(twangy rock music) - 48 degrees this morning as we get up, we're meeting Randin Olson at the lake.

We did this a couple of years ago around this time of year, I think it was about a week earlier or so, but if I remember right, it was actually colder in the morning.

I think it was thirties when we drove up to meet Randin the last time.

He fished yesterday, they caught a couple of fish, so we're looking forward to it.

Could be a pretty good day.

It's muskie fishing, so you never really know.

I haven't caught a muskie in a long time.

Dan, have you ever caught a muskie?

Dan's never caught one.

So we're gonna try to get Dan his first muskie.

See if I can catch first one in a long time.

I've never caught one over 40 inches so it'd be nice to catch a 40 and see if we can have a little bit of fun on a late September day, muskie fishing.

(twangy rock guitar music) - We're gonna drag a couple suckers and we're gonna cast as well.

Yesterday, they were eating the suckers.

They weren't moving a lot in the casting but our water temp, we dropped another two degrees overnight so I think that's gonna help.

Cold fronts are always good in the fall.

- [Bret] So we got two suckers behind the boats, some giant bobbers, how does this setup work?

- So obviously there's three of us out here.

We're gonna have one guy casting, kind of bringing fish up, covering the flats, and the suckers, we're running it down the weed edge.

So these are set up with quick strike rigs so we got a nose hook and then we got two trebles in the back.

And the way this will work is you want to set the the hook quickly but you also want to get in the right position.

So once one goes off, we'll pull the others up and we'll turn the boat and we'll chase that sucker out.

We'll get right over top of that bobber, so we got short line and we can kind of manage what the fish is doing.

So we want it to head away from us.

And then you're gonna give one heck of a hook set and hang on.

- What are we throwing?

- That is a Medusa.

I call it killer.

This is responsible for a lot of muskies over the years.

It's actually the third one.

This was one of the other ones.

We lost a tail on it yesterday.

I got three of the same bait.

These are Medusas.

It's kind of a rubber bait like a bulldog and anything like that.

And it's just gonna be a jerk, real slack jerk, real slack.

It really imitates a good dying fish.

(upbeat rock music) - [Bret] While I was casting up front, Randin was in the back monitoring the suckers on the Garmin live scope which allowed him to see if and when muskies would come check out the bait in real time.

(fishing line spurring) - Just a quick look.

It's coming back up.

That's so neat.

Just eat it.

Come on.

It is looking.

Just eat it.

(dramatic twangy music) There he just turned, coming up to look at him.

It's so cool watching him swim up like that.

Just eat it.

It's awesome and frustrating at the exact same time.

(Dan laughs) (upbeat music) - [Bret] After being teased, we finally got a taker.

- [Randin] Yep.

(fishing reel whirring) - Here we go.

We've seen four I think so far.

- Okay, so when you do set the hook, you're gonna set it like you've never set a hook before.

(mechanical beeping) I don't know, that bobber stopped moving.

- That's okay.

- We're coming back to it, I suppose, eh?

- There it's starting to move again.

- Should I closer her up then?

- Yep.

Kind of manage it.

I want you to keep a little bit of slack.

Yep.

- There you go.

- And what we'll do when we get close is we're just gonna kind of lift a little bit.

The idea here is to get 'em going away from us and you're gonna set it like you're trying to break the rod.

- All right.

(motor humming) - Go ahead and just kind of lift up on him a little.

- Okay.

- You feel him?

- Yeah.

- I want you to reel down into him.

- Okay.

- Keep going.

Go, go, go, go.

Reel til you start to feel it real heavy.

Hit it.

- Oh!

- It's okay.

It's okay.

(men laugh) - Well I gave her, I gave her.

- Keep reeling.

He's still on there.

Here I'll hold this.

(Bret laughs) Maybe.

- [Dan] Let me know if you need a third set of hands.

- There he is, right there.

All right.

(Bret laughs) - Some chaos.

- [Bret] Oh, this will work.

This should work.

(water splashing) - [Dan] Did we get him?

- [Randin] We got him.

(Bret laughs) - Oh yeah.

Sorry about your rod.

- That's just fine.

- Yes.

Awesome.

- That's a good one too.

(both laugh) - What did you tell me about setting the hook, Randin?

- I wanted you to break the rod.

And you're gonna set it like you're trying to break the rod.

- Oh!

- It's okay.

(both laugh) - [Dan] Yeah.

- Oh, that's awesome.

Good job.

- Yeah.

- [Randin] That's a good fish too.

- [Bret] Nice.

(upbeat rock guitar music) - First muskie in a long time.

Randin, thank you very much.

That was a fun fish to catch and doing it that way, there's so much anticipation of that hook set.

I might have gave her a little extra.

- It's okay.

- But you said to give her a little extra.

So 43 inch fish.

That was awesome.

And it's real early in the day.

- [Randin] Yeah.

- [Bret] Let's get some more.

- [Randin] Yeah.

That was beautiful fish.

- [Bret] With one fish in the boat, we decided to record an interview with Randin for the podcast Dan and I do called "Sporting Journal Radio" and we were in for a little surprise.

