Monday, February 27, 2012

just another day in racine

Two cars pull into the river access at almost the exact same time, one car carrying a solo angler and the other with a duo. I'm sure we've all been there, you look at the other group gearing up and can just tell they are heading for the same exact stretch of water as you were planning to fish. Sure, there is plenty of water in the park, but you have already eliminated all that other water in your brain on the trip over. The bridge was gonna be holding fish and that was "the spot" today. So what do you do? You do exactly what any other weekend angler who has been trained in combat fishing does, you put your gear on faster. Thank God you fish in hip boots and not the full body waders that the opposition is faced with. But wait, a momentarily lost streamer box puts you back to a neck and neck pace. Hurry, come on lets go!

Both groups finish at almost the exact same time and the solo fisherman looks over at the pair. "Please let them head down stream, please let them head down stream," the thought runs over and over in his mind. Sure enough, it's too good to be true. The pair shut their trunk and turn and head upstream just a few steps behind him. What does one do now? Do you quicken your pace and slide right in to the pool and risk some dirty looks?

Instead, he turns to the group and said, "Where you fellows fishing this morning?" The two turn and look at each other quite confused. It wasn't that hard of a question but it seemed to stop them dead in their tracks. After the uncomfortable silence dissipates, the reply come back in broken English, "The bridge." Sure enough, yours fears are made real. With no thought the solo angler concedes the spot, "Sure guys, have at it and I'll just move upstream." Not sure that his words were understood, the angler just turns and heads one pool up from the bridge.

For the next hour he watches these two fools from the next pool up. The duo managed to snag almost every rock with their large weighted dropper rigs and splashed through the pool with heavy feet trying to free their line. After an hour they reason that there must be no fish hanging out under the bridge and decide to move one pool down.

Finally given the chance, the patient angler slides down to the bridge pool and goes three for three on brown trout. Two nice fish and one stocker fall victim to the black streamer in the next hour all while the duo were forced to watch from the next pool down.

wisconsin great lakes brown trout
best fish caught from the bridge pool
This was just another day in Racine...
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Monday, February 20, 2012

A Vacation Fishing Destination

  I have been M.I.A. for this past week due to being out of town. This past Sunday Feb.12th I boarded a plane at O'hare airport and set out for fabulous Las Vegas,NV. I have had this trip planed for a few months now, but it was missing something in the itinerary. Fishing!

 Every time I venture away from home I always try to investigate into some fishing waters. This time around was Lake Mead. Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States by maximum water capacity. The lake was formed when the Colorado River was dammed in 1936. In recent years the water levels have dropped dramatically due to the fact it is a main water supply for Nevada,Arizona,parts of California, and Utah. Just recently before I made the trip out though the water level had risen 10 feet due to heavy rains and snowfalls in the area, which turned the fish on and supplied an early hatch of stripped bass.

 A few weeks before leaving town a friend of mine and I did some research on fishing guides on our set out destination. We happened to come across FishFinders Guide Service. Our Captain for the day was Capt. Kevin Durham a retired pit boss from one of the big Vegas casino's. I have been on many guided trips before all over the country, but I do have to say that this trip and guide was the best guided trip I had ever been on.

  After we had dropped the 23' Ranger in the water and pushed away from the dock, Kevin started telling us a little history and a few landmarks along the lake. Shortly after he proceeded to tell us how we where going to fish, why we where going to fish where we where, and why it worked so effectively. I have been on guided trips before where you pull up to a spot, and the guide hands you a rod and says start fishing. No explanation on why we are fishing where we are. I think this is a quality many guides will over look. Maybe it is just me cause I am a fishy guy, but I thought it was a unique part of our trip that the guide explained these aspects.

