In Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick,'' the antagonist, Ahab, is so fixated with pursuing the great white whale of the book's title that Ahab's obsession results in his demise, and not in a pleasant way.

Though invoking timeless questions about man's futile attempt to conquer nature, the tale, on its face, is simple enough, and — to this day — is often repeated.

Sometimes the fish wins.

But not always.

Paul Schiller and his wife, Rachel Daly, of Minneapolis were on Lake Minnetonka last Saturday, and can attest to it.

Unlike many weekend recreationists on that 14,000-acre lake, they were not astraddle Jet Skis or at the wheel of a wake boat. Instead, they were in their 16-foot Crestliner, fishing rods in hand, dragging nightcrawlers.

"I fish every weekend,'' said Schiller, 52, an engineer. "If I'm not in my boat, I like to fish from shore, beneath dams. I'm almost always looking for walleyes. Never for muskies.''

Yet when Schiller and Daly departed the metro's largest lake a week ago, it wasn't the three keeper walleyes they caught that memorialized the excursion.

Rather it was a 52-inch muskie they also landed that rendered the outing unforgettable — a trophy of a lifetime they boated after catching a 21-inch walleye affixed to another hook on the same nightcrawler harness.

Muskie guide Josh Stevenson of the Twin Cities pursues Minnesota's toothiest fish 120 days or more a year. He's never heard of such a thing.

"First, to get a muskie to eat a worm almost never happens,'' Stevenson said. "Second, to land a walleye on a separate hook on the same harness, that doesn't happen, either. Ever.''

Schiller and Daly already had two Minnetonka walleyes in their live well when Schiller's line drew tight about 2 p.m. last Saturday. He didn't know what he had hooked. But it was hefty, and it stayed deep.

"Five minutes or so passed before I got the fish close enough to the surface to see it was a muskie,'' Schiller said. "I had only 8-pound-test line, so I loosened the drag on my reel. I didn't want to put too much pressure on her.''

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has monitored Lake Minnetonka's fish populations since 1949. Muskies were first stocked in the lake in 1974, and in the years since, a reasonably good population of Esox masquinongy has flourished in Minnetonka — a word that, translated from the original Dakota, means "great water.''

For anglers, Minnetonka is just that — great. One of the best largemouth bass lakes in the state, Minnetonka also holds healthy panfish populations. Additionally, its walleyes are often pursued successfully by those who know the lake and how to fish its milfoil, particularly in spring and early summer, and in fall.

The muskie caught by Paul Schiller.


Rachel Daly held the walleye caught on the same harness, nabbed by the muskie.


That said, many anglers who regularly cast for muskies in Minnetonka believe their numbers have fallen in the lake over the past decade or so.

It's possible also that 'Tonka's muskies have become increasingly close-mouthed due to heavy angler pressure.

Either way, a DNR gill net survey in 2019 yielded only two muskies with an average weight of 23 pounds, a sizable difference from the estimated 45 pounds Schiller's 52-incher weighed.

"When we saw the muskie near the surface we didn't realize it had a walleye in its mouth,'' Schiller said. "We didn't see the walleye until we got the muskie close enough to the boat and my wife tried to get its head into our walleye net. As she did, the walleye, which had one of the harness's hooks in its mouth, dropped into the net, breaking the hook as it did. Amazingly, for being in the muskie's mouth, the walleye had only a little scuffing on its sides, but no lacerations.''

Added Schiller: "When the walleye dropped into the net, Rachel was like, 'Where did that come from?''

Attempting again to escape, and diving, the muskie was tethered to Schiller by the third hook on the harness — two back from the hook that snared the walleye.

Hoping to maneuver the big fish alongside the boat, Schiller believed he might be able to reach beneath it, cradle it in his arms, and lift it over the Crestliner's gunwale.

"When we finally got the muskie next to the boat, we could see she had the bottom hook of the nightcrawler harness in the corner of her mouth,'' Schiller said. "I couldn't get the hook out while the muskie was in the water, so Rachel supported its head in the net while I got one hand under its belly and the other under its tail and lifted it into the boat.''

Their intent with the muskie was far more benevolent than Ahab's was with Moby-Dick.

Ahab, Melville wrote in 1851, wanted to chase "that white whale on both sides of land . . . . till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out.''

Said Schiller, "We just wanted to get the muskie unhooked and release her. Which we did. I revived her for a bit when we got her back into the water, and she swam away strongly.''

Asked if anyone from Minnetonka's Saturday afternoon Jet Ski and wakeboard crowd gathered to watch the struggle that produced such a magnificent fish, and memory, Schiller said no.

