World Musky Tour Manitowish Chain RAMM Cup Championship Recap
I only fish one spot on the tour each year, simply to qualify for the WMT championship at the end of the year, which generally only requires one good fish in the boat to be top 50 in the standings. That spot, the Manitowish Water chain of lakes, is my favorite body of water in Wisconsin, not because I live on its beautiful waters, but because it offers awesome numbers of fish, especially trophy fish.
Fishing hours are 6 am to 3 pm. We were on fish for a good chunk of the morning but experienced a terrible lull from 930 to 230. However, in the bottom of the ninth, I stroked this 42.5, registered the fish at 250. I could barely stand up afterwards and could hardly believe the turnaround. Sittin in 4th after day one. There were only 7 fish caught that day.
A fog delay of roughly an hour to start day two was perhaps a blessing in thick disguise. I monkied with a lot of gear during the delay, sharpening hooks on baits I rarely use, one of those baits, the J Mac jig, I replaced the existing white grub tail with a fresh black one, and sharpened the hook to a lethally dangerous state. The night before yielded some unexpected information regarding potential hot-spots, and had figured out where most fish were caught from day one, and knew where a pile of muskies were to be on day two, and in turn, where we were going to be.
Sure enough, we saw two different fish a couple of different times on that particular spot, and noticed three other boats had experienced similar events. I was busy trying to get one of those fish to eat, when I hear my brother yell, 'got em'. I looked over and the thing was completely out of the water, but before long, it was in my net. I proceeded to dislodge the bait, and I couldn't believe it, I was pulling the J Mac out of the his mouth, the same damn J Mac I spent a little time fine tuning during the fog delay. 'You were using the J Mac?' I said. 'Just for one cast', my brother replied. Possibly the first person ever to catch a fish on a jig in a proffessional musky tournement.
A total of 8 fish were caught on day two, for a total of 15 for the tournament. Only three teams caught two fish, and only one team caught a fish on both days...us. We finished in 3rd place. But more importantly, qualified for the Championship, which will make the winners 100,000 dollars richer. Fishing for that kind of coin will be retarded awesome. October 6th.
Front and Center.