 Because it was late winter in Vegas the air temp only rose to about 63 degrees that day, with surface water temps hitting 60 degrees. The targeted species was Stripped Bass. Because of the warmer surface temps there was defiantly a feeding frenzy going on as we pulled up to our spot for the day. We were set-up with some ultra light spinning rods, with a drop weight and circle hooks that would hunker on a piece of frozen anchovy. As Kevin had explained to us at the beginning of our trip, we would be using a center chunk of frozen anchovy that would contain mostly guts in the center. Reason being is that the center gut portion was like the cream filling of a twinkie. The fish just went nuts for it! So we got baited up and dropped the lines in the water. The main key to this was to be roughly 2 feet off the bottom slowly rising the bait a foot or so higher and then slowly lowering causing a reaction bite on the downfall. Also after we had some fish in our zone, Kevin the guide would chum more frozen anchovy and corn over the sides of the boat to A. keep the fish around and B. start a commotion in the water of a feeding frenzy to bring more fish into our area. This tactic of chumming worked awesome! There was also a point where we had a fish on a rod and the guide said he was going to hold the rod and leave the fish on there and that it should trigger more fish to bite. He was right on with this assumption. Before we knew it all 4 rods had a fish on it. It was incredible that Kevin had tried all these things out and knew exactly what was going to happen and when. Like I mentioned before this was one of the best guided trips I have ever been on. All together we caught 25 fish roughly, all Striped Bass and 2 Catfish. It was defiantly a great day on the water. If your ever heading to the Vegas area and you want to get away from the casino's and the lighted strip give Capt. Kevin a call @ (702)499-7942 or visit them online at http://www.lakemeadfishfinders.com It will be well worth the $300 for a half day trip!



Body of Water: Lake Mead
Closest Town: Henderson,NV
Air Temp: 63
Surface Water Temp: 60
Sky Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Bait: Frozen Anchovy on Circle Hooks
Targeted Species: Stripped Bass
Fish Caught: 25 + 2 Catfish
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Friday, February 17, 2012

refined whitefish tactics

While our first day on Green Bay was spent in the twelve to fourteen foot range, our ride out on the second day  suggested we might try poking some holes even shallower. We fished from ten feet deep all the way in to about six with the best luck in the extreme shallows. These were fish that you didn't have to work up from the bottom. They were cruising fish that were feeding in the shallows and if they did pop up on the flasher they almost for sure were hot to bite.  With the crystal clear visibility we actually were able to get a couple of takes sight fishing.  When I first started thinking about what our first trip to Green Bay would be like, I had always envisioned us sitting out over a thirty foot hole dropping heavy spoons garnished with a variety of meats down to the bottom. Well, this certainly hasn't been the case...

early morning whitefish caught on Green Bay
Standard presentations from the research we did before this trip led us to spoons like the Swedish Pimple in a size four and gold in color. This was noted as an effective pattern used on its own tipped with waxies and minnow heads but also as a dropper fastened below a small jig and swivel. This is an effective rig for quick drops and also for pounding bottom to create quite a disturbance. Fishing such shallow water I felt that this presentation was a bit overkill. We eventually downsized to just a tiny tungsten jig head tipped with a glob of waxies, and we fished these on our ultra-light bluegill rods. This setup resulted in some of the best drag screaming fights of our weekend trip.

my personal best whitefish caught on a bluegill rod
Again, I can't say enough for the tip down fishing on Green Bay, they accounted for a third of our fish the second day as well...

our pile of keepers from a morning of fishing
This trip was a blast and is something I'm going to consider making a yearly ritual. For those who have never been or have thought about it before, I would highly recommend giving it a shot as a destination for the Chicago ice fisherman.





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Friday, February 10, 2012

the whitefish of green bay

Day 1-


With a true passion for all of the different fish found in Wisconsin, me and Neal are always ready to chase a new species no matter where they may reside. This past weekend we spent not one, but two days chasing whites on the vast expanses of frozen water found just outside of Dyckesville Wisconsin.

ice fishing whitefish
With our very first few steps on to the frozen bay, it was easy to see where the congregation of people were setting up camp. Hundreds of shanties grouped together in a semi circle, some set up  just a few short feet from one another, formed a new city on the ice. With big group fishing on community holes not really being our scene, we set up about a half mile outside of "shanty town" more towards the shallows.

another nice green bay whitefish
To say that the fishing was easy would be a lie. With everything new there seems to be a healthy learning curve with catching whitefish. With a high sun and blue bird skies, the consensus from the people we talked to was that the bite was tough all around. The two greatest equalizers we had were staying mobile and fishing tip downs.

be sure to bleed out your catch for best taste
We rotated holes frequently and revisited the same holes that produced over and over again. While most people were hunkered down we spent the entire day shifting gear and blazing trails. Above and beyond fishing our butts off, not one other group we came across was fishing tip ups or tip downs. It seemed like they were married to their jigging rods. What a shame, the tip downs fished with rosy reds just off bottom resulted in nearly one third of all our fish and put us just shy of our two person limit.

neal with our near limit, is that a mullet?
Stay tuned to see how we fared on day number 2...
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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The New Honey Hole Continues To Produce!!

