ANDREW
RAGAS

Andrew's Adventures

End of Summer Up North

Tue, August 23, 2011

From August 10th through the 21st, I was back at my place up north for the first time in over a month. This was my longest trip up there since summer of 2006 when I went for a full two weeks in June of that year. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever taken an entire month off from fishing in the summertime!

This time I was gone for a total of 12 days and after a month of zero fishing it was extremely refreshing. I was back in the game.

I drove up mid-week on Wednesday the 10th with my sister and grandfather and we joined our folks who were currently there for their vacation.

Unfortunately due to having several household projects on my list since early summer such as painting the garage, replacing side boards and trim, and replacing/fixing a window, fishing wasn’t in my plans until Saturday afternoon came around,  anyways. I was even going to rent a pressure washer to refinish the ugly discolored deck but   didn’t have enough time. I will likely do this over labor day weekend.

But before that, I did so much carpentry and manual labor that even I impressed myself! One thing about “This Old House” is that it requires some upkeep and maintenance. But when you’ve got a simple rustic little place like this to crash at during any time from spring through fall, it’s all you need for these fishing trips and getaways. Lodging at it’s finest.

Before I get into the fishing details, here are some images of work I did during the first three days.

These images were taken with my Blackberry:

Trim – before.

Trim – replaced.

Trim – new.

Replacing siding that was rotting away.

Finished siding: Somebody screwed up on the paint order so house will have to be entirely painted or stained in the same shade next summer. Beautiful, more work!

Not to turn this into a report or documentation on how to replace and refinish wood trim and siding, we will turn to the fishing.

On Saturday the 13th, my family left me and the dog, and the tow vehicle behind, and drove themselves home. Saturday I was left all alone in the woods with just the dog, so I ran to town to do some errands and worked in the garage to get the boat and gear ready.

Does anybody else have this big of a problem as I do? Note - I only bring 10 at most with me in the boat. Which still is bad.

Later in the evening, my good friend, Frank Weilnhammer, from Naperville drove himself 5 hours up and the full week fishing trip immediately began on Sunday the 14th.

Throughout the ENTIRE week the fishing was difficult at best. End of summer fishing in Northern Wisconsin is always a puzzle that needs to be figured out. It’s like a science and it’s a hit or a miss. Some years it’s good while others it’s very bad. End of July through middle of August is always my worst timeframe up there. The week prior, I was prepared to have such an excellent week of fishing because the forecast was calling for consistent daily highs in the 60’s and 70’s with long periods of overcast skies and rain. Two years ago I experienced those conditions in late August and in a half week of musky fishing we moved so many fish that I cannot even remember. That’s what I was ultimately hoping for. Lots of action and lots of fish due to “fishy weather”. But not seven full days of bright sunshine, little wind, and overnight storm fronts that blew in coldfronts every-other day. This weather screwed up the fishing pretty good for all species.

Early mornings were the worst fishing. But as the days rolled on into the afternoon and evening hours, fish were being found and some enjoyment was had. On some days we had to completely take the afternoons off due to bright sunshine and a lack of motivation.

During a typical full-week trip, I usually run with 20 different lakes that we’d try. I have a good 100-200 different lakes I know in the back of my head. Each of my lakes fish best at different times of the year, so I had a good number on this week’s list that are traditionally good end of summer producers. Due to the slowness of our fishing, we only managed to fish 13 of them along with two river systems. Still a decent number.

Frank and I predominantly fished for big smallies and muskies all week long. The smallmouth fishing was alright when we found some action. We spent two days fishing for them.Nearly everything we were able to find was down deep in the 15 to 30 foot zones. Deep drop-offs along with deep sand and rocks. Best producers were heavy football jigs with plastics, tube jigs, and carolina rigged plastics. Other good producers were musky sized bucktails and glide baits, no joke.

Meanwhile the muskie fishing was poor as I went 2 for 6 in four days w/ biggest at 42” while Frank got the zero. The fishing was poor almost every day for everything. The few fish we were able to move were all seen in mid-afternoons and again in evenings during sunset. Oversized blades and topwaters moved everything while a downsized flashabou bucktail caught the only two.

Although it wasn’t good, at least the water temperatures are settling back into the upper 60’s and low 70’s.

Like my big trip from June I will give a daily rundown of what we did and the results or lack of them that ensued. For more detailed accounts you can follow the links located at the bottom of this post and you will be directed to my online journal. This will mostly be a pictorial of everything we saw and did. For noteworthy images I’ll add a few things if I think of anything.

All images were taken from Frank’s camera. He’s heavily into photography and has all the fancy lenses one could ask for.

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Day-1

Read Report from 8/14/2011

We fished a total of three different lakes, all for smallmouth bass. I decided to take us to the action lakes where numbers and numbers of fun 12 to 16 inch fish can be had. The entire day was a struggle. The morning hours out on the first lake produced 9 fish while the late afternoon and evening only kicked out 10 to 15 for us. Not good. We eventually took a break along its undeveloped shorelines to smoke a few cheap cigars and to swim and keep cool on its beautiful beaches.

