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.

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.

Somewhere along the way it appears that the smoky apartment has been replaced by a nice house, a wife and two kids have appeared, and the never ending 12 packs of cheap beer has been replaced by a couple of Summits.  And while I still tie flies out of necessity, my nights of “recreational tying” are mostly a thing of the past.  I now have a designated fly tying room, which makes it possible to get tying right away when the mood strikes.

Despite the thousands of flies I have tied, I still don’t consider myself to be a great tyer.  If you need some durable, effective flies tied up in a hurry, then I’m your man. If you looking for a dozen that look just like the ones in the catalogs and on-line websites, please look elsewhere. I figured out at an early age that a simple scruffy fly will work just as well, and maybe better than an ultra-realistic fly, tied with jointed legs, antenna, eyes, genitalia, DNA sequencing, etc.   Case in point—I was about 10 or 11, I’ve caught a whole lotta trout by this time in my life, but all on worms, a few on Mepps.  My interest in catching a trout on a fly was strong though, and my grandpa would often rig up my Herter’s fly rod for me to flail away at rising trout with.  One day I was working up a good froth at the bottom end of our favorite worm dunking hole, and much to everyone’s amazement, I ended up with a good sized trout on the line. The fly that I was using was one my grandpa called the “Black Nothing”, probably because it was just black fur on a hook.  After the capture, he cleaned the trout streamside and showed me that it had several black beetles in its stomach.  “That’s why it ate your black fly” he said, “it thought it was another one of these beetles”.  Alright, black fur on a hook = beetle.  Got it.  I had simplified matching the hatch and flyting before it ever had a chance to get complicated on me.

So, combine that with my natural lack of artistic ability, and you’ve got a guy that is going to tie a fly that is good enough catch fish, but no better.  In an hour, I can get well over a dozen of my scruffy specials done.  On the other hand, someone who might be considered a “great” tyer, would probably be able to get half that many done.  They would likely be perfect ties, but would they catch any more fish than the stuff I tie and fish with?

My friend JD “Redfern” LeCompte contacted me from his California ranch recently, letting me know he had an abundance of peacock feathers he had gleaned from their semi-tame flock, wondered if I could use them for fly tying.  He sent a couple of pics of the plumage he had gathered, much of it was pretty standard tying stuff– eyed plumes and some swords, stuff that is easy to come by. But some of the feathers were stuff I had never seen before, and I wasn’t sure how I could use them.  A week or so later I had an envelope in my mailbox that was overflowing with peacock.  I was determined to set aside a night for “recreational tying”.

Once you start tying flies, you start looking at the world a little differently.  As in “What could I tie with that?” every time you see a rug, a pet, a sweater, or fresh roadkill.  An old girlfriend once forbid me to put a skunk tail in the trunk of her car [it only smelled a little—and the hair was really nice and long!], and I still have the tail of an albino squirrel that was dead in the middle of the road in downtown Farmington, Minnesota.  Joe Vasquez was with me, we were running late for work on a Sunday after a morning mission to Hay Creek.  When I first saw it on the centerline, I figured it was a cat, but as I passed it, nope, that’s a white squirrel—must have!  I did a quick U-turn, pulled over and hacked the tail off with a dull knife.  We still made it the Orvis store Downtown by 11.  That tail is still in my collection.

In the package of peacock, there were some great looking body feathers that I suspected would be choice for tying “Spey” style flies.  Spey flies are a traditional style of fly that still have a dedicated following.  I’ve never tied very many, and I’ve certainly never fished with them, but they are very attractive. I was able to pull off a few “Spey” or “Spider” patterns that probably won’t see any time on the water, but will look really cool in one of my fly boxes dedicated to such things.

Peacock herl is very useful for tying trout and steelhead nymphs, and this stuff in the package was top notch.   A few nymphs and a bugger for good measure will all go into a working box.

A popular “attractor” pattern here in the Midwest is the “Pass Lake”.  It’s sort of a streamer/wet fly that doesn’t really look like anything, but on some days the trout can’t get enough of it.  They are traditionally tied with black chenille for the body, but choice peacock herl works as good or better.  The wing is supposed to be calf tail, these have the wing crafted of the aforementioned albino squirrel tail.  I have always tied them with a red head.It’s fun to stray from my usual tying–only tying stuff I need.  Maybe if I did this a little more I could actually become a good fly tyer.

Although the Minnesota fishing opener is a tradition long held sacred by many Minnesota anglers, for a variety of reasons I often skip it. I don’t skip fishing, of course, but usually in May I have North Shore steelhead to chase, bass season is open in Wisconsin, and this is just a magical time to be on a trout stream as the woods green up, the birds carry on with their birdy debates, and the trout rise freely. This year would be different. Word came out through social media this winter that additional “fishing hosts” were needed for this year’s “Governor’s Opener” to be held on famous Gull Lake at Nisswa.  Being someone who is often overly confident of his ability to fill the boat with fish in any situation, I offered up my services.  What the heck, I have lived in Nisswa before, and I’ve fished on Gull Lake a number of times.  [I realized when I got to the lake that hadn’t been there in at least 10 years, and couldn’t remember if I had ever actually caught a walleye there….]

Thursday evening found me at the first meeting for all of us “Fishing Hosts”.  There were some nice, short speeches, and a great meal.  I couldn’t believe how many people I didn’t know there, lots of unfamiliar faces.  Had fun talking to a few guys, and we all got a pile of schwag for our efforts [jacket, hat, net, tackle bag, cooler, metal fish ruler, lots more…].The night went well, we all got the scoop on how Saturday was to go down. They even had us all sign some giant Rapalas that will be given as gifts to various high ranking officials.

