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May 24th


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Who'll be out for the Wisconsin northern zone opener. I'm thinking about heading over to the Apple River Flowage for a day, maybe not on the 24th though as it'll be packed. Sadly Bone and Deer will be a lot worse than that as not only will all the muskie guys be out there but everyone else will be putting in their recreational craft for the first time this year.

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I'll be up in Boulder Junction, looking for something to bite...

Lots of lakes to choose from, so hopefully, the crowd gets spread out...

Steve

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I'm sure I won't see any rec boaters on Bone or Deer at 4am on Saturday!!!

Haha, true. On Deer at least in my experience it's not the guys out skiing or jetting around you have to watch out for, it's the old people in the pontoons that get close enough that you can read the brand name on their sunglasses.

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caught a few fish on the apple this morning. nothing big, but it was good to see some fish moving. got to the landing at 6:15 or so and there was only 3 other boats there, but by 9 or 10 there was probably 20 on the water. good opening day though...

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I ended up hitting the 'croix from early till about noon. Moved 2 muskies, 1 twice. Couldn't keep the small mouth bass off my topwater WTD's!!

Hopefully this low pressure will turn those 'skies I saw into biters tomorrow. At it again sunday!

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Yeah I couldn't get out. Re-wiring the cabin and building a wall/door frame took a lot longer than expected (but doesn't it always?). Having to seek shelter for a while Sunday didn't help all that much either.

One question though, were you fishing north or south of the Cameron Bridge?

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It's funny how fishing works.

Up at the cabin with the family and want nothing more than to muskie fish, but the lake is getting pounded by muskie guys who come by about every 40 minutes. So, I'll get the kids out for some fast crappie action, but the crappies aren't over the crib, they are in shallow (59-61 surface water temps) so while the kids are napping, I'm going to find where they are schooled. Take out my ultralight spinning rod with a little jig and my son's ultralight with the old Zebco 202 set up for a minnow.

The fish don't want anything to do with the jig, so I try the minnow and sure enough, that is what they want. Crappie, perch, bass are all hittin...on the Zebco. I think you may see what is coming next: Nice bass or crappie takes down the bobber and I start bringing it in. About 10 reel turns in, the fight takes an exciting, yet horrible turn. Mr. or Ms. Muskie decides it's time to eat whatever I was reeling in and it pulls drag. If you have never heard a 20 year old Zebco 202 drag work, it kind of sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard when you have a muskie on.

Fortunately, I had put new line on this year (8 lb) and I weathered the first run and actually got to fight the fish and see what it was: low to mid 40's but about 5 inches across the back and I still don't know what I initially caught because it was completely in the muskies mouth.

I yell up to the cabin for help (who brings the net when you are 25' off the dock and crappie fishing?) and no one answers. I ask the pontoon next to me if they have a net and they hold up what looks like a flyfishing net. No help, I'm going to have to do this my self.

The muskie runs again and the drag makes me wince because I know exactly what that line is doing in that reel - stretching and pulling over each ridge of the spool and I know that I am on borrowed time. The fish comes to the boat again and I get to see the spawning scars on it's back and sides.

It is at this point that the muskie plays its card - false hope. When it comes the second time I actually think, "Hey, I can hand land it. I think it is tired out." The trap has been sprung. As it sits at the side of the boat waiting for me to believe (which, of course, I believe I can land it) it spins 180 degrees, moves directly away from me, pulls the drag a final time, until the SNAP of the line in the reel.

All I can do now is watch as the line pulls out of the rod guides, slides along the top of the water and slowly sinks away with my hopes of catching a nice one.

I casted a few time with my muskie stuff at the spot later, but I knew I had missed my chance already.

And then, to add insult to my injury, I watched another muskie swim under the dock as I lamented my story to my muskie fishing partner over the phone.

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Vahn,

I was south of cameron bridge, we fished up to the bridge, but there were several boats around that area so we stayed to the south.

That is a great story mike, its too bad you didnt have a net on you. Im sure it would have been nice to land that fish...

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