# West Virginia Kayak Musky



## GMR_Guy

I had never caught a keeper-sized musky. The only thing I had to show for a half-dozen or so attempts at Caesars Creek Lake was 1 missed strike. So where should I go? It turns out that my daughter lives very close to the Mud River in West Virginia, one of many fine musky rivers in the state. 90 minutes into the trip, a musky chases down my spinnerbait in an aggressive fashion, actually coming partially out of the water to hurdle over a branch just underneath the surface. A few feet later, he runs down the spinnerbait about 10 feet from the kayak and the water explodes. I made the idiotic mistake of putting my net into the water too soon and the hooks in the spinnerbait tangled my net. After some tense moments I was finally able to partially untangle the net and get the fish in the boat. 32" of West Virginia musky was caught and released unharmed to fight again.


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## kparrott154

I live in Huntington and just asked a guy the other day if he knew a good place for musky and he said the mud river. Congrats, nice catch

Sent from my HTC One mini using Ohub Campfire mobile app


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## MIKE*A

Congrats! I have never seen one, but have heard rumors of the occasional Muskie out of the GMR in the Dayton area.....

Mike


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## SConner

MIKE*A said:


> Congrats! I have never seen one, but have heard rumors of the occasional Muskie out of the GMR in the Dayton area.....
> 
> Mike


Muskie or pike? I have not heard of muskie in GMR near Dayton.


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## pppatrick

kparrott154 said:


> I live in Huntington and just asked a guy the other day if he knew a good place for musky and he said the mud river. Congrats, nice catch
> 
> Sent from my HTC One mini using Ohub Campfire mobile app


nice one! 

the mud is an excellent fishery, its up there with the elk, little kanawaha, buckhannon rivers for muskie in wv. when i was a teenager the wvdnr stocked the river i grew up on in boone county wv with tiger muskie and we'd catch a couple every summer, in about the 15"-20" juvenile range. they should be chunks by now. 

kparrott i'm in huntington as well. i haven't fished the milton pool of the mud in a while but theres a ton of access you can find just driving down mud river road. the guyandotte river is pretty good too and should definitely not be over looked.


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## GMR_Guy

pppatrick said:


> nice one!
> 
> the mud is an excellent fishery, its up there with the elk, little kanawaha, buckhannon rivers for muskie in wv. when i was a teenager the wvdnr stocked the river i grew up on in boone county wv with tiger muskie and we'd catch a couple every summer, in about the 15"-20" juvenile range. they should be chunks by now.
> 
> kparrott i'm in huntington as well. i haven't fished the milton pool of the mud in a while but theres a ton of access you can find just driving down mud river road. the guyandotte river is pretty good too and should definitely not be over looked.


 I had wondered about their being muskies in the Guyandotte since I can't find any record of them being stocked in there. But a person would have to think that if they are stocked in the Mud, that some of them would end up in the Guyandotte. 

I failed to mention that I had a couple of quick strikes from a small musky, but I could not hook him. I'm pretty sure it was probably a fish in the 20" range since I saw part of him and he did not make much of a wake in the shallow water. So, for a beginner like me, to catch a keeper on my first attempt at a river musky says a lot about the quality of the fishery.

My daughter lives in Ona, very close to the Huntington Mall, and I'm originally from Ironton, Ohio. I think I'm going to have to visit my daughter next spring and do a little bit more musky fishing.

My daughter lives in Hu


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## pppatrick

ought oh! we've got a tiger in the house. haha. one side of my family is from portsmouth, man do they get hostile this time of year. 



i should have mentioned that it was the coal river and not the mud i grew up on. i've never heard of the wvdnr stocking muskie in the guyandotte, but i've heard a lot of guys catching them in there. i'm more of a bass/sauger/cat guy. which may change soon, haha. i've only caught a handful of small ones fishing for other species. especially considering my proximity to them, i should invest in getting into the species.


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## GMR_Guy

pppatrick said:


> ought oh! we've got a tiger in the house. haha. one side of my family is from portsmouth, man do they get hostile this time of year.
> 
> 
> 
> i should have mentioned that it was the coal river and not the mud i grew up on. i've never heard of the wvdnr stocking muskie in the guyandotte, but i've heard a lot of guys catching them in there. i'm more of a bass/sauger/cat guy. which may change soon, haha. i've only caught a handful of small ones fishing for other species. especially considering my proximity to them, i should invest in getting into the species.


One unique place in your area is the Green Bottom Wildlife Management Area. It's on route 2, not too far past Hillbilly Hotdogs. It's is one of the few spots in West Virginia where you can catch bowfin.


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## pppatrick

oh yeah! frequent it quite often. theres some chunk largies in there too. i got one back in may that was a big post spawn female that had the head of 7 lb bass but was so skinny she probably didn't go 5. 

when you're back in the area feel free to give me a shout if you want.


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## kparrott154

Do either of you have some advice as to where to go in Ohio? I have tried lake Vesuvius and had no luck. I might try to float Symmes creek in my kayak.

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## pppatrick

you could probably find some crappie in symmes right now. 

vesuvius; one thing i've never heard anyone that went, actually fishing there say, "did well", self included. pretty as hell right now though. plenty fun with a 4 year old and some worms too.

i presume you would mean from a kayak though? of which i have absolutely no experience. 

plenty bank spots on the main river within an hours drive. are you licensed in WV?


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## MIKE*A

SConner said:


> Muskie or pike? I have not heard of muskie in GMR near Dayton.


I've definitely seen pike in the GMR.....as far as Muskie, I've run into a couple guys over the years that claim to have caught them....Never actually seen or caught them myself....

Mike


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## GMR_Guy

Here is the video of my catch:


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## pppatrick

awesome vid!


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## yankee

Awesome catch GMR Guy. Being that close to the water and a fish like that on the line will get your adrenaline going for sure. Makes me want to get another canoe 
&#61514; 
Thanks for sharing!


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