Later, I met up with an old friend who lives in Brainerd.  Jim and I go way, back and he took Friday off from work to fish with me.  Friday was miserable weather, 40 degrees and rain.  We poked around on Gull, just scanning the sonar, looking for likely spots, looking for any sign of life.  The 43 degree water wasn’t revealing any secrets, so we to some smaller attached lakes on the hunt for crappies.  We found one nice pocket that had some crappies in it, and found a lot of likely looking spots that had nothing.  At least I had something to go by for Saturday, I wasn’t sure which of the media dignitaries would be in my boat, but I hoped they would be up for catching some crappies [as well as pike and bass that were more abundant than the crappies].

I met up with my guest that evening, Randy Quitney.  He is a radio personality from Litchfield, lucky for me he is very easy going and personable, and we made arrangements for me to pick him up at the dock at 8 am the next morning.  I was up long before dawn, as I wanted to be sure to have the boat launched before the crowds.  A quick stop at a local convenience store would allow me to get gas, coffee and bait in one fell swoop.  No such luck, the store I had picked didn’t open its doors until 5:30, but at least I could buy gas.  Up the road I went, I’ll get bait and coffee at the bait shop on 371.  Bait? – yes. Coffee? – yesterday’s was still in the pot.  Alright, one more stop at another convenience store and I had my coffee. 

Finally, I had the boat in the water, just as the sun was peeking through the trees.  A pretty good crowd was already fishing in the narrows on the upper end of Gull, but I had another spot in mind though.  I planned on fishing for an hour before I picked up Randy to try and locate some fish.  The spot I had in mind must be good, as there were already two boats on it.  Soon a few more joined in.  I thoroughly fished a nice weed edge without a bite, and decided to pick Randy up early.  I called him at 7:40, and five minutes later he stepped into my boat from the dock at Grand View Lodge, which was the headquarters for this event.  I should point out that this was a most spectacularly beautiful morning, calm and sunny, maybe 50 degrees already.  By the time we got back to my “hotspot”, there were over 30 boats working this piece of structure. I at least felt good that I had picked what must be a good spot some of the time. We tried a couple of areas on this bar, didn’t get a bite, didn’t mark a fish, and didn’t see anyone else catch a fish.  So it was off to crappie land.  We made our way through the phalanx of boats in the narrows [there were so many in spots that navigating through was actually tricky] and on to the upper lakes. 

We came into a narrow section with even depth, about 6 feet.  There are many ways to catch fish, and all of them always involve having a line in the water, so I cast a minnow bait behind the boat and handed the rod off to Randy.  I kept my speed as slow as the motor would allow, and proceeded along.

[If I were a REAL outdoor writer, that would have read…Utilizing my Marcum LX-7 locator, I was able to identify the area was prime for early season walleye.  I reached in to the rod locker of my G3 172C Anger, and pulled out a custom built St Croix rod with a Shimano Curado Reel secured in the Fuji reel seat.  The 10 lb. Berkley Trilene XT monofilament flowed smoothly off the reel as I cast the #11 Perch Pattern Rapala Husky Jerk into my boat’s gentle wake.  I handed the rod to my guest and he held the cork grips firmly, watching the pulsing rod tip as he awaited the inevitable strike.  I adjusted the throttle and trim on the purring Yamaha 115 until I had the perfect trolling speed dialed in…]

Anyway, it wasn’t long before a fish hit, and after a brief but spirited battle, I was as surprised as anyone to look at the fine walleye now thrashing in my net! It looks small in the picture, but Randy is 6 foot 4.  After being around at least a hundred boats this was only the second fish we had seen caught.  “Mission accomplished”, I thought.  Anything from here on out would just be a bonus, as Randy told me that he had not captured a walleye at last year’s opener in Park Rapids. 

Once I got us to the crappie hole, I realized that this too must be a great spot, as there were several other boats packed into a fairly small area.  I waited for one boat to head down and pulled into where they had just been.  The day before I had found some nice crappies in about five feet of water, hanging around old lily pad roots.  There were still a few around, and we got a couple in short order.  None of the other boats caught anything while we were there, I would have thought with the sun warming the water into the low 50’s that this bite would have really picked up.  We tried one more crappie spot and didn’t get a bite, although the wildlife viewing was great: Two trumpeter swans flew overhead, and then a patient osprey that kept hovering over a particular area finally showed us how it was done as he crash landed into the lake 50 feet away and then flew off with a foot long bass in his talons.  Yes, the osprey had large talons, and no I don’t think he realized bass season was not open yet.

Randy needed to be back at Grand View Lodge by Noon, so that ended our angling session.  The crowds in the narrows were even bigger, so someone must have caught something. At Grand View, there was a big lunch going on, with fried fish and walleye chowder and all other fixings.  I ate lunch with Randy and his wife, and wished them well.  When I wore a younger man’s clothes, my next move would have been to head right back out to the lake and try to hunt up a few more fish.  Instead, it was time to call the wife and tell her I was putting the boat on the trailer and that I would be home in few hours.

It was a fun experience being a part of the Governor’s Opener, glad to have been a part of this great Minnesota tradition, and I hope I get the chance to participate in again.  Maybe one day there will be a Governor’s Bass Opener—then some fish will be caught!

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.