ANDREW
RAGAS

Andrew's Adventures

Little Muskie Weekend

Wed, August 31, 2011

I just returned from a quick weekend of exclusively musky fishing and lake hopping throughout the Northwoods. Due to a dozen other writing assignments this one was delayed by three days - no biggie. This time around I was joined by friend, Chris Loveless, who is an avid muskie chaser who makes annual trips to visit family at the metro lakes of Minnesota. Chris’s summer trip was canceled due to his work obligations, so I thought there was no better consolation prize for him than joining me for a weekend getaway.

We departed from the northwest suburbs on Thursday afternoon and the fishing didn’t begin until dawn on Friday morning. Our plan for day-1 was to lake hop throughout Vilas County, and fish a few different “action” lakes that I had not fished since various points the previous year. All of these lakes were sub-300 acres, and shallow weed related with the exception of the smallest, a 110 acre lake which is deep and requires open water fishing to find suspenders. The fishing was worse than expected as over the course of the full day we raised two fish total and blew the lone chance we had as the fish ate at boatside and I couldn’t stick the hooks into it. . . . . . . This seems to be a recurring theme for me over the past few weeks. The fishing was beyond terrible on these lakes which I was not expecting. However, they were worth experimenting, which led us to know what was up.  In addition, this failed experiment led us to stay on course with my belief that the dark water flowages and river systems would have the better opportunities for us. Anyways, going into the weekend, my plan was to have us fish on river systems for at least two of the days. As expected, the plan worked, besides the non-catching aspect of it.

On Saturday and Sunday Chris and I fished different areas of the same large river system that is approximately a 100 mile roundtrip away from my cabin, located smack dab in the middle of nowhere between Hayward and Minocqua. The region far west contains some of the best accessible, navigable, beautiful and fishable rivers in the entire state.  The areas we fished are really way out there, but a drive worth taking and gas worth paying due to the state forests, the countryside, and undeveloped terrain.

In our two days of fishing, floating, and exploring various sections of the river, we encountered a total of 18 muskies. An excellent number of fish given the time of year, the period of day they were seen, and my much-lowered expectations following a dismal day-1 of misery fishing unproductive lakes. Out on this particular river system we found water temperatures to be ranging anywhere from 68 to 74 degrees.

The best fishing obviously took place for us on the river than anywhere else we tried. We boated three over the weekend   and raised 18 over the course of two days with at least   10 of them going at 40” or larger. Both Chris and I missed several larger fish up to 45”  while downsizing to baits 6 inches or smaller. Followers were   frequent and follow-up lures were needed in order to hopefully entice the second bite but that came to no avail. Top producers for us were orange   showgirls,  double 6 and 7 Sims Spinners, and anything with a bright   orange profile that gave off a lot of vibration. All of our fishing took place in shallow cover in 5   foot or less;  stumps, reedlines, weedlines, shallow cabbage beds, and   downed wood.

Most action occurred during mid-mornings,  and after a lull in the action for two to three hours, it would pick up again in   mid to late-afternoons. If incoming fronts were on their way, or there were any slight changes in weather from cloud cover to wind, that played a huge plus and activity surged as it did for us right before we had to regretfully return home early Sunday evening.

Of the 18 fish we had raised, only a total of three were caught, all were undersize. In my boat the dinks go unmeasured, but they still deserve a photograph as a musky is still a musky. Both Chris and I did lose more than half of that number due to a slew of poor hook-sets and lousy hooks that our lures had.

For instance while on this weekend trip, I was doing some extensive lure testing as my friends at Sims Spinners are coming out with musky sized inlines. The ones I was throwing was their orange blade/green tinsel flashabou model with doube size-7 blades. It weighs a little more than 1.5 ounces. With the dark water we were fishing, this particular color combo drove the fish wild, and luckily this color combination is one of their standbys. All of the fish I moved over the weekend were chasing this spinner and nothing else, not even smaller gliders, topwaters, or any other style blade. It even turned into my confidence lure for two days. All three of the fish we caught came on this spinner. And three of the four fish I lost this weekend were lost on this lure due to the original size-1 stock hooks. After I lost my third fish of the weekend (two of which were 40 inch class), I decided to switch out the severely undersize size-1 hook for a size-3 I had in my utility box. From then on I finished a happy 3-for-3 on the weekend. Thankfully these lures aren’t for sale yet, so the important design refinements can be made before they get to the hands of other anglers. With hooks that are almost larger than the blade size, fish won’t be lost. It’s as simple as that.

