It Was A River Trip With Some Historical Background and I Met Another Fishing Friend

April 13, 2024
Today marked my first 2024 launch into the Wisconsin River at the historic Dekorra landing.

It was a beautiful day and after completing a couple of chores I decided to spend a few hours on the river. Not so much to actually try to catch fish but moreso to explore changes in the river since my last trip up river from that landing in December.

I was about to turn off of U.S. highway 51 onto Oshaukuta Road when I remembered telling my good friend Harry that I’d take him for a boat ride soon to show him how the river bottoms had changed since he had last been in those parts several decades ago. So, I called Harry once I had turned onto Oshaukuta Road and invited him to go. He said he had about 90 minutes to spare. We agreed that he’d meet me at that historic landing. That way I could just drop him off in time for him to complete a chore and I could just push off again and spend another hour or more looking for adventure.

The river is higher than it was most of last year. It’s so high that none of the cement slags on the ramp were out of the water. In order to get the boats launched one needs a really, really long rope. I have a second rope tied to the rope that came with my boat and that makes it a long rope. However, Harry and I discovered that my rope may be really long but it is not really, really long. The result was that we both got at least one shoe wet and I had both of them so.

We shoved off and got under way. I warned Harry to hold on because when I hit was going to twist the throttle to get up on plane he might wind up in my lap. He grabbed the shaft of my trolling motor and hung on but he still got a jolt. “I really didn’t need that,” was his comment soon after we got on plane.

We headed up the river, past the mouth of Rocky Run, cut to the shoreline out from Lib Cross Island, motored past Grandma Tomlinson’s slough, cut to the the Dekorra side of the river and followed that bank all the way up to the mouth of Duck Creek. We did tick the sand a bit with the skag but we glided to a stop in the deep hole at the mouth of the creek.

I pointed out lots of changes just since 1998 when the river flooded and Mirror Lake came charging down from way up there near Wisconsin Dells. He saw all the things I have been telling him about such as all the trees that have been toppled by high winds. They have fallen because the soil around the root systems isn’t there anymore. High, really fast currents have eroded the thin layer of black silt from thousands of years of nature doing its thing leaving just a bit of sandy soil around some of the roots. However, that bit of sand has not been able to keep thousands of trees upright. Most of the fallen trees resembling natures skeletons have been dead caused by all that high water. Trees can drown as well you know.

We slowly motored our way up Duck Creek until we reached the first turn where a friend of mine with a pontoon was fishing where when the water is high there is a slough that cuts off and goes up toward the power plant. We chatted with that fella a while then kept on going further up Duck Creek until we reached the point where even a great river boat like mine can’t navigate due to downed trees, sunken trees and other snags.

I noticed a bald eagle and an osprey soaring high above the surface of the earth as we slowly motored back down toward the river. Once into the river it was too shallow for me to twist the trottle and get the Sea Ark up on plane (I had not mastered the ability to get on plane quickly when the Atlas Micro jack plate is all the way up. We slowly motored our way back toward the historic landing at Dekorra until we were in deep enough water to lower the jack plate, twist the throttle nearly tossing poor Harry again then trim it up and head for the landing.

When we were cutting across from Lib Cross Island to the mouth of Rocky Rune we noticed a boat with a couple people in it anchored at the head of the rocks upstream from the historic landiing. I cut it left and headed up into Rocky Run. I wanted to show Harry how Davis’ Slough (not Davies slough) has also changed since his duck hunting days in the river bottoms.

I took my time motoring up towards the old bridge abatement where the old bridge crossed the waterway for the first grist mill every built on the Wisconsin River and the flour house where that product was stored after going through the mill that once stood just below the Davis farm where Steve and Vicki Stine live now. That site is also really a historical story.

On our way out of Rocky Run we saw a fella fishing just out into the river. His fishing pole was bent over into a half circle because he was battling a leviathan of the deep. I slowed down  and stopped so we could watch him land whatever he had on the end of that spinning rod which he qucikly told us was broke or not working correctly. We watched for at least five minutes and whatever was on the bait end of the line was losing but wasn’t winning either. It was a fishing standoff between angler and whatever that huge prey was.

Harry had to get to the Dekorra recycling center by 3 pm so we took off before the angler had 1) lost the beast or 2) landed it. I told Harry that what that guy had on the end of his line was not a walleye but had to be a big flathead catfish or a sturgeon.

I eased my boat over by his to take a look. He asked me to take a picture then hoisted up his net. In that net was a big flathead catfish that had to have weighed at least 25 pounds. With it’s wide set eyes and flat head it was a scary looking beast. I learned that the fellas name is Dave and that he is from Delafield. He said he had driven up just to fish the river right where we found him. Dave asked me to take a couple of pictures with his camera and I did.

I dropped Harry off, said “so long” and headed back up the river to see if that fella was still battling that beast of the depths. As I approached I could see that he was not fighting the critter. I pushed in on the kills switch and let my outboard shutdown. It was then that he told me he had it in the net. I asked him what it was an got anwer of “catfish.”

After the short but great conversation with Dave and having done him a favor I pushed off from his small fishing boat and moved up into Rocky Run where I fished for another 90 minutes. When it comes to catching fish in that time span I guess I got skunked but I had some created some excitement in myself and allowe me to really look forward to the next eight monhs of fishing on this old river.

The historic landing at Dekorra is where a ferry was located to get people and livestock across the river iinto what is Caledonia but at that time was part of the Township of Dekorra. There is a photo of that landing with the ferry and several ladies on board. Efforts are being made to get one enlarged and hang it in the new Dekorra town hall along with other historical photographs of Dekorra locations.

Another tidbit of historical note – the new Wisconsin Historical Society sign at the parking lot at Dekorra park states that the landing and surrounding area was known as Kentucky City later named after old Grayheaded Ho Chunk Chief Dekorra.

Every single time I launch or load up after a trip I picture that ferry slowly making its way across that fast-moving river and marvel and the way those people sort of tamed the are and certainly colonized it before Wisconsin was a state. I imagine Native Americans paddling dug out canoes up and down the river. I often wonder what they’d think if they could come back and see the watercraft that travese this historical river these days.

It was another great trip highlighted by having Harry in my boat with me and meeting Dave from Delafied whom I invited to drive up and join up with me in my boat so he could see some interesting and historical sites.

Have a great last 17 days of April, 2024 and until my next outdoor adventure – stay well.

Bob

I Took My Tongue to a Metal Doctor

Without a tongue it’s impossible to take the boat and go fishing.

When we were experiencing spring-like weather starting a couple weeks ago I figured it would be a great time to be lying on a cold, concrete garage floor. I decided to remove the splint I had added to my tongue back in late November and then start removing the bent and cracked tongue that came with the Shorelander trailer when it left the factory.

The work wasn’t very difficult and in about two hours I had the tongue close to being off the trailer. It was getting later in the afternoon and the final two bolts that actually hold the tongue in place at the distal end were all that needed to be taken out so I could pull the electrical wires out through the front. I left them for another day.

