arrrgghh

OK.....so my computer got rendered useless by a virus and I've been delinquent in getting it repaired, so here's my long lost update...There's been a lot of fishing going on and I'll do my best to remember it all...

Wednesday night Fishing Club:  pretty much since spring my Bro's Whahoo, Fred aka "creek warrior" and I have been meeting every wednesday evening on a piece of local trout water to enjoy the fishing, a couple beers and get out of the house on a consistent night.  It's been good for me as it's kept me in touch with what's happening on the river over the course of the entire summer.  The fishing has remained quite good, we've been surprised by the life on the river during the warmer parts of the normal midsummer fishing lull.  Most importantly to me,  I think the guy's would agree, is the time shared with good friends doing what we love to do on a regular basis.  For me, fishing and being on the water is my spiritual endeavor, it's where I find the time to process the greater decisions of life, fine tune my connection with nature and balance out all of the flotsam and jetsam that flows at us from all directions down the river of life... sounds cheesy perhaps, but only to those who don't take the time to slow down a little and feel the flow of the water.

I've been back to Lake Michigan since my last post.  The fishing overall was kinda lousy, by our standards anyway.  We struggled to find fish in the usual depths and situations and had to completely retool our delivery after the first evening out. The deal was this, consistent east winds had been blowing in the warm water from the Michigan side, therefore forcing us to fish depths we were not quite prepared for at this time of the year.  Ideally we'd have been fishing 50 to 100 FOW, but conditions forced us out to 150 to 175 and our rigging was just not suited to working this strata.  That said, we still found fish and as it seemed, did as good or better than any of the charters running 15 lines.  Weird thing was, no 3 year old fish. they were either 18 lbs or 8...one coho as well which is a rarity for us in T'rivers.  We decided that next year we'll do an extended late june trip of 4-5 days to take advantage of the strong mid depth King bite as well as the plentiful Steelhead which always help out in filling the bag limit.  

Muskies are still on a tear in the River.  I get almost daily reports from the river rats on big fish and lots and lots of quality 40 to 48" fish.  As for myself, the boat has been spending alot of time in the garage and in fact I noticed and had to fix a flat on the trailer this fine morning... All that changes tomorrow as I'll be heading out for the morning, all this muskie talk has me feeling a bit out of the loop and I need to be the one making the calls of good luck as opposed to always getting them.  

Yesterday we had an epic float down the upper Apple.  Brad came down with the drift boat and he, Whahoo and I floated about 15 miles above Star Prairie Wi.  Rivers like the apple are the epitome of under fished and overlooked for freshwater angling, and it shows in the care given to the river, lack of access and overall availability of opportunity...Rest assured it's there, all a fella needs to do is get out with the proper craft and gear and explore.  We've been talking about doing this section for some time and now we have.  All in all it was a wonderful float but the amount of fishing water was limited overall.  Smallies were plentiful as were the pike in areas with wood and depth, but the endless sand flats made the good habitat hard to find.  In that stretch we found 2 good areas, separated by about 6 miles.  Brad did most of the oar work, supplemented with ample amounts of the Dr's Cherry Schnapps. We did contact a few muskies, got maybe a dozen smallies, or should I say Whahoo did as i could not buy a fish to save my life.   There's enough there to get me back in the fall, roll through with the Kayak and wade fish the good water.   

There's much more to report and I'll do so tomorrow or saturday, getting the computer back and I've got gobs of great images to add as well....

get the hell out there and fish!   

muskies En Fuego!

So ya.....it's been a week or so since the last update, maybe a bit more in fact....There's been a bunch of fishing going down, but my computer came down with a virus and I'm having to add this report from my lovely Gal Jennifers, until I get de-bugged.  What is their point anyway, worms, spam, virus etc....get a damn life hackers.

Lets see...I'll start with yesterdays action and work backwards.