  I was able to get out again over the weekend, and my new honey hole is still producing. We managed to pull quite a few up through the hole of shaved ice. This time around though we caught more bluegill and less crappie and perch. To my surprise though the quality of gills just keeps getting better. As I was on the ice and the fishing was slow, I decided to drill more holes in the surrounding area. I came up empty handed on the 28 holes I drilled. This leads me to believe that my assumptions are correct. I had assumed that my new honey hole was a point with some structure(a ledge) where the fish continue to hang out. I can only hope that the ice continues to hang around along with the fish. Tight Lines!
A Nice Slab!

Location:Candlewick Lake(Poplar Grove,IL)
Depth: 15 FOW
Species Caught: Bluegill,Crappie, Perch
Colors Fished: Gold,Pink, and Orange/Black
Bait: Wax Worms & Red Spikes
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Friday, February 3, 2012

Finding A New Honey Hole

 Life has been busy for me lately to say the least, but I did manage to sneak out a few times in the past couple of weeks. Since the ice has gotten a little thicker the fish have been scattered a bit. The fish haven't quite staged in one of my usual honey holes, so I decided to do some searching on my home lake.

 About two weeks ago I started on a quest to find some more quality fishing spots. I filled the power auger with gas, and just started drilling. After many holes and countless hours of jigging, I came across a few new holes. The first spot is at the start of a drop off in 14 FOW. This spot has a sandy bottom along a weed edge, which is key for those winter fish. The other spot I managed to stumble upon is literally  50 feet from where everyone parks and walks onto the ice, but never thinks to try and fish here. This spot is 12 FOW along a weed edge with a sudden drop down to 18 FOW. This is a nice ledge that the fish are staying on top of. The key part is that there seems to be a pile of logs or old Christmas trees piled up here. I have always found that structure is key no matter what time of year or body of water that you are fishing. All in all my two new holes have produced 5 different species of fish, and steady action. Types of fish that have been caught here are:Bluegill, Perch, Crappie, Largemouth Bass, and so far one Northern Pike. So next time your normal fishing spot isn't producing move around and explore some fresh water, because you never know what you might find. Tight Lines!
The Night Bite Has Been Great For Crappie and Gills

My Little Brother With A Nice Crappie

Location: Candlewick Lake (Poplar Grove,IL)
Water Depth: 12'-16'
Ice Depth: 6"-8"
Species Caught: Bluegill,Crappie,Perch,Lgm Bass, Northern Pike
Colors Fished: Gold,Pink, Glow Green
******Candlewick Lake is Private, you must know a resident to fish here, and I am always looking for  a        fishing partner ******

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

pistakee lake night bite

night bite crappies on pistakee lake
We just got settled in at home after a nice two hour night bite excursion to Pistakee Lake on the Fox Chain. Me and Lucas gave them hell for the hour and thirty minutes we fished tonight. We proceeded with some extra caution due to the recent warm temps we have been experiencing the last few days. Also, we were the only two out there and to tell you the truth, ice fishing is kinda creepy alone at night. Following the light of our lantern we made our way out to about fourteen foot of water and dropped a hole. I flipped over our hut and moved inside to share a seat with Lucas, this is cozy for now but in a few years he might be a little big to share a one man with. After pounding bottom with a glow tungsten jig the fish moved in fairly quick. We stayed on fish for the entire time we were there and probably caught and released eight crappie in our short outing.

Ice Depth- 5 inches
Water Depth- 14
Fish Location- suspended at 10

Welcome to the night bite ice fishing club son! I'll be back after em in about 7 more hours. Stay tuned...



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Thursday, January 26, 2012

one angler i know...

One angler I know has been waiting patiently since getting some new gear for Christmas...
working some fish with a Ice 35 flasher
the result of his efforts 
"flag up" he called it 
Looks like he got his ice fishing season started, more to come from little Lucas's ice adventures of 2012!
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Sunday, January 22, 2012

long lake ice fishing report

long lake illinois fishing map
Long Lake in northern Lake County is one of the closest lake to my home. Given its location it is odd I have spent absolutely zero time here. Rumors around the area talk of bucket head mobs from Chicago cleaning out the panfish here in the last few years. Rumors are only rumors but my one and only trip here last year wasn't anything to speak of and it has certainly deterred my efforts on Long.

