Tourney Winning Patterns - Musky Tumors - Boatside Topwater Strike
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Young Gun Takes Over Metro Tourney
Lots of musky tourneys went down this past weekend. Looking at a couple of the bigger ones always helps get a feel what patterns are workin' across the musky belt right now. Let’s take a look. 👀
First up, we have the Minnesota Metro tourney. There were 352 anglers fishin' this one day event with 43 muskies boated and 23 of them were 40 inches or larger. This 50” Tonka beast caught by Matt Anderson was the biggest fish of the event.
But Ayden Froeschle, had the hot hand and ran away with first place catching four muskies measuring 42", 42", 41.5", and 44” out of White Bear Lake.
This kid is one of the up and coming young guns in the musky world and is making a name for himself by lettin' his tourney results do the talkin'. Ayden also won the Frank Schneider Memorial Muskie Tournament back to back the past two years in a row.
Here’s what he had dialed in...
“I was fishing White Bear and picked it based on some fishing from years prior. We played with some deep weed lines, breaklines, and open water. We caught on rubber baits including the dying dawg, a tube, and an el tail. You had to rip em as hard and as fast as possible and we went 4/9.”
#impressive
Here’s how the rest of the leader board shook out...
PMTT Deets from the Madison Chain
The second stop of the PMTT is officially in the books. Huge congrats to Mark Lijewski and Jason Mollen on the win! These guys are no strangers to being at the top of the leaderboard. Mark won the Mad Chain event last year with a different partner and also has a crazy long list of other big musky tourney wins to his credit.
Sounds like it was an extremely tough bite with only 12 'skies boated in the two day event. Here’s what was workin' for the top teams via the PMTT website.
“It was all kind of crazy, because of the tough fishing we were just fishing for bites. One that might help us qualify for the Recon Boats World Championship” stated Lijewski.
“We literally fished for hours on the first day hoping for a change or a window and the slow fishing to open up,” stated Mollen.
Eventually, worked out for them by slingin' natural colored swim baits off some deep break lines and they hit a window.
“We went from having nothing to netting two muskies in under ten minutes and had several others going” stated Lijewski.
That was enough to leave town with 1st place hardware 🏆 and 20K💰in prize money.
Rob Kahl and Corey Pederson finished second and stuck the biggest fish of the tourney with a nice 49.75 incher. Sounds like they were also chuckin' rubber off deep breaklines.
Musky Insider PRO instructor Dan Wojtusik and his partner Jason Summers finished third by boating the biggest fish of day two (a 46”) in epic fashion . . . with literally seconds left on the clock setting a new record as the ultimate PMTT buzzer beater! That also puts them in the lead for Top Gun Team of the Year points with two events remaining.🔥
Jason and Dan were also rippin rubber but were fishing open water that was near structure. The 4th and 5th place teams were both trolling. One of the common denominators amongst most of the top five teams is that they were fishing a little bit deeper than the rest of the field.
For those interested, here's a breakdown of the top 10 finishers
Cool to see three different teams that include women in the top ten at this event.
Next PMTT event is the Thorne Brothers Late Summer Showdown (August 23rd-24th) on Lake Minnetonka.
Ugly Muskies - Tumor Edition
Ever seen anything like this on one of your musky catches?
Steve Ault shared this pic on the Musky Anglers of North America facebook page.
We reached out to MN DNR area fisheries folks to find out what was going on here. Turns out there is actually someone that specializes in fish health which is kinda cool.
Actually it could be . . . Fish Health Supervisor Isaiah Tolo, (PhD) said "the growths could be viral or other non-pathogenic and that’s important to the outcome of the fish."
You might be wondering if these things can heal or go away over time, Dr. Tolo said it depends . . .
This Week's Mashup:
Mashup time!
#1 – Luke Ronnestrand started off the season right with this topwater eat. You can watch the full video on the Thorne Bros YouTube Channel.
#2 – How bout’ the lightning in the background on this pre-storm brute from Musky Insider PRO instructor Kyle Tokarski.😳
#3 – Check out this cool Canadian Musky sticker we found by The Artsy Angler.
BTW, it’s musky opener for our friends north of the border this weekend. Best of luck to all our Canadian readers and folks headin’ north! Send us some pics for our Monster Musky section.
#4 – The Window is Closing!
Just a quick reminder....
Sunday, June 16th is Father’s Day and also the last day to register for Musky Insider PRO. (Registration closes at midnight.)
[CLICK HERE TO JOIN NOW]
You won't want to miss what we have planned for this season! Also, check out our Father’s Day Gift Guide issue for other great last minute gift ideas for musky chasin’ dads!
QUICK HITTERS:
– Meet the New Mojo Musky TRIGON from St. Croix (video)
– Selecting the Best Trolling Motor Battery [Type & Size] w/ Muskiefirst (link)
– Four "First Muskies Ever" in One Day on Topwaters w/ Todays Angler (video)
– When Does The Early Summer Topwater Musky Bite Start? w/Joe Bucher (video)
– Hayward Musky Festival happening June 20-22 (link)
This Week's Monster Muskies:
Dan Freeman attributes this cabbage dragon to Ty Sennet's Musky Insider Topwater Class. By the looks of those smiles, he might have some future musky commandos in training!
If you’re a Musky Insider PRO member then you know June 3rd was a “Pink Day” and your odds of gettin' a giant go way ⬆️. Ryan Kitzmann took advantage and got his season started right with this 52.5” inch beast.
Dale Mueller started workin’ the night shift early this season and it paid off with his railroad tie of a fish. 🔥
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