“Mille Lacs” is French for “1,000 lakes”.  This is a pretty accurate description, since Mille Lacs sprawls over 132,000 acres–about the same size of 1,000 small lakes, and it has been estimated than when it was at its peak in the 80’s that the walleye population was as high as 1,200 per acre, which equated to a walleye population of over 15 MILLION WALLEYES!  Fast forward to the 20-teens, and the population has dwindled to less than a tenth of that number.  No one seems to know for sure who or what is to blame for the decline.  Could it be over-fishing by sport anglers?  Maybe spearing and netting by Native Americans?  Global warming?  Mismanagement by the DNR?  Climate change? Aliens? Invasive species? Terrorists?  I think it may be a combination of all the above. Whatever the situation, there are many thousands of Minnesotans that depend of the Mille Lacs walleye fishery for their income or lifestyle, sometimes both.  And despite the fact that there are plenty of other species of fish to pursue in Mille Lacs–fish like perch, pike, muskies or bass, it is the ‘eyes that get all the attention.

And all eyes are on the DNR when it comes to an announcement of new regs for this lake.  It wasn’t that long ago when the state’s six fish limit was an obtainable goal here.  That six fish limit was changed to four, then two, then none.  Anglers out for the abbreviated ice season this winter were allowed one fish that had to be between 18 and 20 inches.  Guides, resort owners, and other local businesses are all feeling the impact of nobody out fishing the big lake.  Spring will soon be here, and many of us are awaiting what the powers at be of the DNR have in store for this year.   Carl and I met for coffee at The Zebra Mussel Diner in Isle last week, I was eager to get some insider information about the upcoming season.  Or lack thereof.  Carl and I go way back, and I knew I could count on him to bring me up to speed. I recorded our meeting, the conversation went like this:

ME:  So Carl, a lot of folks, both anglers and business owners, are nervous about how the 2016 walleye season on Mille Lacs is going to be regulated.  What can you tell me about new rules and regs for this year?

CARL:  What makes you think I’m going to tell you anything?  My phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from actual journalists.  I’m talking about calls from people like Matt Straw, Terry Tuma, Tim Lesmeister, even Ron Schara.  RON EFFING SCHARA is calling me, and you want the scoop?  You’re buying you know.

ME:  Hey, nice to see you too.  Now you know there is no one better to get the word out than me.  My blog is read by tens of anglers, some of them even claim to like it.  I’m not looking for all the details, just give me the broad strokes, you know, the highlights.  I’m hearing grumblings that there may not even be a walleye season…is that what you want me to tell everyone—that there will be no walleye season on Mille Lacs?  Oh, and your phone is ringing off the hook?  Who has their phone on a hook?

CARL:  Calm down, there absolutely will be a season. [Then there was mumbling I couldn’t understand, sounded like he was questioning my background and education] We have come up with a new plan that is bound to increase participation, increase the walleye population, and increase income and sales for many Minnesota businesses.  After long negotiations with several Minnesota companies, Mille Lacs anglers will be participating in the newest, most progressive concept in fisheries management ever thought of.

ME:  Yeah, progressive…that’s what Minnesota walleye anglers are looking for.  Why don’t you guys just stock more fish?  That seems to be a popular default answer for many of the outspoken ladies and gentlemen I see on TV.

CARL:  We are counting on Minnesota anglers being a little more open minded.  But believe it or not, stocking more fish is part of the plan.  Stocking fry or fingerling sized walleyes has never really shown any results.  But we always knew that if only we could stock the lake with “keeper” sized walleyes, like they do with trout in the streams, there would be an immediate and drastic improvement of the walleye population.  Growing walleyes to keeper size, around 14”, has always been cost prohibitive, so it’s never been done.  Until now.

ME:  Alright, this is starting to sound good.  You will be stocking walleyes, keeper walleyes, and there will be a season.  Will Mille Lacs be open for walleye fishing when the statewide fishing season starts in May?

CARL:  Yes, you will be able to um, go out on Mille Lacs when the season opens May 14.

ME:  That is great news.  What will the bag limit and size limit be?

CARL:  This is where things start to become a little more, uh, unusual…I guess you can say the limit will be five, with no size restrictions.

ME:  Really, five?  It’s been a bunch of years since you could keep five walleyes on Mille Lacs.

CARL:  Well, I never said anything about keeping five walleyes…like I said everyone needs to keep an open mind.  Getting this fishery to rebound will take some time, even with our new exciting plan.  And if the anglers are taking walleyes out at a rate faster than they are putting them in, we will be worse off than before.  The limit will be five, but you won’t be able to keep any.

ME:  So it will be what—a catch and release season where you are only allowed to catch and release five?

CARL:  Not quite.  Our statistics show that catch and release fishing, while seemingly without impact, will be too harmful to the population. We tried to come up with a plan that would allow fishing with barbless hooks, and even though our chief consultant Phillip Washington made some convincing points as to how a barbless catch and release season would work, we ultimately decided that anglers would not be able to figure it out, so we came up with something that will be fun for the anglers and still have no impact on the fishery.

ME:  So we can’t keep any fish, can’t even catch and release fish—what can we do?

CARL:  Underwater cameras have become very popular, and we decided that it would be best if anglers only viewed the walleyes with a camera, thereby eliminating all contact with the fish.  Of course, you would be free to make video recordings of the fish you see so you can enjoy them later, or even share the clips with friends on YouTube or Facebook.  Just make sure that once you have viewed five walleyes, you quit.  The limit for this season is five walleyes, any size, but they can only be seen, not caught.  DNR enforcement will be checking the recordings on your SD cards, so make sure you don’t go over your limit.

