Muskie Master - Mark Maghran

The launch ramp was covered in a thick blanket of snow and the air temperature was hovering slightly above freezing. A late-November snowstorm had just pushed through the area and I was glad that our boat was equipped with a canvas top from beneath which I would spend the next two days studying the ways of muskie master Mark Maghran.

Heading out from the launch ramp near the confluence of the Niagara River and Lake Erie, I held the boat on a straight course, while Mark tended to the rods. We carried Ontario and New York fishing licences, allowing us to fish both sides of the river and lake. It was obvious that Mark had done this many times. As the first rod was letting out line, he was already outfitting the next one. When the task was complete, two long rods protruded from opposite sides of the boat and a third was on a downrigger. This array was similar to one used for salmon or walleye, except for the oversized equipment and heavy braided and wire lines. Three different baits at different depths would be our opening bid, but as Mark pointed out, this could change depending on the areas we'd be fishing.

"Managing your rods is a big part of the game here on the river," he said. "When straining the open water of Lake Erie, we could comfortably run four rods because there is a lot less risk of tangling or snags. While fishing faster water in the river, I'm more likely to stick with two rods. This allows seamless transitions across border waters, and fewer rods to deal with when you get snagged or have a fish on. Having wire line wrapped in your prop while floating down the Niagara is about as bad as it sounds. Working structure around the river entrance often requires abrupt turns to navigate and careen baits off breakwalls and rockpiles. This is when I'll generally go with three rods to minimize the chances of getting lines tangled. I also like to give bigger baits like the Hookers a little more room, even in open water.

"Having more lines in the water allows you to cover all the depths and experiment with more lures. I'll generally run one lure at about 30 feet(9 m), another at 20 feet(6 m), and a third at 12 or 15(3.6 or 4.6 m). Ideally, the deepest line would be banging on bottom, but I'm unlikely to run baits deeper than 30 feet."

I queried Mark on his opinion of the conditions, which appeared to catch him off guard. "Conditions?" he uttered politely. "Over the years I've seen big muskie taken in just about every conceivable set of conditions - from crystal-clear water and mile-high blue skies to water so muddy you couldn't see your lure an inch below the surface. It's a fundamental fact in muskie fishing that you can't catch them if your lines aren't in the water."

With Mark's track record for big fish, it was advice well taken. In fact, during the previous day's snowstorm he landed one of his personal bests for the season - a 50- by 26-inch(127- by 66-cm)fish he estimated at over 35 pounds(15.9 kg).

With rods set, our game plan was put into action. Now all we needed to do was apply the one remaining essential element - patience.

Mark, 46, lives in Hamburg, New York, and works full time with a veteran's service organization. He and his wife, Cathy, have two daughters, Erin, 18, and Megan, 13. Both daughters love to fish and often accompany Mark for bass and muskie.

This was not my first time fishing with Mark either. I caught a fish close to 30 pounds(13.6 kg)with him in this area a few years earlier and was also on hand to watch him boat a 30-pounder on Georgian Bay. Over the last 15 years, Mark has boated 138 muskie over 30 pounds, including 24 fish over 35 pounds and nine over 40 pounds(18.16 kg). Of these, he estimates four or five could be classed as "super slobs" in excess of 45 pounds(20 kg), including his personal best, a 53-incher(134.6 cm)sporting a whopping 27-inch(68.6-cm)girth.

Besides this incredible track record for catching big muskie, what is truly impressive about Mark's accomplishments is that he and a handful of close friends pioneered the approaches now considered to be common on his local waters of the Niagara River and Lake Erie.

Mark's education on catching big muskie, however, is far more rounded than simply the Niagara area. He spends half of his fishing time on his home waters, the rest on other world-class muskie waters of New York and Ontario, including Lake Chautauqua, Nipissing, Georgian Bay, and the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers.

When tackling new waters, Mark often starts off feeder streams that enter near deeper water. Neck-down areas with structure are also top picks. He adds that these are merely starting points and that no amount of chart reading will replace time on the water.

"I can remember when I first started fishing the Niagara River some 15 years ago," he recounted. "There were only a handful of anglers who really knew how to catch muskie consistently. Most of them relied on trolling 2600 Pikie Minnows on lead-core line. It was from these basic beginnings that we built on and have continued to refine the approaches we apply today. For years we only trolled a few select areas, but fishing was so good back then, you didn't have to do anything else. It was when we started breaking out into more open water that we started catching bigger fish. This also coincided with the clearing of the water, which has been attributed to zebra mussels. Nowadays, we know what it takes to catch big fish, but there are so many people doing the same things that it has become as much a matter of strategizing around people as it is concentrating on fish."

Even on this day it was obvious that boat traffic was a factor. There were at least a dozen other boats working the small area.

Our conversation was interrupted abruptly around 11:30 a.m. as a reel suddenly began to scream. For the first few moments, it was indiscernible from a snag on bottom, until the squelching whine of the reel melded slowly into the rod's telltale throbbing pulses of big head shakes. Plucking the rod from the holder, Mark made a quick assessment that is was a small fish, and after a short-lived battle, he skillfully manoeuvered a 41-incher(104 cm)boatside for a quick photograph and release.

