We Were Two Bobs Abobbin’

It was a day to remember.

As planned the Two Bobs met at the second Bob’s abode at 9 am sharp. It would be a fishing trip to the Wisconsin River directly below the dam at Prairie du Sac in hopes of landing at least one musky. As usual, the second Bob provided the truck, trailer and boat and of course the gasoline that powers both. The first Bob (That’s me) always provides the $7 launch and parking fee at the VFW landing.

We arrived right around 9:30 and were greeting with an amazing surprise as we made the curve at the bottom of the hill at the landing. In front of us was the dam. We expected there to be much more water than there was 10 days ago when we were here last but what we saw was beyond our imagination. If we had not know that beforehand we would not have believed it because this is what we encountered.

That much water did not deter us though. We got the boat into the water and headed for the dam. As we approached, the wave action caused by all that water exiting the floodgates near the middle of the dam were not white caps but they were instead huge swells. I had never been in a boat the size of the one I was a passenger in today under those circumstances. I had been on a boat crossing Puget Sound in 1990 that had swells much larger than these and caused walking on board to be very difficult. Today there would be no walking and no standing to fish. The water was too rough and too cold to risk falling in even with the life vest I wear each time I am in a boat. Heck, the second Bob even donned a life vest today. We were bobbing up and down and being tossed sideways all at once.

As we got closer to the spot where Bob and Brian caught their muskies a couple of weeks ago we could see that another angler had already claimed “our spot” so we stopped short of where he was anchored and Bob clicked on the spot lock feature on his Minn Kota Ulterra. With that trolling motor there is no need for dropping anchors and having to hoist them out when leaving (and on a day like today maybe falling in). There were two fellas in another boat just to our right who were fishing for walleyes and saugers. At least that was their targeted species. We were trying to catch muskies so we were not encroaching on them but Bob asked if it would be OK for us to set up about 30-40 yards from them. They said it would be fine.

I started out with my huge Chaos Tackle black and blaze orange Poseidon which is the bait I caught a 47” musky on in 2019 up river from Portage. Bob was using his Black and orange Rapala jointed X-Rap, a bait he has caught most of his muskies on. Soon after we started casting Bob hooked into one of the paddlefish that you have read about before. He got it to the side of boat and grabbed his fishing pliers. I took his rod and lifted the fish high enough for him to get the pliers on the one hook that was embedded right in the top of that critter’s head. We didn’t have to use the lariat for that one.

Not long after we released the paddlefish I was reeling in the Poseidon and just as I lifted it out of the water behind the outboard it fell off the leader and sunk to the bottom of the 34 foot hole we were sitting on top of. A new Poseidon costs about $25 including sales tax so I then had $32 invested in today’s fishing trip which suddenly had turned into an adventure.

We fished on and as we did so, we watched the fellas in the boat next to us as well as another pair of anglers catch at least three small sturgeon that they both battled for about 10 minutes and we saw one of them lose his rod that he had in his lap when a fish took his live bait.

The current was really rolling past us but there are “seams” that are created by the backflow and rocks that are in the channel so it does not take much to keep a boat in one place. However, when spotlock is on, the boat does move in that spot in a circular fashion. Therefore an angler might cast upstream for a few minutes then have to cast downstream because the boat has spun 180 degrees. So imagine being in a boat next to a raging rapids, being turned 360 degrees in a matter of minutes and bobbing up and down like a mallard decoy in the water on a windy day. It really is an adventure. Fortunately for me I could hold myself in place pretty well by keeping my feet against the top of the transom and applying constant pressure.

About an hour or so into the trip I had a fish on the end of my line. I have caught enough of those paddlefish to be able to tell when I have one hooked. As the angler is reeling in the fake bait there is a tug on the end of the line and suddenly the line starts moving away. It may even swim right at the person who has the handle of the rod in their hands which makes it seem like the fish got off then suddenly that tank of a fish moves away. and That’s when the hard work takes place. I mean it really is hard work.

Just a few days ago Bob and his wife Bonnie were fishing right where we were today. On their trip Bonnie apparently hooked several paddle fish that Bob had to remove the hooks from. Bob told me that he also hooked a few of those fish.REPORT THIS AD

After a while Bob moved us closer to the Highway 78 side of the river so we could fish in the amazing, back flowing eddy where the water flows back up stream. It didn’t take me long to hook my black and silver Rapala X-Rap into a really huge paddlefish. It felt like it might have weighed 60-70 pounds. After a few minutes of battling that thing it decided it had had enough of me pulling on it and started swimming with the current. I could not get it stopped and my line was really coming out of the reel. It was getting to the point where it might “spool me” so I tried to stop it. That’s when it won the battle, snapped my braided line, took my expensive leader and my $18 X-rap with it. It had just that suddenly become a $50 deal for me.