Then last time we tried to time it with the moon phase, and then we were playing the majors and minors and we noticed that- (fishing reel whirring) - Fish.

- Oh, fish.

- [Dan] Oh, here we go.

- All right, Dan.

Dan's up.

- Okay, so you're gonna kind of manage the line.

- Okay.

- But I want you to leave some slack in it.

- Okay.

- If that makes sense.

- Yep.

- So right now we're kind of tight.

I'm gonna get you on this side.

- Okay.

- Yep.

I don't want you to put much pressure on him.

- Yep.

- I would like to get nice and close.

There's a good chance when we get close, he's gonna go to take off.

So just be ready to slack them.

(fishing rod clicking) Hopefully this isn't a repeat.

- [Bret] Yeah, don't break the rod, Dan.

- I have no promises.

- [Randin] Are you ready?

We're gonna be getting real close.

- [Dan] Okay.

- [Randin] Okay.

Reel down and hit him.

- [Bret] Nice.

- Oh yeah.

(Dan laughs) - [Bret] Hell yeah.

- [Dan] Oh yeah.

(Bret laughs) (water splashing) Nice.

- [Bret] Got him.

There we go, in the net.

- Mid radio show.

(Bret laughs) - [Bret] Heck yeah.

- I love to fish.

- That's fun.

- [Bret] Here we go Dan, first muskie.

- [Dan] First muskie.

That's a fun fish.

- [Bret] Congratulations.

- [Dan] Heavy.

That's not a giant, but they're heavy.

They're pretty.

- [Bret] Randin, how many times do you get people their first muskie?

- A lot.

I've lost count, but there's no better thrill for me.

I think to be a guide, you gotta like to watch people catch fish and this is as good as it gets.

- [Bret] Muskies often have feeding windows and when that window is open, you wanna capitalize.

And before too long, another fish showed up on the live scope.

- Come on.

He's looking at it.

- Going back down now?

- Yeah, he's going back down now.

Nope, coming back.

- Oh, he's coming.

- He's coming pretty hard.

- [Bret] Turn ya nervous.

- [Randin] There you go.

Sucker's moving.

Now he might take it.

Oh, he's chasing it right with the boat.

Oh!

(fishing reel whirring) There he is.

- [Bret] Oh yeah.

(water splashing) He's got it.

He's got it.

- [Dan] You can just land that one, Randin.

Unless you wanna work the net.

- Ah no!

- Oh no!

(fishing reel whirring) (Randin laughs) - [Randin] That was cool.

- [Bret] Well, even the guide misses 'em sometimes.

While we would've loved to have landed that fish, it was encouraging to know our bite window was still open, giving us optimism for one more fish before our day was done.

- [Randin] Big one.

Big one.

He's staring at the motor.

There, he turned on the sucker.

That's a big one.

Got him.

Got him, got him!

- [Bret] Okay.

- [Randin] Who's gonna get him?

- [Bret] Can we move up to the front then?

- [Randin] Yep.

- We got a big one hooked up right now.

We're just gonna let him take it.

We're gonna get over the top of this fish and slam it.

I'll try not to break your rod this time, Randin.

(upbeat rock guitar music) Phew.

Bigger fish than last time.

Tried to put a good hook set into him, leaned into that fish.

That's a nice muskie right there.

We caught two early on this morning right away and then ran and missed one.

We've had a few other follows and we were actually thinking about packing up and heading for the day.

We were just making a plan and Randin, you spotted this one just swimming behind the boat.

- He was just staring at the motor.

He was looking at the prop on my big motor, just sitting there.

I'm like, "what the."

I brought the sucker over there and it was game over.

- Yep.

Randin just looked at the net and said "it's 47 and a quarter."

- Three quarter.

47 and three quarter.

- 47 and three quarter.

- Yep.

- We were trying to guess how long it might be and I was like 46.

He goes, "yeah, probably there."

And then he got a better look at it, "47 and three quarter" because.

- I caught this fish yesterday.

(both laugh) Only about a half a mile that way.

- Well that tells you something too about how much these fish move around.

- [Randin] Yeah.

- Because a lot of times, you'll fish spots or memories or whatever because they don't travel too much but obviously they travel a little bit.

- [Randin] Yeah.

- And he caught it two days in a row?

- [Randin] Two days in a row.

- [Bret] Get outta here.

- [Randin] This is probably, and I'd have to look back for sure, but this is probably about the 15th, 16th time I've caught this fish in about four years.

(Bret laughs) I wish he had a phone 'cause I could call him and let him know when I'm coming out but apparently he already knows that.

(rock music) That's a fish.

- [Bret] That's a great fish.

Yeah.

Underbite, 47 and three quarters.

That was a lot of fun to catch and man, it's been a great day out here, Randin.

Unbelievable day of muskie fishing.

- This was awesome.

- I appreciate you having us out.

Thank you for cooperating.

I appreciate you like, sending a text message.

- Yeah, I do the best I can for ya.

- Not bad at all.

Of course all the credit goes to Randin for finding the fish and setting us up with the right gear and three muskies in a quick morning of fishing.

You can't beat it.

And that's why we came back to Otter Tail County.

(upbeat rock music)