Dutchman,
It was in "The In Zone Thread" from last December. Stories about when you thought you were about to catch a fish and it turned out true. In my case almost true. You can also find the thread by using search engine above, type in flowage, you will get a match
Here is the story unedited. Cut and paste worked. I can't read it again it hurts to much. There is no way any fly rod would have brought this fish in, I can see why the old Wisconsin musky fisherman use to use metal rods like pool sticks to fish for the world record musky in the Chippewa Flowage and other Nothern Wisconsin waters. Where the Musky is King. They can eat any other fresh water fish for sure. Big salmon would be no problem for these girls. All the big ones are females BTW.
Enjoy !
Hal
Yes that feeling does occur at times. Mainly when I know there are steelhead or salmon in the pool and the conditions are perfect. Quite a feeling of anticipation when you believe the next cast or two will be a hook up.
But I have to say the most memorable feeling and event was a huge Musky I hooked up with for an hour on the Chippewa Flowage in Northern Wisconsin 6 years ago. I dropped off my boys at the campsite and went out by myself. Musky fishing is a lot like Steelhead fishing. The fish of a thousand casts they call it. I was dfifting over one of the most famous bars (shallow sand and weed humps in the middle of the lake) on the flowage which is named Petes Bar. Very famous place for Musky fishing. Many big musky have pulled off this location in the last century. The conditions were perfect in late June for big musky, windy, sunny day in the eighties, with a good chop on the water. Drifted over the bar 2 or 3 times skimming the tops of the weed beds with a medium size mepps spinner. Noticed on the fish finder this large object on one of the passes. Had fished there for several years and knew there were no major log jams or down trees. Looked like a big muskie, but of course I was not sure.
Well, I was bringing the Mepps through the bar and just new something was going to happen. The Mepps just stops. Nothing moves, and I am setting the hook with 40 pound test and a medium stiff musky rod. These rods are very stiff and similar to pool cues. Get the idea very strong. Well I ran the 16 foot lund over to where I now beleive the snag is. I get on top of it and start pumping convinced it is a tree stump. I did this for maybe a couple of minutes and was just about to cut the line and tie on another lure. Well the stump starts moving very slowly and taking line, maybe 20-30 yards. Remember in Jaws when the shark starts taking the bait very slowly, with the slow click, click of the drag ? Well that is what it was like. I still was not sure it was a fish. This went on about 5-6 times me chasing the fish by restarting the motor, getting over the fish and pumping to get it to move. It would just move slowly away after I got over it and started pumping. Actually I think it was moving back and forth from maybe two locations. This went on for about 40 minutes. A very tiring experience I can assure you. Was out there by myself with no boats to help me either. Knew the odds were way against me.
I was actually getting so tired that I almost cut the line and said the hell with it. I could tell it was starting to tire since I could raise it somewhat and got a quick look at its outline beneath the surface. It was a 5o to 60 inch fish and probably 50 pounds or more. Problem is the water in the flowage is stained from the peat swamps, like a tea color and visibility is only a couple of feet down.
Finally, I just said this is it, one last assault on this thing. I knew I was finally totally out of my league with a fish. I put all the pressure I could on it, I think it just said it is time to end this. She took off like a freight train, my reel was screaming, and then I saw the birds nest in my bait casting reel which had developed from all the chasing and pumping I put on to the fish. She was going hard and I could see the birds nest coming, I knew it was over, I just pointed my rod guides directly at the running fish and the 40 pound test popped like 2 pound test. I was beaten, my reel was trashed but what an experience.
That I am sure is going to be the most memorable fish story of my life. The world record musky was caught on the Chippewa Flowage very close to where I was fishing. That was caught back in the forties I think, was a 69 pound fish which is still the world record.
The experts said there was a huge musky hanging out at Petes Bar which people had hooked but no one could land.
Was this the fish I hooked, I don't know for sure, all I know it was the strongest fish I ever had on, and will be dreaming about the experience for the rest of my life.
Yes there were some witnessess which after I got back to the campground they acknowledged seeing me fighting the fish. They really could not have helped much though thinking about it in retrospect.
At that point in my Musky career I had been thinking about trying for them with a fly rod. After this experience I said forget the fly rod for this fish and never went further with that idea.
Perhaps a future encounter with a west coast 20 pound plus wild steelie on the fly will be the event which tops this one, I hope so