MUSKIES CLOSE TO HOME

TROPHY MUSKELLUNGE PROWL DEEP IN MISSOURI WATERS

Earle Hammond, a muskie fishing guide at Lake Pomme De Terre in southwest Missouri, trolls for a bite from a muskie. October is prime time to catch a trophy muskellunge at the 8,000-acre reservoir.
Earle Hammond, a muskie fishing guide at Lake Pomme De Terre in southwest Missouri, trolls for a bite from a muskie. October is prime time to catch a trophy muskellunge at the 8,000-acre reservoir.

LAKE POMME DE TERRE -- The bite came on cast No. 9,998 in pursuit of “the fish of 10,000 casts,” better known as the elusive muskie.

Blades on the inline spinner that fishing guide Earle Hammond had me using would fit on a ceiling fan. Steam rose from the water on this cold and drizzly morning, but the chill went unnoticed when something big hit. It had to be a muskie.

My fishing rod was stiff as a ball bat, but the muskie bent it deep - for about eight seconds. Then the rod sprang straight, the line went limp and the muskie was gone.

I had to go back to cast No. 1.

This fishing trip wasn’t on some storied muskellunge lake up north where most muskies prowl. It was a three-hour drive away from Northwest Arkansas at Lake Pomme De Terre, a beautiful 8,000-acre impoundment north of Springfield, Mo.

Hammond did his best to ease the pain of a big fish lost. “You don’t catch a muskie every day,” the guide consoled.

Fishing Coach

This September dawn was the coldest of fall when Hammond, Sandy Kapka of the Kansas City area and I cruised to Hammond’s favorite muskie haunts.

The warm lake was a steamy cauldron on this 45-degree drizzly morning aboard his roomy pontoon boat. The craft makes a fine platform for casting, or for trolling, which we tried later that day.

Hammond showed us how to cast a big muskie lures 10,000 times without having your arms falling off, then how to deal with a big muskie once it hits.

“Pretend you’re trying to break that rod when you set the hook.

Their mouth is nothing but hard bone,” he said.

For muskies, Hammond casts big spinners and foot-long crank baits on 80-pound-test braided line. One of his spinners had a skirt that looked like a cheerleader’s pom pom.

Sometimes muskies follow these big lures to the boat. Hammond taught us to work our rod tips in a figure 8 pattern when a lure reaches the side of the boat for a possible point-blank strike.

Falling Water

We hoped that hits would come along flats and long, gravel points that Hammond targeted during our trip. Boat docks are good places to fi sh in the fall, Hammond said, but maybe not this autumn. Some are sitting on the ground.

When we visited Pomme De Terre, the Army Corps of Engineers was lowering the lake several feet to work on the dam. That slowed the fi shing through all of September, Hammond said.

Now the drawdown is done and fishing has improved, Hammond said when we chatted by phone on Wednesday.

October is one of the best months for Pomme De Terre muskies. The day after we left, Hammond caught a 40-inch muskie. Later he boated a 34-incher and his customer caught a 5.2-pound largemouth bass. Call Hammond at 417-993-0035 for trip information.

Trolling Big

Muskies may be the fi sh of 10,000 casts, or none at all. Trolling is another way to catch them. Big lures for big fish apply to trolling as well.

Hammond pulled two of his big crank baits on a pair of rods cradled by holders on the rails of his pontoon boat. The lures wiggled about 10 feet deep near the bottom 40 feet behind the boat.

While idling along, Hammond watches his depth finder for schools of shad. “When I see those balls of shad I’ll stay in that area,” he said.

Muskies eat shad, but really go for bigger fish, particularly carp and suckers. The Missouri Department of Conservation made sure Pomme De Terre had good numbers of these bottom feeders before fi rst stocking muskies in 1966.

There’s no natural reproduction of muskellunge at Pomme, so the Missouri Department of Conservation stocks about 4,000 muskie fi ngerlings each October.

Every six years, the lake gets a “pulse stocking” of 8,000 fingerlings. It takes about seven years for a fi sh to grow to a trophy size of 40 inches.

We kept crossed our fi ngers for a muskie that size when we wrapped up our fi shing with more casting.

I figure we made about a thousand casts before ournoon quitting time. That means only 9,000 more before another muskie hits when we fish with Hammond at Lake Pomme De Terre next fall.

Outdoor, Pages 6 on 10/07/2010

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