“I’m glad I just tied on a fresh 5X tippet” is not a thought one would expect an angler to have when he hooked up on a 40″ muskie. I didn’t expect the battle to last very long no matter what, I just wanted to keep the fish hooked up long enough to get video documentation of this crazy fish encounter…
My job has me mostly sitting behind a desk in the East Metro, answering calls and emails. By the time lunch rolls around I’ve had enough screen time so I generally leave the office for an hour. Depending on the weather and my mood I may I walk the neighborhood around the office, maybe checking out some landscape rock at local businesses for agates. [“What are you doing?” a lady once yelled at me from the front door of an industrial supply business as I stared intently at the rocks surrounding some shrubs. When I replied “just looking for agates” her look was somewhere between between confusion and relief, she walked back inside shaking here head.]
This summer I’ve gotten in a bunch of lunch hour fishing sessions. I’ve been know to bring tackle with me to work before, this year I often have a favorite old rod in the truck. It’s a 6′ 3″ fiberglass from the 70’s–Berkely Parametric Curt Gowdy Signature Series. 
It casts a 6 weight line. I got it when I was about 10. How I came to get this rod is a story in itself. My mom was a nightclub singer, she must have told one of her fans that she had a kid that liked to fish. The guy went out to the parking lot and came back with the fly rod as well as a matching spinning rod, both with reels. Mom had me write a thank you letter to the guy, who I imagine was a factory sales rep. She joked that he was probably drunk and the letter would at least clue him in to where his missing samples went. The spinning rod is long gone, but the fly rod has always been with me, I even put a new cork grip and reel seat on it at some point. The rod is nothing special as far as how it casts, but on my lunchtime fishing missions I have pretty low expectations, so this rod fits the bill. Besides it is so short that it fits in the pickup without taking it apart, and it maneuvers well in the brushy confines of “Lunch Creek”, one of my favorite spots.
It casts a 6 weight line. I got it when I was about 10. How I came to get this rod is a story in itself. My mom was a nightclub singer, she must have told one of her fans that she had a kid that liked to fish. The guy went out to the parking lot and came back with the fly rod as well as a matching spinning rod, both with reels. Mom had me write a thank you letter to the guy, who I imagine was a factory sales rep. She joked that he was probably drunk and the letter would at least clue him in to where his missing samples went. The spinning rod is long gone, but the fly rod has always been with me, I even put a new cork grip and reel seat on it at some point. The rod is nothing special as far as how it casts, but on my lunchtime fishing missions I have pretty low expectations, so this rod fits the bill. Besides it is so short that it fits in the pickup without taking it apart, and it maneuvers well in the brushy confines of “Lunch Creek”, one of my favorite spots.This creek won’t show on most maps, it winds through a combination of industrial, residential, and park areas, forgotten or at least ignored by most. It eventually flows into a lake that is know to have good fishing. One day last spring I decided to check it out, and I was nicely surprised to see that there were indeed some fish in there. Mostly panfish. Mostly small. But a few good sized ones, as well as some bass, pike, and other fish. I’m sure these fish move up here with high water in the spring. I have a few different access points that I use, and the drill typically goes like this: leave work at 12, cram my lunch down my face while driving, walk 5 minutes to the fishing area, fish for about 40 minutes and then back to work. Some days I catch nothing. Some days I catch more than I can count, especially if I go to a small fly that will allow the 4″ sunfish to eat it. Mostly I stick with the reliable woolly bugger, size 8. Small enough to catch sunfish, perhaps big enough to tempt a larger game fish. My session usually ends with me checking the time on my phone, realizing should have quit 5 minutes earlier and hightailing it back to the parking lot. As I said, my expectations are low, but at least I get to spend an hour when I don’t have to think about Eugene from Michigan who called twice this morning, or Donald from Portland who just can’t figure out if he should send his broken unit back for repairs or start over with a new one, or Virgil from Green Bay who is unable to tell me his address and has to get his wife on the phone to provide the information.
The fun started in May, my go-to spot produced a little pike right away, that somehow managed to look like a trout while I was fighting it. There’s a variety of fish in here, no trout though.
A mixed bag of panfish is mostly what I catch here, including bluegills, pumpkinseeds, green sunfish, and crappies. While most are small, I have caught bluegills up to 8″ and crappies to 10″.
There is one spot that for some reason is all perch. I don’t catch any perch in any other spot in the creek, and almost no sunfish in the perch hole
It takes a truly skilled angler to catch a bullhead on a fly
Even more skill required to catch a golden shiner
Lunker Largemouth
I won’t go out of my way to fish for carp, but if the opportunity arises I’ll make some casts. These guys were cruising around, mostly in spots where making a cast was not possible. Eventually one went into a more open area, and it would take an impressive roll-cast [with a 6′ fly rod] to get the fly in front of one. 
I underestimated my awesome roll-cast abilities, overshot the cast and ended up hooking it in the dorsal fin. Argh. Somehow the hook came out.
I underestimated my awesome roll-cast abilities, overshot the cast and ended up hooking it in the dorsal fin. Argh. Somehow the hook came out.One of the best spots is where the creek comes out from an overpass through some grated culverts. I usually cast up at the culverts an work the fly back. One day I mixed it up and fished right off the culvert, and ended my session by catching two largemouths. They weren’t that big by my usual standards, but were way better than average for the creek.