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Day-2

Read Report from 8/15/2011

The morning and early afternoon hours were spent for smallmouth bass. Unfortunately the lake we went to was a dud and all we caught were three largemouths and one dink smallie. This lake is a year-round producer for big fish and numbers of them. In the afternoon we took a break from fishing and then went back out again in the evening. Frank and I decided that if we were going to cast at nothing, because the bass fishing was proving to be futile, then we might as well do it for muskies.

My personal musky spotter. First time ever my dog has joined us on any elongated fishing trip like this. We only brought her with when musky fishing as the boat has more space and room. Surprisingly she never hooked herself with sharp trebles, although safety was a priority and we didn’t keep any hooks exposed except those that were on our rods.

Below is the eagle that comes by every night at 7pm on this lake, according to the   homeowner who feeds it bluegills. What a deal this “pet” bird gets.

You might notice my new Sea Monster Stick. It’s a 7ft 9in rod custom built on a St. Croix Legend Tournament blank. My friend, Matt Coppolino, of MC Custom Rods put this one together.  With the split grip and small micro guides it handles everything from big blades, to plastics, cranks, and topwaters awesome for me. Matt built a winner, and this was his first ever musky rod build too!

I wanted the rod to be at around 6 ounces, as compared to the   significantly heavier 8 foot St. Croix Avid it replaced which is close   to 12 ounces. This new one is a feather in comparison. I don’t need   anymore musky rods but I’ll likely get another souped up version next   year.

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Day-3

Read Report from 8/16/2011

Our day of fishing was spent 35 miles northwest in Iron County where we fished the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage and another area lake for muskies. It was an all-day affair from 6am until 8pm. While on the flowage, we only moved one musky. Meanwhile on the lake we fished, I blew the hook-set on a fat 40 incher that swiped my oversized blades at boatside.

However, while musky fishing, we had the smallmouth bass keeping us company.  Fish up to 18” were hammering our bucktails and glide baits like it was   nothing to them. Throughout all the casting only one single musky was   moved off a rock & boulder point that was getting hammered by the   strong winds. Since this area of the flowage is all wide open, heavy   winds up to 15-20mph can take a huge hit on the fishing as two and three   footer waves are a guarantee. Boat control sucked, but despite that we   were still finding fish wherever we tried.

Although we didn’t catch our targeted species out there, we had a blast with the smallies. Their fights were so good with the musky gear I was throwing. We caught a total of 12 fish along with some bonus hammer handle pike.

Catching smallies on musky gear. This could be a future article worth pursuing.

While out there a great bonus was had. A lot of the flowage is   undeveloped land and left in its natural setting. So there are a lot of   natural beach shorelines. I took advantage of this by running the dog on the beach and taking her for a swim. In addition, we also saw a bear   swimming across one of the lake basins we fished. Frank was able to   shoot some photos with his zoom lens. If I had to guess the closest we   got to the bear was within 50 yards.

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Day-4

Read Report from 8/17/2011

With the fishing having been terrible up until now, I decided that a   change in approach was needed. Let’s go take a drive and fish one of the darkest rivers we will ever come across. When we left the house it was already after 10am and it was sunny without any clouds.  Thankfully it was windy at least. We spent the day fishing a large river system several miles west of town, out near the Hayward area.

Starting off at the river Frank and I were throwing the usual typical   sized 6 to 10 inch baits. But then as nothing was going on for us, I   decided to significantly downsize my presentations for the remainder of   the day. A 7ft 6 inch rod launching a 6 inch glider used with 80lb   Cortland Masterbraid was replaced by a 7ft 6 inch Quantum Tour Edition   flippin’ stick with a Quantum Energy SS bait casting reel with 50lb   Cortland Masterbraid. With this smaller profile I was throwing dbl-6   Sims Spinners, and smaller gliders such as the Rapala Glidin’ Rap and 6   inch Jake crank baits.

Within 30 minutes of motoring upstream to our starting point, the first fish of the day was contacted and as soon as I began retrieving the Sims, I get a huge strike from extremely shallow water that was in   shade. The fish came out from downed wood and destroyed the spinner. I   set the hook and a great battle was on in less than 2 feet of water.

At first I didn’t think this fish was all that big because from a   distance I was able to see it. But as it came closer, Frank and I knew   that we had a beast on my line. This fish was a fighter but the flippin’  stick won the battle and held up great. After a few bulldoggin’  boatside runs the fish was subdued and scooped into the Frabill. Then   the thrashing began and I proceeded to cut my left hand on her gill   plate while controlling her. I forgot to put the glove on.

Frank snapped a bunch of candid photos and after 20 seconds of reviving   she exploded back down into the dark cola colored river. Water temperatures were 68-73 degrees depending on current or slackwater areas.

She came out to an even 42 on the stick. I was hoping that throughout   this crazy process my dog would at least show some reaction and get   excited over a fish that was bigger than her, but she retreated to the   back end of the boat not to be heard from.

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Day-5

Read Report from 8/18/2011

The original plan was to switch from river systems back to lakes.  But due to the weather not having changed at all overnight, and with Frank having to go home the next afternoon,  we decided to go back to the dark flowing waters we could find.

