Avoid these five common mistakes made by muskie anglers

I pulled the line above the reel to check the drag and found it paid out easily, much too loose to get hooks into a big fish. As the guide, I made the mistake of not checking my client’s drag before we started fishing. In my defense, my client was a veteran of dozens of fishing tournaments, so I figured he knew better. In the 30-plus years I have taught fishing schools and guided fishermen, I’ve seen them make a lot of mistakes. Following are the five most common. Fortunately, all are easily corrected.