DARK SECRETS...Persistence, change trip musky’s nocturnal trigger
By Dick Ellis
The hunt for a musky was playing out like so many do. Early evening was already on the books. No fish. Dennis Radloff, John Kubiak and I had watched our surface lures cut tiny wakes under a beautiful sunset over Oconomowoc Lake with the same results. And we had plodded through an hour or two of darkness motivated by that “one cast closer” mentality and quiet banter of past success, and big fish.
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| With the sun setting over Oconomowoc Lake, southeast Wisconsin musky guide Dennis Radloff works a surface lure. Two hours later Radloff put John Kubiak of New Berlin on a near 43-inch fish that was released to grow and fight again. | |
This trip had been planned for months. I had bumped into Radloff, my friend and southeast Wisconsin musky guide, at a winter sports show where he suggested a nighttime hunt for muskies after a June work day with ‘real” clients. In addition to Oconomowoc, Radloff chases the fish on Pewaukee, Okauchee, LaBelle and the waters of Green Bay. Kubiak of New Berlin, also a friend and enough of a musky nut that the addiction forced early retirement of his shotguns, rifles, and walleye rods, would take the third seat.
We would give surface lures a fair shot, though Radloff thought that with current water temperatures and conditions the tactic might be early to trip the right triggers. One of us at all times would also be working a lure beneath the surface. From there, we would travel where action or lack of action dictated we go.
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| John Kubiak of New Berlin holds a 42-inch plus Oconomowoc Lake musky caught at 10:00 p.m. under the guidance of southeast Wisconsin musky guide Dennis Radloff, right. The fish was release to grow and fight again. | |
“If you listen closely enough the fish will tell you what it wants,” Radloff said. “One of my biggest challenges is to not get stuck inside of my own musky box, stuck in a mentality of what to throw and when just because it has been successful in the past. I can die by my ways out here if I don’t think outside that musky box. The men and women I know who catch fish most consistently aren’t afraid to go against the grain. Too many musky fishermen chalk up a no-strike day or no fish seen as just a bad day of fishing. Then there’s that small group who agonizes when fish aren’t active and asks themselves, `Okay what can I do next? What can I do different to change things?”
Combined with his own knowledge and instincts, Radloff does enough agonizing and adjusting to put 54 muskies in the boat in 2002, his first year of full-time guiding after earning that privilege by building his client base part time since 1996. Forty-two of those muskies were legal, with a big fish just shy of 49-inches taken from Okauchee.
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| With the sun slipping on the Oconomowoc Lake horizon, John Kubiak of New Berlin works a surface lure toward the boat. Later in the black of night Kubiak would catch and release a near 43-inch musky under the guidance of southeast Wisconsin musky guide Dennis Radloff. |
John Kubiak of New Berlin begins the process of releasing his near 43-inch Oconomowoc musky caught night fishing under the guidance of southeast Wisconsin musky guide Dennis Radloff. |
We began throwing surface lures on a still evening made to order for the technique. Calm turned calmer and by the time an orange ball hung over the horizon in the west, the water was glass except for the trail of bubbles and the “ plup, plup, plup, plup” of another top-water lure being called back to the boat. It was easy to keep on the mental edge by visualizing a pig rising to create its own heart-stopping wake just behind a hawg wobbler, jackpot or pace maker.
“I’ve seen enough muskies take baby waterfowl in Canada but also on local lakes to know they’re not exclusively eating things beneath the surface,” said Radloff, who has a big fish of 47-3/4 inches from a top-water presentation.. “I think the bigger the fish gets, the more prone she is to feeding on top.”
“With a big fish there’s usually not a big explosion or a bunch of commotion. Just a boil. A big fish is an efficient eater. With smaller fish, the water explodes, they’re missing the bait and they really don’t know what to do with it. They’re still learning as predators, especially on the top-water.”
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| Dennis Radloff, owner of Sterling Guide Service works the twilight waters of Oconomowoc Lake Monday night. Specializing in the musky lakes of southeast Wisconsin and Green Bay, two hours later Radloff put John Kubiak of New Berlin on a 42-inch plus fish that was caught and released. | |
The approach of a musky stalking a surface lure is so visually exhilarating that Radloff often won’t even say a word if he sees the fish first, particularly with a less experienced angler. Better, he thinks, to let the chips fall where they will.
“We’re better off if I just shut up,” he said. “They get all excited and their first reaction is to set the hook even if the fish hasn’t taken the lure. The hardest thing is to keep your composure until you feel the weight of the fish.”
We would never get that chance on Oconomowoc. The advantage of fishing with Radloff or other guides is that he had seen several active muskies during previous days of fishing. Including one fish estimated to be in the upper-40 inch class that afternoon. We targeted those fish on the surface but no one seemed to be home. It was time for change.
Kubiak has about 40 legal Wisconsin muskies caught and released since catching the fever several years ago. He has his favorite lures, but he too tries to experiment and apply what he reads from the experts during his time on the water.
“I read about ripping your lure through weeds when you hit vegetation and I’ve taken several muskies like that,” he said as he sharpened the hooks on a depth raider. “I’ve felt a lure hit a rock or weeds, rip it through and immediately, ‘wham’, a fish nails it. Then you remember what you read and you think, hey, that’s what they mean.”
Two casts later, as if on cue, that scenario exactly played out in the Oconomowoc darkness. The raider hit weeds; Kubiak exaggerated a ripping motion, and almost immediately found himself setting the hooks on a near-boat side strike.
The fight was very good, but Kubiak led the fish to Radloff’s net a few minutes later. After a brief photo and measuring session, the near 43-inch musky was held in the water until she regained her strength and let Kubiak know it was time to go home. The release was perfect, and we celebrated the combined success of a guide’s knowledge that put us on the spot and a fisherman’s instincts to fool the beast.
“John caught that fish by changing,” Radloff said. “We covered this water enough but the fish wasn’t even giving us a look. John dialed into that and made a good adjustment. It paid off big time just like that.”
Instead of Radloff resting on success, he turned his focus elsewhere with a million stars blinking overhead. “Now, ‘he said, looking out into the black as the trolling motor hummed. “I know that bigger fish is hanging right over here. Let’s go get him…”
IF YOU GO...
Dennis Radloff and Sterling Guide Service can be reached at 262-443-9993 or www.sterlingmusky.com. Oconomowoc Lake is 776 acres with a 65 foot maximum depth, hard bottom of sand and rubble with some cabbage, some milfoil, and a unique vegetation course to the touch. The musky forage base includes some Cisco, perch, panfish, white bass, juvenile carp and game fish. A public landing is located east of the city of Oconomowoc off of Highway 16. A river journey of several hundred yards takes you to the lake.