Written by: Kip Veith, Wildwood Float Trips

Donna Smith with a 40-incher, a great musky her second year in a row.
Photo by Kip Veith
You may remember that Donna Smith—a sales associate at Orvis Yorktown in Illinois—caught a gorgeous musky last year. (See “Donna’s Monster Minnesota Musky.”) This year she got another one. This year’s fish was a bit smaller, but a nice fish all the same, at 40 inches. She fished the 9-weight H2, and it handled the fish perfectly.
We were just minutes from the take out when the fish ate the same fly Donna had been using the year before, a size 4/0 Chartreuse El Chupacabra. Nothing like getting the job done: like when you’re in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, and you hit the grand slam to win the game.
Kip Veith runs Wildwood Float Trips, in Monticello, Minnesota.