ME:  This started out sounding so good, but now that I’ve heard all the details, this sounds like a disaster.  Won’t all those “keeper-size” walleyes you guys are stocking help out right away?

CARL:  You missed one detail.  I said keeper walleyes were going to be stocked, but not by us—it is just too cost prohibitive.  It costs about $22 to grow a walleye to 14” and stock it in a lake, and we just don’t have the budget for it.  The walleyes will be stocked by all of you—the Mille Lacs anglers.  In fact it will be required that in order to fish on the Big Lake, you must bring one [or more] live walleye from a registered vendor, and release it into the lake before you launch your boat.

ME:  [blank stare]

CARL:  I’m sure you are wondering where the registered walleye vendors will be located—we have arranged for walleye vending machines to be installed at several popular bait shops surrounding the lake, and they all take credit cards.

ME: [blank stare]

CARL:  The walleye vending machines work like this—swipe your card, select the number of walleyes you want to purchase, hold your five gallon bucket under the chute, and pull the lever—instant walleye in the bucket.  Are you OK?  You’re not having a stroke or something are you?

ME:  Oh sorry, no, that just caught me by surprise, all these regs…I was thinking I would have good news for my readers, but now…well, I’m not sure what the average angler will think of this.

CARL:  I said these new regs would be progressive.  There have actually been similar plans used in Europe.

ME:  [blank stare]

CARL:  Quit doing that, it’s freaking me out.  And a blank stare can’t be heard on your little recorder.

ME:  Alright.  So for review, there will be a season, but in that season we can’t keep any walleyes.  And during that season, we can’t actually fish for walleyes, at least not with hook and line. But we can look at them on a camera, but we are only allowed to see five a day.  And we have to bring a live walleye, one we paid for, and stock it into the lake before we can launch a boat.  So the bag limit is actually negative one.

CARL:  You got it.  We think it is going to be popular.  J.C. Munchall from Nanook Underwater Cameras has already predicted record sales of their Mille Lacs Special camera—it has built in recording and has software that will calculate the length of the walleye on camera.  A software update scheduled for release this spring will also calculate the weight.  We may as well embrace the digital age.  Walleyes Unlimited have already scheduled a “Camera Only” tournament for June, and this event could get national coverage.  Now even vegans can participate in fishing tournaments!

ME: I think these new regs will be met with…resistance.  You know these fishermen will want to have some fish to bring home once in a while.  Or do you expect all the anglers on the lake to also turn vegan?

CARL:  We have thought of that, and we want everyone to be able to have a fish fry. Whenever an angler purchases a live walleye for stocking, he will get a coupon for 20 percent off of frozen tilapia fillets at any participating grocer.  Did you know tilapia are farm raised?  Eat all you want—they’ll make more!

ME:  I’m starting to hate you.  Let’s change topics…what about the muskie management of Mille Lacs, you have to admit this fishery is very popular, and continues to bring tourism to the area. It’s one of the only things still good about the lake.

CARL:  We are absolutely going to continue with the muskie program, with a few changes.  The muskies have done well in Mille Lacs, maybe too well.  There have just gotten to be too many big muskies in the lake—did you hear about the guy that caught a fifty pounder on a fly rod?  On a goddam effing fly rod!  If there are so many big muskies in the lake that even fly fishermen can catch them, it is definitely time to scale back. We are going to revert back to stocking “Shoepack” strain muskies.  They are native to Minnesota, but rarely get bigger than ten pounds.  We feel it is a much safer choice for the lake than the giant Leech Lake strain currently in there.

ME:  I’m glad you guys aren’t in charge of anywhere I regularly fish.

CARL:  Oh, and where do you fish nowadays?   ME:  You know, the usual spots like the Miss…..uh I mean…uh, Devils Lake North Dakota, yeah that’s it.  That’s where I fish now.  Devils Lake.  Now what about the smallmouth.  You have to admit that Mille Lacs is truly a world class smallmouth fishery.  I know lots of people, myself included, that have caught smallies six pounds or bigger here.  The Bassmasters are even coming here this summer for a big tournament.  Tell me you’re not going to mess with the smallmouth.

CARL:  Yeah, we’re going go ahead and do away with all smallmouth regulations.  Starting this year there will be no closed season, no size limit, and no bag limit.  It turns out all the Iowans that come up here like to eat them, and they do spend a lot of money at the casinos.  And they can’t tell the difference between a rock bass and a smallmouth, so rather than making things more confusing for them, we simplified it.

ME:  We’re done here. Check please!

 Suddenly the room started getting wavy and spinny, a doodly-doo doodly-doo doodly-do sound filled my ears…

And then I woke up in a cold sweat…it was all just a dream!

It seems like I’ve got it in my head that 2015 was a terrible fishing year for me.  As a dad, a homeowner, a landlord, an employee, and an actual grownup, I sure don’t have the time to get out like I used to.  Although part of that is that I don’t NEED to catch fish like I used to.  What the heck, Wisconsin trout season just opened, and I haven’t even considered going, and probably won’t for at least a month.  The fact that favorite trout stream went to crap doesn’t help, but more on that later.

And for someone who doesn’t “fish that much anymore”, I sure do fish a lot.  I was explaining to an old friend, “It’s frustrating to not get out much anymore.  I only made it out one night last week, and only one half day on the weekend.  I did go on a short trip out of town the weekend before that, but otherwise…”  Now I notice my friend has a WTF look on his face that says “You still fish more than anyone I know”.

