Rumors......

Of my demise are greatly exaggerated.

In fact quite the opposite, while I've not been visiting the computer much, I have had a significant fall.

On a terrific early September day I married my best Gal Jennifer! We did the deed down at Vino in the Valley, near the shores of the Rush River. It was a smaller ceremony, just good friends and some family which was nice. We followed it up with a throwdown at Little Whiskey complete with campfire singalongs and the whole nine yards. Jennifer keeps suggesting we do it again, it was a day to remember!

There's been some fishing as well, some really amazing fishing to be quite frank...where do I start.

The Sturgeon season on the croix came and went pretty quickly, despite the addition of the C/R season on the tail end. The weather was just too damn nice and the water temps really didn't start to dive until the last week or so, when the fishing actually really picked up and got good. We never landed a 60"er this year, which was the minimum, but did get a couple 3-4 that were close. I only did a couple of trips due to the whole Coast Guard license controversy, more to come on that. Oh ya, on the sturgeon....."feel the power!" proclaimed another angler, a regular to my area...he cracked me up...

I had a kick ass trip to the upper Flambeau with Brad, Lucky Porter and Tom M. We pulled a long distance overnight float on some seldom fished water. The weather was out of this world for mid September and the muskies were seriously snapping. As I had declared this trip an MMA (mixed martial angling) adventure, I decided to huck a topraider (my one bait) around the landing area while waiting for the shuttle. Good thing I did, I raised 2-3 fish just within casting distance and it was determined game on! We got rolling and about 400 yards downriver located a nice hole to wade & cast to. After the pool had been beat to a froth with big flies, I chucked mr topraider in, from the anchored boat where I was enjoying a cold one....Big Wake, angry fish, Violent Strike! Damn near at the feet of Brad too, I better get outta the boat! Turned out to be a nice stout 40" river muskie and only the shape of things to come. All in all we landed 5, I got another 40" and lost a freak. Add to that a little after dark cat fishing with frogs and 35" channel cats and you've got a great trip. Oh, and we ate musky too, my first time. It was a 36" fish that lucky deep hooked on Ghost Lake, so it was legal, and tasty!

The Apple River provided some late season action as well. Brad brought the boat down and we got on it 3 days straight in Nov. Only 1 landed but we saw 12-15 a day, chasing flies and occasionally taking a shot at them. We never did get the float down the tubing water, next year I guess.

The fall fly fishing was overall a bust, save for one crazy night with Fred, where I lost the biggest trout I've had one in the Midwest, the fabled 26"er I fear. I do enjoy hooking them and know it's all about the ride, but I wanted that fish. It was a full moon, 1 am or so....one good night and that was it. Good thing early season is just a few months away.

hey, just like that it's ice fishing time! Ingy and I got out last friday for the inaugural day and it wasn't too shabby! they cut the panfish limit in the county down to 10, mixed. So with a little sorting I had a nice bag of 11" crappies and 8-9" gills, made for a tasty dinner. I like to harvest panfish, they are delicious and somehow I don't mind picking through the little fella's, I'll keep going to get some meat in the freezer, if they make it that far. I've been out a couple times with the same results, but with a lack of pike however. Speaking of, I lived up to my namesake on friday with the biggest Pike I've landed in some time. Nice long, but extremely heavy 39" fish, Ingy's crusty scale said 13lbs, I say 16-17 easy. She'd have made 12-13 jars of pike, but I released her in hopes of seeing her hit 40" and 20lbs.

Here's a good pic of the monster Pike!

bigpikemike