Only minutes after getting home from a full day of fishing with Granny last night, friend Bob Butler called and simply said, “Have your raft ready. I’ll pick you up at 6. Muskies and smallies. Bye”.
“Cool”, I thought out loud.
Cool because today was a chance to break out our new Striker raft once again. I knew the water would be small and wild being we needed the raft. And cool because I was about to see a new piece of Northwoods water here in Wisconsin. And if that’s not invigorating I don’t know what is.
I was tired from yesterday so going to bed at 9 and up at 5 wasn’t a problem. I even had time to get yesterday’s blog posted before I left the house this morning. Next thing I knew Bob and I were pushing the striker off the remote but well-groomed canoe launch.
Bob has a life of experience rowing rivers and though I planned to take the oars first, he grabbed ahold. No doubt he was dying to see how my raft handled. Bob rowing first was just as well too as he knows this water. Last year he floated here once in his Don Hill and also by kayak. The knowledge showed when he put me on this gorgeous little musky 100 feet from the ramp on the Man Bear Pig. I’ll note that this guy came out of a soft spot no bigger than five square feet surrounded by rapids.
I released the musky and turned to see Bob grabbing his rod. I was on the oars already. Fair enough. We eased our way back to where I stuck my fish then we worked our way down into a big lake like portion of river. Bob had a musky follow early on but that was it. We each got a couple tiny smallies and hammer-handle pike over the next hour.
This river is stunning. The birdlife was fantastic and several deer nonchalantly swam the river as we cast. We entered some shallow riffle water and broke out the smallmouth rods. I went with my Tequeely and Bob had something similar. The smallies were small but our action was nonstop.
The day was mostly cloudy and cool. The wind blew enough to make you work on the oars. We entered another lake-like section of river so we switched back to the musky rods. The weather seemed right.
Sure enough I landed another small musky that leaped and landed in the boat for a second (hope that never happens with a big one!). Then Bob jumped another. The muskies were 25 inchers but they were feeding. These muskies are incredibly attractive with glistening green on the cheeks. And we had a double musky day!
That would be it for the day on the muskellunge action. The river changed into more of a shallow fast moving flow. Less ideal for muskies. The smallmouth fishing on the other hand continued to be no less than unbelievable. Again, they weren’t big but 10-12” smallies are a whole lot of fun.
We wrapped up our day around 3 PM. It was a good one and I’m happy to say Bob likes rowing the new Striker. I’m definitely burning the candle fishing my butt off but I expect to continue. While probably not this weekend, Granny and I plan to get into something fun next week.
A great day!