Fish smarter, not harder might be my mantra now.  I don’t do a lot of exploratory stuff anymore, and really try to focus on what I can depend on.  But I somehow still manage to add some new spots to the lineup, which is good because some old favorites have been way off.  The more you fish, the easier it is to stay on them, and its easier to decide when to make a move if you have plenty of spots to make a move to.

Here’s where we launched for smallies one fine day this fall, based on a tip from a friend.  It was a good tip.

My fishing season usually kicks off in early March, chasing trout on favorite Wisco streams.  It’s no secret now that the trout numbers are WAY down, populations have suffered from a few long cold winters and some big floods.  Last opener I managed only a few fish on my first trips, but one was a full sized 20” brown.

Next on the itinerary was a trip to Sanibel/Captiva, one of my favorite places. Besides going out with a guide one day and renting a boat one day,I got out at dawn a few mornings to harass the snook and stuff that live there and ended up having good fishing each time, and one morning was really great—seriously one of the best fishing sessions I’ve ever had ever.  Some big snook, a redfish that was ridiculous, and I didn’t get eaten or even gnawed on by a shark or alligator.  A manatee came up so close to me that I was able to poke it with just the tip section of a 3 piece fly rod.

I kept my parking receipts from each morning, the time shown was how long my parking was good for.

May saw the beginning of the end of a favorite bass lake—Little Falls Lake was drained last year. I got in one last session there in the float tube.  It looks likely to me that the dam will be rebuilt and the lake will fill back in, but I have to believe it will be 10 years or more before the fishing comes back to what it once was.

Summer means smallmouth on the Mississippi, but for reasons I’m unsure of, this was not fishing well this year either, at least not in the Monti stretch.   There were fish to be caught for sure, but you had to work for them.  A big catfish was my most memorable catch from there this year.

I did take the girls on a camping/fishing trip later in the summer, we had a fine time in the Royalton section.  We’re looking forward to doing it again this year.

Savannah is my partner is a series of bass tournaments each summer.  When started this two years ago I made it clear that we didn’t have to win…but we definitely don’t want to lose!  The first year we did pretty good, always came in with a nice bag and were even in the money once.  This past year, ugh.  I’m not sure what happened but we just couldn’t get it together.  This year will be better, I just have to convince Savannah that bass can be caught in places other than under docks.

Here is Savannah weighing in our bag at South Center Lake.

One perk of working in the fishing business is that once in a while you can actually be on the clock while fishing, usually under the guise of product testing, team building, or some other BS.  One such day I was testing out some new equipment for my company on White Bear Lake.  When I had done all the testing that was needed I found I still had an hour before I needed to be anywhere.  It was hot and sunny and calm, not ideal fishing weather, but I somehow ended up with a full-sized muskie on the line in less than ten casts.  I also got a phone call that day that was a job offer, and it is with this new company that I am presently employed.  So to summarize this day– 1.  Got paid to be out on the water.  2.  Caught a big muskie.   3.  Got offered a new job.  I guess this was a good day.

There were other fish, there were great times spent on the water with family and friends.  Agates and mushrooms were found.  Fish were kept and eaten.  There were sunrises and sunsets, campfires, canoes, kayaks, seashells, loons, lady slippers, waterfalls, rivers, streams, and lakes.  I wanted to just mention a couple of highlights, I find myself wanting to add to what I’ve already got here.  Now that I really look back, there may have been somewhat of a shortage of fish that were caught, but there were as many good memories as a person could ask for.

One friend tells me I am definitely living the dream.  He may be right–I have a great wife, two kids, two boats, a house, a job, and I do get to fish a fair amount.

Here’s to 2016, which I see is the year of the monkey.  There must be a joke here somewhere, but much like a school of 4 lb. largemouth, I just can’t seem to find it.

Like most parents, I want my kids to like what I like, and if I bribe them to play along, does that make me a bad parent?  If so, better get CPS on the phone, because a day of fishing with dad is likely to end with a stop for ice cream.  But a camping trip was going to need an extra special level of bribery.

As it turns out, Savannah did go on a camping trip with me two summers ago.  It was touch and go for a while when a seriously bad storm rolled through our campsite on the shores of a remote lake.  It really was bad, but we made it through it OK, just a little soggy.  Savannah still gets nervous thinking about that storm.  On our way home, we stopped in Royalton at one of Minnesota’s best known tourist traps and I let her pick something off their crowded shelves of treasures.

We drive by this store every time we go to Grandma’s house, and Savannah will generally remind Skylar of how she got to stop there, how great it was inside there, and don’t you wish you could go there.  So my bait to get them to go camping included a stop at Treasure City.  It so happens that there is a nice campground on the river right there, so plans were made, and on a fine July morning we pulled into the Sportsman’s Club Campground.

Since this was midweek, I wasn’t too surprised to find a lot of empty campsites, so we chose a site right on the river near the boat launch.  A nice breeze coming off the river assured the mosquitos would stay away, and we had our tent set up in ten minutes.

My camping gear consists of a tent, sleeping bag, a lantern, a folding chair, and an axe, so I’m faring a little better than the folks on “Naked and Afraid”.  I don’t have any camp cooking stuff, most of what cook in camp involves either aluminum foil or a stick.  Hot dogs are far from being a favorite food, but I like to keep it simple, less time cooking = less time cleaning = more time doing other stuff, like fishing or relaxing around a campfire.

