Muskies over memorial weekend (and other fish too)

We headed up to the cabin in northern wisconsin on friday, got there about 430pm and went right out to the dock to do a little fishing.  Throwing a rainbow trout pattern rapala I had a hit, it ended up being a skinny 36 inch muskie with a very good "bar" pattern. Not a bad way to start off the weekend either!

a pretty, but skinny fish!

Later that night we went down to on of our favorite spots on the local river in search of some smallies and walleye.  I decided to use the fly fishing gear and I'm glad i did!  Right away i landed a nice smallie, then a few casts later i had another hit... it was a muskie! I was throwing an articulated black leech and using my 6wt. rod with 0x tippet.  I played him till i thought he was ready, then hopped in the water to try and grab him (we didnt have a net or anything to help me out)  I grabbed the leader and slowly pulled his head to might right so i could grab his tail with my other hand.  As i was reaching for his tail he gave one last big headshake, and the line broke, "my" muskie went swimming away with my fly.

An average northwoods smallie!

We kept fishing and caught quite a few more smallies and my dad even caught a fat little muskie, about 27inches, and we caught 5 walleye, including my personal best on a fly rod 22.5"

A fat little muskie

The next day we went to a private lake that my grandfather has property on looking for bass and pike in the shallows.  The day started off pretty good, then the rain came and we had to take a break in the cabin to let the weather pass.  At the end of the day (12pm-4:30pm) we caught exactly 50 fish, most were largemouth, a few smallmouth and pike.

We headed back to out cabin and had some dinner, then went back to the river for some evening fishing.  We caught more smallies, a couple more walleyes. This time we brought the net, just in case, and I'm glad we did, as just like the night before, i hooked into another muskie.  This one was BIG, and again on the 6wt. with a 3-4inch leech pattern that i often use for trout!
After a fierce battle we got him in the net, making it officially the first muskie i've landed on a fly! It was also one of the biggest muskies i had ever caught! Right about 48 inches (possibly even larger, we weren't that worried about exact measurements at the time)  It was a healthy 48 too!  All on a 6 wt rod too!

Finally, got one on the fly!

A BIG one on the fly!

The biggest fish I've ever caught on a fly rod!

The little leech that made it happen!

The next day was more of the same, smallies, walleyes, quite a few largemouth, and again a muskie!  My friend Brett was with us, and he had never caught a muskie before, so it was his turn!  We started off fishing for bass and walleye and were having decent luck then i hear brett yell from upstream, He yelled "MUSKIE!!!"  I grabbed the net and started running.  I got there to see another BIG fish, probably around 44inches on the end of his 8lbs mono spinning gear.   The fish took a long run, and he spit the hook.  So close to his first muskie!  Later that day he got a second chance, this time with a rod more suited for catching the toothy critters.  The fish missed several times first cast, then second cast he hit again and it was game on!  This time Brett won, and landed his first muskie ever!  It wasn't just any muskie either, it was a HUGE fish!  We taped it out in some grass in the water and it measure 47.5inches,  talk about a big first muskie!

Another first and PB of the weekend!

Another HUGE muskie!

Not a bad weekend!!
I'm currently working on another video, and it should be out pretty soon!
Also check out http://www.facebook.com/TheMadtownTroutAngler!

Smallies, carp, browns and brooks.

Last week i went fishing on a lower section of a local stream in search of some big brown trout with one of my friends Mike.  I had fished the creek several times before, and remember catching a few little smallmouth right under the bridge, so i figured we might catch a smallie or two fishing downstream of that bridge.
We started out by asking a landowner for permission to fish on his land, he said that we could, but "there's no trout down here" and even told us that his grandson had been seeing carp swimming around.
We walked down to the creek and started fishing, The first pool looked pretty nice, and my friend pulled a little chub out making the first fish of the day.  The next pool up Mike missed a fish then continued on up the the next pool, i stuck around at the 2nd pool and was rewarded with the first trout of the day, a healthy fish around 12 inches.

We continued on and the next few pools held several more trout, and also had some smallies that were willing to bite!  They weren't huge fish, biggest being around 14 inches, but they still put up a great fight! I ended up hooking into a nice smallmouth and noticed one chasing him in, so i told Mike to cast to where my fish was on the end of my line.  He started stripping in his streamer and i saw the trailing fish chase after it and open his mouth, I told mike he ate it and he set the hook, we ended up landing a double!

We ended up catching 7 or 8 smallmouth bass, about 15 browns (all right about 12 inches) a chub, and a redhorse. The redhorse came out of a VERY fast run and hit a bunny leech.  This is the second redhorse i've caught on a big bunny leech this year!  I didn't take a picture of the redhorse, but heres a picture from a few weeks ago of a redhorse i caught on the fly! 

The farmer was right about the abundance of carp in the creek, we saw a ton of carp and suckers all over the place! It was pretty weird catching brown trout and smallies right next to the carp, the weirdest part is that i actually caught a brookie!!! Even in the upstream sections of the creek I've never heard of brook trout being caught very often at all.

We ended up having several other brook trout on, but we were using big streamers and never got another one in.  

Although we didn't find the big browns we were looking for, we caught some nice fish, and a good variety of species.

Check My new page out on Facebook as well!-->> The Madtown Trout Angler!

3 Tigers in 2 months?!

No, I didn't catch three tigers in 2 months, but my friend Damien did.
I was fishing with him on all three days that he caught them, but he seems to have the tiger-catching-technique down or something.  All I know is that I've never heard of anybody in wisconsin catching 3 in two months!  I think Damien should probably go buy a few powerball tickets or something.

And here they are-

#1 the most beautiful fish i've ever seen.

#2 I thought two tigers in a season was crazy.

the 3rd, and there is still a lot of time for another!