Besides the Sims, I also finally remembered to try out Jonn Graham’s Big Tomahawk swim jig for the first time. After a couple dozen casts and ripping it through the edges of weedlines and banging it across stumps, the big hammer tail split in half and became unusable. So I tried it with a 6 inch reaper tail and a 5 inch twister tail and all was well. Unfortunately the Big Tom didn’t entice any fish, but for the river fishing it sure seems to have a lot of uses. I will need to examine and experiment with it more during the upcoming next few weeks. The color pattern I got last winter is pink/red/orange/purple and easily resembles the color tone of redhorse suckers which are abundant in these rivers. Good things to come. . . . . .

Although we were out on the water for 14 hours a day, beginning at 6am and not ending until after 8pm, it surely beat anything else we could have been doing over the weekend.

Unfortunately we didn’t catch the muskies we were after this weekend. Chris neither caught a single one himself that counted. However, we both came away with raising more fish than we had ever   expected.  Chris was amazed by the amount of fish we had seen as this was far greater than anything he’s ever experienced in Minnesota. In addition, we both   couldn’t believe that the ten 40-incher class fish we had brought up   never opened themselves up for us. It was so cool to see so many different nice fish. Despite that, at least we didn’t get   entirely shut-out as we brought in 3 fish and lost four others that   could have easily been landed if it weren’t for bad undersize hooks. 7   fish in a weekend of fishing would have been extremely nice but in late summer with fall just around the corner, you take   all you can get.

Still worth the trip though. I’m glad Chris came away with a better   understanding about musky fishing and seeing how it is a constant game   of cat & mouse. In addition, he learned a lot, just like our mutual friend, Frank, from   the previous week, which just adds to the up north experience of fishing and makes it invaluable and worthwhile.

Good times, Chris. We’ll do this again soon.

I’m taking this weekend off as the holiday and all of its accompanying idiots will keep me off the water. However, I’ll be back the weekend of Sept 9-11th, Sept 16-18th (still in the works), Sept 22-26th, and then again for a full week in October, and then for closing time in Mid-October. It’ll be an extremely busy next month and a half but I’ve got to make up for the sub-par summer season I’ve had up to this point.

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End Notes:::

Lastly, while fishing this past weekend I was able to doctor up the broken MinnKota foot pedal, which I reported on earlier last week, by jamming folded over strips of sand paper (yes, there is irony here).  As I had expected, the little buttons for the accelerator and directional buttons were not making any contact whatsoever with the spaces they push down onto the board inside of the pedal. It seems as if the contact areas completely wore away from all the use. The paper works awesome as a reinforcement and everything is making contact now.  Really well.

Now, all seems to be fixed, and the broken pedal works just like new and works when I press down on it and want to control the boat without autopilot. The only problem is I haven’t been able to figure out where the left turn button of the pedal makes contact inside as that went out over the weekend - something isn’t catching and pushing down on the left turn contact inside of the pedal. But if I want to turn left, I’ll keep the trolling motor raised up and turn it by hand. Was pretty efficient over the last 3 days.

Copilot isn’t a priority now but it’ll be purchased over the winter.

I’m going to keep using the doctored up foot pedal for the rest of the year but it would be great if I could figure out what makes it turn left when I press down. Something isn’t making contact inside causing the button to make it turn. And also, I caved in and ordered a new pedal to keep as an extra for the remainder of the year. At least I have the receipt for this one unlike the broken one…..

Anyways, here is a long slew of photos with their respected captions.

Day-1:

Sunrise at 6 am. over the first lake in Eagle River.

How cute. Officially the smallest musky ever recorded in my current boat. This is a yearling that was stocked in the spring.

Day-2:

Early morning on the river.

I’m lucky enough to have a few navigable stretches of water with my boat. Otherwise I’d need a flat bottom or a set of waders to fish much of this!

We did some exploring mid-day Saturday while driving to a different stretch of river. This virgin looking water is about 10 miles further west from where we did all of our fishing. I LOVE the wild Wisconsin. Makes me even more motivated to get that 14 foot jon boat I desire.

Size comparison between a #7 Musky Mayhem Showgirl and a #7 Sims Spinner. Wow we have a lot of work yet to do!

Fish #1 of the weekend . . . . . After 3 consecutive bigger fish being lost. Dinker felt good though.

Dinker #2 of the weekend.

More photos from Day-2.

Day-3:

Till next time….

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