I’m fishing hard this week trying to squeeze in every last cast before it gets too cold here in Northern Wisconsin. Today I musky fished with Josh Hulbert and an old Jackson Hole friend, Shannon McCormick. On my last four musky days with friends we’ve managed exactly one musky per trip. This may not sound like much, but it’s a fantastic musky fly fishing track record. I was really hoping to keep the streak going.
It was extremely brisk to start the day. While the guys did the shuttle I stayed back with the boat and walked the river to stay warm. There was ice on the edge of the back eddies and a cold fog lifting from the water. By the time the boys got back the sun was rising and I was pleased to feel some warmth come with it.
When its cold like this morning I prefer to row first. Josh, a local guide and owner of Northwoods Flyfisher, wanted to hit a pool upstream of our boat launch where he missed a huge musky on a popper back in mid-September. This ended up being perfect because I had to row hard to get the boat up there. By the time we made it I was warm and remained that way the rest of the day. Unfortunately the fish Josh was after didn’t show itself.
By mid-morning it was comfortably warm, likely in the upper 40°s. We enjoyed excellent action with small pike. Despite all the pike being under 25” they had no problem attacking our large musky flies. Finally after landing four pike in a row, I managed our first musky of the day. While by no means one to brag about, he was handsomely barred and may even be a tiger musky which are not common occurrences in the wild. This mini musky also keeps the streak going!
We wrapped up our day at sunset. Our end result was five pike landed and two small muskies. We literally floated for nine hours on a late October day. It couldn’t have been any prettier, warmer, better fishing and for sure, the company was top notch. This was one of those days you wish you could repeat at will. But you can’t. Now it’s only a memory but a damn good one at that!