Rod Thief

As I promised, I heard this great Musky story from a friend, Tim Hansen.

He and some friends and family take a long weekend in October each year and do some serious Musky fishing in the Rhinelander, WI area. They had a great trip this year (October 9,10, 1nd 11th) and landed 8 out of 20 hook ups, mostly on suckers. But, one fish had quite an adventure.

One of the anglers in the group had a sucker soaking next to the boat in about two to three feet of water. He had placed a tackle box on top of the rod to secure it. Suddenly someone noticed that the rod was gone and there was no sign of it in sight. Not only did the miss the Musky, the unlucky angler was now missing a three to four hundred Musky rod and reel.

A day and a half later, someone in Tim’s group spots the end of the cork handle of a rod bobbing on the surface in the middle of the lake. They motored over to try to pick it up and the rod popped under. They made another pass but this time they cut the motor and drifted in on it. They used a net this time and got the reel by the rim and pulled it up. Suddenly, the fish took off and the fight was on. After a good battle, they landed the fish and luckily it hadn’t swallowed the bait and was actually barely hooked.

The Musky, a 46”er, was the biggest of the weekend. It was quickly released after a quick photo.

Not only was the 46”er a memorable fish, but quite the story to go along with it.

Tight lines and smooth drags...

Marc

Jigging Spoons and Fall Salmon

The Salmon fishing heated up this past weekend so I thought I’d hold off on talkin’ Musky this week. (photo of veteran angler Mike Schwister with a nice King)

A combination of cold weather and rain has piled a new wave of Salmon into the Milwaukee harbor and we had a blast catching them this weekend. They were a combination of very advanced males and some fairly clean females. After seeing a lot of smaller fish early, I was pleasantly surprised to see some heavier fish this week. No supertankers, but some upper-teens and twenty pound fish.

After catching these fish for thirty-five years I generally catch a few every fall and then actually start to avoid the areas where these fish are hanging out. Its not that I don’t want to catch fish, but some of these start getting a little dark and gnarly and catching some cleaner fish is a little more desirable.

This year one of my fishing partners is looking for his first big King so we have been stalking the spawners in the harbor trying to get him locked into a screamer. What has come out of this for me is trying some new tactics and I have suddenly discovered one that has all kinds of life back in me as far as fishing late fall spawning salmon. Jigging spoons!!!

We have found that if you find a deep water seawall where the Kings are traveling you can vertical jig for them and it has been much more effective than casting crankbaits, minnowbaits, and traditional spoons.

The Jigging spoons I am using are from Do-It’s Flutter Jig mold. The mold makes ¼ to 1 ounce jig spoons in lead. But here is the dirty little secret (look both ways to make sure no one is reading!) Tin!

Casting them with 100% pure tin reduces the weight about one-third and gives them a completely different action than if they were cast with lead. It also gives them a shiny silver finish that doesn’t oxidize like lead. It’s about $9.00 a pound right now but well worth it (It was twice that a year ago!). It sounds like a lot compared to lead, but it boils down to about $.30 per spoon for the larger size jigs. Add a split ring and hook for another $.25 and you have a world class jigging spoon for under $.60. How can you beat that?

Plain silver or silver with a chartreuse accent, or pearl have been the hot colors. Drop them down to the bottom and reel up about a foot. Now lift the spoon anywhere from 6 inches to 3 feet and let the jig free-fall back to its original position. Stagger the lifts but always keep the jig moving. The hits will come on the free-fall and they are spectacular. You will be lulled into the rhythmic pattern of jigging and then suddenly interrupted by a solid dead weight and a violent head shake. At that point plant your feet and hang on.

This system really imitates baitfish very well so I am very surprised that it is working this well for the non-feeders. I guess that four years of intense feeding has them programmed to take an easy shot at a vulnerable baitfish even when they aren't eating.

I’d recommend a medium to medium-heavy rod and a reel with a quality drag for this system. Ten pound test is about all you can get away with despite the fact that the fish are going to weigh twice that or more.

I am going to cut this short for today and pick up a new topic later this week. I want to talk about a quality under publicized reel that has been around for twenty years now and is still available for under $90. Also, a great Musky story from a friend that happened last weekend.

Till then, tight lines and smooth drags.

Marc

Salmon Eggs

NO! It’s not a picture of a human brain!!! Its Salmon spawn and I have a good curing recipe for you this week.

But first, what another bizarre weather situation we have had this week. Off-shore winds blowing to 50 miles per hour really stirred things up. It was like taking a bottle of Italian dressing and shaking it for two days. The water definitely cooled off about 12 degrees and the rain should have some fish migrating up the tribs. Extreme winds cause extreme changes. The latest coast watch satellite view was showing surface temps in the 30’s. If that is accurate we are talking about water pulled from depths of 200 feet or more during the latest upwelling.

OK, last week I mentioned that I’d like to share a spawn recipe that is very simple and won’t leave you with a pair of pink or orange hands. It works for loose eggs or skein and will keep for a couple seasons if kept refrigerated. This mix was given to me by DNR Biologist and Steelhead guru Matt Coffaro. I have tried dozens of recipes over the past thirty years and they all have pros and cons. I have also tried the commercial egg cures like Pro-Cure which work well but have some pretty serious dyes in them. Preparing with Pro-Cure can be done with rubber gloves but you still have to handle the stuff out on the water and that’s where the pink hands develop. But, this one is easy.

For this recipe you will need:

1 qt Water
1 Cup salt
1 Cup Sugar
1 pack of Orange Kool-Aid

Mix all the contents together in an old ice cream pail or other container that you don’t want to use for food later. It will get pretty fishy smelling. Now place your spawn in the container and make sure it is all covered. Add a little more water if necessary. For Trout spawn let the eggs soak for at least 4 hours. For Salmon spawn let it soak for at least 6 hours. I usually just let it soak overnight. Now remove the eggs and dump out the excess liquid. Don’t rinse them. Place them back in an air tight container and refrigerate. Skein can be cut into chunks and loose eggs will have to be tied in sacks. For a non borax solution, the eggs are pretty tough just from the salt.

You can vary the color by using different colors of Kool-Aid. A little cherry or strawberry will darken them. The traditional orange will color them pretty close to what they look like in their natural state.

Last Week:

The water near shore was near 70 again last weekend before the big blow. Nothing was going on so by Sunday I had enough and headed into the inner-harbor. The Milwaukee River, basically downtown Milwaukee. These views aren’t going to make it to the cover of Outdoor Life. This is urban fishing at its finest. These spots have developed heartwarming nick-names such as “The Sphincter”, and “Homeless Bay”. I have a saying about the spots we fish at down town, “If you ever had to give the city and enema, you’d put it in right around where we are fishing”.
But hey, if you can get past the sound of trains, sirens, traffic and a dull hum of valley industry, and the smell of cattle slaughter and that weird silty smell that seems to be anywhere near the river, it’s a pretty amazing fishery. I will get into it in greater detail later this year because this is where I fish open water all winter.
Well last Sunday I headed up there for less than 30 minutes and hooked three Walleyes and landed two. The two I landed were 20” and 22” and the third one I lost looked about the same. Not bad for downtown Milwaukee.

Next:

Well, hopefully I will have some good news to report from Lake Michigan. And, I am starting to get the Musky itch so maybe we can talk a little light tackle Musky fishing.
Till then, tight lines and smooth drags…