So camp is set, boat is launched, and we’re now heading upriver.  This is a section of the Mississippi I had only been on once before, my memory of it was good fishing, but shallow and pretty treacherous for a prop boat.  The other time I was here I ended up having to walk the boat up through a particularly shallow stretch around some islands, and after studying the area on Google Earth I decided that a different channel would allow for easier passage.  Wrong.  I have often been in the predicament of trying to get through too-shallow water, when faced with this I will have my boat partner get all the way up to the bow—this will raise the transom up, giving a little more clearance.  On this trip my boat partners weigh about a hundred pounds between them, so not much help there.  Ended up having to walk the boat up though about 100 yards of knee deep water again, and dinged my prop a few times when I was trying to push my luck.  They did offer words of encouragement as I muled the Jon boat up through the shallow riffle.                   

Besides catching smallmouth, we have one other activity:  this section of the Mississippi is one of a few places on the entire earth where a special kind of stone called a “staurolite” is found.  These are also called “Fairy Stones” or “Fairy Crosses” and you can bet I talked these up to the girls who are all about anything that has to do with fairies.  A perfect fairy stone [I’ve only seen pictures of a perfect one] looks somewhat like a Maltese cross. It’s no secret where to find these stones, and as we approached the area I had learned about I could see there were several people in the area, stooped over and intently studying the gravel.  I’m no geologist, but I couldn’t imagine why the stones would only be found on one side of the river, and since we had a boat we went straight across from the publicized spot.  We found plenty of stones, but I think that finding a fairy stone that looks anything like an actual cross is pretty rare. Our best fairy stones are pretty boring looking at a glance, but it is interesting how they have a diamond cross-section. We also found some nice mica pieces. 

Once our rock hunt was over it was time to fish.  We alternated between drifting and anchoring, and while the fishing wasn’t red hot, the girls each got a few fish.  I had come up with a points system where various fish captured would equal dollars to spend at Treasure City.  This did cause argument over who got to watch the night crawler rod while anchored, as the crawler was likely to produce fish other than smallmouth.  We spent an hour anchored at one spot where smallies were aggressively feeding on damselflies.  I have seen this a few times before on my home water, and usually have a few damsel fly patterns on board just in case.  I took them out last week while consolidating fly boxes, so we just went through the tackle box, trying this and that.  The biggest smallmouth ate a crawler, but most memorable was one Skylar caught on a crankbait she picked out of her tackle box.  It was the first time she caught a bass on a lure where she made the cast and set the hook herself, and it while it wasn’t very big, I’ve never been more proud.

As the sun got a little lower, the action picked up, but the girls were a little spent.  I fished some likely looking shorelines myself and put on a mini-clinic on how to catch smallies on soft plastics—caught about 5 fish and missed a few others before we had drifted back to camp.

When we got back to the ramp we met a gal who was about 3 weeks into a Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico kayak trip.  She had the world’s smallest tent, but seemed to have everything she needed, including a pink flamingo for a mascot.  She looked just like someone I had met a few years ago doing the same thing, but when asked she replied “No one would do this twice!” A solar panel on the kayak kept her computer and phone charged.  The strange thing to me was that she is from California, and I didn’t get the vibe she had even been to Minnesota before.

Here she is just before I gave her a shove and on her way down stream

Our dinner that night was Easy Mac [turned out horrible, turns out you need a microwave for this kind of mac and cheese] and hot dogs.  I had foil and butter with in case a walleye or pike was foolish enough to end up in the boat, but our species this day included smallmouth bass, channel catfish, and redhorse sucker.  Skylar still can’t quite figure out why we eat some kinds of fish but not others.  After our nutritious dinner it was time for a Minnesota campfire classic– s’mores—I even ate one.  Finally the fire died down and it was time to turn in.  We soon found that a huge emergence of stoneflies was going on, and they were EVERYWHERE, including in the tent.  All of my explanations of how harmless they were fell on deaf ears, and the girls would not rest until all had met their demise by flip flop.  After my stories of sasquatches in these parts on the way up, it was decided that the safest place in the tent in the event of an attack would be in the middle.  Savannah [of course] claimed this spot for herself, and the girls watched a movie on their DVD player.  The night was uneventful, no sasquatches, no yetis, not even a woodchuck.

The following morning was the kind of morning we all hope for—a bit cool, but sunny and glorious in all ways.  The girls were delighted that I had hot chocolate fixins, so I made a batch and got the fire going again.  To keep the nutrition and chocolate theme going they had Cocoa Puffs for breakfast.  I made them wash the few dishes we had while I broke camp, and then it was time to get back on the water.  I backed the boat down to the ramp to let some water drain out, and a guy who was part of a party that had just launched a driftboat commented on how much water was coming out of my boat.  “Well this boat has seen a lot of use and yeah, it has a slow leak, and because of how I had it parked last night the water didn’t drain out yadda yadda…and it’s only a couple gallons yadda yadda…” was my response.  So I launch and tie up to the dock.  Then I notice that the driftboat that the three guys had just launched was about half full of water.  I pointed this out to the guy who had been so nice to point out how much water came out of my boat, and suggested he put the plug in.  Well it wasn’t his boat, it belonged to one of the guys doing the shuttle, and he didn’t know where the plug was, and the yeti cooler on the dock wasn’t going to be much help for bailing.  I had a spare drain plug, figured out where it went and grabbed a couple of buckets and we had it mostly bailed out in a few minutes.

By now, my girls were on the dock watching the show.  We all got aboard, shoved off and wished the guy good luck.  We headed off upriver to where we had caught fish the day before.  It was mostly a repeat of the day before, no crazy fast action, but enough to keep everyone interested.  They had a double header on at one point, the smallie Savannah had on was the biggest of the trip but it got away just as it got to the boat.  Skylar caught one that ate an errant cast that landed 5 five feet from the transom while we were anchored in pretty swift current.

Note the custom pink worm Beetle Spin thing we put together that it ate

I even broke out the fly rod and managed to get one on a craw pattern.

We were in the home stretch, maybe a half mile from the ramp.  The water was pretty clear, and I could see the bottom pretty well in five feet of water.  When the conditions are like this I enjoy drifting along, spotting different fish.  I was seeing a lot of fish that at first I thought were big redhorse, but I soon realized they were mostly catfish, and big ones at that.  There must have been 50 in one short section, most looked to be 5 to 10 lbs.  We were out of bait by this time, or we would have anchored up and exercised a few kitties.  Next time.

Back at the ramp I pulled the boat up on the gravel and told the girls they should make some casts just below the access, as I had spotted a couple smallies there the day before.  When I got to my vehicle, my buckets and drain plug were waiting for me, along with ten bucks—that was a nice gesture.  I pulled the boat out, and after I had it strapped down I went to check on the girls.  They were still casting, but hadn’t quite made it to the best spot, an area where there was a nice rock pile about 30 feet from shore.  I had a great vantage from up on the high bank, and when I walked just a bit downstream, sure enough, there was a nice smallie patrolling the rocks, on the hunt for a well-placed Beetle Spin.  I was just about to call the girls to the area when I spotted another fish out there—a muskie!  Looked to be in the low 30” range, and would be sure provide a large amount of excitement if it was at the end of a little girl’s line.  I had them take turns casting at it, they tried a Rapala and a wacky worm, but no luck, that muskie was having none of it and left for calmer waters.  Then Skylar had a smallie nose right up to her wacky worm, I said “leave it…leave it…now give it a little twitch!” and she proceeded to jerk it about 4 feet, and Mr. Smallmouth went the same direction the muskie went.

You can’t see it, but there is a muskie 30 feet in front of Skylar

So now we were left with only one more thing to do—the promised stop at Treasure City.  With all their fish they had each accrued $12 to spend, and they managed to spend most of it on knick-knacks.  If you’ve never been there, it really does deserve a stop, the amount of crap they have crammed in there is impressive. Less than two hours later we were home again, already making plans for next year.

I’m not 100% sure what has caused to uptick in the interest in chasing muskies with the fly rod [those guys in Northern Wisconsin run a great program and probably have A LOT to do with it].  But despite what social media postings may lead you to believe [hardly a day will pass this summer without a fly-caught muskie showing up on Facebook], catching a muskie on a fly is still one of the biggest challenges to fly rodders. No matter where you decide to flail, a typical day of fly casting for muskies involves many hours of flogging the waters with the heaviest fly rod you own, casting a fly the size of a squirrel.  At some point during the day a muskie will eat your fly, at which point you will probably be so surprised that you will either not react at all, or worse yet, raise your rod tip in a trout-style hook set.  Both of these are likely to result in bad words and no pictures.  Spending time on high percentage waters, like the fine rivers of northern Wisconsin will up the odds that you will get multiple shots per outing.

But did you know that there are high percentage waters right here in the Twin Cities?  It’s true, there are over a dozen lakes right here in the Metro that have strong, fishable populations of muskies. Lakes like Independence, Eagle, White Bear, Forest—these all have muskies— with good numbers AND size.  Every one of these lakes has produced many fish over 50 inches, and these fisheries compare favorably with any other muskie water anywhere.

Here  is a typical metro area muskie, this one ate a popper

There is lots more to muskie fishing than just catching fish, and if you are thinking of planning a muskie trip to the North Woods you should do so.  To smell the pines and the fresh air, to hear the loons but not the cars, to take in a North Country Sunset, these are all things you should do at least once a year.

But if you want to get a primer or a refresher course on muskie fishing, perhaps you want to see if you are up the many hours of flogging with the big rod, maybe you want to get tuned up for your big trip, here is what I am offering:  From now through ice up, muskies are available to flyrodders on several of my favorite lakes, and you and a friend can get in on the action for only $250!  This is a weeknight venture, I will meet you and your partner [you can fish alone, too] at a local lake at 5:00 and we will fish until dark.  All tackle will be provided, you just need to show up with a can-do attitude, and let me put you on the fish.  I have my favorite lakes, where we will fish will depend on conditions and where you are coming from.  It is likely that the boat launch will be 30 minutes or less from where you live or work.

I didn’t say it would be easy, but it is totally doable, and it is likely that we’ll have some good chances at muskies, and probably catch a few bass and pike along the way.  You’ll learn the water, learn the techniques, and be in great shape for your next adventure.

While I am promoting this primarily to fly rodders, anglers with all types of gear are welcome.  If you want to fly fish but want to split the trip with someone using gear, that’s just fine.  [Don’t worry, the guy with the fly rod will always get the front of the boat!]

Here is me with a bigger than average one from a favorite lake.  I didn’t measure it, let’s call it 49 3/4″.  You can see the tail of the fly in its mouth.

This is the fly I caught it on, I tied it in 5 minutes before I left to go fishing

These are more typical of what I use, not too big, but they move plenty of water.  Easy to cast on a 10 weight and the fish like to eat them !

MUSKIE FISHING WITH A FLY “TOP TEN LIST”

1.Fish water with a good population of fish

2.Fish when the conditions are right–wind is bad-bad for casting, boat control, and line management. Low light periods are key, especially during summer.  My perfect muskie fishing day would be light wind, overcast, maybe a little light rain.

3.Have the right equipment, a 10 weight rod [or heavier] with a line to match.

4.Use a short, heavy leader with wire bite tippet.

5.Strip the fly to within a few feet of your rod tip EVERY cast, watching for following fish.

6.Be an efficient caster [can you make a 50′ cast with one back cast?]

7.Use a big fly with a big sharp hook [at least a 4/0 or 5/0].  But don’t over do it–if your fly is too big, casting stops being fun

8.When a fish eats your fly, set the hook with a “strip set”.

9.Have good boat control.

10.Have realistic expectations–casting all day for one or two “eats” is standard.

There is a special place not far from here, known by many as Willow River State Park.

Before I had ever been there, I knew it as Middle Dam.   My grandpa was a retired teacher who fished a lot, and often talked of this place.  Surprisingly, for how much he fished, he never once set foot in a boat.  His fishing haunts were comprised of various locations in western Wisconsin, mostly in the Hudson/River Falls/ Somerset area.  For a shore fisherman, it is hard to do better than this area, there is a multitude of streams, rivers and lakes offering access to good fishing for the boat impaired. 

Grandpa lived in the Twin Cities, and I would spend much of my summers at his house, and we would travel to the various Wisconsin haunts on many summer days.   On the trips there and back he would often tell tales of fishing with his son or with some of his students, many of the stories I had heard so many times I think I knew them better than him.  One common theme from these old stories was fishing at a mythical place called “Middle Dam”.  Based on the info from these stories [these stories mostly took place in the 60’s], Middle Dam had populations of fish beyond what a ten year old could comprehend.  I imagined what a mecca this fantastical place must have been, where giant largemouth would fight over a carefully placed Lazy Ike, where big sunfish boiled the water, where you could easily fill a bucket with crappies the size of plates.  “Twenty years ago, Jim and I were at Middle Dam…” was typical to how these stories would begin.  The stories would end with limits of bass or crappies that they gave to friends and neighbors.

This must have been a slow day, there’s only one fish on the stringer!  This is a rare photo of my Grandpa, R.J. Happe, known by most as Phred

This must have been a slow day--there's only one on the stringer

“Why don’t we go to Middle Dam?” I’m sure I asked him this many times.  The story went that the land around Middle Dam was sold to the State [around 1970], and they had made it into a State Park.  Now, there was an admission fee, and why pay to fish there when we have lots of places we can fish for free.  Grandpa was not cheap by any means, but frugal?—absolutely.  We would often drive past the signs on the highway for Willow River State Park, “That’s what they turned Middle Dam into”, Grandpa would remark.

I was dropped off at his house one summer afternoon and he showed me his haul of big sunfish and crappies from the day, just before he cleaned them.  I asked where he caught them.  I could not have been more surprised when he replied “Middle Dam”.  I sure that answer was followed by volley of questions from me, certainly culminating in “WHEN ARE WE GOING”?!

Turns out that the admission wasn’t really all that much, and now that he had someone else to entertain [me] it was time to revisit this old favorite spot.  I’m sure that night that sleep did not come easy as I envisioned what this place must look like.

As it turns out, the fishing there was pretty good.  Not necessarily much better than other places we fished, but good, and I think that part of the reason that I am who I am is because of this place.  There are too many memories to begin to list, but a few come to mind right away.  Besides the fishing, there was abundant wildlife to be seen.  In those days, deer were not near as common as they are today, and we were often treated to a deer sighting on the way in.  The variety of songbirds there is unmatched, and the only time I ever saw a green snake was here. 

Once I was casting a spoon right off the boat launch, looking for a northern.  I hooked a fish, which I soon saw was a largemouth that was about a foot long.  I was close to getting my fish in when out of nowhere a GIANT largemouth appeared, and tried to eat the foot long bass on my line!  My first reaction was to free spool the smaller bass in hopes that the giant would successfully eat it.  Well, I never saw the giant again, and I stood at that spot for the next two hours casting every lure I had with me.  At the time, I was sure that the big bass was ten pounds or more.  In retrospect, probably not ten pounds, but I bet it was at least eight.

In the spring, we would wade out in the area between the boat launch and the campground, fly rods in hand, creels on our shoulders.  The number and size of panfish in those days was crazy, and we would literally fill our creels with them.  There would be times when big dark colored caddisflies would hatch, and I wore the paint off more than one cork popper on the big sunnies and crappies on these days.  The Herter’s fly rod I used in those days would get a great workout.

We would fish in the big pool immediately below the dam as well, this area was known for having smallmouth bass as well as the other fish found in the lake above.  We were catching sunfish on our fly rods one day.  I decided to explore a bit, and checked out a small pool a bit downstream.  I can still picture the small, black fly I had tied on, it was pretty tattered after having already tricked a bunch of sunfish.  I let the black fly swing thought this small pool, and was soon hooked up to a WHAT?  It was a trout, not only a trout, but a RAINBOW trout, the likes of which I had not caught before.  How exotic, it was like I was in Montana!  We had caught many brown trout before, and a few brook trout, but never a rainbow.  [Sidebar, although we regularly fished trout on the Kinni and Rush, we hadn’t paid much attention to the trout in the Willow River, even though from the dam down it is a trout stream].  I was eager to show my grandpa, but decided instead to put the trout in my creel and try a couple more casts.  Soon, there were two rainbow trout in my creel, and I couldn’t wait any more to show him.  From that day forward, the Willow River became a place we regularly fished for trout. 

In later years, I started fishing there with friends, and I even stayed at the campground a few times.  Once we were camped near the lake, and we kept our minnow bucket in the water.  We went down in the dark to retrieve our bait to find a skunk trying to get the minnow bucket open!  I threw rocks to scare the skunk away while my friends hid behind a tree.  On another occasion I was camping there with one of my sisters.  I foolishly left our cooler overnight on the picnic table.  We woke to find that raccoons had opened our cooler and took everything they could carry.  There was a trail of hostess wrappers going off into the woods, and grubby paw prints on the milk carton still in the cooler.

I fished there with friends, sometimes with a rowboat [this lake has always had a no motors policy], but mostly from a float tube.  Many a May day was spent flippering around the quiet lake, casting at the shoreline.  Some days the fishing was good, some days it was great.  Everyone that I know who fishes this lake regularly has caught their biggest bass there, and when it was “on” you could bet on at least one pushing 5 pounds. 

This is the biggest largemouth I’ve ever caught, Little Falls Lake in 1991

We fished there enough to have names for certain spots—“Bonsai Tree”, “Turtle Bay”, “Takeout Point” and more.  Some of my friends still fish there regularly, but I don’t make it there too often any more.  I have two actual boats to use, and sitting in 60 degree water in an inner tube for hours is a little tougher than it used to be. 

And while it has been a few years since I have been there, I will make it a point to float my tube there this May, as it appears that Little Falls Lake is about to be no more.  The dam that creates the lake is approaching the century mark, and it is likely that it will be condemned.  A complete drawdown of the lake is scheduled for this summer so the dam may be inspected.   It appears as though the present dam cannot be repaired and will be removed, and the building of a new dam is unlikely.  Even if it was rebuilt, it would be a decade or more before the lake came back, and I’m not sure if it would ever be the same. 

I have said many times that dams are bad.  They do create lakes where there were none, and allow for flood control and can be used to generate power.  They make great fishing spots. But at the same time they are ugly and prevent fish movements, and remove habitat for native species.  When this dam is gone there will be a mile of trout stream left in its place.  When you think about it, there are far more places around here where you can catch a bass than where you can catch a trout, so that might be a silver lining.  And there will still be a State Park there, with trails and wildlife. And don’t forget that in the past two decades two other dams have been removed on the Willow River for similar reasons, so this should come as no surprise.

Note how in this picture from 1963 that you can see what rough shape the dam was in even then.  It has been repaired at least a couple of time since then.  This is another rare photo of my Grandpa, R.J. Happe, known by most as Phred

Have no doubt that I really do wish they could figure a way to leave this one in place– strengthen it, rebuild it, something.  Looks like it will be gone though, and Little Falls Lake will join my list of fishing places that were once good, and now are no more.  Rather than think back on these places with sadness, I prefer to reflect with more of a fondness for the good memories, just glad that I was able to be there when it was good, always on the lookout for a new place to make memories.

I got a half dozen or so on it, and it definitely out produced a couple of different craw patterns I tried. I was using an eight weight rod with a sink tip line, and a short heavy leader with a 10 lb. tippet.  When using a sink tip line on The River, realize and keep in mind that you are not trying to catch fish that are on the bank.  And I think it is safe to say that if you have busted out the sink tip,  that you have already been beating the bank without much success.  When fishing a popper or diver, yeah you want it right up there, but when using a subsurface fly, especially with a sink tip, do what you can to keep the fly in a deeper zone.  When using a sink tip, my boat is often in about five feet of water, and I cast up to about two or three feet. Trying to land your weighted fly on the bank will result in many, many snags. You will lose flies no matter what, but pay attention, and try to visualize where your fly is at all times to minimize snags and down time spent re-rigging.  Not the most fun way to fish, but when the bite is slow this can always be counted on to produce. Not just smallies, either—walleyes, channel cats, pike and carp are all willing players as well.

Here’s a video of a couple of the fish from the other day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykPQ35cNamM&feature=youtu.be

I have since added to my fleet and I do have a bigger boat in addition to my jon boat.  These days the big boat gets the most time on the water.  And the fact that for three summers in a row we have come into smallmouth season with crazy high water on the Mississippi hasn’t helped.  It brought me great pleasure to roll the Green Monster out of the garage the other day, but at the same time saddened me at how much dust had settled on the rods that live in there and the motor since it was parked last fall.  I moved the boat out into the yard, hooked the hose up to the lower unit on  the trusty 30 Yamaha, and hoped for similar results to every other time I went to start this motor.  I was not disappointed as it fired on the third pull.  I let it run for a few minutes while I rigged rods for the next day’s fun and games.

I have guide trips starting this week, and while I have fished on the Mississippi enough to know where the fish are likely to be depending upon the season and water flow, it is always nice to get a feel for the river.  With all of the family outings and tournaments this year, I hadn’t had much “fun fishing” this year.  It wasn’t until I was about halfway to the access that it sunk in that within 30 minutes I would be on one of my favorite bodies of water to fish.  Big Grin!

The River was still flowing high, but was at a manageable level, and soon I was buzzing upstream.  I decided to start on a favorite bank that is favorable in high water—the current is a bit lighter here, but there is lots of nice cover for the brown bass to wait in ambush.

I’m considered weird by many for a variety of reasons.  One of which is that while I’m known for being an avid fly rod angler, and there is no way I would rather catch smallies [or most other fish for that matter], I will be the first one to grab a spinning or casting rod when conditions aren’t just right for flycasting.  The world of fishing is divided pretty strongly on this—either you fly fish, or you don’t.  It turns out that I also really like pitching a jig and craw around fallen trees, I also like twitching soft plastic jerkbaits in more open water.  I’ll even cast spinnerbaits and crankbaits [sidebar–there is no better way to catch river smallies than on crankbaits] but fishing “chunk and reel” baits like these does get a little boring.  I believe that my rod count on Sunday had 6 baitcasting rods, two fly rods, and one spinning rod with.  I know that I used them all for at least a few casts.  Remember—flycasting is my favorite, and I’m pretty good with the long rod.  But when I’m out alone, controlling the boat in the wind and current, well sometimes flycasting stops being fun.

