This section is focused is simply on gear reviews. No fluff, no lies, no bs. With the right info you wont throw your hard earned $$ on cheap useless equipment, at the same time you can get a decent, high quality stuff for a lot less without having to resort to “fishing luxury brands”. Also when it comes high end equipment, some brands started out long time ago but eventually with time they started to go cheap on labor and materials and strongly decreasing quality of their products compared to what it used to be just 10 years ago. However they still hold strongly in the fishing market due to brand recognition and marketing. Likewise, there are some new up and coming brands that try to carve their niche in the market and offer really high quality stuff for decent money.

It started to get dark, and then right there half an hour before sunset they started to bite. First one was a upper 20 little ski, he hit my lure right when I was about to pull it out of the water and then unhooked itself equally fast when I got him to the shore. Undeterred I made another cast close to the bushes and after few twitches bam!! This time the fish felt a lot bigger, turned out to be a nice mid 30’s ski. I switched to my orange Rapala subwalk and threw it to the shallow creek mouth and got slammed almost immediately. This ski was a little smaller probably pushing upper 20’s, close to 30″. I switched again to my Dorado glider and proceed to catch 2 more small muskies before it got dark.

All that action happened in about half an hour. Looking at it right now I realize that I just got really lucky and utilized the narrow feeding window. Even though all those muskies were small, with only two being around 30″, I still felt like Julius Ceasar coming back from his conquests during my drive back home. Catching 5 of those elusive bastards in such a short time period is a rarity and honestly has not happened to me ever since.

Now I wish I could tell you that I did not get lucky that day but I was really that good and since then I became a musky god that catches 50 inchers on every outing. Unfortunately every honeymoon ends, and in the seasons that followed I was humbled many times with the dreaded smell of a musky skunk or one missed strike after whole weekend of chucking brick sized lures, or even worse seeing my friends standing next to my getting bites and follows while I was being blatantly ignored despite changing the lures like madman. Muskies, I love them and I hate them at the same time…

During the first excursion if June, I started off fishing one of the small, secluded lakes that has decent population of pike. My take was to first score with something so I would not be too stressed out when muskies would not cooperate, because that is usually what they do. Since this lake has both fishing resort, private residences and public access on its shores, it also receives substantial fishing pressure. Therefore I decided to go finesse and try to trick them with some fancy plastic presentations. After 2 hours and zero bites I was devastated. Neither classic Texas rigging, weightless or whacky style was working. Frustrated I decided to screw all this finesse stuff and and snapped on old classic, Nr 5 Mepps Musky Killer in firetiger pattern. Suddenly the dead water came to life. I was rewarded with nice strike from a spot that I had “finessed” for almost half an hour. Not only that, at one point I had 2 northerns attacking my spinner at the same time. After about 7 fish out of which the biggest one was probably shy of 30″ , the storm came in and I had to call it quits.

Next day I decided to try fishing the Flambeau River. The day was a classical post frontal condition, sunny skies and bright sun so I was not expecting too much. I waded a bit and fished around the canoe launch area. Aside from few dinky bass and few missed strikes nothing happened. Then after lunch I decided to explore the hydroelectric dams on the Flambeau. On the first two nothing happened. Then finally I got some action on the third one. Right at dusk when it was getting dark, at that “magic” hour I was methodically working my Rapala subwalk glide bait. Suddenly after 20’th or something cast to the same spot I got a nice hit, followed by massive swirl and a flash of green and red fins under. Finally a nice ski. Right at the same moment my cell phone went off and while I was fighting fish I instinctively reached for my phone. For that one second I lost focus and the tension on the line. After one nice swirl the fish simply spat the lure back at me. Of course phone call proved to be nothing important, and from a friend of mine, you know the one that calls you once or twice per year and he figured that right now would be good time for this rare event.

After settling down and praising my buddy for his impeccable timing, I grabbed my rod again and decided to utilize last few minutes of light. I casted right to the same spot as before and wham! Another hit! For a second it felt like I have minimum 20 pounder on, only to be met with a sigh of disappointment when the fish jumped out and it turned out to be just a nice smallie. The fish was a little shy of 17″ however the way he hit my lure and how he felt for a first few seconds only gives kudos to the incredible strength of this fish.

Next day on my way back home to Chicago I stopped at one of the dams on the Tomahawk river. I start heavy and of course on the first cast I have a follow from a mid size musky. For the next hour I worked this spot methodically with a variety of presentations with no effect. So I put away muskie gear and decided to switch things up a bit. I grabbed my trout/steelhead rod and with a Salmo Hornet and started exploring the heavy current areas around the rocks. Then suddenly I get a snag that suddenly becomes alive. It turned out to be another mid size smallmouth that put up excellent fight on a light spinning rod.

I came back to this area again in early September of that year. Temps were a little bit colder and water levels lower. Like before I started off first from the small lake when I scored well with northerns and one nice largemouth bass. Then I moved to the boat launch area on the Flambeau river. On the first spot I miss nice strike from a big smallmouth that turned away from a muskie lure at the last minute. Then I decided fish the deep swirl right below the boat launch. After like 8th cast I stopped for a second to look around. When I looked down at my feet to look at my lure I noticed just the glimpse of it how it was disappearing in the toothy jaws. The fish came out of nowhere and nailed my Rapala glidin’ rap just below my feet. The fish was skinny and only 31″ but hey, musky is still a musky.

I slowly worked my way upstream, casting to every hole or laydown. The other difference between the Driftless and central Wisconsin streams is the surrounding environment through which they flow. While the former usually flow through open meadows, pastures and farmland, the latter flow mostly through heavy forest. That makes the access difficult on a good day. Later as the summer rolls in, those rivers are pretty much inaccessible due to heavy vegetation and swarms of mosquitos which already began feasting on me. After fishing through another fallen log I score hit on my Panther Martin spinner followed by a tail dance and a jump… and a slack line. This was a nice trout, fat and fast. I quickly measure the rod to the fallen tree branch to get the idea to the size of the fish and see that it was close to 20″ or at least high teens. Motivated I keep on fishing, unfortunately nothing happens for the next 2 hours. Finally I get to the bridge and cast upstream into the deep run with heavy current. Turns out that was the money spot, and I quickly score 4 trout with 2 of them being 17 and 16 inches. They are fast, fat and strong reminding me more of a fresh lake run trout than a inland stream fish.

Since it was already getting dark I thought about calling it quits. However I decided to utilize last hour or so of daylight and try hitting the nearby Wisconsin river or as some of my friends call it, the “Big mama”. I made this decision after I realized that in my trunk I had old 2 piece Shimano Compre musky rod and a few big lures. I took it once with me to try it out after work on one of the lakes in DuPage Co Forest Preserves and I forgot to take it out of my trunk. I did not really expected much, maybe a bass or a pike which I heard were caught from there. When I arrived to the boat launch I noticed 2 other fishermen with heavy gear and throwing big lures. Hmmm, are they fishing for Musky? The infamous “M” fish. The legendary fish of a 10000 casts? Sure looked like it. I strike up a quick conversation and they turn out to be friendly. After sharing a chat and a beer we decided to trade lures. I give away on of my Salmo Slider in exchange for Hellhound in crazy lemonhead color. At first I was not too thrilled about the trade, I usually followed the “match the hatch” rule, and this thing look like a freak from the Halloween techno party. However my newly met fishing buddy sweared that this is his best pick. Upon having closer look I realized that maybe he is not bs’ing me when I noticed the amount of scars on the lure. Surely it must have already seen plenty of teeth in its lifetime. Still unconvinced I finished my beer and went up to the spot near the bank. I snapped on my new clown freak bait and made a short cast careful not to hang it up on the tree branches. Lure fell inches away from the brush with a large “plop”. What happened next is history. Water almost immediately exploded like from the grenade and I sensed another “nibble” that almost ripped me out of my waders. The fight lasted maybe 2 minutes. Once the fish calmed down enough I pulled it away from the brush without reeling but just backing away until somebody netted it for me.

Turned out that the culprit was the legend herself, the mythical “M” fish of 10,000… or wait how about 1 cast. She was a beautiful fat female Musky with a slight gash on her tail, probably a souvenir from the recent spawn. Although she was only 36 inches she looked massive due to her girth. This was also my first legitimately caught Musky. I caught 2 others before. One was a accidental snag when I was casting for bass on lake Shelbyville in IL. The other one was 34 incher I got from trolling on a guided trip on Madison Chain. This one was the first legit fish from the cast, and the one that sparked my ongoing affair with the Musky species that lasts till this day.

