The Catch of a Lifetime - Potomac Muskie

Type: Nontidal
Region: Western
Location: Potomac

Last Sunday, July 15, my best friend, Chris Williams, and I dropped his aluminum flat bottom boat in the Potomac at about 5:30am at the Taylors Landing Ramp (Sharpsburg). This was well north of our usual spot at Landers down stream. We wanted to get up close to Dam 4 and drift down for smallmouth and walleye.

Around 8:20am we were positioned near the MD bank of the river (approximately 1/2 a mile down stream of Dam 4) in about 3 feet of water when my Strike King KVD square bill crank bait shallow diver (chartreuse and black)seemingly hit a wall! After a solid minute of fighting on a 7foot medium cranking rod with sunline 10lb fluorocarbon a flash appeared, and then the fish broke surface! It was a huge muskellunge or "muskie".

We have an on-board ruler stuck to the inside of the boat and this fish was well over the 36 inch threshold. We measured it at 41.5 inches on an old measuring tape. The fish weighed it between 15-17 on a, not so reliable, scale. I knew it was a citation fish but never for one moment thought of taking the fish from the water with us. I did not get a picture on the tape as it was just a moment of joy, chaos and a little panic to get the fish back in.

We manually swam the fish in the current for as long she needed to get her strength back, and released her to live, what I hope, is a much longer life. Chris Williams is my best friend and introduced me to fishing, to the serious degree we now fish. We have shared a lot of memories as we served in the US Army together and later deploying to Iraq together, but this one from last Sunday might have been the best!