packing up the rods and get prepared for a brief ride back to the Belle River Marnia. Here we sit back and relax, have a few laughs and poke some fun about the ones that got away.

Can-Am Charters tries to make every trip memorable. We work really hard at what we do, and with our experience, it only makes us better. There's a reason why over 80% of our clients return year after year. Come out and see for yourself.

Tight Lines,
Captain Rick Verbeem