Hunter Kremmin, of Richburg, set up on the bank of the Allegheny River in Olean on a recent Sunday evening. He’d never fished the spot before, but he had a gut feeling about it. First he cast a Medussa swim bait, followed by a buck tail. No luck. He switched to a few different stick baits. Again, no takers.
“I even lost some expensive gear to logs,” Kremmin said.
Digging deep into his tackle box, Kremmin pulled out a top water lure and bombed it as far as he could toward the opposite bank. It was getting dark now, and the bad bite had lulled Kremmin into state of complacency as he reeled up.
“I was kind of going through the motions and looking into outer space,” he said.
Few things will focus an angler’s attention like a muskie leaping clear out of the water. Kremmin could see his bright orange lure dangling from its jaw. He set the hook and shouted for his girlfriend to grab the net. Not only did she grab the net, Kremmin said, she jumped into the river still wearing her nice shoes. After a brief wrestling match, they landed the muskie, which measured 40 inches.
Hunter Kremmin, of Richburg, caught this 42-inch muskie on the Allegheny River in Olean using a Medussa lure in perch pattern. Two days earlier he caught a 40-inch muskie near the same spot.Photo by Hunter Kremmin
Two days later, Kremmin and his girlfriend went back to their honey hole but it was occupied, so they went downriver to a different spot. This time Kremmin started with a top water lure, but the fish weren’t interested. As darkness began to fall, he switched to a Medussa lure in perch pattern and cast it to the opposite side of the deep current.
“I let it fall for a few seconds, gave it a few twitches, then boom!” Kremmin said. “The fish took me into the current and bulldogged me.”
At first Kremmin thought he’d foul-hooked a carp. Then the fish’s “snout came out of the water revealing those big teeth and a death hold on my lure,” Kremmin said. They netted the muskie and got a quick measurement—42-inches—before releasing the fish.
Kremmin didn’t get a weight on either muskie because he didn’t want to risk injuring their jaws or gills.
“I’m still in shock from both of them, in all honesty,” he said.
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Steve Featherstone covers the outdoors for The Post-Standard, syracuse.com and NYUP.com. Contact him at sfeatherstone@syracuse.com or on Twitter @featheroutdoors. You can also follow along with all of our outdoors content at newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/ or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/upstatenyoutdoors.