I am writing this article in response to the weather patterns that occurred during the 2007 and 2008 musky seasons.  Granted, I am only 29 years old and have completed only 17 seasons of musky fishing, but those two years brought weather conditions like I had never seen before.  There are many theories that attempt to explain the unusual weather patterns of the last few years, but I will discuss none of these theories or their validity.  Discussion of such theories ends in heated debate and that is not what this article is about.  I am writing this to discuss unusual weather I have encountered, how it affected my musky fishing, and what I learned.  Adverse weather can make fishing poor, but it can also make fishing better and even create opportunities that hadn’t previously existed. Read More→

My uncle gently placed his tackle box on the canoe floor.  We were tucked up beside a grassy bank on a small river in northern Wisconsin.  He pulled out a battered, black, Heddon Zara Spook that had been with him for many years.  Before I could even ask, he began to explain how much he loved it.  He preferred removing and re-installing the front eyelet to a forward facing position rather than the downward, factory installed position.  I watched as he casted out into the large eddie, directly beneath the rapids we had just run.  His spook danced left and right, diving down and rocketing up, through the foam that had collected on the calmest part of the eddie.  I glanced back and noticed the erratic, sharp, twitching motions he used to give life to the spook.  I had always worked mine with a very predictable rhythm and they never ran beneath or above the water with such acrobatics.  On His second cast into the eddie a 44 inch Musky consumed his spook and forever embedded that moment in my brain. Read More→

Small River, Big Musky

Often, simplicity plays a very important role in my musky fishing success.  Large amounts of tackle and big expensive boats can improve musky fishing results, but they are not necessary.  Anybody who is familiar with my writing knows that one of my basic philosophies is that muskies bite on well made presentations, not wads of cash.  The main aspects of well made presentations are:  knowledge, experience, quality tackle, proficiency with tackle, and quality lures.

A well designed lure is a lure with a lot of triggering ability.  The trigger of a lure is what causes a musky to strike.  Trigger is evident in any lure that looks good running through the water.  My favorite lure (and I have several that are close) is the Manta Hang 10.  It triggers more fish for me than any other, and it is the best running lure I have ever seen. Read More→

87 Inches Of Musky

On October 28, 2007 my wife Nicole and I visited one of my favorite small lakes and were pleasantly surprised to find that the high temperatures and algae bloom that had plagued it all season were both gone.  Visibility was 10’ and the water was 51 degrees F.  The lake, which is fairly void of structure has a few areas that consistently hold adult muskies.  We immediately began raising fish off of these locations.  Less than an hour into the day, while rounding a minor point, we raised a few large fish on consecutive casts.  Just afterward, our sucker was taken and while I looked to see were the musky was taking it, I continued my retrieve all ready in progress.  Within ten seconds of the sucker strike, my Manta Hang 10 was taken as well.  Read More→

………..Small flowages full of muskies dot the landscape of northern WI.

Small Flowage Basics

In WI, lowland reservoirs are called “flowages”.  Flowages (lowland reservoirs) differ from hill-land reservoirs.  Hill-land reservoirs have more defined shapes, usually long and narrow because of the steeper surrounding land.  Hill-land reservoirs have a well defined main channel and tributary channels.  The flooded river valleys of hill land reservoirs often look like a carrot with roots coming off of the sides.  Flowages tend to sprawl; encompassing lowlands, wetlands, and pre-existing lake basins.  Also, the topography of the channels is much less defined.  In WI, reservoirs are small compared to some that exist in North America.  Even the Petenwell, Chippewa, and Turtle Flambeau Flowages at 14,000 to 22,000 acres pale in comparison to southern, prairie, western, and Canadian reservoirs that sprawl hundreds of thousands of acres.  On the smallest end of the spectrum are the small flowages of northern WI which are no more than 250 acres in size. Read More→

It was the full moon of August 2003, I had recently graduated from college, and was trying to make a living in my home town of Ashland WI.  Of course, trying and doing are never the same thing.  I was cooking at a local restaurant, about to be a substitute teacher, working on some articles in hopes of being published, and of course fishing.

My dad and I had headed out fishing for the morning.  Unfortunately, I was due in the kitchen that afternoon.  Our destination was the Pike Chain in neighboring Bayfield County.  We would fish one of its lakes in our row boat (I was in between motors at the time).  We rowed from spot to spot on the lake.  As we went along, we moved a few muskies and caught a few panfish. Read More→

I walked up the river, casting to any decent pockets I saw.  Most of the water wasn’t striking my fancy, but I came up on a fast run that cut through a deep hole just right.  There was an excellent well defined seam between the calm and fast water, and the fast water was very fast and deep.  I casted into the calm water and worked my Manta towards the fast water.  As the glider hit the seam it started to swing down river.  It made it about a foot before it got clobbered.  The musky was big, got itself into the current, made a break for it, and pulled free from the hooks.  On my next two casts, I hooked and landed 45” and 40” muskies that both struck in the exact same place as the first.  The first one was much larger than the second two.  To this day, it is the only time I have ever taken three strikes on three consecutive casts. Read More→

It has just turned Tuesday Jan 27 2009, and I am writing this after having passed out for nearly three hours due to exhaustion; not from laudanum like Coleridge when he wrote Kubla Kahn. I am somewhere nearing Toledo in a work van packed with tools, luggage, and tired workers.  I fell asleep with the heat on too high in hopes of killing any bugs I may be fighting.  I have waken hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable; but with an idea in my head.  It came to me in a fever dream. Read More→

…..As the water cools in late summer muskies begin to feed much more heavily in their preferred haunts.

In all but the northernmost musky habitats, the heat of summer can be physically tough on muskies.  In the northern extremes of the muskies’ home range, the heat of late June through mid August turns the fish on as waters stabilize in the low to mid 70’s.  This is still within the musky comfort zone and in fact promotes peak activity.  However, there is a fine line between temperatures that promote peak activity and temperatures that stress.  Muskies will tolerate water into the upper 70 degree range, but anything past that will cause them to leave for more tolerable conditions before they begin to stress. Read More→