We'll Miss You Brian

Sorry for not posting in a long-time.  I haven't had any good reports to relay and the main reason for that is that my great buddy Brian was diagnosed with cancer in July.  Unfortunately after a brutal battle he passed away mid-December.  He was 40 and left a wife and two young boys.

I met Brian about 5 years ago on the Brule.  It was fall, the water was low, and a few of us floating line, indicator fishers were being pushed out of the deeper slower holes to the riffles.  We exchanged numbers like school girls and bumped into each other on the Kinni twice the following spring.  That fall I invited Brian to stay at the cabin instead of the luxurious accommodations in Brule.  Both of our wives had some concerns about this overnight with a person neither of them had met.  Brian's wife was worried we were swingers.

 

After a successful steelhead trip, we stayed in touch, introduced the families and became best of friends all around.  The boys love hanging out together (and still do of course).

I am very blessed to have known Brian and be able to share a number of great fishing trips with him.  He was becoming proficient on the sticks we were working on trips this summer.  Brian always joked with me that "even if we retired today and lived to 100 we still wouldn't get all the fishing trips in we had planned".  At least we had a few.

End of Summer Report

We'll we're hitting the end of the summer which is sad in some ways but it means good musky action is just around the corner.

The upper St Croix is running really low and we've been primarily wade fishing the river.  Action has been steady with topwater but the fish are not relating to the banks as much because of the low water.  It is a little harder to find that mid river break when you're wade fishing the river, especially before you trip over it but when you do there are more than one fish schooled up.

The Mississippi is flowing perfect right now and fish are really active with this heat.  We floated from St Cloud down to Clearwater the other day and had two dozen nice fish (missed a bunch as well).  We've been waiting almost 3 years for the river to be fishable in August.  With this heat and stable weather it should be good through mid-October.

I don't really care about SMBs anymore because starting Labor Day weekend it is full into musky.  Sunday we're planning a musky float and B. Marshall has lent me his new Sage Pike rod that he wants stunk up with Esox slim - I will do my best.

Tomorrow however I am in Washington trying for some more Pacific steel.  Trying my lunch at spey fishing the Cowlitz. 

What happend to summer?

July was going along great - good SMB popper action and then last weekend happened.  It was a 45 degree drop from the previous week's high to the low Saturday.  We were wet wading to cool off and then Saturday we did it to warm up.

What was weird is how it triggers musky and pike to bite.  Friday we floated the St Croix near Grantsburg and although we managed a dozen nice smallies on topwater the highlight was Jeff's 36 inch musky on a topwater.

The best part is I didn't have my net along.  When I picked up he and Bob in the morning I said "muskies have been biting but if I put the net in the boat we won't catch one".  Of course we were in waist deep water and I had to try and grab the thing.  The water was really low and we (me) dragged the boat a lot.

Saturday it actually got colder and cloudier.  Smallies slowed more but the pike started biting.  I caught this beauty on a flash tail streamer on a jig hook (PS I think that helps the hook setting - note the fly in the top of the mouth).

Going to do an evening float Monday and then Mississippi Friday.  I'll try and take less grip and grin photos.

St Croix Early July

We were on the river (both St Croix and Namekagon) over the 4th a number of days.  Flows looked good but the rivers had some color to them from the heavy rain the previous week.  Fishing was pretty slow even though we managed to catch fish each time out.  Smallies weren't chasing topwater and you really had to drop it right on their head.  Muskies on the St Croix were really active and we landed a nice 32 incher wade fishing (very fun) and missed two others.  The Namekagon musky bite was slow and we had one take early on and saw a nice fish right in the middle of the river below a riffle. 

Here are some good early morning pictures on the St Croix the morning of the 4th.

St Croix was Hot!

I know I said in a New Year's resolution that I wasn't just going to just post fish pictures and instead get better action shots - this is going to be an exception.

Blake got his biggest SMB career to date - a 17 inch beut.  SMBs were almost all on topwater - finally.

And while he and Scott were casting topwater I followed up with a wounded minnow pattern and this fella came out of nowhere - my biggest pike ever.

A nice part about fishing in rural NW Wisconsin is that on your drive back you can fire off a few rounds.  Blake and I are working on Yeti promotion shots - and this was the first firing of my new AR-15.  Only $1.10 a round!

We head to Door County for a week vacation.  It's mainly going to be gear fishing but we have a musky day Tuesday and I'm bringing the fishing boat for SMB and walleye action.  No flats carp plans.

First Musky on the Fly for the Season

We have been hitting the St Croix a bunch lately.  Even though water is a little high the clarity has been good and it's warmer than the Namekagon.  Brian and I hit it Memorial Day weekend and even though the day finished pretty slow, it started great.  A 30 inch musky started the day off on a chartreuse sculpin I tied for such an occasion.

Minutes later and slow moving 19 inch smallie hit the same fly.

 

Not pictured is the pike (Brian likey big pikey) caught on the same fly.  I'm sending it to one of the main fly companies for it to go into full production.  Brian got the St Croix Grand Slam on the same fly - I don't know how we didn't touch a walleye dredging the thing.  That would have been amazing - maybe next year.

 

Last weekend we hit the section up by T and caught some big girl SMBs. 



As you can see from the photo - the boys were with me.  I don't know why I think every year it works to take 4 people, 2 of which are little boys, out in the boat.  At least they weren't bugging mom.

 

Fish are starting to move a little more - nothing on topwater yet but I assume that will be changing pretty quickly. 





Driftboat Season Underway

Started the season off last weekend with two full days of floating the Namekagon and St Croix.  There were high hopes but quickly it was realized that the late spring has delayed everything.

We started with a short float by County Rd T which had pretty good clarity.  The gauge at Riverside said 3,030 but that includes the Totagatic which was dumping a ton of water to fix the dam and the Namkagon which was dumping a bunch of water from late snow storms. 

Nothing - Matt had a walleye strike but that was it.

We then floated the Namekagon for 10 miles.  The river was moving very quickly but still had that clear clarity we love.  We switched to a jig with some plastic to try and get down and find a walleye or two since the smallies weren't around and musky is closed.

Matt caught the largest redhorse sucker I've ever seen on the jig.

We floated the Namekagon 10 miles in about 5 hours - record time. 

We went back to float the same stretch of the St Croix thinking the warm sun might have helped.  One pike and this small musky.  Matt caught it on a tiny Rapala.

On the St Croix the following day the winds were in the 20+ mph range - but at least at the back of the driftboat.  One lowly pike at the take out.

We'll be out again for Memorial Day - probably will be epic with about every warmwater species in the post spawn eating frenzy at once.  Or at least that's what comforts me from 2 fishless days.