He's so concerned for a muskie's survival that he hand-lands all but the largest fish. His hands bore testament of the many hook injuries suffered as result of it, but for Mark it's a small price to pay for doing everything in his power to ensure a fish's chance of living and growing to be caught another day.

With the ice broken, I led the conversation into some of Mark's more notable muskie experiences. "One of my best days ever included three fish over 50 inches," he recounted. A look of deep reflection overcame him as he paused for a minute and smiled. "In the early days when we were just learning about this fishery, it was unusual to actually see another boat fishing for muskie. We had the water all to ourselves. The downside was that you had few people to share information with. The only real notoriety this fishery got was through a few local fishing derbies.

"It was actually because of our concern for the development of catch-and-kill contests that a small group of us got together and started the Niagara Musky Anglers. Our goal was to educate anglers on the importance of releasing fish in order to support a trophy fishery. The club also played a big part in having size limits increased to 44 inches(111.76 cm)on the New York side of the river. More recently, Ontario followed suit. It was a real modern-day success story, as it was the catch data collected by anglers that helped convince fisheries managers on both sides of the river of its trophy potential. The club now has more than 180 members from Ontario and New York and continues to be an active voice in muskie conservation." Despite making repeated passes over the same areas, Mark never lost focus on the task at hand. He was picking up constantly on a straying line or a lure's performance that wasn't matching his expectations.

Lures piled up at the back of the boat as he worked through a surprising assortment in his quest to trigger a strike. The only lure that remained constant throughout two days of fishing was a Depth Raider, although he would occasionally change colour. The Junior Hooker and Jointed Legend were also obvious favourites. While rooting through his lures, I noted one had seen an incredible amount of abuse. The large Hooker was missing one eye and was thoroughly covered with gouges. Its lip had also been re-glued and was worn.

"I've taken some of my biggest fish on that bait, although for whatever reason it hasn't produced for me this year," he said. "But I try not to get too attached to any one lure. I'm a strong believer in experimenting constantly to find something that will trigger a fish to strike, especially when you're fishing heavily pressured waters like we are today."

Despite intensifying foul weather, we pushed our second outing into the closing minutes of daylight. Our 41-inch fish would remain the largest of the trip, whereas for Mark there were still two days left in the season, which would offer up two more 45-inch fish and one 47-incher(119.4 cm). It would prove to be one of his most challenging seasons, but still a phenomenal year by most angler's standards.

Many adjectives could be used to describe Mark. The terms pioneer, conservationist, and extremist are standard phrases used to characterize most muskie icons, but Mark's an all-around great guy to talk with. Don't expect him to openly advertise his list of trophy-class fish, but when asked a specific question about the sport, you can expect an insightful and honest response.

Cold-water presentations
Mark trolls slowly for fall muskie. When water temperatures start dipping into the mid- to low 40s F, he putts along at between 1.5 and 3.5 mph. "Faster trolling speeds may be okay in mid-summer, but when you put big fish and cold water together, slower has been a far more consistent producer for me."

Mark has kept meticulous records of fish he's caught in the last 15 years, and although he's quick to recognize there's potential for a big fish at any moment, his data suggests that under cold conditions it generally takes a bit of time for fish to become active each day. Of the hundreds of fall muskie he's caught, few were taken before 10 a.m.

He also note, "Baitfish are not always a necessity for locating big fish in the fall. Sometimes, if you know where muskie hang out and there is no bait, your lure is the only bait available. This can be good when searching for muskie, as you're the only game in town. I've caught many cold-water muskie that I believe were 'wandering.'

"You really can't just pick up any rod off the rack and expect to troll for muskie," Mark said. "This is a specialized and demanding pursuit. We've burned up and broke a lot of equipment in our quest for the right tools."

For trolling, he prefers 7-foot 10-inch Musky Trolling rods by Loomis, fitted with Daiwa line-counter reels and 30-pound-test single and seven-strand wire line. These rods offer both the length and backbone to handle big baits and fish. "I also carry a few Loomis Hybrid rods, which I reserve for really big lures such as Spindas and Hookers," he said. There are probably less than a handful of manufactured baits that Mark doesn't have or hasn't experimented with. Depth Raiders have been his mainstay. There's rarely a time when at least one of his rods doesn't have one on it. Another favourite is the Hooker and Hooker Junior. As for colour, he says there's not so much a best colour to match conditions as there is a need to constantly experiment with something new to meet the fish's taste on a given day.

Mark scrutinizes and refines every lure. Undersized hooks and split-rings are upgraded and hook points maintained constantly in anticipation of an encounter with the fish of a lifetime.

He makes his own leaders from 120-pound-test downrigger cable and Cross-Lok snaps. They vary in length, although 18 inches is average. His experience has found the constant pounding of big baits can fatique and cause stainless steel leaders to break.

As a final thought, he adds, "Don't limit yourself to one spot or lure for too long. Finding muskie is never easy. This is why experience and time on the water are such important aspects of muskie fishing."