Northern Wisconsin June 7th thru 13th, 2010.
Fishing with my Plan-B option for the week.
Last week, I traveled back to the northcountry for yet another fishing trip. I was originally to be joined by Frank Hyla and the TV show crew but for still-unknown reasons it never happened so I was left to scramble in order to find a replacement. After quick searching for friends and seeing who would be available, I found my buddy for the week, Gary Grenda, of Tinley Park, IL.
My story with Gary is quite unique, and a sign that we indeed live in a small world. His grandfather happens to own the lot next door to our cabin on the lake, and Gary first got to know me through the internet by following my up-north fishing exploits. We fished for a day last year as he followed my boat around on the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage, and is familiar with my style and where I go throughout a three-county radius for fishing. Consequently, he was a good fit for a strenuous trip.
For the ENTIRE week, the weather was terrible with rain every day, and multiple coldfronts that lowered water temperatures from the low 70′s at the end of May to the low 60′s at this present writing. In consequence, the fish were highly unresponsive to us.
If you followed my past three weeks of fishing and saw those unreal catches of big Bass, this week was the total opposite. We struggled to catch even the little guys. Fact is, we are all just human, and no matter what we did throughout the week to apply ourselves to the moods and locations of the fish, success would not ensue.
The fishing was so bad, that we literally choked just like this Pike who tried to take down a bluegill. But at least we didn’t die while trying.
A total of 17 different lakes were fished along with one river.
At the beginning of the week we put forth our focus on Bass fishing because the weather was still somewhat reasonable. But within the following 24-hours after our arrival, the weather would turn for the worst as rain persisted throughout the week, and was accompanied with its coldfronts. By the third day of the week and not being able to figure out the Bass no matter where we went and the techniques we applied, we were exclusively fishing for Muskies and nothing else. We had nothing to lose.
The week immediately began with a customary float trip down the Wisconsin River. The water levels are terrible right now and the mid-river weedgrowth is now atrocious. At first I was thinking that this could have been my last float trip of the year because we literlly portaged and dragged the boat through shallow water moreso that floated and motored through the river. But with all the rainfall from the past ten days, this might have not been my last trip of the season afterall.
It was a slow outing, and I am afraid that because the area got warm so quickly this spring as compared with previous years, the last run of good fishing might have been a few weeks ago right after my trip with Jake ended. The river in general is always good until the end of the month, but it wasn’t very kind to us this time around. Gary and I struggled to find both numbers and sizes of fish. Because we couldn’t get anything going, Gary resorted to covering water with a spinnerbait, and I was going back and forth between topwaters on the baitcaster and to completely change things up, I threw bucktails and topwaters with the Musky sticks.
Between the two of us, only a meager dozen Smallies were boated with only a pair of 17′s caught by yours truly. In addition, I had a low 30-inch Musky from deeper current brought to the net before it made a last attempt to free itself from the sharp bucktail hooks. It would have been my first of the year.
On every float trip, I make a valiant effort to bust out the fly rod, and each time I keep working the fly, my casting and control seems to drastically improve. Not to mention, I am catching more fish much easier. This was probably my 4th or 5th ever try for Bass on the fly and I was impressed with myself over the fact that my casting range was now over 60-feet!
In maybe 30-minutes with the fly while wading through this skinny water littered with fields of shallow-water boulders, a pair of Smallies were caught: A 14-incher, and the 17-inch fish picturd below.
I am really privileged for the fact that I have friends who are willing to give me lessons and pointers on how to become a better fly fisher, and who readily supply me with their creations: My friends such as Issom Beituni, and Phillip Krotine to name a few. And while on this subject, I sarcastically thank them and everyone else for turning me onto this great style of fishing because by reading all of Jonn Graham’s exploits and having some success of my own, I am seeing just for myself how fun this style of fishing can be. I won’t ever become as passionate about fly fishing as they are and will ever be, but I just appreciate the calmer style of it and the change of pace it brings as compared to my more traditional fish-catching methods. You people are terrible, so thank you! 
Moving on, this was the only semi-decent Bass fishing we experienced all week long. We made a few other last-chance efforts by fishing the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage and a few lakes around the Lac Du Flambeau area but whatever we caught was either undersized, or completely incidental while chasing Muskies.
Outside from the futility we experienced with the Bass fishing and poor weather conditions, we spent a considerable amount of time fishing for Muskies. Approximately four full days were spent fishing across the area for these fish and like the Bass, conditions were also pretty bad.
I told Gary that once he catches the first, the game gets pretty addicting.
In four days of Musky fishing, a few highlights were had. First, I was able to bring my first fish of 2010 into the Frabill, a 40-inch fish that fell to a bucktail on the figure-8 near boatside. And second, we ran into Jim Saric and his Musky Hunter TV show crew at the boat landing on one of my favorite little lakes. I was shocked to see him out on this lake we were on because it was entirely unexpected. I guess when this legendary angler and one of my idols is fishing a small area lake that contains Muskies on a day in which weather is terrible, it must be a sign that the fishing must really suck for all parties involved. He was in the process of getting off the lake while I was launching, and I didn’t want to interrupt him like a crazed fan would. However, my God, did his Ranger with a 250 dwarf my little Lund!
Speaking of everyone else, not too many other folks were having success throughout the week either. Gary and I just caught a bad break with the weather.
So in four days of Musky fishing, 14 or 15 different lakes were fished, all ranging in size from big to small, and with depths anywhere from extremely shallow to extremely deep. We fished everywhere, utilized everything and all the gear we had (which I have a lot of), and we could only raise over a dozen fish, and boat just one. Fish were moved on everything such as bucktails, jerkbaits, gliders, and topwaters. Keep in mind that I did, however, lose two other fish that were hooked at boatside – one being a low 30-incher on a bucktail during the float trip, and the other an upper 30-inch on a jerkbait.
Gary had never Musky fished before but he came oh so close multiple times to catching his first ever. Unfortunately, they were lazy light nippers.
At least this one made up for my week of poor fishing.
What you see from this writing is what you get. This past week was far from being one of my best trips or better weeks of fishing in general. I don’t like to make excuses for when I don’t catch fish, but it was just a bad week overall. Despite that, Gary proved to be a pretty good stick for the boat and I’m sure that we will make trips like these again. In a way, we’re practically neighbors from the same lake, except unlike me, he doesn’t live on the lake.
At the moment, I am completely in Musky-mode as I would like to dedicate the remainder of my summer trips (4 or 5 more) entirely to these fish if possible as I have a whole plethora of lakes to try courtesy of some of my friends and contacts who are directing me towards them. However, if weather decides to actually stabilize by the end of this month, I may turn back to Bass fishing as there are a few other pigs I would like to catch.
My next trip will be on the week of June 25th with good friend, Kenny Lookingbill. This will be our third season of making a fishing trip of this caliber and each time we seem to bang out some very nice fish of all species. Just like Gary, he also needs to catch his first-ever Musky. Like me, and at heart, Kenny is a Bass angler, and we will have plenty of that forthcoming from some of our favorite up-north locales.
Till then, who knows how much fishing I will get to do here in IL. Probably none. I should probably try to find a full-time job!