Bizarre Angler

Once a year my family decides we don’t argue enough, so we go spend a week in northern Wisconsin, the great north woods; A land of fishing.  A land where all of the mid South’s fishing tactics barley work.  We went to one of the North’s deeper, cooler, clear water lakes, a natural lake full of fish.

In this lake is a bio-diversity most would love to see.  Common are the pan fish, with bluegills and crappie.  The crappie are only black crappie and disappear after their spawn for the rest of the year.  Perch are most common in this lake, and I mean real perch, yellow perch up to a pound.  They live in the dense weed beds and many fallen trees that litter the lake.  But they are not the only food source.  Over twenty kinds of minnows live here and there are cisco, a kind of white fish that school in deep water.

Living more on the cleanup side are three types of suckers, some channel cats, and bullhead.  And for them to eat, are the crawfish, hellgrammites and other little taste bugs.

Feeding on most of these fish is all-star team of predators.  Bait guys will spend millions to try and catch Walleye on these lakes, and with a decent shot at ten pound fish, why not?  In spring and at night even flies can get them.  After them you have the Bass.  Although 80 degree water temperature is rare up there, largemouth live in the shallows.  They feed on it all.  After that come the far Stronger and faster Smallmouth bass. These all fear Pike.  Northern pike are called the water wolf, but in these lakes they are normally stunted in growth, with few fish beating out a size of 25 inches.  Overpopulation is to blame.

But everything in the water, from minnows, to water skiers, fears one thing: The King of the Lake.  Bigger than pike, and known to have more teeth then Gar, it is the Great white of the north, the Muskie, the fish of my nightmares.  And for one of the few times in my life, I choose a fly Rod for it.

But first, our family trips start with a gypsy style packing job.

200 feet of rope later we headed north.  With the North Woods showing what the weather is like, front after front.

We got there in late afternoon.  We decided to put my father’s forty year old boat in the water.

I armed myself with flies I do not use much in the south.  Flashy Ben-backs, and flies heavy with deer hair and buck tail.

Instantly, I discovered the fishing was going to be decent to good.  The largemouth were bedding, regulations said they were out of season, catch and release only, perfect for fly fishing.

Emily was with me as always.  She has an, itch, let’s say for pike.  Pike were a bit harder.  We had a very thin window to take them, and often we struck out.  But with our pike gear we got lots of Bass.

After days of trying, a leech fly got one decent pike, and a bend back got another, sicker looking fish, but nothing near 20 inches.

Dad found out quickly what the smallmouth where doing, and pulled one of the biggest fish of the trip off of a sand flat near a dock.

Before we could run around fishing more fish, we had a problem.  Forty years takes it tool on an engine.  So Emily and I found a different boat.

 

For some reason, Emily and I always do better without a motorized boat.  And now we could go much shallower.  Emily then hooked up on some of the best smallie fishing I have seen in a while.  Not huge numbers, but the size of the fish was unreal, even after the boat was fixed, we still found monsters.

The bass hit strange things, mouse flies, bendbacks, and sluggo flies.

I went on one last shot for a monster I had not seen much of.  A few small sightings, a lot of pike strikes (none tried later for pike flies though, figures) and one small Muskie strike had me frustrated.  I tried one last time.  I got the perfect shot (if you fish Tarpon), head on and the king of the north ignored my fly.  In one week of fishing I got two shots at muskies.  Welcome to the big leagues of muskie fishing (And yes, I casted the 20,000 times).

In total, Emily had the most fish, maybe 70 fish, with 30 or so over 3 pounds.  I had a grand total of maybe 20 fish.  2 of them pike.  Not one of my better pike trips.  But I had one 4 pound largemouth.  Most largemouth and smallies where taken on a 4 wt.  So I had fun.

Emily had one 5 pound smallie and so did my dad.  It was unreal, but a lot of fun.

If you go up north, be ready for the most intense fishing you can have in the so called warm water fishing.