"They didn't seem to notice,'' he said.
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Hell of a catch there displacedinMN holy shit fucking awesomeness. How long was the battle to reel that sombitch in on 8lb test line?
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not me. But I love dropping fishing stories. We have a lot here.
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I kinda wondered that but I thought you were sharing a local news paper I know I'd be a braggart if it were me :-)

I love fishing stories too.
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What I also thought was impressive it that it came from Minnetonka. It is a very busy, high traffic lake. It has been cold/below average, so maybe not as many boats as a typical warmer spring and Memorial day.
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It is damn impressive considering almost every bit of shoreline has a house and dock on it.
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It was damn impressive considering the rarity of a Muskie that size. I’d like to get a Muskie on the fly but it’s way down my list of fish to get. That, though, is a very impressive fish.
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Minnows ready for duty tomorrow
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I've been hammering the smallmouth on a feeder creek about 1/2 mile from my lake home. I throw a floating frog pattern made out of deer hair. These Smallmouth group up in the head waters and just slash the shit out of it.
So much fun on a fly rod.
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Sounds awesome man, topwater fishing is sooo much fun... and smallies fight even harder than largemouth in my experience
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Lefty Karen’s favorite freshwater fish was the smallmouth. Maybe because living in MD, those were quite plentiful near him. I understand that smallmouth are a tremendous freshwater fish. If I had them in my neighborhood I would certainly target them.

That is really cool. I’ve tried to get trout on a mouse pattern and it really depends on time of year. Early in the year I can do it. But after about July 1, won’t happen. And I fish a lot in September, which is late season for us, so I’m using eggs and flesh flies.

If you’re going to talk about fly fishing, you need to talk about the rod - brand, length, weight, etc.
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I fish with the fly rod exclusively. Not because it’s some elite way to fish, because it’s not. I flyfish because it’s more productive.
For Trout in NE Iowa I use a 9’ St Croix Legend 4Wt with WF floating line. Here you use the same tactics as you would employ anywhere where you are targeting trout. If they are on dry flys that’s what I throw. Around here that means caddis and blue wing olives 18-22. Most of the time I’m rigging nymphs, bead headed in double rig fashion.

If it’s a super small stream with Brookies I will use my St Croix Legend 7.5 ft 3wt.
This rods a blast in tight spaces and with a big one on it’s a great.

St Croix makes good rods but what I really like is their warranties. When I break a tip it’s $20 with lighting fast turnaround.

For Bass, Large Mouth and Smallies, I employ a close-out Scott fly rod that is 9’ 5wt. This is my work rod and it’s durable enough for the kayak. Sometimes I will overload it with WF 6wt. I primarily use top water patterns like foam hoppers, frogs and large poppers. If I can see the bass I will target them with large streamers.

Finally I have a St.Croix Imperial 9’ft 8wt with WF floating line that I use for carp.
Every late May-August my home river has pools behind wing dams that hold hundreds of carp. When it gets hot, and the river is stable, these carp rise and slurp scum cottonwood seeds and large insects. I tie a simple cottonwood pattern in size 12 and it’s game on. Floating crabapple patterns work as well.
If you’ve never caught a huge carp on the fly you are missing out. They run and fight till the last. We call them the cheap bonefish.
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So I just got back from the annual "There's no Fish in Wyoming" July fishing trip. I couldn't go last year, and the year before no one could go. So, I haven't been in nearly three years.

Needless to say, I've been looking forward to this trip for a looooong time. And it didn't disappoint. Late season thunderstorms filled the reservoir up, giving us plenty of water below the dam, and consequently lots of great fishing, though we missed the stonefly hatch by a couple days.

No matter, plenty of toads were hooked, and many were landed. Well, enough words, on to the fish porn.

The "There's no Fish in WY" 2022 crew:



First cutt of the trip for moi:


Basecamp 2022:


Rod's world-famous breakfast burros:


Revenge is mine on this Ham bow that kicked my ass the night before:


End of Part I
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Part II:

Steve-O showing us how it's done:


Another 20+ inch Ham Bow:






After dinner smoking of the feet, waiting for the evening bite:


Rod with the rare pug-nosed beergut bow:


End Part II
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The Obligatory post-T-storm Rainbow:




End Part III





There's a hilarious story to this pic, but I've been forbidden to even think about it:


WY skies never disappoint:


My PB SR cutt, 25-26 inches:


Big, bad, Leroy:




End Part III.
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