That later day was Monday of last week. I had hoped to be fishing on the river on Wednesday when the temperatures were predicted to be in the mid to high 50s but that plan was scrapped when I put the new tongue on the trailer. While looking things over and thinking about why the original tongue bent like it did I decided that just putting the pedestal back on might wind up with a second bent tongue (cost was $160). Instead of proceeding I called Mikes Ives who I have worked with on other fabrication projects. He lives just west of Wyocena on highway 16 and his shop is there as well. I called him and then took my bent tongue and pedestal to him.

Mike is a busy fabricator and has some really interested and detailed projects going. I knew my fishing plans for Wednesday were not going to happen after we figured out why the tongue bent and what would need to be done to keep the new one from experiencing the same issue.

My pedestal is built from much heavier tubing and has a custom built step in it that allows a person to get into the front of the boat when it is on the trailer much easier than having to crawl in. The weight of the pedestal and the step along with the fact that the bottom plate that rests on top of the tongue is really short is what we determined to be the issue. Rough roads and holes in the river bottom at the landings caused by boaters who power load their boat caused my tongue to experience some high level torsion with the result being a bent and cracked.

Mike called me today to tell me he was about to get started on the new way to mount the pedestal. It won’t be long and I will be back in business for the next warm winter fishing day.

Now all I have to do is figure out why my running lights and left direction work but the brake lights and right directional does not.

Enjoy the unusual warm winter temperatures but be ready for a huge blast of white stuff sometime between today and mid May.

Putting Things Away — A bit Smelly to say the least

December 18, 2023 (#270)

My very brief hunting season has ended. That means it is time to go through the list of rituals in my head involved in things in their correct storage places or at least jot down on a piece of paper some notes to myself so I can find the stuff when I need it the next time.

Hah! The people, and primarily the person who knows me well would tell you that there is not a written list of such rituals nor is there really a mental one either. People who read books about organizing rooms in houses, offices, garages and such shake their heads at people like me (and often tell me and others what they read about). Some, rather than just shaking their heads, get pretty annoyed by organizational skills like mine. 

To tell you the truth, there are frequent times when I get annoyed with myself too. However, I don’t think I have enough clipboards to attach lists for all the, what my wife calls “stuff” that I have accumulated over the years.   

Last week I remembered that my Thompson Center Hawken still had powder and a round ball in the barrel. I had taken it with me on my trip to Ron Buzzell’s cabin at Whitetail Mountain. I didn’t fire it at the end of the day because I didn’t want to fuss with it in an attempt to get it really clean. Instead I stuck it back in the gun safe. So one day as I was sort of straightening out the workbench in the basement I came across a deeply buried treatise on black powder firearms. That little book reminded me of a necessary ritual that needed to be done to prevent another episode that took place the morning of the 1999 Wisconsin muzzleloader hunt. That is a great safety story in itself that I have told to many people so what happened to me doesn’t happen to them. 

On the day that I decided to clean my Hawken, I placed a target about 30 yards from the basement door, returned to the door, grabbed the gun and placed a cap on the nipple. Instead of wandering outside a few yards I chose to lean the gun against the door jam and fire at the target from there. That way I had a solid rest.

Of course the sound would be deafening because our basement entry was actually a garage when the house was finished in 1937. There is a stone wall about 78” high on both sides of the entry so it is like a hallway with no ceiling.  On the day I was doing this I failed to remember that the wind was out of the northwest. 

The basement entry faces – NORTHWEST!

After placing the cap on the nipple I raised the gun and braced my left arm against the door jam, carefully tucked my trigger finger inside the trigger guard, set the trigger and placed the finger on the actual rigger. I took a careful aim and fired. 

The projectile whether it be a patched round ball or a conical shaped bullet zooms down the barrel at about 1500 feet per second and the instant it leaves the barrel all the smoke follows. There truly is a cloud of smoke. Black powder shooters do not see whether or not they hit their target for several seconds because of the heavy fog-like smoke in front of them. 

If you know anything about early firearms and modern black powder reproductions, one thing you probably know is that with black powder or modern black substitutes when the hammer strikes the cap sitting on the nipple a small explosion takes place and sends a flame into the actual powder charge in the barrel. A slight pause sometimes takes place then BOOM! 

When my cloud of smoke left the barrel there wasn’t anywhere for it to go because that northwest wind was stopping it from moving down range like it normally would. That cloud of blue smoke that was hanging in our basement entry suddenly got blown right back through the basement door. About a minute or so later our furnace kicked it and we found out that our system is working great. The furnace instantly started sucking cold air from the basement and the cold air returns were also working. 

In less than a minute our entire house smelled like rotten eggs!

It didn’t take long for the wonderful woman of the house to get some candles burning. I hesitated to go upstairs but in a matter of seconds I heard her say something like, “You didn’t plan that very well did ya?”

It was too cold to clean the gun outside. I attached the cleaning  “jag” that holds the cleaning patch, stuck a patch over the hole in the business end of the barrel and ran the ramrod down the barrel. When I removed it I added even more rotten eggs to the mix inside the house. 

My problem now is – I have the twin to the Hawken in the gun cabinet and it has a load in it as well and needs to be cleaned. 

I think I will pick a warmer day and get away from the basement to fire the gun and then clean it outside. 

I wonder if the lady will tell me that I did a better job in my planning.

Take Care!

Post Script:
This is the 270th story that I have posted on Oshaukuta Outdoors Word Press site. To read any or all of the stories they are posted by month and year. Just click on the month and scroll through them.

Splinting My Broken Tongue

December 12, 2023 (#269)

A couple of weeks ago I published an Oshaukuta Outdoors story that included an episode that caused the tongue on my boat trailer to bend and then crack. In the story I indicated that due to the bent tongue I was calling an end to my 2023 fishing from within my Sea Ark.

On Saturday, December 9^th I posted the story about going back to the river in the Sea Ark and getting action from five muskies on the trip. One reader texted me to question how it was that I was able to get the boat back to the landing and back home without having the tongue snap right off.

After I told the Second Bob about my tongue issues he drove out to look at it. He said he thought he could weld it up and make it workable. I think splicing is a good term for his plan. By the time that the tongue issue occured I was sure that the weather would be too cold to river fish anyway. So I told Bob that I was just going to order a new tongue from Don’s Marine in Lodi and have the trailer ready to go in the spring.

After thinking about it and after trying to winterize the engine unsuccessfully I knew I’d better care of that task by taking the boat down to the landing and winterizing it there. To do that though, I’d have to figure out how to get the trailer to the landing and back without snapping the tonge off.

The Second Bob had mentioned that perhaps splicing some metal onto the sides where the crack and bubble are might stabilize things. I gave it a little thought and came up with an easier but temporary plan. Instead of using metal to do the job I decided to use wood.

