Wow. I actually went four straight days without fishing. It was no wonder I was driving Granny crazy around the house yesterday to get her stuff together so we could get going. Finally, around 6:30 PM we began the winding drive to one of my favorite fisheries in Wisconsin so we could get an early start today.
The truth is, we purposely left late last evening for our camp. The mosquitoes are so awful at this wilderness location that there’s almost no way you can sit outside. Not even around a smoky fire. Last year we tried on July 11th for our July 12th fishing day but the bugs were beyond brutal. Camping is supposed to be fun and it wasn’t. So this year we arrived at our camp around 9 PM and never left the van.
At 5 AM I stepped outside the van as I brewed my coffee. It was cool out so I thought I was safe – wrong! It was a full on blood donation that sent me running to the van to lather up with deet. Then, once I got that first lick of coffee, we entered the mosquito madness and took the Outcast raft from the van. I’m telling you; I’ve experienced bad mosquitoes all over the world, this place is a top five!
Lucky for us it only takes about 12 minutes total to get the slick two person Striker raft ready for takeoff. Even though we were doused in deet we both wore full raingear. Granny took it a step further and used her new Simms bug-net hat. She loved it.
Once you’re on this great river, as long as you stay in the middle, the bugs back off. You need to hunt down the ones you drag with you but it seems that unless you get close to the bank, you don’t attract more. I rowed and enjoyed my full Yeti of coffee while Granny tossed a musky fly to a few nooks where we’ve seen them before. No luck.
Last year we discovered what an amazing smallmouth bass fishery this river is so we didn’t waste much time on the musky. Plus, its getting warm for musky fishing anyhow (although we’ll talk about the weather in a minute). I tied on a Ben Byng popper on my 6-weight Winston Air 2 Max and Granny worked it along protruding logs, not only on the banks but also mid river. It didn’t take long.
Plain and simple, these are the fattest-strongest fighting smallies I’ve met. Yea, I got worked by a couple of big ones on Lake Superior last week, but these fish, pound for pound put a bend in the rod. This fish Granny is holding may only be 12” but I promise you, it was all Granny could do to keep him clear of about six different logs before finally getting a grip on his bottom lip.
The weather we dealt with today was a bit of a surprise. I guess that’s standard for Wisconsin. We’re learning that as we go. The forecast was for 71° and 5 mph wind. We’ll, when we got up it was 49° and I doubt it ever reached 60° all day. And boy did the wind blow! My girl would get her hands cold releasing a fish, enough that she wanted to row to keep warm. A good deal for me of course. . .
I caught my share of smallies today as well. Every fly I played with landed at least a few. I went from the popper, to a mouse, to a chartreuse and white Clouser, a few Mike Schmidt streamer concoctions and a crayfish fly. The smallmouth bass fishing was incredible.
And I should mention we had some memorable pike eats as well. We caught six pike. One of the pike Granny caught ate her fly with such an alarming explosion as the fly landed it made her jump. I had a pike hit and missed him as I was lifting my fly from the water. I slapped it back down hard. So hard my rod tip went to the water for a split second and the pike grabbed my rod tip!
It was an enjoyable and successful day on a river that means a lot to us. We weren’t sure if the water levels would be too high but went for it. The truth is, this beautiful river was a bit high but we still made it happen.
Those are some awesome healthy bass! The one in the pic might be the best one i have seen!