Early morning departures for fishing aren’t so early anymore.  I had an old college buddy, Danny Zilker, swing through Hayward for about 20 hours.  The short visit consisted of a nice dinner with beers at the Anglers Bar last night and today a full day on the water.  We left my house in darkness to meet up with Bob Butler at 5:30 AM sharp.  Two months ago I was leaving at 4:30 and didn’t need my headlights!

I’ve seen Dan a whopping four maybe five times since college graduation in 1987.  Only once was it a fishing trip however it was a good one on Lake Mille Lacs during Covid in 2020.  We both were excited for today and I wanted more than anything to make the fishing memorable for Dan.

To say it was a warm one is an understatement.  Granny and I live without air conditioning and yesterday when I was home working, the inside temperature hit 89°.  Its not fun, but I consider it training for upcoming tropical adventures.  Today, temps were forecasted for even hotter.  The highest I actually read was in Bobs truck on the ride home – 91°.  That’s the hottest day I’ve yet to see in northern Wisconsin since our move here.

Despite the oven-like temperatures, it was a beautiful day on the water.  I in fact can’t think of a better place to be in the heat.  Being able to take a swim in an instant or wade deep to retrieve a fly is a beautiful thing.  Interestingly enough, right in the middle of the dog days of August, we saw some leaves changing for fall at the tips of the silver maple trees.

If you asked me how the smallmouth bass fishing would likely be under such heat, I’d have guessed poor.  But regardless of the extra warm air temps, all the rain and cool weather we’ve experienced through the summer has kept water temps average or cooler than normal.  Our fishing ended up being no less than spectacular.

I kid you not, we boated more smallmouth bass today than any day in my life.  Almost all on top.  The smallies weren’t huge.  Most were in that 10-12 inch range.  But mixed in were plenty of 13-14 inchers and at least four or five like this.

My fly wasn’t a popper but rather a high-riding deer hair concoction.  Lots of my flies are “concoctions” I accumulated from managing a fly shop for over 20 years.  In any case, it did its job and also was the only fly today to attract the toothy ones.  I managed three pike despite not using wire.  And to to top things off, a small musky about 25” joined the fun of destroying my fly, only he managed to bite through my 20lb tippet and steal it.  The good news however, he was able to blow the barbless fly out and I went overboard and retrieved it.  The mangled fly wasn’t looking so good after 25 plus smallies, 3 pike and a dust-up with a musky!

It doesn’t get much better than today folks.  Who would have guessed such a hot day in paradise could be so productive?  But it was.  And I reckon, thanks to the help of Bob, we managed to provide a “memorable” fishing day for Dan.  In fact, I’m not sure Dan will ever be same again.

After today it’s a must to get my girl onto some smallie action before summer is gone.  There’re some big storms in the forecast for the next 24 hours but Wednesday looks good.  I’m certain I can come up with something. . . . .

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing