Driving through the Great Smokey Mountains immediately takes me back to simpler times. We traveled here often when I was a child. I always knew there were trout in this area, but I would have never thought I would travel here for something toothy.
My destination was Melton Hill Reservoir. This reservoir was made from 1960-1963 on the Clinch River with the construction of the hydroelectric Melton Hill Dam. Over the last decade, Melton Hill has become a well known stripped bass and muskie destination.
As I was researching where I wanted to finish up my Spring trip and I knew I wanted to get on the water for muskie with someone that I could learn a lot about muskie from. It became quickly obvious that I needed to spend the day with Billy Davis. Billy obviously had the Melton Hill muskie scene dialed-in. One thing that really caught my attention was the fact that Billy regularly shoots television shows for muskie and strippers with Larry Dahlberg. Larry is a legendary muskie fisherman and has developed many of the muskie lures and techniques used to chase this fish of 10,000 casts. I knew if Billy was good enough to guide Larry, he would send me into muskie overload. AND HE DID!
My intention was to spend the day casting big streamers and hopefully get a stripper and a muskie on the line at some point. We hit the water early and were marking strippers everywhere, but we could not get them looking up. I was casting a large chartreuse streamer and Billy was casting various shad imitating lures. We never did get a stripper to come up. After a couple of hours of not moving a fish, we decided to move up and start hunting gators.
The muskie program on Melton Hill was started in 1998 and quickly became successful. The number and size of these fish quickly put Melton Hill on the map as a premier muskie fishery. My thought was that this is the a perfect situation for a guy that is new to muskie. I wanted to be able to see and move some fish. I understood coming into the day, that hooking and landing a muskie would be a different story, but being in the boat with a pro would help.
Billy would not call himself a fly fishing guide, but I did not care. I just wanted his expertise on the fish. He was happy to accommodate my fly problem. As we made our way to the muskie waters we discussed techniques and strategy. I casted flies for several hours in some prime water, but just couldn't get the fish moving on them.
I was getting tired of casting flies...literally tired. Billy had move a couple of fish on Double Cowgirl spinners. So, I decided to take break from casting flies and grab the bait caster.
Within no time I had moved a small muskie, but did a poor job with my figure-8 and did not get her to strike. Billy and I immediately started hammering out the details of the figure-8 at side of the boat and what I needed to do to keep a fish in play that follows to the boat. Little did I know, the time we spent on this would ultimately make or break my day.
Things were going very well. I continued to move fish and then mid-retrieve...WHAM! I got hammered and my line was running deep. The power of this fish was incredible. Billy kept yelling at me to keep pressure on the fish, and in my mind I was. The fish then turned and ran straight at the boat. He was headed to the tree beneath us and he found it. Once he got in the tree...it was over. The line was broken off quickly.
As we discussed this fish, we came to some common understanding. When Billy said, "Keep pressure on the fish." What he meant was...get that fish up to the surface ASAP and let's get a net under him before he gets to the trees. All right, we are now on the same page.
At this point I am bummed about loosing a fish, but thrilled that we had moved so many fish and even had a chance to get one on the line. It was moving towards late morning and Billy suggested we fish for another hour, take a break, and then come back out and hit it again in the evening.
A very large tree came straight out from the shore line. We started discussing tactics about how to approach a tree large tree like this. Billy wanted my 1st cast out past the end of the tree parallel to the shoreline. He said the fish like to sit right in the end of the trees and ambush things coming by and that it is important to make a few of these casts before for casting along the length of the tree to avoid startling fish.
I made the long cast in front of the end of the tree. As the Double Cowgirl came close a big fish was right behind her. I was not too excited at that point, but I was starting to get anxious because I knew I was going to have to figure-8 this spinner correctly to hook this fish. As I reeled the line in the leader came to the tip of the rod and I plunged the rod down deep and made the 1st figure-8. The fish didn't hit, but she was still following. I made a 2nd figure-8 and as I brought the Cowgirl up closer to the surface...CRUNCH! FISH-ON!
She was insane. I pulled and reeled with all I had to keep this leviathan at the surface. She was thrashing and made one really strong dive, but I was able to get her head to the surface and Billy was ready with the net. We had her...and I just experienced the biggest quickest rush of adrenaline I have had in years. And, there was a toothy MONSTER in the net.
She was really big, so we hoisted her up to the boat so we could get a measurement and weight. 50.5 inches and 35 pounds. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That is a fish of a lifetime. I'm done. I'm retiring. This is crazy.
We snapped a few pics and quickly got her back in the water and revived. She swam along the surface for a little while and we followed along snapping pictures and making sure she was fine. Eventually she turned back towards the deep and down she went.
Sweat is dripping off of me and I was still breathing heavy. Billy is just laughing. I felt like I had just come off the wrestling mat. I started drinking a sports drink and Billy says, "It looks like we have a pretty good window of the fish feeding. We better get back at it." I was ready for lunch and a nap. But, I mustered enough energy to pick up the bait caster again.
We moved back into the cove a couple hundred yards. Billy says, "You know what to do." I made 3 casts and on the 3rd cast, a nice fish is following again. Billy saw what was happening and again grabbed the net. The fish followed right up to the boat. I made one nice figure-8 and again, as I brought the Cowgirl up shallow the ski attacked. FISH-ON! Here we go again.
She made 2 really strong runs straight down towards the tree below us. I pulled with everything I had and got her head up. Billy netted her and we just starred at each other. IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING? She was bigger than the 1st fish. And broad...she had some broad shoulders. Billy says, "You did get your fishing license....right? Because this fish could be a state record." WHAT?
We lifted her to the boat. She was 51.5 inches and 38 pounds. The TN state record is 42.8 pounds. This fish is just post spawn and Billy is fairy certain, had we caught her a month ago, she would have been a state record.
SURREAL! I had just landed 2 fifty inch muskie. And when we went back and checked the time on the camera, they were 20 minutes apart.
We took a lunch break and met back at the lake later that evening. My arms were still Jello, but we had to keep going. I quickly moved another couple of fish and then hooked another fish away from the boat. Again, the fish was strong. I got him to the boat. As Billy dunked the net below him, he shook his head, sent the Cowgirl flying and quickly turned before the net scooped him up. That fish was in the 42" range. A dink, really....by my standards.
What more can I say? I wanted to learn about muskie from a pro and hopefully hook one. All objectives EXCEEDED!
If you are new to muskie and want to spend a day learning from one of the best or you are an experienced muskie guy that wants a new adventure, you have to get down to Melton Hill and fish with Melton Hill Bill. Obviously he can't promise anyone a day like I had, but he knows his stuff and is dialed-in on this lake. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
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