It’s been since 2012 since I came to my old stomping grounds of Northern Wisconsin in October to fly fish for muskellunge.  It’s crazy I waited so long because I enjoy everything about fly fishing for musky.  The toothy fish is hard to fool with the fly and when you do its hang on tight.  They can hide in tiny remote rivers yet obtain sizes of more than 50” and 40lbs. Best of all, this time I brought along Granny to try and catch her first.

We’re fishing with my friend and longtime musky guide, Bill Sherer.  Bill owns the We Tie It Fly Shop in Boulder Junction.  Bill was fly fishing for musky long before chasing these beasts became popular and is therefore booked up a year in advance.  We met Bill at his shop at 9 and he was tying sucker flies.

There weather up here isn’t good.  The region was crushed with a week of rain prior to our arrival.  Most the rivers are far above their banks.  Many of Bills haunts are unfishable.  It’s also freezing cold.  Normally temperatures would be in the low 50°s but today we had a high of 32° along with the first dusting of snow.

I travel and fish enough to know I’m going to hit harsh fishing conditions time to time.  We laughed about the grueling weather and hopped in our rental and followed Bill to one river he thought would be our best shot to fish in the high water.  It was a beautiful drive with leaves in full color.

We pushed off on the river at 10:30 AM.  I know this sounds late but at this time was 29°.  We weren’t in a rush.  Any river sections in the wind-open areas the trees were cleaned of leaves and it looked more like late November than October.

While I cast to everything from the back of Bills custom pontoon boat Granny preserved her hands from freezing and only hit places where Bill had the utmost confidence.  I’m not one to cast with gloves but Granny did a good job in the cold with my new Winston Saltwater Air 8-weight.

It didn’t take Granny long to roll a musky and miss him. I followed up and did the same.  Musky are hard mouthed fish that are difficult to hook.  Furthermore, they eat your massive fly then glide towards you.  You need to strip set as fast as you can and multiple times.  If you can’t get tight strip setting you have no choice but to then set with the rod.  But be sure to set to the side instead of up like on trout.  By lunch we missed five muskies and landed one small pike.

The day wasn’t getting warmer and in fact by lunch it was getting colder.  Cold doesn’t hurt this old ice fisherman too bad but it slows me down.  Poor Granny was suffering miserably.  Bill broke out his heater at lunch so everyone could warm up.

I wish I could tell you we landed a musky in the afternoon.  While Granny observed the final hours of the day Bill led me to regular musky spots and I froze the tips of my fingers fishing hard.  Apparently, the afternoon was too cold for the fish.  I caught a pike and we saw one more musky.  I missed her.

During the show season I often present “Warmwater Fly Fishing” programs.  In this fun presentation I have a segment about fly fishing for muskellunge.  I always suggest dedicating three full days.  One day you’ll catch a few.  One you catch one.  And one day you’ll get skunked.  Our skunk is out of the way!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing