A multi-species kind of happiness
Ellis Blogs 6-23-2017
A multi-species kind of happiness
OWO columnist Dan Moericke with a beautiful Father’s Day brown trout.
Dan Moericke has been writing an On Wisconsin Outdoors’ column for 10 years. Dan, of the Wausau area, sends these photos of his trout fly-fishing journey to southeast Minnesota with son Steve Moericke on Father’s Day. Those are beautiful browns in any stream fisherman’s book, and Dan says the region also has rainbows and some brookies.
Cold water trout fishing proved hot for the Moericke boys last week, as shown with Steve and another nice brown.
I was telling Dan, there’s nothing like brainwashing your kids early and often with the right kind of natural high. Third generation Moericke, Peter, shown below, obviously likes his first bluegill. So do we.
Peter Moericke gets acquainted with his very first fish.
Jim Moon sends this photo of a bear estimated to weigh 400 pounds coming to the bait in northern Wisconsin. Bear hunters; check out the baiting tips in the OWO July-August issue, as well as the story of the Wisconsin hunter tagging one of the biggest bears ever taken in Manitoba with a lot of help and planning from Bob’s Bear Bait.
Paul Schulz is a lifelong friend with a place near Presque Isle and near too our own cabin on the Manitowish Chain. It really doesn’t seem to matter what lake or flowage Paul targets with his jig fishing in 2017; he limits out on walleyes. Sometimes he’ll say, “I limited out… but they were kind-of small.”
A walleye in the hand taken on a jig and minnow by Paul Schulz…usually leads to a limit.
So what? I would love to limit out with any walleyes, even if you end up throwing a fish or two back.
I’m looking forward to learning how to jig fish with more skill and with more of a game plan. Paul is going to come over and work our bars that we have plugged into the GPS, and I am going to invade his lake to see if I can steal some walleyes from him.
Below are photos of Paul and son-in-law Andrew Seltzer take after fishing one of the lakes near Presque Isle, and the Flambeau Flowage.
Walleyes taken during two trips on the lake by Schulz and Andrew Seltzer (right).
Paul may score higher on the water, but I will always score higher on the golf course. And I prove it weekly.
My brother Jim Ellis also did well in the north country targeting walleyes using two tactics; pulling crankbaits over the weeds, and using harnesses armed with Gulp crawlers. Below is a sampling of the gold Jim found June 21.
Jim Ellis found walleye action on both crawler harnesses and crank baits.
My nephew Luke Ellis waited for the sun to drop before working the cabin pier with a rattle trap last week. His wife Rachael and their five year old son, Tate made up the audience. Actually Tater was working the water into lather too. Luke caught a walleye before tangling with this musky, which had no intention of coming in on the light gear without raising a major ruckus. Luke eventually won the battle though, and the fish released fine hopefully to fight Tate in about eight or ten years.
Luke Ellis prepares to release a 40-inch musky that smacked his rattle trap. Tate Ellis, 5, offers advice.
Speaking of light gear, I put the row troller in again this week and found some fun pulling a deep-running crankbait after an hour on the water, catching and releasing a 38-inch musky Saturday morning. The one thing I have never liked about musky fishing is that my equipment was too heavy to really enjoy the fight; the strike comes after another 10,000 casts, and you end up horsing it in because you don’t want to lose her. That changed a few years ago when I caught a 40 inch fish on a long catfish rod. It was a great fight worth repeating.
Dick Ellis caught and released this musky Father’s Day on light gear.
Last year, two medium action 7-foot, 6-inch Daiwa rods that I use to shore fish Florida with spinning reels spooled with 18-pound test line were adopted as my row trolling rods. Now that’s a fight. This fish creamed a Drifter Double D, broke water several times, eventually surrendered and smiled for me and the camera before releasing just fine.
“Tell your friends….,” I yelled. “I’m coming for you. We’re coming for you. (I’m an excitable boy in the field and I watch a lot of Tombstone).”
Thanks for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors. Shoot straight.
Dick Ellis