I was on the River yesterday with Joe and Tom Hackbarth, father and son team from River Falls WI.  It was to be the Croix mixed bag day, but we got a little sidetracked with MUSKIES! The muskie bite has been terrific in mid summer form so that was to be the focus till noontime lunch break.  We started out with a couple trolling passes to see what and where, the first 2 passes nothing, and I could sense the need for a little action so I convinced them the 3rd pass was a charm and my gut told me to stick with it. It's a damn good thing because straightaway on pass 3 we stuck a fully airborne 44" stud of a muskie, Tom was on reel duty and within minutes and some struggle we got this very hot fish onboard.  OK, enthusiasm levels sufficiently redlining now, high fives and pictures all around then came the real work.  As happens, the fish just engulfed the bucktail and I had to do some minor surgery and get in the water with her to get this fabulous creature revived and swimming strong.  Both Tom and Joe understood the importance of a clean and safe release so we took our time. after a nice ride along the boat, mouth agape, she was finally ready to go.  We all felt great having not only netted her, but more importantly released her to fight again.  Good job men!  NO sooner had we gotten lines back in and just settled down from the excitement that was the first fish, WHAM!  There's another!  controlled chaos that is a muskie on a planer board.  Same bait as last fish, Tom on the reel once again.  Another great fish and great fight, but this one spared us the revival issues and came off just as I slid the net under her. 2 fish in 45 minutes, needless to say we were stoked!  This one taped out at 42", not quite as heavy as #1, but really spunky as these 40ish fish seem to always be.  So cool, Tom @ 15 gets his first two Muskies and I got to be a part of it....Love my job!  Off we went to afton State Park for lunch and while the afternoon provided none of the excitement of the morning, we finished off the day in fine style; full and happy with memories of big green fish with teeth!

While were on the muskie talk....The Image on the top of the blog is of Rick Demarchis from the twin city area with one of his 2 muskies landed last wednesday morning.  Rick was with a group from 3M and Excel Energy and the one guy in the bunch who had the desire to chase muskies that morning and it's a good thing!  We started out doing a little trolling to get the feel and were seeing fish free swimming around as the sun started to heat up the water surface a little, so we dropped the trolling and picked up the top raiders.  not 5 minutes into casting and Rick had a nice blowup only to be followed moments later my a nice 42" fish that gobbled a black TR.  Nice start Rick, lets find more I said!  We ended up going 2 for 6, with a nice spunky 37" fish trolling and as the time bell rang we lost a much bigger fish that we never saw.  Rick was hooked and we're going to try to get out this week yet, perhaps tomorrow or thursday.  

I have done a bit of trout fishing and did have one good night with Fred last saturday.  We fished Hex but they were not responding to the dries so we switched back up to streamers and it's a good thing we did.  I popped a nice 17" brown at about 10pm, Fred got a number of grabs and a couple nice big stream smallies to boot.  About 10:30 or so he got broken off on 8lb and said "get in there, there's a big one about" so I did and Wham! the big whahoo muddler was clobbered by a 22" male, gorgeous fish, big kyper of a jaw and all colored up nicely. My big trout of the year to date.  Brad is coming down for a funeral today so I think we'll be out this evening, barring any crazy storm action.

This weekend I'll be fishing with my good friend and Client Francis O'Neill from VA.  He's flying in from the Oshkosh Airshow on saturday and we have 3 days of Muskie fishing in the Hayward area over the long weekend.  I'm very much looking forward to seeing Francis again and getting him on the freshwater Tarpon...

More to come, here's some images from the week that was.

cheers,

BPM                           

Brule Update & Images

Howdy All!

Here's what's been happening for the last week or so. I'm a little behind on the updates but I'll do my best to fill ya in.

On the Local Front: Still getting reports from the River about muskies, and lots of em. With the heat finally settling in and regular storm activity I would expect a terrific bite. Not sure why, but I'm just not super motivated to get in the boat right now, perhaps it's because my connection to the trout streams is so good right now, I'm hoping to maintain that groove. Cost of operation is a factor as well, it cost's about 50 bucks just to drop the boat in the water these days with gas and all....That said, I do have to get out there this week at some point, I have a couple day trips on the river next week to prepare for.