I figured that a 4x4x4 would do the job if I used some C clamps around the 4x4s and the tongue. I have a ready supply of 4x4s as a result of scrounging stuff out of the dumpster that was standing on the side of Highway 51 when the highway was closed due to the bridge replacement three years ago. I wa dumpster diving every day after the construction crew quit for the day.

I drove to the Do-It Center in Portage and bought four C clamps that were long enough to fit over the tongue and enclose the 4×4 which I would place under the tongue where the injury is.

While digging through my stash of used and unused discarded wooden materials I found a 4x4x4 that was perfect. It was 4” long.

When getting ready to do all the aforementioned ideas I backed my truck up to the trailer, got the coupler over the ball of the hitch then got my floor jack out. I stuck two short pieces of dumpster 4×4 on top of the busness end of the floor jack and starting raising the jack. The 4×4 on top of the jack made perfect contact and as I raised the tongue it straightened out. With the jack in place I unhooked the trailer from the truck. Once satisfied with my work to that point I measured the distance from the garage floor to the bottom of the tongue about a foot away from the hitch on my truck. I then lucked out and found a cutoff piece of 4×4 that was the perfect length and tapped it into place under the tongue. That allowed me to take the jack out from under the tongue at the site of the trailer’s injury.

The next step was to drop the C-Clamps over the tongue and 4X4 Guess What! I had measured the size of the tongue to be 3 inches square. That meant I needed a chunk of wood that was 3 inches square and not 3 1/2 “ like a 4×4 actually is. I was really feelng stupid at that point.

I wasn’t to be outdone though. After thinking about it for a minute or two my light bulb lit up. Gosh I thought, a 2×4 is actually an inch and half thick. All I needed to do was hammer some nails into a pair of 2x4s that were 4 feet long then do the C clamp thing. I found a pair of 4 foot 2x4s in my mess of bridge wood, nailed them together and cinched them down with two of the C clamps.. After getting that taken care of my boat and trailer were patched up pretty well. I stepped on to the tongue and jumped up and down to see if it would bend again.

It did not, so I hooked it back up to the truck and drove down to the landing. There I backed the trailer into the river. Next I climbed in and safely maneuvered through the items in the boat  to get back to the tiller. Once there I started the engine and performed the winterization method. It worked like a charm and took just a minute and a half.

That’s my answer to the reader who questioned me about how I was able to get the boat back down to the river with a bent trailer tongue and move five muskeis in one trip.

On Thursday of this week my plan is to take Ron Buzzell with me to the place where we know there is a pack or school of Esox musquinongy that we are hoping are hungry.

A Handful Of Muskies During My Last Trip — Or was it?

(#268)

For many reasons it was a fishing trip that is now a forever memory.

I can now say that I have fished in a boat on the Wisconsin River during all 12 months of the year. I can also say that for the first time I saw five muskies on the same outing. It is a personal best and beat out the time on the Chippewa Flowage 4 decades ago that I saw two on the same outing as well as a day on the Pike Lake Chain in 2019 when Ron Buzzell and I saw three in one day.

I had never given any thought to fishing while out in a boat during the month of December. I had fished in January and February below the Castle Rock dam with Reel Fishing Adventures friend and guide Captain John Lamb. On January 9, 1918 Captain Lamb coerced me into going fishing right below the Castle Rock dam. He told me the weather forecast predicted sunny and highs in the low 40s. I succumbed to his story and went along. Once there we had a blast. We caught more than 100 walleyes but just one keeper and Captain Lamb actually caught that one. On that day he also hooked up with 50# buffalo that was hooked right in front of the dorsal fin and later snared a sturgeon right in the top of its back. In our photos of those fish it’s easy to see the blood red hooks in the bodies of those two leviathans. On that trip amongst those 100+ walleyes I  might have caught about 20 or so while the captain did the rest of the catching. 

January and February of 2018 were also the months that the Two Bobs and Three Bobs fished together below the Castle Rock dam. If you read these diatribes I post on this blog site you know that the Two Bobs fish together often and even have a Wisconsin River Slough named after them. 

In actuality I named the slough Two Bobs on the day that the two of us found the awesome backwater area. After I started telling other friends who fish the area that we do that we named it Two Bob’s Slough they started calling it that as well. I’m creating a wooden sign that says “Two Bobs Slough” with my router and the plan is to nail it to a tree that will perhaps not blow down like thousands of river bottom trees have done in the past 10 years. Perhaps in years to come Two Bobs Slough will be identified on the Wisconsin River maps like Lib’s Island, which is listed on the current river map as Liberty Cross Island after the fella who owned the island before eminent domain transferred the property to Wisconsin Power and Light Company and now Alliant Energy. Another misnomer on the current map shows the Rocky Run channel and slough as Davie’s Slough when it really is Davis’ Slough named after the Davis family who were Town of Dekorra families who lived where the original site of the mill race, the mill, and flour house still stand. 

My first-ever fishing trip in a boat on the Wisconsin River in November occurred soon after Robert M. Thompson became my father-in-law. It took place during a 1980s era deer season when RMT decided that we could do two things on one trip: 1) we could catch a musky in Davis’ Slough and shoot a buck as well. It was the day after Thanksgiving. We launched his Grumman Sport Canoe at the landing that is just east of the flour house on the banks of Davis’ Slough just upstream from the mill race that still is easily identified. We had the rods and reels for fishing and the guns were loaded. It was a cold day but we were dressed warm enough to stay at it for a couple of hours. Our rod tips would freeze shut on us from time to time but it didn’t take much effort to clean it off. 

About halfway through that adventure there was shooting east of us and soon a couple of antlerless deer  were sneaking through the island between the river and Davis’ Slough. Quickly the rods were put down and the guns were in hand. Alas, the only whitetails we saw were the does. Our fishing success that day in terms of catching muskies resulted in as many of those as the number of bucks we harvested – none. However, obviously the trip is a forever memory for me. 

Of course during the current calendar year I returned often to the Wisconsin River during November and even launched my boat in Silver Lake during last month. 

December arrived and once I learned how easy it is to winterize an Evinrude Etec outboard . I was hoping to get some pleasant weather with temperatures in the mid to high 40s or even the low to mid 50s. On the second day of deer season I launched at the Dekorra landing and actually had some musky action I have written about previously. 

Today’s temperature prediction of a high in the 50s got me excited so I called the Second Bob and plans were made to get some suckers and head for the river in hopes of coaxing a hungry musky into a meal of suckers.  

The plans were made. I arose in an excited mood about being able to get my boat into the river in December and if fortune were on my side we’d get a photo or two of a river musky. A phone call to the Second Bob was made and plans were to wait a bit then get the sucker and get after it on the river. I drove down to the Dekorra landing to check for icy conditions and there wasn’t any . Soon after I got back home the Second Bob called to tell me that he could not go due to COVID-19 in his household. 

Rats!

