Adventures Outdoors'
IN WISCONSIN
Musky’s in Minocqua
By Rick Spoerl
My Son Sean and I had it all planned out. We had a musky fishing spot picked out of our hot spots book on Lake Minocqua in Vilas county Wisconsin. It was an underwater island near the end of the lake with walleye potential also.The sun was just rising as we left the pier at the point resort in Minocqua. We motored to our spot and noticed three boats fishing around the underwater island. We motored over to a nearby bay to wait out the walleye anglers. I dropped the troll motor and decided to pound the shoreline for bass.
Sean on the other hand was here for Musky’s. He grabbed his musky rod rigged with a large yellow tailed bucktail and casted out the side of the boat away from shore. Soon I started boating some average largemouth in the one pound range casting close to the shoreline. We kept glancing back to see if the walleye fisherman had left but they were really stuck on that spot. A doe and two fawns came to shoreline to take a drink. We absorbed nature as it was awaking to a new day.
After a couple casts Sean’s bucktail appeared to be snagged. He said he had a fish but I doubted him. Than I saw the rod tip bounce and the fight was on. Were not big musky fisherman and only fish for them occasionally, not to mention that this was the twelve year olds first musky.
The day before we fished Lake Kawaguesaga, which connects to Lake Minocqua. We had good success on bass but wanted to try for musky.
Sean was ecstatic as we boated the fish. It was 34 inches long. We released the fish and turned the boat back around to work the shoreline again. Of course I put the bass rig away and began casting a similar setup that Sean was using. After a few casts I noticed Sean puttsing around in the boat and told him it would be hard to catch another musky unless his lure was in the water. He said the drag was messed up and anyway, what are the chances of catching another musky.
I grabbed his rod and casted it out to check it out. I don’t really know what happened next only that I felt a tug on the line and set the hook into you know what……..Yup the troll motor. Sean’s lure broke off and floated to the bottom. Along with the reel completely back lashed Sean’s musky catching rig was pretty much done for the day.
Sean said "great Dad, now I really won’t catch another musky". I relinquished my musky rod to Sean and he was semi-satisfied. I began hitting the shoreline for bass again when on Sean’s second cast he said "Dad, I got another one". I looked over and saw the big fish come out of the water. This fish was bigger and took a little more work to get in. It taped out at 39 inches and was much fatter than the previous fish.
By this time some of the other boats fishing the island were slowly drifting over to us. The wind was picking up and Sean was so excited to tell his sisters and mom that we started in.
What a great thrill for a young boy to boat his first Wisconsin Musky’s.