Wednesday of last week we finally got the shoot in with Dave Carlson from Eau Claire. We paddled the Kinni and fished a bit, but it was more a piece on Paige and the lodge etc etc. All in all it went well and despite dumping the canoe once, they managed to keep the camera dry thank goodness. It'll be on next Sunday as I recall and Dave wants to get another shoot or two in before the years end, for sure a Sturgeon show on the river come October.

Thursday afternoon found me at Brad's doorstep in Brule WI. The Hex have been starting to come off late and so a mission was in order. I cant believe I'm saying this, but I might be fished out for a day or two! Over the course of the 4 days, I fished an average of 15 hours per day, half of that in a canoe either on Big Lake or paddling the various stretches of river chasing resident browns. Thursday nights hex fishing was the most productive of the weekend, the hatch was moderate which I think helps because there were not as many naturals on the water to distract them. I got two about 18-19 or so and the other boats did about the same. What a trip Hex fishing is.....late nights, moonlight, skeets and big slurps all around you, it's hard where to figure out to cast first and easy to get lost in the moment. Hooking up once you get grabbed is another story, I think I went 0 for 17 before i finally figured out the no slack-sidearm hook set routine and was able to stick one good. I could see it being frustrating for some but the setting is just so perfect and fish in hand or not, still an amazing experience. One night out of the way, 3 more to go....

Friday was a bit of a leisure day at the club, we drank some beer and played bocce mostly until it was time to get ready for the evening festivities.. Fred arrived about 7 and sadly, brought a whopper of a thunderstorm along with him, rained us out good about the time we planned on hitting it. Worse yet the storm brought lingering high winds which would plague us for the next couple days. I went to bed early and the boys went to the Kro bar and hassled the cute bartender till 2am..

Saturday Fred and I got up early and did the Stones Bridge to Winni float. This has to be the nicest canoe float in WI, easy enough to fish most of the way from the boat and plenty of good water to stop and wade for a break. Fred got the trifecta, one of each resident species and I paddled most of the trip. A nice 30mph tailwind down big lake and we finished with enough time for a nap and retooling for the evening. Damn wind, the stuff usually lays down after a nice hot day but that was not the case, kept blowing s/sw all night and made the fishing a bit tough...understatement. There were a couple bugs coming off, but it was slim pickens and we packed it up earlier than usual, there's always tomorrow eh?

Having left the boats at the landing the night before, Fred and I mounted an early morning mission to Big Lake, looking for browns scrounging up wind blown hex from the night before. Not long after getting out, we had a nice little wind free window and cruised the lower end of the lake stalking risers. Having seen a nice rise 80 yards off, we stalked over there and got Fred into position for a cast and he made it count! Nice 18" brown, daylight hours on a BIG hex spinner pattern, it was perfect! That was the only fish we were able to get to go, so we headed downriver and made for the club, casting big dries along the way. We did get a couple more grabs but nothing in hand. After a short break and lunch, we rounded up Brian and Weston and made the float to the Ranger Station. This is an amazing stretch of streamer water so we changed gears and loaded up with big streamers. Brian and Weston were having luck picking fish off in the faster riffle sections where Fred and I focused on the deep slots and pools. The best action was lower, down towards the station in the deeper water. I hardly touched a fish all day but was super stoked to get a 19" out of a big deep sweeper log. It was probably the most beautiful Brown I have ever caught, buttery gold and red's with a million spots, the pic's hardly do it justice. He ate a medium sized whahoo streamer in natural and with a conehead. couple minutes later and we finished up, had some grub and rallied for the evening Hex battle. Sunday night hex hatch was enormous, so much so it made it really tough to get the fish to go with all the real things cluttering the water. Brian had some success and I hooked one good one but it was tough. Brad did get a terrific 13" brookie however, kinda saved the night.

if the Brule is not the best Brown Trout fishery in the country, I don't know what is. The sheer variety of fishing options and styles is amazing and I feel blessed to have it so close, and to have Brad on the river keeping a pulse for us all.

More to come, here's a few images from the weekend.