Thanks for tuning into KSL Outdoors, I’m Adam Eakle and welcome to beautiful Joe’s Valley Reservoir. You know Joe’s Valley has always been known as a great rainbow trout and an even better splake fishery. But in recent years biologists have planted tiger musky in here and it’s given anglers another opportunity to chase those toothy critters.
(Steve Smith) We are at Joe’s Valley Reservoir. (puts hands over mouth and laughs) and we are going to try and go tame some tigers today, how’s that sound. (adam) They haven’t been in here that long? (steve) But they’ve grown really fast. Probably with the rainbow trout, the splake and the Utah chub, you know they put on a lot of pounds real quick. The average fish you hear about right now is about 33-36 inches but I have had a guy tell me the other day they have caught a 44 inch fish. Which I don’t care where you are at, 44 inch fish is a lot of fun.
(Steve Smith) So let’s run over here to the side and see if we can’t get hooked up.
I’ve known Steve for a long time. He introduced me to elk hunting. We’ve guided elk together, he was there when I shot my first big bull. He’s a passionate hunter and fisherman, that loves to target bass, pike and the last few years, tiger musky.
(Steve) I’m going to throw a couple of these.
(Steve) this one here is a good bait.
(Steve) psycho perch, it’s a deep diving stick bait, suspends neutral.
Tiger Musky have been called the fish of thousand casts. Steve was only about 40 casts in when his lure caught the eye of a tiger.
(Steve) There’s one, right next to the boat. (adam) He’s stripping you out even. (steve) Yeah he was taking drag. (adam) Good fish? (steve) looks like a good one, feels like a good one. (adam) What did you get him on? (steve) One of our baits that we manufacture. Holy moly look at that. (adam) Beautiful fish. I’ll get the net.
(Steve) yeah see how he took it sideways. how cool. (fish thrash nats) (adam) oh we need a bigger net! (net fish) oh yeah! (steve) how’s that one, that’s what we come for Johnny.
(Adam) there he is. (fish is loose of lure) (steve) lift him up and you’ll see the weight.
(Adam) 17 pounds. (steve) look how thick.
(Adam) And there’s a lot of these in here. (steve) yeah, but look how fat, he’s just a good fish. I’d like to get him right back in. (adam) alright.
(Adam releasing fish) There he goes, look at him. (steve) how cool is that. (adam) back down to the depths. (steve) how cool of a shot was that. huh?
Big musky are powerful, so come prepared and even when you do, they’ll still test your tackle.
(Steve) I think we need bigger hooks. (adam) he just straightened it right out. (steve) they work good for them trout, a little lite on these others. He’s tore that right up. (adam) so what is that bait? This here is a Reaction Strike medium dive. this one here is called a psyco perch. It dives to about 10 feet and suspends neutral. We make them in several different colors. the one we did for Sportsman’s is rainbow trout. Which ought to be deadly on Strawberry. 33:00 and it seems to work pretty good on these. I think they like em. (adam) I think they like them Johnny. (steve) Tamed that tiger didn’t we. (laughs) (adam) nice fish let’s get another.
Stick baits, cranks, anglers even target these fish with seven and eight weight fly rods. My personal favorite is a three quarter to one ounce spinner bait.
(Adam) big old spinner blade is another one you can throw, with a trailer on it, make sure you have a trailer hook. in case they short strike it, you can still pick them up. (steve) that’s a pepper jig.
Most anglers that target big toothy musky or pike use a steel leader to keep the fish from biting them off. Steve uses a one hundred pound fluorocarbon leader.
(Steve) it eliminates bite off and then again with the flourocarbon, transparent. It helps a little bit, but I think these fish are so opportunist, they take and eat whatever they want.
(Steve) Got him. Hit next to the boat again. (adam) What did you get him on this time? (Steve) That same kind of bait, I don’t think he’s quite as big, well he’s got some weight. (adam) Do I need to net him. (steve) Probably when we get close. (adam) Hey you going to leave any fish for me? come on now. (steve) Come on grab that bowa grip. (adam) That’s a nice fish. (steve) Not bad huh. (adam) Still got some shoulders on him. (steve) Nice.
(Adam) Got him. (steve) Taking the weight away, cool. (adam) Nice fish, again healthy. (steve) Not a giant, but nice. (adam) Just healthy fish.
(Steve) nice fish huh? (adam) yeah he’s not real long but he’s fat. They are all healthy. Lots of follows today. (steve) yeah good fish, we need to get them a little thicker, a little longer. (adam) about 40, 45. (steve) yeah 40. (adam) get out here, there is some great fish to catch, for kids too. If you’ve never caught a tiger musky, it’s a beautiful place to come and do it. Hey coming up on KSL Outdoors, we’ll have more on the tiger musky here in Utah in a moment, but first Utah’s Burt Brothers quiz question.
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