With a few short hours to fish before the rest of my house awoke I snuck out the front door early Sunday morning. Six or seven cars were sharing the parking but anglers spread themselves out fairly well. I fished for two hours under an overcast sky, not venturing out very far at all from the launch. My first hole was dropped in 8 foot of water and I found that I didn't have to look much further. Waves of perch were cruising in groups and held tight on bottom. Eager to feed, they came through the ice hole as quick as I could get a bait down suspended a foot or two above their heads. Keeper size fish were found in about one of every eight catches and certainly would have made for a tasty meal if I was keeping.

Just around 25 fish fell victim for a waxies impaled on a green glow tungsten jig. Oddly enough not one bluegill or crappie decided to come out and play. Maybe the rumors are true and the panfish population here has taken a hit? Or maybe I just need to take the time to explore this further? Either way the action was hot just a short distance from home and that in my book is a winner. Many anglers reports were similar, with the occasional panfish mixed in but one gent did mention some jumbos moving in around 3:00pm the previous day and remaining active till dark.


long lake perch, lake county, il

Ice Depth- five inches
Depth Fished- 7-10 feet
Species Caught- all perch

Be aware that the paid parking on the west side of the lake is closed and will not be open anymore. Some say that the few will ruin it for the many. Trash, litter and a lack of respect will certainly keep property owners from considering allowing ice fishing access so be respectful people and pick up your shit!

****There is no longer public access on Long Lake and you must have permission to fish here****



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Monday, January 16, 2012

First Ice!

 It is finally here! The first fishable ice. As most of you know we have had a pretty warm start to the winter here in the Midwest. Finally the temps have dropped and the snowflakes have fallen. It was the close of the IL hunting season this weekend and the start of the ice fishing season for me. I climbed into my favorite tree stand one last time Saturday morning, but all I could think about was the ice that awaited me when I got down from my tree. I watched the sunrise and make the snow sparkle.I  Listened to birds start to chirp and watched an owl take flight. The squirrels scurried on the ground in search of food, but there where no deer in sight. It was time to get down and put the bow away till next season, and load the ice shack in the truck to start the next season. As I headed home from the deer woods I called my friends Brent and Jenny. We made our plans to meet at my place at noon to head out to the lake for our first ice trip of the year.

  Noon quickly came, and Brent and Jenny arrived ready to go. We were set out to fish Candlewick Lake in Poplar Grove,IL, this is where I currently reside. I have called Candlewick my home for 2 years now, and she hasn't let me down one bit when it comes to fishing. Candlewick is fully stocked, well managed, and private. Hence the reason I reside here. My normal ice hole has maybe 2inches of ice right now so we headed into uncharted territory for me during the ice season. I had recently seen some great report for this part of the lake when some brave soles ventured out on 2-3inches of ice the week prior. We arrived at the neighborhood boat launch on the west side of the lake, and knew we where in the right spot when we saw a small shanty town. We dragged our shanties across the fresh snow and hard water. Drilled our first hole and dropped the vexilar in, and already we where marking fish. Brent turned and said to me, you take this hole and we will set up 10 feet from you. Sounds good to me was my instant reply. So we continued to drill our holes and pop up our shacks, and see who could catch the first fish. Once again Lady Luck got the first one! Jenny hooked into the first fish of the day. It was a nice 8inch Bluegill. I knew when she had one cause she always lets out a giggle and a shout. The giggles and shouts went on all day between our two shacks. The bite was hot! I originally  started the day fishing with 2 rods and quickly dropped to one cause the fish would hit my magic jig and wax worm as soon as it got to the bottom of the hole. Needless to say we all caught our limits in 4 hours. In Candlewick residents are allowed 30 gills and guest 15 for the keeping. I always like to get a limit at the beginning of the ice season and from there on out it's cpr for me. Brent and Jenny ended up with a total of 30 gills and 2 crappie. I also hooked into a nice young 10 inch Largemouth Bass. Between the three of us we must have thrown back another 75-100 gills that where under 8 inches. All in all it was a phenomenal first trip out.

  The next morning I was going to hit to the woods again for the very last day of the hunting season, but decided to opt out. I had a great year in the woods, harvesting 3 mature Whitetails. I had meat in the freezer and heads at the taxidermist. So why not get back out and fish while the bite was hot.

