Good Fishing, and Good Hunting Dead Ahead
The fish have cooperated for the Ellis family recently in the northland, and Lori and I are heading back to Boulder Junction for one last hurrah before my wife heads back to the new herd of 1st graders that will greet her too soon in the classroom. What? Did we blink and another summer is filed to memory? We get older, and life sure moves faster. And it is oh-so-good.
Lori and Micah fish the Manitowish Chain.
Lori and I will settle into the cabin this week before doing what we did the last visit; chase muskies as the sun sets with surface baits in the cabbage and wild rice on the Manitowish Chain. When the ducklings are abundant, throw those surface lures. Our best trip brought four strikes in an hour and a 42-inch musky caught and released. We lost a fish in late July soon after I told Lori with an air of authority to wait to set the hook until she felt the weight of the fish, not when she sees the swirl of an aggressive follow. Well, I almost took Lori’s head off 30 minutes later with a “flying” globe when a beauty swirled just behind the bait and I screamed like a girl and set the hook with all my strength. Was that politically correct?
Brother Jim Ellis and nephew Luke Ellis spend their time bouncing between northern Minnesota and our Vilas County cabin chasing muskies. They also habitually harass people over “der” suspected of being a Viking or Gopher idiot, I mean fan.
Jim Ellis catches and releases a 41 inch musky.
Luke tells us that with a recent full moon and the wind blowing out of the south, they targeted a northeast Minnesota Lake which has given up fish in the past under those conditions. They needed all the help they could get since neither had boated a musky yet this season.
“In fact I hadn’t even seen a musky,” Luke said. “I was on this same lake a week earlier and netted a 46-incher for a friend of mine that fishes this lake quite often. With the limited amount of time I have spent on the water, it has been helpful to talk with him about what has been working. We went out on a weeknight and didn’t get on the water until about 6:30. About 20 minutes into our first drift, Jim hooked up. After a short battle we had a 41-incher in the bag. ‘I can’t believe it,’ he said, ‘a tell-tale sign of his confidence in the bulldawg I had recommended he use. “
Luke Ellis lands and releases his first musky of the year, a 48-inch fish well worth the wait.
Half-hour later they returned to the same spot. Luke took a second pull on a long cast with a Monster Medusa and hooked up. Luke ended up releasing a 48-inch beauty. Both fish came on big plastics fishing over weed edges. Points, Luke said, were key in finding fish.
“It was a fun way for both of us to get on the board for the year,” Luke said. It was great to be able to share that experience with my dad.”
Luke’s son Grant, 6, also got on the big-fish board, this time with a 10-inch plus gill. Grant has been throwing spinnerbaits and Rapalas trying to catch bigger fish along with his brother Tate, 4, and this big gill swallowed a spinner.
Grant’s 10-inch plus bluegill fell to spinner bait.
“It has been a lot of fun for me watching these two all year, whether it be watching them practicing their casting in April every day, or Grant landing fish on his own, to Tate telling Grandpa that his swimmer guy…his Rapala… is a beauty. Grant has caught three or four northerns, a bass, and that big gill. We have had a few mishaps as well, but fortunately not too many hooks in my back and arms.”
I wanted also to share with the OWO reader the following nice largemouth photo from Richland County submitted by OWO columnist Wayne Morgenthaler with his fishing report this week. Wayne can catch fish on the river and he shares how. Read his weekly reports and the reports of many OWO writers each week under Inland Fishing on this website.
Check out Wayne Morgenthaler’s and other fishing expert reports under Inland Fishing on this website.
The September bear season is on the horizon, and Northern Wisconsin Outfitters are stirring up as usual a good number of bears from 400 to 600 pounds on their 30 bait stations in Bayfield County. Make sure to watch the video on this homepage of one 400 pounder chasing a young bear from the bait. And here is one of the finest photos I’ve ever seen of mama bear and cubs. You’ll have to peek inside the log to find Boo-Boo number two.
Where’s Waldo, the second cub captured on a Northern Wisconsin Outfitter’s bait pile in Bayfield County?
Lots of Kwik Trips out there waiting for you during your Wisconsin travels with gas, food, and your copy of OWO. If they run out of OWO after a week or two, there’s another Kwik Trip just down the road. Nice people, as you already know, and always with a “see you next time” farewell. And you know… they will see you again.
Thanks for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors. Shoot straight.
Dick Ellis