Not wanting to go back to the same river for the second day in a row, or   even exploring more of its stretches because it was a hike to get to, Frank and I headed north to   Boulder Junction to float the Manitowish River. This is one of the   smallest river systems in the area that can actually be navigated by   boat. What’s unique about this system is that it flows and interconnects   with several different lakes in the county. It connects the boulder   junction lakes into the Manitowish Chain of lakes and then helps form   the Turtle-Flambeau River. Pretty cool to have all that water be related   together.

The stretch we fished has all the ingredients of being a muskie topwater heaven. . . . . . When it’s on.

We didn’t see a single fish but it was worth exploring the wilderness.

What suggested for me to fish this river is that I have a few friends   who occasionally fish sections of this river and do well for muskies.  However, it’s normally in early season during late May and into June as   the water warms up.

Today, water temperatures were surprisingly cool at 68-69 degrees.

Frank and I must have covered two miles worth of water, slowly drifting against the current with the trolling motor, and then slowly idling from spot to spot. Much of this river is no-wake but certain sections of it open up to form smaller lake basins and in these areas slowly motoring is feasible.

Here’s several photos we took:

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Day-6

Read Report from 8/19/2011

The day of fishing was overall slow all day long and really not worth reporting on.

Frank had to leave later in the afternoon so before he left he wanted to go catch some nice smallies.

We tried for four hours but all we caught was this one on a carolina rigged soft jerkbait.

Unfortunately the high winds killed all chances for good fishing, and   the fishing was so bad that we were forced off the lake by 1:30pm.  Four hours of fishing yielded one single fish for us. I was upset for Frank because he came all this way to catch good fish with me. But,  regardless of the poor fishing, all the BS and humor and company we shared in the boat made up for the poor fishing. We’ll make plans to do this again in the springtime or in the fall.

Although I was set to fish by myself for the week with just the dog, I   appreciated Frank’s company and it made for an enjoyable trip. At least he was able to learn a lot about fishing large lakes for muskies and bass.

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Day-7

Read Report from 8/20/2011

Got up at 5am. Let the dog out for a quick walk, packed up the cooler, removed the boat cover, and it was time to enjoy my last day of fishing for the week. I met up with friend, musky nut and Muskies Inc. member, Mike Piorkowski, of Schaumburg, IL. He has a place in Boulder Junction and will be there till early October.

I took Mike out to a favorite musky lake of mine in Oneida County for a 6am to noon outing. This was the first time we had ever fished together. In   six hours we caught nothing, but we moved two fish, both in the low   30’s. The lone event that happened was my foot pedal on the trolling   motor broke yet again.

Despite not catching anything we enjoyed each others company and   discussion. Everything we talked about was on muskies, fishing clubs   because I’d like to join a chapter of Muskies Inc. to make new fishing   buddies who are die-hards and fish the region like I do, and then we   exchanged secrets of what we know about several of the area lakes. Mike   is a diehard musky angler so I learned a lot from him. I’ve got some new ideas and lakes I will be giving a try during the upcoming fall months.

I returned back to the house at 12:30 and was officially all by myself from then until it was time to return to IL on Sunday. At this point I was tired of my boat, pissed off with the trolling motor, and too lazy to head elsewhere. Before putting the boat back in storage I decided to wash it down, give it some gel coat restorer + polish, and then a wax job. I then put all the gear away and did some cleaning up around the house. However, I was still not completely finished with the fishing.

I pulled the little boat out from the garage and wheeled it down to the lake. From 5:30pm until 7:30pm I enjoyed some of the most fun bass   fishing I’ve had all summer long.

I decided to try something new, which I have never utilized before.  The swim jig. Throwing 3/8 oz. Strike King swim jigs tipped with Stankx   grubs as trailers in and around all the weed growth, I caught over a   dozen largemouth bass with several of them in the 15-16 inch range.  Really fun action size. The largest was a 17 incher. In addition, I   caught a few small pike and moved two brutes that were chunky and near   30 inches. Surprisingly they were as lazy as muskies and followed me to   boatside.

First ever bass on swim jig has me sold.

After sleeping in on Sunday till 9am, I cleaned up, packed up, and left town at 11:30am. First time ever I drove home by myself. It wasn’t a bad ride, it actually goes by a lot faster when it’s just yourself and a dog and you’re blasting music.

Frank and I are foolish for not spending some time out on my lake for largemouth bass and pike during the week. Why we bothered going   elsewhere for worse fishing is beyond my knowledge. At least I’ve got a   good idea of what I will be doing and where I will be fishing for the   next few upcoming weekends.

Despite not catching many fish this week, the fishing was really fun.  After taking the entire month of July off, I’m glad that the fall months are fast approaching. Thanks to early scheduling of some trips and good planning, I will be back again this coming weekend, labor day weekend, a few long weekends in September after that, and then again in October during the first two weeks before we close up yet again for the season.  My summer season is now over. I’m going to savor and enjoy every moment I get from now till we close up shop.

Till next week….

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