Illinois Wisconsin Fishing: Pike Or Musky

Showing posts with label Pike Or Musky. Show all posts

Monday, August 6, 2012

milwaukee river fly fishing pike

Recently after posting on a local forum I received a private message. It went like this-

Something to think about.
Positive reports for waters in large metro areas bring unwanted pressure.
You might want to think about that when debating a report about the Milwaukee River.
I'm basing this on fact.

a nice bridge pool somewhere on the Milwaukee River

I replied-
It's a long river, over 100 miles and all of it has fish. I think the secret is out!

Milwaukee River pike on the fly "seaducer"

I thought forums were for sharing reports? Am I going about it wrong? Should I be making up shitty ones?

Here we go, I'll give it a try then-

Been fishing the Milwaukee River for the past 2 years. Haven't caught much other then a few bulhead and rock bass, some nasty carp, a few old tires, and a bathtub. If your looking for smallmouth bass, pike, musky, and crappie I would just move on. The last few years the salmon, steelhead, and brown trout runs have been dismal. Less then 10 fish per species have move in from the harbors. Spend your time more wisely somewhere else where you actually have a chance of catching a game fish. As for me I'm happy just flogging this empty scum pit over and over with no results.

Honestly buddy, try promoting catch and release fishing and selective harvest, you might get more bang for your buck.

crossing paths - milwaukee river musky

a milwaukee river musky

Sometimes on the water we run across some strangers that are very good fisherman. While its nice to observe their style, its always cooler to lend a helping hand when needed…

Coming around the bend I could hear the commotion. The stranger one pool up was laying back on a very big fish. One of those fish that make a crash rather then just a splash when it jumps. He gave me a quick nod and then called down to me “musky“! To me, that was his invitation to come check out his fish.

I had run into a guy fishing swim baits just about one month ago. He told me he had released a forty inch musky in this very same pool just last year.

The stranger (who I found out later) was named Randall. He’s an angler from the local area and seemed to have fished these waters quite a bit. Randall played the fish like a champ and by the time I made my way upstream to him to fish was ready to be landed. Two fisherman with a total of zero nets between the both of us, this is my reason for always carrying boga grips in my backpack. I reached down and latched onto the fish and pulled it out of the water for my new friend. The fish looked big in the water, but out of water he was a true musky monster. He measured out at forty one inches and was just shy of 16 pounds. I took a few photos since Randall had no camera and was sure to get his email so I could forward the photos. Great fish man! Great fish!

The fish hit a number three mepps spinner and was taken on what appeared to be twelve pound test. No leader was used and Randall put the hooks right in the corner of its mouth. Without that hookset it could have turned out way worse.