 It would have been great to be together for this story and have the all-important second person in the boat to handle the netting chores if needed. I decided to go solo today so I made a trip to a bait shop for some suckers and bought half a dozen of the small ones which were about 4 to 5 inches long. I was soon hurrying home. 

Friday’s Trip

Many people would have a written a list of tasks that needed to be attended to before the trip could even begin. I always fail to have a written list instead relying on my memory.

That’s the part that gets me most of the time. Friday was no exception. I failed to cover all the tasks and it probably cost me a chance to get a musky or two or three or four or even five in my net.

I had been planning the trip since the first forecast predicted a high in the 50s for Friday. I needed to get things in the boat organized because I had already winterized it and had things stored away or somewhat stored away. I wanted to use live suckers for bait and had a plan for that until the Second Bob reported with the news of not being able to accompany me. Instead I decided to drive down to the Hwy. CS/I-39-90-94 interchange area and get some small suckers at the BP station there.

I did make the trip and bought half a dozen which cost me $4.22 plus about two gallons of gas to get there and back ($5.60). That’s cheap compared to $15 for just one 15-18 inch sucker. 

When I got back home, the dishwasher installer/repairman was there getting our new one to work correctly. As I was getting organized to leave he and I had a short conversation. That short chat derailed my thought process on preparing for the upcoming river trip. I’d pay for it before long.

I arrived at the landing and felt rushed. I was losing minutes from what could become a successful musky trip. After getting the boat unsecured from the trailer I backed it in but the boat would not disengage from the trailer. I pulled the entire rig out of the water and looked things over. I backed the rig back into the water with the same results which of course meant no results. I pulled ahead again and mentally went through my mental checklist. That’s when I realized that I had not removed the engine brace device that keeps it from bouncing around when being pulled down the road. Once I removed that and called myself a few choice descriptors I backed it in, parked the truck and hustled back down to the boat. The Evinrude fired right up and within seconds I was up on plane and headed for the destination where I knew there to be at least one musky that might be hungry.

After arriving I was eager to get two suckers rigged up and in the water. I had remembered to load the bucket with the suckers into the boat. However, as I looked for my two sucker rods I realized that they were back in my garage. That conversation with the Vern’s Electric fella had gotten me off track and in my normal excitement I left without them. 

Now I was faced with a choice. Choice #1 was to head back to the landing, load up the rig, drive home to get the rods then come back and launch again. That choice would mean losing at leasts 40 minutes of time on the water. Choice #2: forget about using a sucker and just cast some baits and reel them in slowly. The water temperature was 37 degrees and commonly shared fishing knowledge is to use slow retrieves when casting.

I chose #2.

I arrived at my first destination at about noon and started out with an original Bobbie Bait which is a dive and rise or jerk bait. So it lands, you jerk it toward you, reel in the slack and jerk again and again and again. After about 15 minutes with no strikes or follows I switched to the Suick that the huge musky followed on the second day of deer season. I was determined that if that fish thought my imitation for something edible was good enough to take a close look at two weeks ago that it might find it interesting again. At 1:15 pm as I was bringing the Suick back to me from my left suddenly a 3 foot long musky cruised right next to the boat and just behind the bait. I kept my excitement in control, completed the retrieve and started jerking the bait along with quick short bursts in a figure 8. The fish followed it around the eight and cruised back past me and I swear it rolled a bit to its port side, looked up at me with one eye and dove under my boat. 

Just as quickly as it had appeared it disappeared so I kept on doing about a dozen more figure 8s at various speeds but alas, it did not show up again. So I tossed the bait back out there hoping it might get ticked off about all the critters colored like that disturbing the underwater silence. 

At 1:30 and from the same direction a large muskie followed the Suick along the port side of my boat on the same path as the first one. The second one was larger and much heavier. I’d say it was in the 40–42 inch class. That one did not follow my figure 8 at all and just swam under the boat taking the same path the first one did. I kept on producing figure 8s in hope that the fish was lurking right under my feet and would suddenly attack my wooden fake bait. 

That didn’t happen.

There were sheets of ice floating down the stream I was fishing in. I switched from the Suick to a bucktail spinner bait just for a change. On my first cast I tried to land the bait on top of one of the ice sheets about 20 yards away from me. 

Plop went that bait as it landed right on the ice. It slid a bit. Ice is slippery you know. I started reeling and the bait slid off the ice and returned to me. I kept using that bait for about five minutes and switched back to the Suick.  At 1:41 an even heavier musky followed in and was about the same length as the second fish. The story is the same. The fish seemed to be just saying hello to me and letting me know they were living there. There must have been a pack of them down there or they actually were in a school learning about fake baits being dangerous.

By this time I was getting very excited. I had never seen more than 3 muskies in any one trip in my fishing life. I kept throwing the Suick. At 2:05 I had thrown the bait straight out from the boat. The sun was shining on the water from my right so it was easy to see it coming toward me as it got closer and closer. On that cast I did not see any fish following the bait.. I did a couple of figure 8s, lifted the bait out of the water and tossed it out there again. As I did I looked down a bit to my right and it appeared that the sun was suddenly shining on a log about 2 feet under the water.  My bait hit the water and before I started to jerk it back to me I looked at the log again and realized that it was not a log but a very huge muskie suspended down there. I could not see its head because I think that was under my boat. I think it was teasing me. Before I could get the Suick reeled back in, the fish disappeared under the boat. 

At 2:20 another muskie swam up to say hello but that one swam past the bow of the boat. By that time I was really disappointed for not leaving home before the dishwasher repairman showed up. If I had gone prior to him arriving I know I would have remembered to load up my two sucker rods. By that time now I was really shaking my head. I just know that if I had not left the sucker rods at home at least one of those fish would have swam right over to the sucker and ate it after passing on my Suick.

And that’s not the end of the story. 

Before I quit fishing at 4:05 I had my rod with the Suick on it lying on the rod locker with the Suick dangling in the water. There was only about an inch of the bait in the water but that was the metal tail on the end of the bait. As I was fiddling with my other rod a fish took a swipe at the Suick and fortunately I was able to grab the rod before it got yanked into the water. The fish did not get the bait. I had saved that rod and new reel for a second time.

That was it for me for the day. But what a great day it had been.

Another fishing forever memory and includes some good information for other fishermen.

Don’t forget the rods!

Until the next time –

Bob

My Tongue is Bowed – What Can I Do to Fix It?

November 23, 2023 Thanksgiving Day – (#267)

It happened suddenly at the boat landing.

It was at the end of my Monday trip up the river. That‘s the one when I lost a musky on a sucker harness and had another musky steal my rig. It was not just a hook, line and sinker loss but instead a sucker, the harness, sinker, leader, line and rod and reel and the expensive rod holder.

That Monday was a great solo trip without catching a musky and I did recover everything except the sucker after the rig got yanked out of the boat. However, it was at the landing while getting the boat onto the trailer and then out of the water where my tongue got bent out of shape.

