Northern Wisconsin fishing mornings are getting a bit crisp but with the new scenery and fish enthusiasm you hardly feel it.  I’m not wading in shorts any more as of today, but still, once the sun is high you can fish without a jacket.  And while the leaves are still bright they aren’t quite like they were.  I’m afraid with the next big windy day most will go.  Luckily today was generally calm with a high temperature of around 55°.

I fished with Bob.  It still makes me laugh, Bob and I have been friends for over thirty years.  We both lived out west.  But we were so busy we hadn’t fished together on nearly 30 years.  I should mention he was in Montana raising a family while I was in southeastern Idaho.  Then by coincidence we both moved to northern WI this year and now we’ve fished together at least ten times since July.  Pretty awesome.  And there will be a lot of years of fishing ahead.

We floated for muskie today.  It’s the thing to do when temps cool in October.  But I’ll warn you, there won’t be as many fish photos on the blog if we keep this up.  We floated several miles before we saw our first sign of a musky.  And it wasn’t a muskie.  We ran into a couple longtime locals fishing live 12” suckers under bobbers.  While they hadn’t seen a fish all day either, they assured us that a few years ago they landed a 48 incher on a beautiful October day.  We had hope as we drifted by them under this incredible coppice of white pines.

Despite few participants, I can assure you when Bob was rowing, my black and gold Warpath jig fly was swimming deep.  When I was rowing, Bob’s Bill Sherer fly was hunting muskellunge as well.  I’ve been chucking my 9-weight so much this month its hefty line size is hardly noticeable.

Such determination nearly always pays off in fishing.  While sharing funny stories about mutual friends, a speedy young muskie shot up from a deep hole like a missile and grabbed my fly.  While normally muskie are hard to hook, this fella did the work for me and he was on!

Folks often ask, do muskie fight like pike?  My answer is, “Similar.  But they undeniably pull harder.  They have some dirty tricks they use to dodge a net.  And on occasion they jump”.

This small 30 incher did all the above except jump.  Then once in the net he was as calm and cool as a fish could be.  He was hooked right in the lip which led to an easy release.  These fish are beautiful.  I’ve seen them glisten in many different shades of brown and green.  This guy displayed lots of shinny green to go along with a cool stripe and spot pattern.

That would be it for landed fish.  I grabbed on to a small pike.  Bob hooked two strong fish.  The first we never saw but it was probably a musky.  The second was in a definite muskie spot.  We were prepared but before Bob even made his cast, the fish rolled.  It was cool because the tail came completely out of the water and sort of splashed as it slid back in.  I could see that green.  Bob threw a short cast then made two tiny strips, almost more of a wiggle to his fly.  Then the muskie grabbed it.  Bob was tight for only a second before the fish was gone.

After a week of working on all kinds of house projects, a writing assignment, art for several Cliff Boxes, riding the bike and etc., I’m back on one of my “fishathons”.  While tomorrow I’ll be mostly in my office, Tuesday Granny and I head for the Driftless to trout fish for two days with our friend Jason Randall.  We’ll return to Hayward after.  Then on Friday I’ll head for Lake Superior where I’ll spend the weekend fishing with Howie and Mike Neuman.  This will be a fishy fishy week!

It’s the time of year where I should start pedaling some of my products.  As fast as summer passed I’m certain Christmas will be here tomorrow.  The first one I’ll mention are my premium waterproof and fade proof decals.  If I do say so myself, these came out gorgeous.  They are produced by my friend Jeff Ditsworth down in Iowa and he sells them through his website – Pescador on Fly.  Check them out and order a few.  We’ll keep adding species as we move through the fish stock we have.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing