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!

4/27 and a few pike

Well about a week ago i fished with my friend Damien and we ended up with a few pretty nice browns, and at our last stop, I ended up catching a roughly 20 inch northern pike!  This was the first time i had ever caught a pike in a trout stream.  We were fishing pretty far downstream so it wasn't that unusual i don't think, considering i have caught bluegills and a small largemouth bass just a bit farther downstream.
Fast forward to yesterday the 27th.  I was fishing a new stream out near lacrosse and caught probably over 70 trout from 11am-3pm.  About 60% were browns, and 39% were brookies, 1% northern pike.  This time i wasn't fishing a low stretch of the creek at all, and in the same hole i caught the tiny northern pike out of i also caught around 10 brookies and 5 browns.  I imagine that pike will be quite a bit bigger in a few years!
A few pools upstream i had a brookie, about 8 inches on, and had a GIANT brown come up and try to eat the brookie.  I would guess the brown at ~24" I fished the pool for a good 45 minutes throwing every kind of streamer i had in the box, including big nasty articulated leeches (did i mention i was using a 1 wt. that day?)

All three of the above were out of the same hole!

not the best picture, but here's the other pike

I also threw together a little video from last weeks fishing.   I haven't done much filming so far this season, but i figured i'd throw something out.  Didn't spend a whole lot of time one it, but let me know what you think!

The night bite 2012!

Headed out night fishing tonight, and scored again!  I've been out past dark twice now, first time ended up with a nice brown around 15ish, this time I caught two browns!  First one was, once again 18.5" and FAT!  The second was right around 15" again, but while attempting to get the picture he slipped out of my hands and back into the drink.

15ish from early april at night

the 18.5" from tonight 4/18

hopefully i'll catch this guy again when he grows another 2 inches or so!

Other than the night bite, fishing today was really tough overall, they just didn't seem very agressive all day. But with the past two days i can't complain! 2 fish of 18.5" in 2 days,  I don't mind this trend at all!

Ol' hookjaw

Today i fished in dane county for a while and ended up catching around 10 fish, including my first inland wisconsin trout with a big old kype.  He was only 18.5 inches, but had a real nice hook jaw.  I also threw a mouse for a little while near dark and had a fish right around 18-20 inches come all the way out of the water on the strike!  Unfortunately he threw the hook about 20 seconds into the fight.  Next time i'll get him!

Also i caught my first two fish on a mouse about 5 days ago, i dont have pictures of them, but they were about 10 inches each... They loved the mouse on that stream, i had like 15 strikes, but only landed those two little guys.

A few nice browns

I've been fishing quite a bit lately, including monday, tuesday and wednesday of this week.  Monday was windy, but it paid off fighting the wind!  I ended up with THE strongest 19inch brown trout i've ever caught.   Tuesday I ended up with a nice 16 inch brown, that had some really, really weird fins (was he a stocker?) and yesterday i caught a 16-17 inch brown (he wouldn't hold still for a proper measurement)

19 inch brown

16 inches, and some weird fins

A better look at his abnormal adipose 

a feisty 16 or so inch brown

Overall the bite has been a little slow though, not bad, but not really good either.