PAD NOTES, Part 1 - ESOX

by John McKean

A pair of huge menacing eyes popped up in the shallows, looking eerily similar to something from a science fiction movie. I'd been swimming my slop skipping lure over shoreline lily pads in a huge back bay of New York's massive St. Lawrence River. Yet there were no alligators or alien critters this close to the Canadian border( which ran halfway across the river)! Before my mind could even register "northern pike", the sub surface missile walloped my bait, traveling the 20 feet within a milli-second! To this day my arms still retain muscle memory of that ferocious surface strike!

Lily pads always offer extra incentive to concentrate one's efforts, with visions of every manner of marine life and monsters lurking beneath. Especially, northern lakes and rivers often teem with slop hidden ESOX, pike and muskies, to increase anticipation to a fever level. No other freshwater fish can match their bursts of speed or sheer killing intent. And ever since Native Americans began fishing for these "water wolves", their hand carved bird replicas have been prime lures, legends, and lore.But,now, can you imagine the advancement offered by the soft, well designed, wing flapping BIRD over even the tribesmen's best hard wooden duck decoy?

Another particulary interesting spatterdock strike occurred on famed Lake Chautauqua (southwestern NY). I was working across newly formed "dollar pads" with my old buddy, Earl Cartwright, slop fishing master supreme. Hopefully, we reasoned, some of the lake's huge population of lunker largemouth or gigantic smallmouth bass would be on the prowl, just into their post spawn season. Until the water EXPLODED, little green pancakes flying everywhere, I'd almost forgotten that Chautauqua is perhaps the most prolific muskie water on earth! Believe me, if you think a 5 pound bass is heart stopping when rocketing through pads, just wait until a 4 foot muskie takes aim !!

Since this is THE official BIRD site, I'd be remiss in not mentioning a locally famous bird lure of sorts that was once made and used here, in a tiny corner of northwest Pennsylvania, expressly for muskies. Lake LeBoeuf is a very small natural lake,originally formed by glacier, and has cool, clean water with shorelines surrounded by lily pad beds. Muskies became somewhat sophisticated, especially the community's legend, 5 foot long, 50+ pound "Old Mossback". No standard bait or lure appealed to many of the toothy monsters, and Old Mossback never took anything.So an innovative Reginald Exley found an old telephone pole and carved what he hoped would resemble a wildly swimming frog. However, when he added overly long metal "wings" extending sidewards it certainly looked more like a downed,panicked bird, despite a dull green paint job. The "LeBoeuf Creeper" even had a body shaped very similar to our modern BIRD and sure created a ruckus in the water (I know-I owned an original!).Many formerly elusive 'lunge grabbed these makeshift birds as they crawled just beyond the pads, and even Ole Mossback took a few spirited whacks,but was never landed (heck, he may STILL be up there, wait 'till I show the big brute one of Sam's newly formulated BIRDs!!). Still, the history and drawing power of an artificial bird for muskellunge is undisputed.

I can foresee that when serious pike and muskie men start producing giant catches in this year's newly emerging pads, that our brand new BIRD won't be the only thing flying East. Sam and Dan will be on the next jet !!