I remember a number of years ago a client called me to book a guide date and told me that they had been fishing for 30 years and although he had caught lots of musky he never caught a 20 pound fish. On the second year that I guided him, he caught muskies of 21, 22 and 25 pounds in two days of fishing. For him this was the dream of a lifetime; he was like a kid in a candy store. I can't tell you how excited I was for that man. It was like I had caught my first legal musky all over again. The truth is that whenever I take a client out who catches their first legal musky, I don't know who gets more excited; them or me. I think any guide will tell you that this is an exciting time in the boat. When I interviewed the late, great, Ray Kennedy for my book "All-Pro Musky Guides", I was provided some additional background. Ray guided the Minocqua and Tomahawk area in Wisconsin for many years and was known for catching big muskies. Ray’s personal best musky went 54 inches and weighed an even 50 pounds. During his career, he and his clients put another seven fish over 40 pounds in the boat. I don't know of any other fisherman guide who put that many 40 pound Wisconsin muskies in the boat. There are many excellent guides that have never caught a single 40 pound musky. Yet with all of the 30 and 40 pound muskies that Ray Kennedy caught he still considered a 25 pound musky to be a trophy. Ray was comfortable enough with his abilities to acknowledge that there were some seasons where a 25 pound musky was the biggest fish of the year. So here was a big fish guide that fished almost exclusively on trophy waters and guided 150 days a year and there were years that a 25 pound fish was the biggest fish in the boat. How many years would it take a casual fisherman to put in an equivalent 450 days of fishing?
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