I reeled in the line but cut off about 30’ of that braid, retied a new leader and started fishing with a huge black and orange swimbait that Bob tossed at me. I told him that with the sort of luck I had been having it might not be a good idea to be borrowing baits but he told me not to worry about it.

However, right now I am worrying about it because I hooked yet a third paddle fish and another amazing battle ensued. It was just as big or bigger than the previous one. I remember screaming at Bob, “Darn, I feel like Bonnie hooking all these huge prehistoric fish. That fish was off to my left about 20 yards away and suddenly the line went limp in the water. I remember saying, “good it got off.” I started reeling faster and faster to get the bait back so I could throw it back out there to catch a musky when I realized the fish was still on the line but swimming right at the boat faster than my 6.5:1 reel could retrieve the line. Suddenly the fish got into the fast current right below me and headed toward Sauk City. It had enough of me messing with it. I tried stopping it when my line snapped again. So at that time I’d lost a $25 Poseidon, an $18 X-Rap and now a borrowed $25 swim bait.

It doesn’t end there though. I made another borrowing mistake when I agreed to use one of Bob’s combination rod and reel rigs. This one was a Bass Pro Shops Musky Predator rod equipped with a ABU Ambassadeur 6000C reel. I knew I was asking for more trouble but I started using it anyway. It only took about one hundred or so casts and guess what. I hooked into another paddlefish. It was a huge one with a bill that was about 2 and half feet long. That one actually surfaced and came completely airborne. I battled that critter and got it to the side of the boat where Bob could get the hooks out. It was not cooperating and Bob had the leader in hand as he tried to heft it high enough to get the pliers on the hook. I tried helping him out by lifting upwards with all I had with Bob’s rod when — SNAP! The rod broke into two pieces. Bob says he laughs each time he thinks about the look on my face when that rod snapped. Heck, I’m sure I did have a crazy look on my face because I had just topped the $100 mark for lost or broken equipment on this trip.

We fished on but I had to switch his reel onto my Okuma Musky rod. Soon thereafter Bob decided to move us in front of the spillways not far from where all the water you see in the photo accompanying this story. Fishing there was, well, the best way I can describe it is to imagine riding a bucking bronco and at the same time casting and retrieving a fishing bait at the same time. We did catch some fish in that spot that were not paddlefish though. We each hooked two shad during our trip. They are very small fish compared to a paddle fish – and much prettier as well.

After about an hour we decided that four to five hours of impersonating a fishing float we’d had enough. As we headed for the landing Bob set up a trolling rig at the back of his boat while I just hand-held my rod with my jointed X-Rap at the distal end. Just after we transitioned from about 30’ of depth to 4’ my rod tip bent backwards. I had a snag. By the time Bob got the outboard shut off and got safely to the front of the boat that snag had nearly “spooled me.” That means there wasn’t much line left on the reel. He got us turned around and I started reeling in line as we moved closer to the dam. Not long after we started back toward the rolling waves I noticed that my line was not in the water where it was when I got the snag.

The closer we got to the bait the more it moved toward the center of the channel. It took us a while but we finally figured out that my snag was actually a pretty big fish. Before long the fish was closer to the landing that we were because it was swimming with the current. It didn’t fight like a paddlefish so we figured I had  something else out there and our excitement rose quickly. The fish moved to my left and suddenly the line went slack and whatever had been pulling so hard on my rod was gone. I reeled in my X-Rap and we just stared at each other when Bob said, “What the heck do you think that was?” A quick answer from me saying I have no idea but perhaps it was a big game fish. For a good story’s purposes, we will leave you with that idea.

We had a great time, had some great laughs and rode the waves. As a matter of fact as I sit here in front of this computer monitor I have the sensation that I am still in Bob’s boat. I am rockin’ and bobbin” yet tonight.

Life is full of memories but some of them certainly become “Forever Memories.” For me and I’m sure Bob, today created one of those for us.

Have a great weekend. Maybe I will see some of you on the water because after I go shopping with one picture of Ben Franklin and one of U.S. Grant to replace some baits and a rod I will be back out there but on some calmer water?

May some of your days be outdoors days.

Bob (The First One)

He Did It Again, he lassoes another fish I hooked

Posted October 19, 2023 (#260)

This edition also includes a journal-like recap of no less than the other 15 trips I have made to the river

The Wisconsin river offers an angler a chance to catch a myriad of species. Sometimes the catches are what the angler is targeting but most of the time it is a surprise.