  Sunday morning I set out to the lake again, but this time was going to be different from the day before. I was setting out to show others the joy of ice fishing. I loaded up the truck with my son Zack, his friend Ethan, my brother, a friend Jimmy, and Jimmys son Joey. It was going to be all about the kids today, and what a blast did they have. Zack and Ethan ended up with 8 gills a piece, little joey landed 6, my brother 10, jimmy 9, and myself I lost track between running around baiting hooks, unhooking fish, drilling holes, and a little depth finder 101 session for my brother and Jimmy. It was a great day once again. Kids got cold after 2 1/2 hours, but seeing the smiles, hearing them tell there mothers about the great day they had, and brag about whos fish was bigger made me feel ecstatic. There is nothing better then teaching a youth the joys of fishing, and I went to bed Sunday night feeling like I accomplished something great. Getting the kids away from the TV,Video Games, and Computers and showing them what the outdoors is all about is something that we all need to do more often to carry on our outdoors traditions. I will leave this post off with a picture of young Joey age 6 with a huge smile and a fishing pole in his hand. Tight Lines everyone and be safe out on the ice this year.

Fishing Report for Saturday and Sunday on Candlewick Lake
Mostly Sunny
Temps-26-34
Ice Depth-4 inches
Bait-Wax Worms
Jig colors- Green,Yellow,Pink
Depth-7' of water, fishing 4-6 inches off the bottom
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Friday, January 13, 2012

Does Winter Weather Effect Fishing Through The Ice?

 As yesterdays first winter storm pounded the midwest it got me thinking. I have heard many tales and opinions on the matter, but never really researched it much. Does the weather effect fish during the ice fishing season as much as it does the open water season? After a few google searches and reading some pretty well written articles I came up with a few things to help out fellow ice anglers this season.

 The one thing I have heard a lot about is, snow storms entice the fish to bite. In some aspects this can be true. We all know that Barometric Pressure will have an effect on fish. This still stands true during ice season as well, so keep that in mind. During a snow storm there are obviously cloudy skies blocking the sun. On days that it is cloudy you can definitely find better fishing than on a clear blue sky day. The cloud cover will reduce light penetration, and very often when there is low light penetration the fishing becomes good. Many think that with the snow and ice this reduces the light causing the bite to be better all the time. This is false. If you have a foot of snow and ice on a blue bird sky day the fishing more than likely will not be all that great. Once you see some clouds rolling in on the horizon though,  I would bet that the activity would increase dramatically. I came across an interesting  writing by Bob Jensen on this matter that I would like to share.

Written by Bob Jensen:


I was on the ice recently with ice-fishing expert Tony Roach. We were on Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota and for days prior to my arrival, Tony and his guests had been pounding the walleyes, lots of'em, and big ones.
Our day on the ice coincided with a sizable drop in air temperatures and high blue skies. Tony knew right away that the bite might be off a bit, but you can't catch'em if you don't drop a line through the ice, so away we went.
Tony is a proponent of drilling lots of holes and covering lots of ice, kind of like trolling on the ice. We would fish a hole maybe five minutes, keeping a close eye on the sonar. If a fish didn't show up, we moved.
If a fish was seen on the sonar, but didn't eat our bait, we moved.
We moved a lot that day.
Tony had us on fish. I could see fish on my Humminbird 55 ICE unit come up and look at my bait, then slowly drift away. This sonar does an outstanding job of revealing fish just a few inches off the bottom. We tried smaller baits, bigger baits, different colors, different jigging actions: We tried everything we could to get bit, and every now and then we did get a walleye to eat our bait. But we saw a lot more fish than we caught.
We tried different areas, and saw fish in most areas. However, one area had quite a few more fish.
In the early afternoon, we noticed clouds building on the horizon. The wind picked up for a while, then calmed down. The weather was changing. Tony suggested we get back to the area that had the most fish. He wanted to be on the best spot when this weather system arrived.
A little later in the afternoon, when the cloud cover was heavier, the walleyes went on the bite. Action picked up noticeably. It was another lesson that weather does affect fish under the ice. If you're one of those folks who likes to fish through the ice, keep in mind that weather will affect the bite. If you're on the ice and notice a change in weather, keep your bait where the fish are. That's the only way to get bit



Good Luck this ice fishing season! Tight Lines and Happy Fishing!
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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

mid winter on the root river

Back on December 27th I posted a fly pattern called the Black Prince which had been noted as one of the oldest steelhead flies around. Even though this info is a tad delayed to hit the wall of our blog, the Black Prince past the test on the Root River in Southeast Wisconsin.

