Northwest Reel Life June 2024 Volume 3 Issue 8 - Flipbook - Page 14
guest
writer
It was August 2, 1996. Son
Don and I were on the
second day of a four-day
fishing trip. We had spent
the night camping at Riffe
Lake’s Taidnapam Park
and were now heading to
Mayfield Lake to try for one
of the elusive tiger muskies.
For the past few years, tiger
muskies have been the
big attraction at Mayfield.
A sterile cross between a
true muskellunge and a
northern pike, they had
been planted into Mayfield
Lake to help control the
large numbers of squawfish
and other rough fish.
14 | NWFISHING.net
They have a reputation of
being very difficult to catch
and have been called “the
fish of 10,000 casts.” It had
rained hard most of the
night and was still raining
very hard as we reached
the Ike Kinswa State Park
launch ramp at Mayfield
Lake. We had planned to
camp the night at the state
park but had noted that the
“campground full” sign was
posted. The only raingear
we had was jackets so we
stripped down to swimsuits
and rain jackets. Neither
of us had fished for tiger
muskies before and had no
idea how or where to start
so we started at the bridge
near the launch ramp. Don
hooked the first fish, a
squawfish, -- the first of at
least 50 we were to catch
during the day. We saw a
couple of huge splashes
near the bridge supports
that we assumed must
be muskies. We also saw
some large, dark shapes
in the water that definitely
looked like big muskies.
We saw a big fish splash
under the bridge. Don
motored over and made
a long cast with his huge
Rapala 18 S. There was a
big swirl as the fish struck
-- Don’s 15-pound test
Maxima stretched and
snapped.