On October 18^th the Second Bob and I headed to the Wisconsin River right below the dam at  Prairie du Sac. Our target species was the Wisconsin State Fish as ordained by the state legislature decades ago, 1955 to be exact. The muskellunge (Esox maswuinogy) is one of the state’s mist unique fishing trophies. More world record muskellunge have been caught in Wisconsin than anywhere else. According the the DNR website the current state and world record is a 69 pound 11 ounce monster from the Chippewa Flowage.

I was excited to get back over there and see if I could catch a monster as well so Bob and I went on Wednesday morning.

On Monday Bob and Brian Budde, another Oshaukuta Outdoors Group member made a trip to below the dam and before their adventure was over they’d each caught a trophy muskellunge. Bob’s trophy was 44” while Brian’s fish, caught in the same place but two hours later was 43”. Both fish were caught on imitation crank baits. When looking a the pictures one would think they caught the same fish two hours apart but Bob pointed out an hole in one’s dorsal fin that proves that they must be siblings or simply cousins.

We arrived at about 8:30 and by the time we got to the rapids below the dam it was about 8:50. Some people rush up there under outboard power but Bob takes it easy. He has previously experienced what happens to one’s expensive outboard motors when that lower unit makes hard contact with one of the many boulders hiding under the water. We use high tech trolling motor with 36 volts of power to get there.

The spot where Bob and Brian did the musky catching was already occupied by an angler who was there before we arrived. Bob pressed the spot lock button on his Minn Kota Ulterra remote and the powerful fishing aid whirred as it began to hold us against all rushing water. We were tight against the crease where there are no rapids and where there is a bit of deep, calm water. Well somewhat calm. I know fishermen who would not sit in the front seat like I was as all that water rushes by and over all those rocks in that channel run.

We casted in all directions and after a while Bob shouted, “fish on.” I was “Bobby on the spot” and and the net open in moment. As Bob battled whatever was on the distal end of his outfit it was pretty obvious that what he had on was probably not a musky but instead of one of the polyodon spathula or paddlefish as most call them. He tugged, reeled, tugged some followed by more reeling until he got the fish to the surface where we could see that it was indeed a paddlefish. He had it hooked right in the paddle shaped beak and the line was wrapped around that thing. I was wearing a pair of my neoprene gloves so I grabbed ahold of that paddle and raised it up high enough to allow us to remove the bait and release the critter. We did the fish a favor by removing one of those lamprey eels that seem to adorn every paddlefish we catch as well as a couple of muskys Bob caught over there.

After a spell the fella that was fishing where we really wanted to get to moved over in front of the flood gates where there is no current. We quickly moved into target range of the spot that produced two muskies on Monday. With water raging all around us we began whipping various offerings in various directions. We moved around after that and got out into the rough water downstream from where it’s looks like the Colorado River just upstread from Glenwood Spring, Colorado. We casted there when Bob said he had a fish. He did indeed. He’d hooked a 3” shad right behind its dorsal fin. It was a beautiful fish. I unhooked it and looked it over closely. It glistened and that familiar black spot was prefectly placed. After I threw it back into the river Bob told me that on Monday he had hooked one of those lampreys and that it was a big one. I always tell him that he carries an invisible horse shoe some on or inside his body because he comes up with some of the most incredible catches among all of my fishing partners. I have never caught a 3’ shad nor a lamprey eel. But then I think a while and realize that – aha, Bob has never landed a 50+ musky.

Not long after the shad adventure we moved to the west side of the dam and Bob had a strike thatwe are pretty sure was a musky. It fought like a game fish and not a fish whose species has been around since before the dinosaurs. Bob thinks he overeacted to the fish on the end of his line because as he was fighting it aggresively the line broke and left my partner disheartened. Me too for that matter because I was excited to get a chance to get a musky in his net.

About an hour later and hundreds of cast I had a tremendous jerk at the end of my line soon after I hd started to reel the Chaos Tackle 8” walleye model Poseidon. I had casted with the wind so that bait was out there a long way from the end of my pole and in deep, fast moving water. I screamed “fish on” to alert Bob and to give the other fellas fishing something to watch.

The battle was on but just as quickly as the strike had taken place so did a tremenous amount slack line occur. I let out a long gasp and told him I’d lost the fish then suddenly, instead of swimming upstream right at me the aquatic creature on the end of my line headed downstream taking lots more of my braided line and my Poseidon with it. It was actually towing us faster than the rushing water was moving us. I had high hopes of a 51 inch musky on the other end. However, after a battle that last far too long for any musky to endure I figured I had a giant paddlefish on the line.

