Jim Saric really remembers his first muskie.
“July 3, 1976 at 12:10 p.m. on a Dardevle,” he said last week.
It was near the family cabin on Lac du Flambeau in northern Wisconsin.
“It was a beautiful sunny calm day, mom and dad in the boat,” he said. “I made a cast and something bumped my bait.”
He had his first muskie, 36 1/2 inches long.
“I will never forget it,” Saric said. “Everybody screaming.”
Saric will detail how to build such success when he presents at the Chicagoland Fishing Expo, which is Thursday and through Sunday at the Schaumburg Convention Center, on “10 Secrets to a Successful Musky Hunt” at 4 p.m. Friday.
“People are all hung up on what lure or what color, the kind of technique,” Saric said. “They are important, but there are a lot of other elements to a successful trip.”
That’s timing, how to manage time, research, when on the water how to figure out what is happening, how to make the most of strategies on your trips, etc.
Saric, a Hall of Famer, has worked for the Environmental Protection Agency for decades. He used his muskie fishing experience as editor/publisher of Musky Hunter magazine before selling it in 2018.
“Do I miss getting all those articles, herding the cats, I don’t miss that at all,” he said. “I miss being able to interact with all the writers on how-to and they were all knowledgeable.”
His Musky Hunter Television Show started its 19th season this month.
Asked his most memorable muskie, he paused, then said, “One of the most memorable was filming with buddy Tommy Sullivan, a 57-incher, about 45 pounds, on a big bucktail. Out of nowhere, this big muskie appeared and ate the whole Cowgirl. The head was gigantic and the fish was long.”
He caught bigger ones, including a 58-incher and a 53-pounder, but this was most memorable.
“The battle was tremendous and it was being filmed,” he said. “I was hyperventilating, truly an epic battle. It was tremendous. I still remember getting him in the net and just shaking.”
Wild things
Bob Dolgan’s “The Magic Stump”–an Illinois stump that draws a variety of wintering hawks–is now available for free viewing on Vimeo.
Stray cast
Mike McCarthy as Bears coach would’ve been like catching a 3-pound largemouth bass while fishing smallmouth bass on the Calumet system.