A couple years back I wrote a great article on my Esox Forum about how much fun shoreline fishing for musky can be compared to the boat... It's a different experience, this species of fish is more likely to jump and fight harder, you're able to witness things you wouldn't normally from the boat!

How growing up as a Kid, I didn't have the opportunity to catching these monsters from the shoreline due to how rare they were, but through strict rules and conservation we were able to make this rare fish much more prevalent and catchable from the shoreline. Each year the city of Grosse Pointe hosts their Inshore Fishing Classic for parents and youngsters to participate... Recently my Dad shared this article with me the article from the Grosse Pointe News Paper and I said hey, that's Andy, I know that little bugger! lol I rant into him when I was out on my boat fishing the mouth of the Grosse Pointe Yacht club pier, where I've caught some really big tiger musky and spotted musky over the years. There was a time when Andy had hooked a piling with his swimbait, I went over and unhooked it off the pier and saved him a couple of bucks. Afterwards we had a chat about comparing bass fishing to musky and pike fishing, discussing how we didn't understand how some local anglers just fish for bass and not Esox like northern pike and musky, suggesting that's kind of lame. These fish have fighting characteristics that no other fish have, they fight very aggressively and do weird things like following up your bait which give you an incredible adrenaline rush.

Andy has put up some incredible monster musky on Instagram, but not just that, also some magnificent sized carp as well too. What's interesting is, over here in the States Carp are considered somewhat of a trash fish, but over in Europe they are considered a treasure... They even go great lengths to put medicine on their lip after hooking them! What's the old saying, one man's trash is another man's treasure?

Anyways, you can go over on Instagram on follow Andy if you'd like, I just think it's great he's out there showing other youngsters the variety of species fish you can catch when just fishing from the shoreline... There's this common mentality with musky anglers, even with a lot of veteran musky anglers, if I'm not out fishing deep water from a boat or fishing the Canadian side, fishing for musky from the shoreline is just a waste of time! After listening to many stories over the years, I've comes to the conclusion that some of the biggest musky have been seen and even caught in the shallows from the shoreline, just ask Buck Fishes. If you know anything about musky, when dusk rolls around, it's as if these monsters go from deep water to shallows to get a midnight snack before they go to sleep... Something to think about, since a lot of humans do this too!

I think the last thing I remember about Andy is, he also uses spinning like me... So any of you youngsters that can't cast a baitcaster or afford an expensive one, think about just buying a Shimano Stradic C5000 with a Penn Squadron 3. I've had a lot of older gentlemen and veteran musky anglers telling me, I shouldn't fish with cheap gear or a spinning reel for these beasts, ignore that BS, as long as you buy quality even though it's cheaply priced, a resilient spinning reel and resilient rod will work just fine. I've shown you can fish for these muskies with much lighter lures and gear, still catch monsters! Some Veteran musky anglers also don't realize some youngsters can't tolerate the big waves and how rough it gets out on Lake St. Clair, might have motion sickness, so getting your kids involved even in small tournaments like this from the shoreline is still a great option where Fathers and Sons can participate!

Andy also fishes salterwater from the Surf too, just like I have done!

Incredible experience, once you find out what bait to use, where to cast it, and what types of species of fish you can catch, it's a blast! You don't need an expensive charter or expensive fishing gear to fish the surf of Florida or the shoreline of Lake St. Clair! Just get out there and do it, the different species you can catch both in Michigan and Florida is incredible!