I worked on that fish for at least 20 minutes. The weight of the fish and the current made my fight tough and was taking about as much fight out of me as it was the fish. I’d raise my rod and tug the quickly reel in line then the fish would take it back. That went on for minutes but finally I had overcome its fight and it was on the surface where we could see how enormous it was. Bob, of course had his phone out and was recording my tugging and reeling all the while offering commentary. Finally I was able to get the fish to the side of the boat. Bob grabbed the lariat and roped the fish above its tail and removed the bait. We fished a while longer but as for me it wasn’t with a lot of energy.

That was it for us.

Here is a brief recap of the trips I have made since catching that large musky. This report is much like the Outdoorsman’s Journal my former student Mark Walters publishes.

Tuesday, September 12^th

I fished for three hours with Bob. If it were not for the sheephead I caught at the mouth of Duck Creek on a nightcrawler we’d have been skunked. It was a fun trip though. Lots of stories and laughing at each other.

Wednesday, September 13^th

I fished along in Davis’ Slough, Grandma Tonlinson’s slough, the former deep hole just below Duck Creek and up into that stream. I caught two smallmouth bass on my green frog water splasher and one small pike.

Friday, September 22^nd

I fished alone in Grandma’s Slough for some panfish and caught a lot of crappies and some pretty big rock bass. All caught on the smallest Mini mite a person can buy and about ¼” of a nightcrawler. I also was able to chat with another fisherman I met earlier in the summer at a spot farther up the river. He was trying to catch walleyes and actually was catching some including two slot fish and at least two keepers to go along with quite a few “shorts.”

Tuesday, September 26^th

I was fishing alone and dragging some crawlers cut in half slowing in some slower water and caught two pretty nice smallies. I switched to a drop shot rig and caught two largemouth bass and a sheephead.

Wednesday, September 27^th

I fished alone on this day and was casting topwater baits in Davis’s slough up as far as the old bridge abatement and out into the shallow water east of that. I got my topwater caught on a root sticking out of the water and while getting the boat over there to retrieve it I spotted a Berkley Choppo 130 stuck to a root not far from mine so I added a bait to my arsenal free of charge and one I would not have gotten if I had controlled my own cast more successfully. In order to catch fish or find lures other anglers have lost, a person has to be out there enjoying the fishing experience.

Thursday, September 28^th

Today I fished along the rock wall just up from the historic Dekorra landing. A place where at one time in history a ferry was operated from there to get to the other side of the river. I caught one smallmouth bass and had one other strike that I failed to set a hook into.

Friday, September 29^th

Today my fishing partner was Ron Buzzell. We were after long fish. We fished for more than three hours in various locations but all we got was one “hammer handle” pike that I hooked while were were in Duck Creek. It was a great trip though.

Saturday, September 30^th

I fished alone for long green spotted fish or long fish the color of yellow ochre. I went home having watched an osprey out fish me 2-0.

Tuesday, October 2^nd

I fished with the Second Bob on this day. I had a big musky follow all the way to the boat but it would not take my figure eight offerings and suddenly departed. Bob scored with a nice 27” pike.

Wednesday, October 4^th

I fished alone up and into Duck Creek and caught a 14” largemouth on my Rapala jointed shad rap when I was really targeting pike and musky. That big mouth bass fought valiantly and of course as always, the fish I catch do get into the boat get returned to the water.

Thursday, October 5^th

I fished alone and caught more panfish at Grandma’s slough and returned them all to the brushy area I was catching them in. It was a mix of bluegills, rock bass and a few crappies.

Sunday, October 15^th

I fished alone for three hours and caught nothing. Again, the osprey hovered over the river just above the mouth of Rocky Run and with a dive from above the water disappeared into the river, emerged with wings flapping and fish in its talons. So the bird of prey out fished me again but what a great show they put on for me most days I am out there.

Monday, October 16^th I fished alone in Davis’ Slough and in the river downstream from Hooker’s Resort. Skunked again in terms of moving and catching fish. I was there for three hours.

Tuesday, October 17^th

I had a dentist appointment in the morning so I treated myself to a bit of fishing after returning home. I fished a body of water that I had not fished in years and was targeting musky. I did move one fish as one followed my offering close to boat before whipping its tail and swimming away. That was exciting though.

Tomorrow – Friday, October 20^th my plan is to meet a fellow Oshaukuta Outdoors Group and Mud Dauber fisherman Larry, Ransenberger for a few hours of fishing near the World Headquarters of the Mud Daubers Group. There will be a report to follow that trip.

Have a great weekend.

Bob