5/21 - 5/29 week

[Flambeau dreamer]

Fished mainly for smallies.
Didn't do quite as well as blue ranger, however we did manage 148 smallies for the week. 90% of them were caught on topwater baits.
Fished muskies for three hours on Saturday. 12 casts into the season I put a 36" fish in the net. A Fast moving bucktail over shallow wood did the trick. My first figure 8 fish....cool!
I'll be back on the 11th of june for an extended weekend of pure muskie fishing.
see you all then, and best of luck out there.
Chris

[BlueRanger]

Pretty good action on the smallies considering it was already starting to slow down when you arrived. Nothing beats smallies on topwater, except maybe muskies on topwater - you can't go wrong with a firetiger Spook or Chug Bug, but for maximum fun I love throwing a Tiny Torpedo on a light spinning rod. A 3 lb. smallie on 6 lb. line feels like you're fighting a salmon. Works well most of the season around sundown, in many of the same areas you find them spawning. But I've noticed while musky fishing that there are certain prime shoreline stumps and boulders that seem to hold a big smallie all season long, even in the middle of the day when most of them have moved into deeper water.

I came back up Friday and spent the afternoon replacing my trolling motor transducer (for the 3rd time) and finally installing the thru-hull transducer that's been sitting in my closet for the last 2 years. Now I finally know how deep it is when I'm running. Didn't see any muskies on Saturday, but I spent half the day taking pictures, and in the process got a tour of Tiny & Fluffy's fantastic Museum of Northwoods Decor and Hummingbird Zoo and made it all the way to Lake Bastine for the first time in about 15 years. Headed over to Rollie and Helen's in the evening, then to the Broken Oar in Manitowish Waters to listen to some friends whose band was playing. Unfortunately, I then spent Sunday indoors with a ferocious sore throat (completely unrelated to the Broken Oar outing - I think a coworker's kid is to blame). I did post a few new pictures, including some very cool loon shots that were the result of a camera setting error that turned out amazingly well.

[Mark Benson]

Blue:

Must have seen you at Rollie & Helen's as I spent the 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday shift on duty...

Mark

[AndrewR]

Mark, you work at Rollies???

I usually make a once-a-week stop into there when traveling back and forth from my house in Minocqua to home in Chicago. I'm surprised I have yet to cross paths with you in there yet!

Always get great discussion with Pete Stoltman. He graduated from my same high school about 30-years earlier.

[Mark Benson]

Andrew:

If you miss me there, ask for me, they can point you the right way, especially during normal business hours... Pete was the one I knew there when I asked if they were looking for a part-timer to help. I hired his bands when I was in the hospitality business.

Mark