Polk County Butternut Gills...Consider going
By Dick Ellis
Reader Note: This trip was taken by Dick Ellis with star Wisconsin guide Dave Hraychuck in August of 2011. Contact Wisconsin Licensed Guide Dave Hraychuck for hunting and fishing opportunities in Polk County at hraychuck@centurytel.net, 715-485-3362 or (cell) 715-553-0578. For information or entertainment opportunities in Polk County for the entire family, Sue Mathews, Director of the Polk County Information Center at www.polkcountytourism.com or call 1-800-222-Polk.
Relaxation is the primary reason most of us pursue the world outdoors, but the hunting and fishing sports can bring with it short periods of high anxiety and the coveted adrenalin rush. A confrontation with a rutting buck from an archery treestand or the first seconds after a musky hits a surface lure at boatside come to mind. Most often, though, tension in the outdoors plays no role. We are targeting pure fun and the field bonus; fine eating in the form of venison backstraps or the home-made Friday fish fry.
Consider the big bluegill. Consider Polk County. Consider going.
When you meet Polk County, nestled high on the map in the northwest where farmland collides with the big woods and hunting and fishing activities are diverse because of that geographic luxury, do yourself a favor and meet guide Dave Hraychuck too. He’s as easy to take as the country. Not only will he put you on those big gills, or whatever swims, he’ll introduce you to the higher anxiety stuff too. He is as adept at bringing bears to a hunter as he is at bringing an angler to the gills.
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| Guide Dave Hraychuck shows another nice gill taken on Butternut Lake in Polk County. Hraychuck became a Polk County resident after retirement and believes it’s the place to visit for Wisconsin anglers and hunters. | This bluegill escaped the jaws of a hungry pike on Butternut Lake in Polk County but not the claws of top-notch guide Dave Hraychuck. |
Hraychuck was on the gills, and bass, and trout… with his better half, wife Ann for several days when I got the call to come. On the heels of perch fishing Lake Michigan off Racine in the southeast, traveling 400 miles to the 500 acre Butternut Lake in the northwest seemed the perfect balance to showcase the geographic diversity and choices Wisconsin offers even in panfishing.
“Most of the Polk County lakes are bowl-shaped,” Hraychuck said as we slipped onto Butternut in the early morning last week. There was nothing diverse about Wisconsin temperatures. Like on the rocks of Racine, a thermometer’s promise to push 90 loomed on the horizon. “The gills are staging on the outside weedline in eight to 12 feet of water. These lakes are fertile. You’ll see boats on the weedlines fishing perch, bluegills and crappie. I’ve fished all over Wisconsin for panfish and the opportunities for excellent panfishing in Polk County are unlimited. The fish are big.”
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| Another Butternut Lake bluegill is about to be invited on board during a panfish hunt in sweltering hot August weather in Polk County. | Guide Dave Hraychuck waits for another bluegill visitor on Butternut Lake in Polk County. Hraychuck wouldn’t have to wait long for another big gill and the occasional crappie to hit. |
Although the daily bag is limited at 25 panfish per man, our plan was to take enough bluegills for a fish fry, bask in the sun, be lazy, and talk Polk County. First though, Hraychuck would give me the low-down on targeting big gills. There isn’t much to it.
“We use small ice fishing presentations all year” he said. “Rat finkees, cubby jigs, and shrimpos dressed with wax worms. The fish take them easier and the big fish take them right away. Just like ice fishing the big fish suck the jigs in. It’s how they feed year-round so you might just as well match how they feed with the way that you present your bait.”
On ultralight rods, we presented the tiny lures with two wax worms under floats five feet down on the outside weed edges on four pound test line. It took literally less than a minute for Hraychuck to catch the first big gill. From then on, it was a matter of non-stop catching and tossing in or out so that only gills eight inches and bigger found the cooler. Smaller fish went back in the water.
The reputation of the bluegill as a tenacious fighter, ounce for ounce, is shown as Guide Dave Hraychuck’s rod bends under the weight of another fish. The fights are fun and the eating is good in Wisconsin wherever bluegills cooperate.
“Occasionally you do catch the 10-inch gill,” Hraychuck said. “This year we’ve caught seven or eight 10 to 10-1/2 inch bluegills and that’s measured on the rule.”
Hraychuck is a multi-species hunting and fishing guide who transplanted to the northwest with Ann after a long career as a law enforcement officer in Vilas County. Polk County, he said, offers visitors a couple hundred named lakes, plenty that are not named, and a multitude of outdoor activities that flow from the diverse terrain of agriculture and forest.
“It’s that mixture of farm and north woods that provides the biggest diversity in hunting and fishing opportunities,” said Hraychuck, who is also currently baiting stations for four clients who will arrive to hunt bear in September. “Deer numbers I know are down elsewhere in Wisconsin but they are crazy here. Ann saw three nice bucks eight points or better this morning that are in velvet. The annual deer harvest and simply seeing deer is always way up here.”
Excellent deer, duck, wild pheasant, and turkey hunting can all be pursued on ample public property, he said. The Rice Bed Wildlife Area, McKenzie Wildlife Area, Joel Marsh Flowage and brand new Straight Lake Wildlife Area provide some of the best hunting, including partridge and a good annual flight of woodcock, which Hraychuck also personally pursues.
His schedule reflects the opportunity. The day before our gill hunt, he was teaching friends how to surface fish with chug-a-pops for largemouth bass on Polk County Lakes. The day after, he and Ann would entertain friends floating the Namekagon River for smallmouth bass. And Thursday, he was slated to check on the progress of wild rice for an upcoming harvest.
Our fishing was fabulous. Bobber fishing allows grown men to travel back to boyhood days. The waiting time for another float popping under the weight of another gill was measured in seconds, not minutes. The fish were big, the fights tenaciously bluegill-like, and the time on the water, completely relaxing.
“The biggest reasons to come to Polk County are that we’re out of the way and there are not a lot of people fishing,” he said. “For years I thought there was no reason to go anywhere else but Vilas County, and they do have plenty of great things too. But come to Polk County; panfish in the morning, trout fish in the afternoon, sit in a treestand toward evening. Top it off meeting nice, friendly people and enjoy quality restaurants and entertainment in Luck and Balsam Lake and you don’t have enough hours in a day to do everything that’s offered here. I had no idea where Polk County was. Now I know it’s a hunting, fishing and trapping mecca.”
ASK SUE…WHAT TO DO...
According to Sue Mathews, Director of the Polk County Information Center, Polk County rests on the border of Minnesota in northwest Wisconsin with 431 lakes offering smallmouth and largemouth bass, walleye, musky, pike and panfish angling. 36 trout streams covering 98 miles also provide isolation and great fishing. She said although the county is a hunting and fishing paradise, several bicycle and ATV trails, including the 98 mile Gandy Dancer recreational trail call other outdoor enthusiasts.
“The Gandy Dancer Trail is the most user friendly trail in the Midwest with easy access to food and lodging,” Mathews said. “The trail begins at St. Croix Falls and passes through Centuria, Milton, Luck, Frederic and Lewis.”
This reporter was in Luck. Special thanks to the pet-friendly Luck Country Inn, located in Luck, Wisconsin in the heart of Polk County hunting and fishing, for excellent lodging. Fine dining, suites and indoor heated pool await visitors on the corner of Hwys 48 and 35. Contact them at 715-472-2000 or connect at www.luckcountryinn.com or luctryin@lakeland.ws.