There were a couple fellas that had arrived just ahead of me and two more than arrived after I got there. I had to wait a bit to load up which meant I had spectators as I backed into the water, loaded the boat by hand and got ready to drive away.

In A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold wrote about the shifting sands of the Wisconsin River. The river still has a sandy bottom. At the landing however, the bottom is not smooth or flat like most of the river. Instead there are deep holes which are the result of all the boat captains that power load their boat onto their trailers. When they rev their engines up to get the boat up onto the trailer the sand below gets blown off the bottom and out into the channel. The result are sudden drop offs where the water can go from knee deep to belt high quickly.

I do not power load my boat in river current or on windy days. My trailer has side bunkers but when the fella I purchased the boat and trailer from accompanied me on my first river trip I had him be the captain so I could note and observe how he handled the rig. Upon returning to the landing that day I told him I would back the trailer in and use the rope to pull the boat on far enough to get the winch strap’s hook attached to the boat. He told me he’d just power load the boat. 

I caved in and allowed him to demonstrate how to do it. The result was just what I was accustomed to when I attempt to power load in current and windy conditions. What I feared on that day when he was about to “gun” the Evinrude 50 horse outboard is exactly what happened. 

He struggled to get the boat lined up well enough to load it straight onto the trailer and twice had to put the engine in reverse and go back out into the channel. On the third try he was in about the same position as he was on the first two attempts but he was determined. He was somewhat lined up but I could tell he was not going to do it smoothly. 

He gave it gas and headed for the trailer. As he got closer I held my breath. By the time the bow reached the back of the boat the current and wind had moved the stern down river too much to get a good shot at the trailer.

With a wild look on his face he gunned it again and crashed into the starboard side of the bow. The boat came to a sudden stop and was on top of the bunker instead of inside of it. In the process of attempting all this the result was, he’d bent that starboard bunker badly. Actually he had bent the upright braces on each end so much they and the bunker were flattened in the water.

I told him I’d take it from there. I waded into the river and applied a lot of pressure to the bow and was successful in getting the boat slid it onto the bottom slides and pulled it far enough ahead to get the winch strap hook attached. Then I winched the boat to the front of the trailer.

Once home I I removed the bunker, clamped it in my huge outdoor vice, heated the bent side bunker metal and used my 8 pound maul to pound the bunker back up to its original shape where it would be able to do its job correctly.

I have not attempted a power load at all. I wade in during warm weather and water temps and once the water temps drop I use knee high or hip boots to pull the boat onto the trailer and I wonder how many more years I will have the strength to do that.

The traffic at the boat landing since duck season opened has been heavier than prior to that season beginning. The river, being so low all summer meant that boat owners with large bass boats, pontoons and other pleasure craft didn’t use the landing for fear of causing all kinds of problems with their engines. The boat traffic that was present at the landing included guys like me with boats manufactured for river travel. Tunnel hulls, jon boats with surface motors or jet drives or jet outboards.

Once duck season started there have been more boats and nearly every captain power loads their craft which creates deep holes about just out into the river past the ends of their trailers. Once the  holes in the bottom are there my trailer wheels drop down into the holes and my boat is harder to get on the trailer and I must wade out farther and risk stepping into them. Lately the holes are numerous and when I back my trailer out there the starboard side wheel drops down and the bunker goes under the surface. It is a chore to get the boat on. 

On Monday it took me about 20 minutes just to get the boat on the trailer when prior to this issue it would take me 15 minutes to load and drive home. On Monday when I started to drive out of the water my passenger side trailer wheel crashed into the launch side of the hole so my boat stayed on top of the water as I pulled forward. I was going pretty fast just to get the rig out of the water without spinning my wheels so when the tire hit the wall of that hole the trailer bounced up. I pulled ahead to park and secure the boat to the trailer for the trip home. I and the other fisherman at the landing noticed that the bow was a lot lower than normal. I looked down and saw that the tongue on the trailer was cracked and bent right under the winch pedestal. I was not a happy boat owner. Disheartened would be a good descriptor of the emotion I was experiencing.

The tongue on the trailer is a piece of 3” square steel that is 102 inches long. The steel is only 1/16th of an inch thick. The damage is so severe that the only way to safely fix it is to buy a new tongue. Without a new one I can’t safely take the boat out on the roads. That means my 2023 fishing trips are over. That saddens me.

I will replace the tongue and start thinking about ice out in the late spring.

Have a great winter. I’m sure there will be ice fishing stories and other outdoor adventures to write about. Leave a comment and tell our friends about these stories.

Bob

JUST A NICE PIKE TODAY

November 21, 2023 (#266)

I awoke before dawn this morning and watched a few YouTube videos on a variety of topics all the while thinking about today’s trip to the river in pursuit of fish. 

When daylight arrived I could see that it was snowing and some of it was sticking to the ground. I went back to listening to a couple of podcasts I listen to every day. While listening my thoughts turned away from Keith Olbermann and to my plan of fishing today. I decided that I was not going to leave home to go fishing if there was precipitation of any kind in the air. I went back to concentration on the last five minutes of Countdown with Keith.

After checking my weather app and noting that precipitation was not in the forecast for the afternoon I left the possibility of a river trip open. I had to go to Walgreen’s in Portage to get my “old people” RSV shot at 9:45 and also to the dentist in Windsor so morning fishing was out of the realm of possibility from the get go.

After returning home with no precipitation falling I decided to go forward with my original plan. After a quick sandwich I was toting things from the basement to the garage and into the boat. I was off and on the water by 1 pm. I had my last medium size sucker in the water at 1:15.

At 2:00 PM the float dipped under the water and was being tugged farther from the boat. I let it go a bit but when it moved to the right I the end of my Okuma Musky rod the opposite way and a short battle was on. In the end a pike had chosen a mid-afternoon meal but lost out before it could get the fish in its gullet. I reeled the fish to the side of the boat and estimated it to be about 28”. I reached into the bag with my long handled pliers, removed the treble hooks then flipped the net over and let the fish swim away. 

I continued fishing until 3:15 without seeing any more fish. Could that pike have been the fish with garlic breath? I didn’t get my sniffer very close throughout the unhooking and releasing operation but I didn’t smell garlic either. 

Before I left home in preparation  for the trip to the river I I was getting things organized. I noticed that I was missing a bait box filled with a variety and colors of Suick and Bobbie Baits. I looked around in the garage and the boat but could not locate it. I am thinking that it must have blown out of the boat on Sunday while on my way to the landing. If that is the case some lucky person got a small gold mine as there had to be about $200 worth of baits in that box. I looked around again today and drove slowly down County JV looking in the ditches for a brown and gold single level tackle box. I didn’t find the box that had made a get-away.

I was planning on a Wednesday trip which would probably be my final 2023 boating/fishing adventure. However, the tongue on my Shorelander trailer was bent and I decided not to risk a terrible adventure where a boat trailer might be unhitched from the truck. 