There’s smallmouth in here too. I’ve spotted some good sized ones, the only one I’ve caught was this little guy
Walleye on a fly? In the Metro? In a creek? In the summertime?
Most of the bass I run into here range from small to extra small. I’ve spotted a few large ones, and despite my ultra-stealthy presentation of a #8 woolly bugger on 5X tippet they have mostly shied away from my casts. One day, a blind cast to a shady spot above a log jam resulted in a fairly violent strike. When you consider that most of the fish I catch here are 6″ sunfish, you’ll understand why when I first saw this fish I thought it was an eight-pounder. As I was fighting it I thought about the little fly and especially the 5X tippet that has been tied on there for a year, maybe two, maybe more. With the rod bent to the cork I kept as much pressure on as I dared and somehow the fish didn’t take me into the logs. It stayed in the open and jumped a couple of times, after a better look and a decreased heart rate I downgraded my estimate to five pounds. 
After a couple of minutes I had it beat and I had to get on my belly on the high bank I was standing on to lip it. I now realized my eight pounder was really about three and a half, still a nice largemouth, and probably the biggest fish I’ve caught on the 40+ year old fly rod.
After a couple of minutes I had it beat and I had to get on my belly on the high bank I was standing on to lip it. I now realized my eight pounder was really about three and a half, still a nice largemouth, and probably the biggest fish I’ve caught on the 40+ year old fly rod.I really didn’t think I could top the big largemouth, but the next week something really crazy happened. A big storm has raised the water level by a foot or more, and apparently this high water brought in some new fish from the lake. Sightseers, maybe? Anyway I’m fishing around, catching the usual suspects [including this handsome green sunfish] 
when a good sized fish, a pike, or maybe a muskie cruises downstream past me. This fish was two feet long or better, and it was followed by a MUCH larger specimen, that was definitely a muskie of about 40″. It cruised by less than 10 feet from me. At this particular spot there is only one opening in the trees to roll-cast through and the two fish cruised down a ways and then rested on a shallow flat. The water there was only a foot deep, I could see them the whole time. But no way to get a cast at them. After a couple of minutes they were on the move again, and disappeared into some slightly deeper water. They were moving in a way that led me to believe they would show up again in my small casting window. Sure enough there’s the big head, followed by the rest. I make the roll cast and the fly lands a foot past and two feet in front of the big fish. Remember the fly is a 2-inch woolly bugger. The same one in the green sunfish’s mouth in the photo above. Tied onto a 5X tippet. The fish spotted the fly, followed it as I stripped it towards me, flared its gills AND ATE IT! I pulled tight and I imagined I heard the fiberglass creak as the rod bent like never before. I had no expectation of landing the fish, even in open water it would be very questionable with the tackle I was using. At least it was a new 5x tippet, I had to retie the day before after losing a bugger to an unseen limb. 5X is what I normally use while casting dry flies at 10″ trout. Now I’ve got 15 lbs of very pissed off muskie connected. I fumbled for my phone, somehow got the video rolling just to have some actual record of this crazy encounter. I probably could have kept the fish hooked up longer, but I was pulling kind of hard, trying to get a good shot of the fish’s side. Obviously it didn’t last long. The line parted with a sickening snap, I just laughed and headed for the truck.
when a good sized fish, a pike, or maybe a muskie cruises downstream past me. This fish was two feet long or better, and it was followed by a MUCH larger specimen, that was definitely a muskie of about 40″. It cruised by less than 10 feet from me. At this particular spot there is only one opening in the trees to roll-cast through and the two fish cruised down a ways and then rested on a shallow flat. The water there was only a foot deep, I could see them the whole time. But no way to get a cast at them. After a couple of minutes they were on the move again, and disappeared into some slightly deeper water. They were moving in a way that led me to believe they would show up again in my small casting window. Sure enough there’s the big head, followed by the rest. I make the roll cast and the fly lands a foot past and two feet in front of the big fish. Remember the fly is a 2-inch woolly bugger. The same one in the green sunfish’s mouth in the photo above. Tied onto a 5X tippet. The fish spotted the fly, followed it as I stripped it towards me, flared its gills AND ATE IT! I pulled tight and I imagined I heard the fiberglass creak as the rod bent like never before. I had no expectation of landing the fish, even in open water it would be very questionable with the tackle I was using. At least it was a new 5x tippet, I had to retie the day before after losing a bugger to an unseen limb. 5X is what I normally use while casting dry flies at 10″ trout. Now I’ve got 15 lbs of very pissed off muskie connected. I fumbled for my phone, somehow got the video rolling just to have some actual record of this crazy encounter. I probably could have kept the fish hooked up longer, but I was pulling kind of hard, trying to get a good shot of the fish’s side. Obviously it didn’t last long. The line parted with a sickening snap, I just laughed and headed for the truck. Click here for the brief video: Muskie Surprise
You never know what’s going to show up in a creek. No fences keeping critters out. We all heard about the kids that wrangled a sturgeon out of Minnehaha Creek this year. Where did that thing come from? No one knows for sure.
11 species of fish, 12 if you count the muskie, 13 if you count the carp. Not bad for a creek 5 minutes from the office.