Topwater Heartbreak to Phantom Success! July 11th, 2023

About ten miles from camp in the heart of the musky waters on Lake of the Woods, my anticipation reached its peak as a musky woke up on a flaptail. I moved the lure left and right as I retrieved it to the boat and watched as the musky tried to eat on the first turn of the figure 8. I set the hook a little too early and the elusive musky slipped away. Undeterred, we fished the rest of the shoreline and decided to go back on it. Since the musky followed a slow moving bait I switched gears to another slow bait, a trusty phantom lure. The phantom danced back to the boat, and as fate would have it, the elusive musky couldn't resist and ate in a deep figure 8. After a quick fight, the once-missed musky was soon in my hands. Lake of the Woods is a special place where muskies will usually hang around after being moved so don't be afraid to go back on a fish you moved earlier.