I wish I could have reported that a huge fish that may have eaten my stick of bologna on Monday had eaten my medium sized sucker but I can’t.

Have a great Thanksgiving day and weekend. After you finish gorging yourself on all the great food you really ought to be working on your Christmas wish list. If you’ve already started one just look through the Black Friday and Shop Small ads and add some great item to the list and cross your fingers in hopes of receiving the stuff in about a month.

Until my next outdoor adventure, here’s wishing you the best.

Bob

Garlic Flavored Esox Musquinongy tomorrow?

November 20, 2023 (#265)

Today I spent the better share of the morning trying to organize all my fishing paraphernalia. The plan was to take yet another trip to the river.

The plan was to go back to where yesterday’s giant is hanging out, toss jerk baits and soak suckers. I still had two medium size suckers as well as six or seven smaller ones advertised as pike-sucker. During the sorting process I located a couple of sucker rigs I have had for a number of years but had never used. I intended to use three lines today. Two would feature sucker rigs while the third one would be a casting and retrieving rig.

There were about half a dozen strange vehicles with boat trailers attached to them parked in the Dekorra boat landing parking area. Since I didn’t recognize any of them I figured the owners were probably in the river bottom in trees in hopes of harvesting white tailed deer.

I pulled away from the boat landing just after midday and headed for a spot between Dekorra and Portage. I was filled with excited anticipation. I knew that getting a chance at the giant from yesterday might be a stretch but if I didn’t go back there would be no chance. The river was about the same as it was yesterday with about seven concrete slabs out of the water at the landing. That meant I’d be able to cruise all the way to Portage with no trouble if I chose to .

When I arrived at the giant musky’s residence I glided to a stop after turning off the outboard. I was moving quickly to get the trolling motor operational. My level of anticipation was keen and I wanted to get two suckers harnessed then start casting and retrieving. A road block of sorts presented itself immediately. The trolling motor was misbehaving. I was struggling to get the motor and the remote control in sync. After about 10 minutes of fussing with it I managed to get the two pieces of apparatus communicating but your guess is as good as mine as to what was ailing those pieces of electronic devices.

I hooked up one of the larger suckers to a quick set rig and tossed it into water. It seemed to be working correctly and the sucker was really active. I was in spot lock mode on the trolling motor and in about 11 feet of water. I had the sucker placed about halfway to the bottom.

As I was fussing with the smaller sucker rig I kept a close eye on the rig in the water. Not long after I had started on rig #2 I looked across the surface to check the first float but couldn’t see it. My first thought was that the sucker must be pulling the float under when suddenly the line was being stripped from the reel in front of me.

I have watched dozens of YouTube videos where many pro fishermen and guides demonstrate how to use a quick set rig to get a good hook set. The float was moving straight away from me so I was waiting for the predator to go either toward the stern or the bow. My self talk reminded me that I was anchored within a few feet of where I saw that giant musky yesterday. “This really can’t be happening,” I thought to myself.

The top of the float suddenly went under the surface but I could see it moving toward the bow. I had the rod in my hands with the reel in my right hand and my left hand on the rubber handle in front of the reel. I bent my knees, got a tight grip and quickly extended my legs and ripped the rod tip toward the gray clouds far above me.

The weight of the predator on the other end of the line indicated a large fish and suddenly it had changed direction and was at the surface quickly. It had a bright white belly and shiny gold sides. It was wreathing and writhing and head shaking in an attempt to either get rid of the fish or just hang on tight for a noon meal when the sucker got tossed into the air.

I don’t think I managed to get either one of the treble hooks into that fish’s jaw. As quickly as the battle had started it ended suddenly and violently.

I remember yelling, “Dah Gonni,” or something like that. The fish was not the giant I saw yesterday. I’d guess or estimate it to be in the mid-30  category but it was a musky and it had been a “sucker for my sucker rig. “

Now disheartened after the short battle I sat down and took a swig of water as I wondered what I could have done differently. Quick set rigs are meant to be kind to the predator fish. Years ago fishermen using live bait were known to say, “after the fish takes the bait, light a cigarette, enjoy it and when it’s out SET THE HOOK”.

That method killed a lot of undersized fish because in the time it took to do the cigarette thing the fish would have swallowed the hooks. When the fishermen set the hooks they would get embedded in the fish’s throat and cause deadly results. An undersized fish would be returned to the water but would certainly die soon thereafter.

Today most musky fishermen engage in “catch and release” which means get the hook set so they are in the jaw and not the throat and get them in the net quickly so as to not stress the fish out. An anger should leave the fish in the net where it can breathe. The hooks should be removed while the fish is in “the bag” then carefully lifted out and some pictures should be taken quickly. Fish can’t hold their breath very long without getting stressed.

I may have been premature in my hook setting today but I can assure you that I did not hurt that fish. IT will be there for me or another angler.

I kept the sucker in the water and added a second rig soon after missing. I also used nearly every jerk bait in my arsenal and there are a lot of them. I fished for another 2 hours before deciding to move a bit closer to the other stream flowing past the mouth of the one I was on. I used the trolling motor to slowly maneuver the boat and left the sucker in the water and sort of dragged it behind me.

When I bought the boat in May it came equipped with rod holders and the bases for those are bolted to the gunnels on both sides. However, something is askew with the setup. When I try to insert the rod holder into those bases the holder itself is awry. They are 180 degrees wrong.

Today I had decided to set the holders in backward knowing full well they weren’t very secure. The rod was hanging loosely in the holder. I was simply using the method to move from one spot to another without reeling in the sucker. As I was moving the boat I glanced back at the float when “Wham!” a musky attacked the sucker that was being dragged on the surface.  Not only did it grab the sucker it started swimming the other direction. The strike was so solid that it yanked the rod holder out of its base. Then the base and rod were headed for the river. I lunged to save it but it was too late. The rod disengaged from the holder which headed for the bottom 11’ below. The rod splashed into the water and the fish was now towing the float and rod away from me. I quickly grabbed the other sucker rig and tossed the second sucker out there to try to catch my rig that was headed for who knows where. After dragging the sucker and rigging about 15’ the musky must have let go without being hooked. The float is a tubular one made of balsa wood. It’s about a foot long and an inch in diameter. The rod is an expensive one piece that is 9’ long so the combination of the balsa wood and hollow rod allowed both of those items to be sticking about an inch above the surface. I grabbed the remote off the floor of the boat and increased the speed to the maximum power headed for my stuff.

First of all I couldn’t believe my bad luck (well actually I can) but I also couldn’t believe my good luck. It appeared as though I was going to be able to save the entire rig. I finally caught up to the entire mess, reached down and grabbed the tip of the rod, saving it and me some money to replace the rod and reel as well as the float.