mid winter brown trout still chasing flies
This wonderful specimen of a great lakes brown trout fell victim to the fly after a succession of short 2 inch strips and put up quite a wonderful fight. Fishing the tribs this late into the winter has been a real mind trip!
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Monday, January 9, 2012

trout river, iowa driftless report

County- Winneshiek
Miles- 13.5
Tributary To- Upper Iowa River
Nearest Major City- Decorah
Access- 133rd St. between Hwy 9 and Old Stage Road
Trout Caught- Mostly browns with a few rainbows

trout river in iowa has some pretty browns
Who would have thought that I would be trout fishing in January? Inspired by a blog post from John over at “Currents“, a somewhat local blog I have been following intently more recently, I pack my bags and headed on a road trip west. Located just a few short miles from Decorah, the Trout River is noted in the Fly Fishers Guide To Wisconsin and Iowa as a beautiful and scenic trout fishing experience. The Trout is said to contain all three common species of trout with some natural reproduction found in the brown and brook trout. There are two separate access points for anglers to enjoy on the Trout, both are on the same stretch of 133rd Street just a mile or so apart from one another. The water here was clear enough to see good numbers of trout holding around the deep wood and in the guts of the pools. That super clarity also made for some extra spooky trout. Tread lightly and cast no shadows seems to be some good advice on the Trout River.

the upper wooded access on trout river
The upriver section is a much more woodsy fishing experience. Here, the Trout River zig-zags through the landscape at a much quicker pace. Riffles and fast runs scar the stream bed carving out some dramatic cut banks and some nice pockets on the outside of bends. Rock and gravel substrate deposits were found frequently especially in areas where the constant flow had worn and cut away at the streamside bluffs. Working your way downstream you will come across 2 very deep and very fishy pools. Both of these were very productive stops but end of the public access comes up fairly quickly. Working upstream from the parking area there is plenty more water. On the way to the headwaters you should take note of the much higher gradient. More minor cuts and pockets and a lot less of the very deep pools were found in that direction.

the lower pasture access on trout river
Down stream was more of a pasture setting where a fat and swollen river tends to meander into some much larger pools. Fast water was more infrequent but when found on top of a nice pool it was sure to be holding some fish. Much slower flows added to extra ice build up around the edge of the banks but I still found this water to be very fishable. This section I didn’t have the chance to explore as thorough as the other but if I was searching exclusively for some larger fish in this system it would be my first choice for a starting point.

In summary, nymphing faired much better then streamers today with the majority of the fish falling for the trusty pink squirrel. The upriver pools yielded all browns and I didn’t get into the rainbows until I moved downriver.
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Friday, January 6, 2012

Fox Chain Angler Lands Monster Muskie!

It was just another day of fishing for the Fox Chain Angler Ryan Stochl,  except for the fact it was November and there is usually ice by now where he was fishing. With the weather being abnormal lately in the Midwest, Ryan decided to hook up the boat and go out chasing fish. It was a windy day, the winds where blowing 20+mph at times which made boat control not so great. Either way the angler was just happy to be on the water as most anglers would be. Ryan started out drifting suckers for the day in hopes of catching a Muskie. Well to his surprise that is exactly what he did. This time was like no other before though. Ryan has spent a good amount of time chasing Muskie all over the midwest. His biggest to date before this special day on the Fox Chain was 49in. He has spent 14 years chasing ski's and has never caught one 50in. or more. This was the day though. Ryan felt a tug on his line and in no time set the hook, but little did he know he was going for the ride of his life. At first glance Ryan knew she was at least 50". The fish took him on a dance around his entire boat during the fight which resulted in a very sore back. Ryan got her up to the boat, scooped in the net, and out came probably one of the biggest Muskie ever caught on the Fox Chain. Ryan couldn't believe his eyes and what he had accomplished. With no camera in the boat or another sole on the lake, Ryan called his wife and son at home asking them to meet him for a photo shoot at the nearest pier. The wife grabbed the camera and son and headed to the dock. Meanwhile Ryan made sure the fish was live and well, and put her in his livewell and headed for the dock. As the wife and son arrived Ryan pulled her from the box, and to his sons amazement was almost scared to go near the monster fish due to the size. They snapped a bunch of photos, gave hugs and kisses, and Ryan went on his way back to the spot he caught the monster to release her for another day. Ryan put the fish back where she came from and asked that she came back to visit him another day. The fish was a whopping 50.75 inches long with a girth of 23 inches. Ryan didn't get a weight on her, but he had stated it was an extremely heavy fish. The following are a few of the photos that he had taken with the beast.
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