Off Season Chatter/How was your 2010 season or trip?

Just thought we might get some discussion going. It's usually educational and helps create anticipation of next year. Ty posted his results. Anyone else care to comment on their season or trip? Any "big fish" stories? I am not only curious as to how people do but also how big fish might be growing in the Chip nowadays. I commented after my mid-August trip that I only raised 3 musky in a week of hard fishing (caught none unfortunately). It was cool that one blew up at boatside and actually slammed itself into the boat chasing a bucktail out of the water. Looking at Ty's results I seemed to be up at a tough time. Any good stories or results? I may post a question every week or two as I greatly enjoy the answers.

Well, the annual July/August Musky quest in 2010 turned out to be a bust for me. My companions and I got several Pike, and one friend did manage a 40" Tiger on the Chip, but overall I'd say our Musky action was quite slow.

Personally, I've come to discover that my trip to the Chip has evolved into more of a vacation rather than a die hard Serious Musky Fishing adventure. There are days when SMF is what it's all about and I go for it, but I simply have to 'fess up that a lot of the time I just really enjoy laid back fishing without the work of throwing big heavy baits for hours in a futile attempt. Ok, so I'm not all obsessed all the time anymore. I suspect the lack of true Musky devotion has dramatically impacted my catch of said species.

That being said, I have come to truly enjoy my time in the boat with my wife, my kids, and my friends fishing for crappie, 'gills, bass and whatever wants to hit a beetle spin or rapala. Seems like the crappie fishin' the last couple of years using tube jigs on ultralights has been really good and certainly provided fare for a splendid fish fry or two. Basically good times with good people is what it's all about.

Now then, back to that Tiger I mentioned. Craig and I had gotten into a discussion in camp about the lunar tables and some folks ideas of the best time to be on the water. Craig said the table indicated that just before 8 PM was prime time, so we decided to SMF that evening. Craig said, "I have a good feeling about tonight. " I agreed. We took my boat this outing and hit our usual spots. Not much was happening. We were motoring towards a spot when I thought I'd ask Craig if he'd ever fished this one little bitty spot in the middle of nowhere. He wasn't aware of the spot, so I pulled into it and cut the motor. I reckon he was questioning my sanity at the moment, but he fetched on some Double Cowmoo or whatever it was and started casting, saying he never knew the spot existed. About 8 casts later, he said "There's one!" and laid the hooks into a fish.

Craig is a good fisherman and well equipped, so by the time I had my rod stashed out of the way and got the net the fish was ready to be landed. It all went pretty easy and the Tiger ended up in the net near sunset, and we were rather pleased with ourselves. We smiled and high fived and such then set about getting hooks out of the fish. I'm a huge fan of hook cutters, mostly because I hate getting my hands near teeth and 5/0 trebles and slimy slippery Tigers, so I cut the hooks out and got what was left of the lure out of the net. I'm not so sure Craig was terribly delighted at my treatment of his Double Cowmoo or whatever it was.

Picture time. Craig's reaching down in the net to grab the Musky just right for the photo op when he says, " Ow, that hurt. "

"Huh," I sez, "what hurt ?" to which Craig holds up a bleeding thumb. He'd managed to stick his thumb right on one of those very, very sharp Musky teeth and had a lovely gash as a reward. A profusely bleeding gash. Well, Craig sucked it up and got a good grip on the fish and we took a couple pictures and successfully released the fish. Craig said it was the first Tiger he'd ever gotten which suprised me a little 'cause Craig's caught a fair number of Muskies. Like....3 or 400 I'm guessin'.

So, we figured it'd be a prudent time to stop the bleeding. An endeavour I reckoned Craig would be delighted to persue. I'm a very bad boat captain because I didn't have a first aid kit on board, but by golly I did have ONE bandage in my glasses case in the boat. We washed the wound with the available water, applied direct pressure at the source of the blood and cleaned the area with a slimey fish towel. All good. Even got the skin dry enough that the one bandage did stick real well to the damaged thumb. I don't recall if we wrapped electric tape around it then or if that was another story. Hmmm. Anyway, we fished a couple more spots and called it an evening.

First off, I am getting an automatic bilge pump for my boat, twice last season rains on the chip were hard enough to come close to swamping the boat. Once you get to a certain point waves can finish off the boat quick. I was lucky both times. Aug last year was tough, saw fish early in the week before the temp climbed to bad, even using Ty and Dave Dorazio was not able to get a fish. Did have some half hearted hits but nothing I could put the hooks to. In Sept tried a magnum sized hawg wobbler I had repainted to look like a Killer Whale with glow in the dark white. Had a tremendous blow up on it, cast it back and brought it all the way to the boat and blew a chance at the fish, it followed all the way to the boat and left a big boatside swirl when it left. Joe Bucher would have smaked me for just doing the L turn and not a full figure 8, especially after a blowup like I had.
Did get a 38 incher on a small ghosttail during a rainstorm while working a shoreline for a few northerns to just get the feel of having a fish hit. Was my first time catching one by myself and it went easier than I thought it would. Had the presence of mind to back off the drag a bit after hook set and on the sencond time I lead it to the net, she went in just like leading a Horse to its stall. She was lightly hooked in the lower jaw so hook removal was easy, only problem was no decent pics in the pouring rain. Dean

2010 was slow for Musky's... I am ususally on the Chip for two weeks mid-July. This is more of a family vacation, but I do put in some time casting for these fish. I usually fish in the morning for a couple hours and in the evening for a few hours. On average I fish about 5 hours a day. I saw 6 different fish, with one caught, a 30 incher on a popper. Three of the fish I saw one day in an hour window and they were hot. Two took a swipe at the bait and missed. The other was about a 45 incher pushing a nice wake. This was before a storm, it began clouding up and the front was approaching. Other than that is was slow. Hard to put together any pattern.

It's a Beautiful Lake, and I enjoy my time on the water, fish or no fish.

I always take a trip to Canada every summer, so anything on the Chip is a bonus for me.

Best of luck to everyone!

For me the 2010 season started out good with June and the first week of July being above normal. Then we got the heat and the month of July went in the tank for me, and I was up alot in the month of July. August was so-so at best and while I had several chances at fish in September nothing made it to the boat. October was one of the best ever and I only got out once in November and went 0 fer 2 that day.
My average stayed within an inch of 40 inches, which is wierd because most every year has been in this range for 10+ years . . . wierd. I will say I am seeing more fish in the 45-48 inch range than ever though so that makes me pretty happy.
Can't wait for the 2011 season to open and see what mystery the flowage will throw at us this year.


Corey Meyer

Thanks for the stories and numbers. Makes the winter go by a little better.

Living only 3 hours away, I get to fish more than a week or two. Often I'll take a day trip from St Paul and fish with a friend.

IIRC, we boated 12 fish from the Chip in 2010. That is less than what I hoped, but we put the biggest fish that have ever been in my boat.

My family and a friend's family spend the last week of July together. Early in the week, I got a fat 48" on the west side on a ghosttail, followed that up with a 44" on Pete's on the same ghosttail, and then another 40" on the west. My friend caught one fish all week, a monster 49" on the east side on a black pacemaker right at sunset. It was awesome!

We did nothing, absolutely nothing in September and October.

My buddy Tyler Treland saw you guys catch that big one. He said you guys handled it well. Congrats on the big ones last year. Looks like you have a pattern down.