I fished for another hour before calling it a day. But get this. I rigged one of the sucker rigs with half a ring of garlic scented/flavored ring bologna. I tossed that out there and about 15 minutes later there were all kinds of water rings emanating off the round float on that rig. Something was actually nibbling on that sausage.

Perhaps it was a turtle. The water was 40 degrees but I had seen one swimming earlier. Perhaps it was a pike or a musky. Those small rings around the float stopped when it started moving across the surface. I thought about the cigarette story the old timers told but alas I have never been a user of tobacco. Instead I chose to wait until the float stopped moving.

It took far less time for the float to stop than it would have to have a smoke. At that point I let ‘er rip! The spherical shaped, styrofoam float came flying back at me and settled softly on the surface.

 What could have been munching on my sausage?

It will forever be a mystery for when I reeled in the entire rig the sausage was gone.

It surely was an adventure again today. Tomorrow I am going back hoping to catch a fish with bad breath. 

Have a great day!

Bob

I Have Been Called Back To The River

November 19, 2023 (#264)

Cast, then jerk and reel again and do it all over again and again.

The new Piscifun 400 baitcasting reel I purchased a week ago got it’s first workout today. 16-year-old Ben Schaumann and I had planned a fishing trip for today. He arrived right on time and we were on the water as the temperature was rising at the same rate our heightened anticipation was.

I’d made a trip to my fishing sponsor, M&M Tackle It bait tackle shop in Portage where Matt netted a few large suckers, some smaller pike-sized suckers and about two dozen large fathead minnows. In had the boat ready to go so it didn’t take long to get to the water. There were several cars in the Dekorra Landing parking lot but I figured most of those people would be dressed in blaze orange and in a tree on Lib’s Island or on the Caledonia or Pacific side lowland areas seeking venison.

We launched the Sea Ark and made a quick trip to Davis’ slough only to find a pair of guys throwing huge baits for large fish. We didn’t want to pass by them and intrude on their outing because that would just not be cool. They beat us there and deserved to fish on.

Instead we headed up the river and fished some other haunts where Esox musquinongy hang out. That was our primary specie to target in the first couple hours of our anticipated 5-6 hour trip. Of course we’d be happy with any fish that liked the looks of our offerings.

Because I was eager for us to get after it I told Ben to use the new baitcaster while I got things organized to hook up some live bait. Ben was doing a great job of breaking in that new 400 so I grabbed my Okuma Musky rod equipped with a ABU Garcia Ambassadeur 6500. I hooked up a Chaos Tackle walleye pattern Posiedon while Ben was throwing a new Berkley swim bait in what appeared to be a perch pattern.

After about a half hour of pitching that heavy Poseidon to the left, right and rear I took a short break to get a sucker harness ready. I am not an expert at rigging up suckers for musky so it took me a while to get things in order. The sucker harness I had was a bit too long for the length of suckers I had so I had to make a few adjustments. After what seemed like an hour but was really one fourth of that, I had one in the water.

I got back to casting but switched out the Poseidon for a 10” Suick that at one time was really beat up. I had picked it up for a couple bucks at a garage sale about 10 years ago figuring on fixing it up and adding a new paint job. I did that two years ago. I have used it on numerous occasions with no action at all but I decided that it was going to be the plug I was going to use today.

As the slow current moved us toward the faster one ahead of us, we were casting, chatting and having a great time. I already told you that I am a novice when it comes to working a Suick, a Smity, and other old-time jerk baits. However a couple of weeks ago one of my favorite musky fishing YouTubers, young Fisher Smith whom I don’t think is old enough to get a driver’s license put out a video of himself throwing and retrieving a 10” weighted Suick with a pattern close to the one I had painted on the piece of wood I have. I watched and listened intently to that video and today I tried to mimic Fisher’s technique.

The Solunar tables minor period today was from 11:54 am to 1:54 pm. Moon rise was at 12.54. I knew all that before we left my house. I check that website every morning. As a matter of fact Ron Buzzell texted me this morning to ask when the minor and moonrise was for today.

During today’s minor period and almost to the very minute of moon rise I was really getting the hang of cast, jerk, reel, twitch, twitch, reel etc. Adding to my anticipation was the fact that Ben had changed equipment opting for his spinning outfit with a Rapala jerk bait with some gold on the sides and a black back. He had been getting some strikes on that thing but had not hooked anything.

I was in the back of the boat standing on the craft’s floor while Ben was atop the front deck. As we approached moonrise I tossed a long cast across the bow and starting the sequence. I had sent that cast in the direction of the bow so the retrieve broughtit back to me on the starboard side, past Ben. As the Suick came into my view with it’s metal tail glistening in the sunlight I noticed something a bit under and behind the bait.

To my astonishment it was a giant musky. I mean I’m postive it was larger than the 5-.5: giant I caught in September. That fish followed all the way to where the bait was just about in front of me and sort of just floated in place about 18 inches below the surface. I was dumfounded and lost my musky fishing composure. I yelled at Ben as I watched that giant’s gill plates open a close three or four times while it just sort of suspended there while I stared at it instead of getting a figure 8 going. Then I got my wits back and started a figure 8 and the fish followed for a ways but instead of snapping the butt of the rod like Fisher  Smith does to continue his jerky retrieve I just did a regular figure it. The fish followed long enough for Ben to get a look at it’s massive head then disappeared.

My heart was racing. I quickly reverted back to doing a figure 8 in Fisher’s jerky method. Ben yelled at me to get the sucker closer to boat but I couldn’t figure 8 and move to reel in the sucker at the same time.
I am not real great at doing two important things at once. I did three or four more figure 8 moves in hopes that the giant would return and give me a shot at a second 50+” fish in such a short time span.

It didn’t happen. The fish didn’ respond to my belated technique. I kept casting and retrieving for a few minutes before we moved on downstream where Ben got a few more taps on that Rapala he was using.

After a while we chose to head back toward the boat landing. Ben had never trolled for walleyes and I haven’t done that for at least two and a half decades. He grabbed a colorful deep running crank bait and tossed it in and we headed up the river at 1.4 mph.. It wasn’t long and he asked me how he would know if a fish was taking his colorful offering. I told him what to expect.

Not more than 10 seconds after I told him that when a fish strikes his bait the tip of his rod would stop vibrating and that the tip would suddenly move toward me, his rod did that exact thing.

Ben was pretty excited. No, Ben was extremely excited as he raised up off the seat and headed back toward me. He was talking a blue streak as he reeled in whatever was on the distal end. “I has to be a fish,” he yelled. As it got closer to the boat we noticed that it was a sauger – and a huge one!

I had the net ready and as he pulled the fish closer and closer to the stern I reached back with the musky net and secured the first sauger that Ben Schamumann had ever caught. It was just over 18”. That is a great first-fish for the 16 year old angler. His excitement made the day complete. He was as excited as I had been when I didn’t catch that leviathan earlier. Here is a shot of Ben and his Fish

We fished until 2:30 and had to call it day because Ben had a family gathering he needed to be at by 4 and his drive to Heartland was more than an hour from my house. We made it back to my house, cleaned his sauger and I sent him on his way. He really had a great day.