Pitching a jig and craw to fallen trees, in stream rocks and current seams requires a different skill set than other types of fishing, it takes some elements of largemouth bass fishing [pitching jigs to cover with accuracy] and combines them with drift fishing for steelhead [keeping track of your lure in the current, detecting bites].  You also must deliver a rock and roll hookset, which I also enjoy.  It can be fun to come up with a shout-out for every time you set the hook… like “BOOYAH!” or “SHOW ME THE MONEY” or maybe a Serena Williams style grunt.

Anyway, even though I got to the river at the crack of 11, the fishing was still pretty decent, probably landed about ten, mostly on jig/craw, a couple on flies, couple on a soft plastic jerkbait, and the rest on a crankbait.  I left plenty for my customers later this week.

I compiled some video clips into a short “best of” movie, check it out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwbRbltK2b4

The big fish of the day got away, and for unknown technical reasons the ones I caught on a fly rod didn’t get saved to video, but it still turned out pretty good.  As the water gets a little lower, the fly action will just get better and better.

I was on the section called “Pool 4”, this is the area from around Wabasha up to Red Wing.  I went down there for a change of pace, and while on an exploratory trip you can’t really expect the fishing to be great, I had gleaned some intel from a friend to get me started.  And I have been on this section before, but it was about 15 years ago and in the spring.

I was hoping to get into some walleyes, but was open to catching anything.  Turns out we caught a little of everything, except for walleyes.  Put a smallmouth guy on a body of water with smallies in it, and well I guess I just gravitate to any water that has a smallie look to it.

Smallies were caught, as were largemouth, black crappie, white crappie, white bass, bluegill, pike, sauger, and sheephead.  We mostly fished around the many wing dams in the area, and most fish were on the top or front side of the wing dam.  What was the biggest surprise were the bluegills–they were big [9″ers], and they were hanging in surprisingly strong current.  The bluegills were caught on bait, but most everything else was on jig/plastic or crankbaits.

Smallies were all sizes, from tiny to big– Sarah had top honors with a 19 1/2″ that ate a white Moxie.  This one ate during the middle of white bass clinic she was putting on–right in front of the oldest city in Minnesota–Read’s Landing.

Fishing in the shadows of the big bluffs was a cool change of pace, and although I can’t say I prefer it to my home water on the Upper Mississippi, I know I will be back next year.

Our plans for a campfire were ruined by a small, but very violent thunderstorm that moved in and dumped about two inches of rain in 15 minutes.  The tent shook, partly caved in from wind, and started to leak!  Remember, Savannah had never been camping before. She was pretty scared, but she hung in there OK.  Even though it was probably the worst weather I’ve ever experienced while camping, we managed to come out of the ordeal unscathed, with just a few damp things, and were treated to a rainbow as a reward for putting up with the storm.

The next day found us doing some lake hopping.  The first lake  we tried was not giving up much, just a few small bass and sunfish, so we put it back on the trailer.  I called my friend Dan Craven for advice as to where we could find some good panfish.  Dan has fished and guided in the area for many years, and is truly an authority on the waters around here.  On his suggestion, I headed south to a lake I was not aware of, and once on the lake I easily found the small point of cabbage weeds Dan had described.  Savannah and I were both rigged up with small jigs, mine had been in the water for about two seconds before my light spinning rod was doubled over.  The fish felt heavy, and when the line started doing circles, I knew we were into the gills.  This one turned out to be the biggest at around 9″, but we had no problem catching all we needed for a shore lunch, and releasing many more.  We also caught one rogue 12″ crappie and a bunch of small bass, all while anchored on one weed point in about an hour.  I can’t wait to go back!

We left the lake and pulled into a picnic area/park in a small town, Savannah made friends with some local girls while I cleaned and fried our mess of fish.  It’s pretty hard to beat a meal of fresh panfish and we [mostly me!] ate them all.  Then it was down the road to Dan’s house, he had offered to take us out fishing for the night.  In the years I have known Dan, most of our outings have been muskie oriented, but tonight I just wanted to get my girl into some fish.  Dan made a suggestion that seemed usual, it involved trolling the cabbage on a nearby lake for a variety of fish.   The trolling technique did not make sense to me when he described it, in fact I couldn’t imagine how it could work. One thing I do know though, when in doubt, do what the guide wants to do! I won’t go into the details, but it involves trolling a spinner rig with a plastic grub.  Dan insisted it was a surefire way to catch a variety of species, and was easy for anyone to catch fish doing this.  Everything Dan said was true, Savannah had five fish in the boat before I had caught one, including her first walleye ever.  By the time the evening was done we had boated four walleyes, two pike, three big crappies, several largemouth, and a bunch of big bluegills, rock bass and perch. We also lost several fish in the cabbage that were likely walleyes.  I would not have guessed we’d have that much action on walleyes in less than 10 feet of water, with no bait, in July!   I know trolling spinners in the weeds is a long ways from how I usually fish, but having a great guide like Dan put us right on the fish immediately, well I guess it was nice to have a break from running the boat, all we had to do was bring in the fish.  And I always try to be open to new fishing techniques, you can be sure I will be trying this method out on local waters very soon.