Wisconsin Musky Season opens Saturday, May 28, 2016!
When folks from across the United States think about easy and fun fishing, most consider they need to head for Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan or other parts of Canada to “get away from it all” and be assured of fish-catching action. Not so anymore!
Since I live in New York State and have never had a chance to visit northern Wisconsin before, my visit here was an eye-opener, and it is “Made in the USA”.
Iron County is a beautiful wilderness area with a few small towns and villages where fish and wildlife offer countless opportunities for pristine adventure and new experience. There are fishing guides here that offer year ‘round fishing, on hard water too.
Musky Man, Mike Vecchione, is a licensed Wisconsin Guide from Mercer, Wisconsin, that took some time to show me the ropes and proved that he knows where “X” marks the spot for several secret lunker musky holes in the Turtle Flambeau Flowage. He is also a guide for many smaller inland lakes (with giant fish) located in Northern Wisconsin, there are over 200 lakes within 30 miles of Mercer.
Mike is inexpensive and effective for half day and full day charters (how can you beat $250!?). If you like to cast custom-made musky-killer lures that catch big fish, including northern pike, walleye and big bass, just give Mike a call (715-476-0441 or 715-776-0393).
Listen for Common Loons (Gavia Immer)
Just after sunrise and a scrumptious breakfast at the Great Northern Hotel, (http://greatnorthernmercer.com/) where we could hear two mating loons chitchat with each other, the aroma of the brewed coffee and excitement of fishing conversation just made the day a perfect start.
Coffee in hand, a few water bottles and a few sandwiches from the Mercer Subway in cooler stowage, and only a few lures that Mike had allowed me to view before we left. The boat rig was a comfy, new Alumacraft with a 4-stroke Mercury engine on the stern and a Minn Kota electric on the bow. Rods were all stowed and tied down for use as needed, all ready to go. My heart started pumping a few extra kicks as we headed down the road and talked more about how we would fish – all casting, no trolling. That’s exciting fishing! Rod in hand is always exciting.
In less than 15 minutes, we arrived at Murray’s Landing, just five minutes from Highway 51 in Iron County. While we were in the water in no time, I was impressed that the launch features boat access for trailers, hand launch boats – we saw kayakers there too, and has super-clean restrooms in the parking area.
The Turtle Flambeau Flowage is a pure, clear, sparkling water impoundment that creates a unique reservoir, using the flow from the Turtle River and Flambeau River to create 19,000 acres of waterway for fish, wildlife and semi-remote human adventure, including camping.
Created in 1926, the Turtle Dam provides the Flowage with some 212 miles of winding shoreline, with 95 percent of it publicly owned – that means it is “wild”.
No cabins every 25 yards, no septic system runoff, no leftover garbage from the lawns and backyards that will never be there. It is pristine. The dam combines nine lakes, three rivers and several creeks to create a vast and semi captured wilderness solitude zone where fish of many species thrive to become giants, and they are accessible by boats from eight locations. AND, allowable campsite areas you can rent. Imagine spending some time with nature here.
We Fished for Musky, Northern Pike, Walleye, Crappie, Bass
As we prepared to cast our first line. Mike showed me with a lesson what he expected from my casting perspective. I like that. I like to know what the guide thinks his clients are capable of, it helps the clients jump up a bit to meet the objectives expected. There is a challenge of sorts.
It wasn’t long after that we discovered chartreuse was the hot color. Using Mike’s lures, we caught over a dozen fish that included northern pike and smallmouth bass, though we had one musky of about 4-feet in length follow us and turn around when he saw my mustache. Darn sun reflecting of my silver beard. ARghhhshhcrappppppola! Or something like that. Wait a minute, maybe that gargantuan musky saw Mike first? Ok, I can sleep now. It’s been a week, finally. Figured it out.
The trick to success with Mike’s method? Speed of retrieve and the sonic effect of the custom lure. Mike uses a high speed casting reel or a high speed spinning reel. Both move the bait back a very brisk pace.
The spinning rig that I used was a Shimano Sienna 2500HD 4BB open-face reel with 30# Power Pro braid (green) and a Shimano Convergence rod, 6’-8”, CVS68MHB medium heavy power with a fast action.
The custom lures are 2-hook rigs that are tuned to perfection with an assortment of Colorado blades and Willow Leaf blades separated by spacers on a heavy wire shaft. The lure literally sings-a-song-thumping-along during the retrieve in the water. If you are quiet and don’t talk too much while fishing, you can definitely hear this lure. So can the fish. I think the darn thing was talking to me. “Can you hear me now?”
The lure sonics are a charm, they either drive the fish baddy or they attract the fish, either way, the lures are unique. The only other options with the lure are size and color.
The lures are called Boonie’s Baits, invented by a family member, Phil Graser, way back in 1978. Graser caught at least one world record musky on the bait (51-1/2 inches in 1989 on 15# test mono) and was locally known as a musky master.
The hand-made baits are usually available at Turtle River Trading (www.turtlerivertrading.com) in downtown Mercer, when they are not out of stock. Kurt’s Island Sports is another source in Minoqua, Wisconsin.
Color matters. In 20 minutes of fishing, Mike had changed lures three times and passed me the rod with the undulating Chartreuse wiggle skirt and same color blades. “Use this one Forrest,” he said. “This is the color for this morning. The fish are swinging their tails, following it and once in a while attacking it.”
As we electric motored our way around the islands in the Flowage, I caught six northern pike in the next four hours and a nice smallmouth bass that tipped the scales at just under three pounds. Mike caught multiple fish and we shared stories of our colorful past fun times. Fun? You know it!
Peace, quiet, beautiful nature and the solemn promise of all is well is found here.
We watched eagles soar high overhead and circle our efforts while fishing, they were fishing too. We only saw three other boats all day long and one of those was a kayak. Yes, I felt reassured after this day on the water, all is well.
We headed back to clean up and decided to meet for dinner at the Wolf’s Den Restaurant located inside the Great Northern Hotel. Multiple local tap beers are on the menu here and delicious entrees, as well. Our other choices were numerous in Mercer too, on previous days, friends and I had savored dinner meals at the Cranberry Inn (www.cranberryinnofmercer.com) and at Heart of the North (www.heartofthenorth.net), both were places that had provided scrumptious dinner offerings and on-tap micro brews. It’s just one week ago and I can still taste that delicious North Country food from Mercer. I long for it, except I’m 1,100 miles to the east!
One thing for sure, I’m coming back to Mercer with more friends next time! Maybe for the Can-Yak Fishing Tournament and Festival set for September 2 -4, 2016. Check it out at www.Can-Yak.com.