After he left I hooked up a hose to my Evinrude E-Tec and winterized it because today was to be my final 2023 fishing trip in the great boat I purchased back in May.

But wait!

Tomorrow’s forecast calls for a high of 46. The minor period is from 12:21 pm – 2:21 pm and of course moonrise is a the midpoint of that time span – 1:21 pm.

I’ll be in that musky’s front yard, back yard and side yard casting, jerking, reeling, twitching and hoping that giant is hungry.

Have a great day!

Bob

It was a musky but the result was not what I thought it should be or could have been

November 5, 2023 (#263)

There are times when things don’t turn out like they could.

Today’s fishing trip up the Wisconsin River was a solo one for me. The high water in the river during the past week along with the freezing temperatures and nearly freezing daytime temps meant that my boat stayed in the garage and my lithium batteries were stored in the house. Today was a great day to get out there though because the water level was five feet lower than it had been and provided plenty of depth so I didn’t have to worry about hitting the sandy bottom. I did however, need to be vigilant while operating the boat so as to not hit the floating debris flowing downstream.

When I reached the landing a boat with two duck hunters was just arriving after a morning of slow duck shooting. As a matter of fact they didn’t have any ducks at all. According to them there were few ducks flying and their attempts at very long shots resulted in missed shots. They were down river from the Dekorra landing so I asked them how much debris had been lurking just under the surface. The report was, “Yes there is, so be careful.”

I decided to motor to a spot I like that is about halfway to Portage. As I approached that spot I noted that another solo fisherman was there ahead of me. I watched him launch a pretty good sized plug into the air. The splash it created as it hit the water told me that he was hoping to catch the same species I was hoping to catch. Those being Esox lucius and Esox Esox masquinongy – northern pike and muskellunge. As I slowed down and started to pass by him he asked me, “are you Bob?”

I told him I was but asked him why he would think that a fisherman coming there today might be named and that he’d be correct. About that time I noticed the owner of the new home high atop the bluff above our fishing spot. I had met the new owner earlier this fall at the Dekorra landing and in conversation learned that he is the owner of the new home and the pier at the base of the bluff. I have chatted with him a couple more times on a couple recent fishing trips to where I was now. I yelled up to him to say hello and he asked me if I was Bob. I quickly answered yes and he wished me good luck. Then the other fisherman told me that when he arrived he was asked if he was Bob so that’s why he asked if I was Bob.

As it turns out Gary, the fisherman I had just met is quite a musky chaser himself and as a matter of fact told me that he had caught a 44” musky yesterday. That started off a conversation that resulted in us pulling our boats up against each other, me pushing my spot lock button to keep us in place while we spent about 15 more minutes just getting to know each other while chatting about Esox masquinongy. He showed me an assortment of baits that he has that were created by Tom Harrison, a Portage fella that specializes in baits targeting the kinds of fish the two of us chase. He told me his name and that he actually works for the Portage lure creator. I showed a myriad of baits that I have made. After a while Gary told me he wanted to fish closer to Portage but wasn’t sure how to get there as he didn’t know where the most water was in the channel. Since I’d been all the way to Portage 10 days ago or so I gave him the directions to get there. Soon he was on his way using my route.

I fished on for more than an hour without moving any fish so I packed up and headed back down river then pulled into Duck Creek. I fished there for a while with no action and headed back toward the landing. On the way I stopped at another good spot and it wasn’t long before I saw Gary motoring his way back to the landing. I fished there for a few minutes with no action and decided to go down river past Hooker’s Resort and try trolling for a while in an area known to hold the kind of fish I was seeking.

I didn’t get any strikes on my first trolling trip up river and decided to go back up river to the previous location. As I approached the landing I chose to pull in and get a snack I’d left in my truck. Gary was still at the landing with his trailer in the water and he was just sort of looking like he was contemplating something. As I pulled my boat up onto the sand and walked away Gary said, “I picked a bad day to forget my boots.”

The water level at the landing forces us to back our vehicles into the water with all four wheels getting wet. That means that one must walk in the water to secure the boat to the trailer, then get to the cab and pull the unit out of the water. I had my boots on and offered to help him out. He was happy to say the least..

I secured his boat after he power loaded it then drove his vehicle ahead and out of the water so he could be on time for the activity he didn’t want to be late for. I then pushed off and headed back up the  river. I got things ino order and decided to use a glide bait that I’d never had a fish attack and hadn’t used in a couple of years. I decided to give it a try and quickly attached the leader snap to the bait then quickly  tossed it into the place my friend had told me a big fish was living. 

On my first cast the bait splashed down and I gave a few tugs to get it working. Slow jerks followed by frantic reeling to take up slack and so on. After about three repetitions of doing that the water erupted above where my glide bait was doing what it was made for. A big fish was on and headed to my right. In the same instant I jerked my rod to set the hooks but the fish gave up my lure but I got back to work instantling and kept bringing the bait back toward me. When the bait was about five feet from the tip of my rod that hungry or angry fish attacked the bait again but again I failed to get it hooked. I emitted a loud scream because I was disgusted with myself for not being able to get that fish caught and in the boat for a picture. It was a missed opportunity. 

I kept tossing that bait back out into that area for another 10 minutes or so before moving on to the next possible spot for a big fish. I switched baits, this time attaching a Mepps Giant Killer with black bucktail and a gold blade with a flashy silver sticker on one side. I tossed that bait a few times and the first time I tossed to my right another large fish attacked it. I don’t think the fish ever had the bait in its mouth though. It was either faking it or just missed. It did not however continue to chase it so perhaps one of those hooks had touched its mouth. I kept using the Mepps though for another half hour or so but had no success. 

I was thinking about going home and calling a trip but on the way I was casting away. As I approached the seam that the musky had been in I decided to put that glide bait back on my line. That’s when I learned the reason for not being able to hook that fish. As I reached into the bait box all I could do was shake my head in disgust at myself. In my anxious anticipation of catching the big fish my friend had told me about and deciding to use the glide bait I hurriedly grabbed it, slid the leader clip through the bait’s split ring and threw it out there. On the first cast the aforementioned excitement took place. Now as I looked at the glide bait I noticed that there were no hooks on it. 

I had been using a plug with no hooks attached!

What would your self-talk be with this discovery? I’m not about to type what my self talk was at that moment. 

I write these stories with several goals in mind. I try to include a bit of education for the readers, some insight into what takes place on the river during my trips, some humor and try to engage you in an attempt to make you think you are actually in the boat with me. 

I am not counting today’s fish as a caught fish. It will be just on my list of fish that were fooled by a fake bait and from now on I will be sure to check for hooks.

My goal was to get some action and put a fish in the net. Perhaps next time thing will turn out differently

Have a great week!

Bob