I was lucky to get a few decent steels with plenty of suckers and even a carp mixed in. Especially carp loved the fire pink crappie jig plastic. Generally black nymphs and egg patterns were productive, however I decided to come back to my spinning/gear roots and throw some hardware. It worked really well in narrow spots where I did not have enough room to sneak in with a fly without spooking the fish. In tight spots like that I would sneak upstream and then float shallow running crank downstream to staging steelhead. When the lure would drift close to them, I would close the bail, tighten the line and let the lure wiggle in front of their faces. If I was stealthy enough for them not to see me, sooner or later it would result in a viscous, rod ripping strike and beautiful fight.

When the weather got warmer and Lake Michigan tributaries got totally overrun with suckers it was time to head North and hit the magical Wisconsin Driftless in search of inland trout. I had a few days with great weather and plenty of action, however one day in mid May was pure magic. With temps being around mid to upper 70’s and slightly high but clear water in the streams trout were literally on fire. Around lunch time I think I lost the count how many trout I had on, and on few occasions I had two fish attack my lure at the same time. This day was also when I got my first 20″ inland trout. I came upon a nice, deep looking run and made a few casts but surprisingly had no result. I moved on but after a few steps I stopped and decided to give it one last try since the spot looked and felt really “fishy”. I casted my trusty Rapala x-rap far downstream and slowly worked the lure against the current. Suddenly this shade came out of nowhere and started snapping at my lure. After 2 missed strikes he finally nailed it and put on aerial show like he was taking lessons from his steelhead brethren.

Then the summer rolled in, which what I remember was for the record books in terms of heat and lack of rain. Despite that I was able to get some action in June and early July before the massive heat wave settled in. That summer I got lucky with bass, pulled few fat toads pushing close to the magical 20″ mark. I also had some interesting day on the Fox River below the McHenry Dam. First I missed a huge hit from a trophy smallmouth. Then after a few casts later to the same spot I scored another hit, but this time my drag screamed and I had to chase the fish 20 ft downstream. Surprise, surprise! Turned out to be a nice channel cat that decided to get some exercise and nailed my jointed Rapala.

Finally after a long and insanely hot and dry summer that pushed the limits even for Chicago standards, a long awaited fall rolled in. For the last weekend of September I decided to hit my favorite stream in the Wisconsin Driftless area, hoping to capitalize on the last weekend of the inland trout season. And boy, did I got my money’s worth. After a long and dry summer the water was low and almost gin clear. That is on a stream that pretty much always was more or less muddy due to silty bottom. I quickly scored first trout from the deeper holes that right now were super easy to find. Then I came on a double spot; a deep hole and a long run separated by a shallow gravel bar with a fallen tree strewn on top of it. I climbed on a fallen log and threw my spinner upstream right into the deep hole. My plan was to slowly work the lure through the spot upstream of me, then let the current sweep it naturally across the shallow gravel bar beneath me and right into the deep run downstream. Well the tactic worked, but not exactly as I planned. As I was retrieving my spinner over the shallow gravel, suddenly the fallen log I was standing on literally came to life!! Well at least that was what it looked like. Out of nowhere huge shade came right from below where I was standing and inhaled my panther martin. After a hit followed a tail dance and a drag screaming run downstream. I had to climb up the cliff and then slide down the bank into the river to finally scoop the fish. It was thick male with a big head and shy literally 1/8 of an inch to be full 20”.

Because of the insanely hot and dry summer, it was not until the mid October that the first salmon entered the lake Michigan tributaries. Although when the waters cooled off enough, they came in huge numbers not seen in previous seasons. Also river was low and clear which made the fish easier to spot. That season I caught many Kings, but only few Cohos and browns. Run also lasted fairly long; I remember catching fresh fish all the way through November. As far as the fish worth mentioning, the first one in the gallery is a beautiful chrome Chinook female. Usually when salmon run up the rivers even early on they already have some color to them. However this one was still silvery fresh. I remember that day I was casting to a pod of dark males in a deep hole below a boulder. However they nonchalantly ignored my fly. After it drifted downstream I would roll cast and place my fly ahead of them. I did it cast after cast, almost reaching a state of fly fishing Nirvana when there is nothing just you, water and fish. After 10th or so cast when I tried to repeat the maneuver I discovered that I got snagged. I looked downstream to look for the culprit that interfered with my angling meditation, only to discover that suddenly snag became alive!! What followed was an epic battle with peeling drag and tail dancing. Luckily because of low water the fish stayed within the run and eventually another fisherman netted the fish for me. What is funny is that I was not even trying to catch her. She was about 10ft below me in shallow water, however fish that are silver fresh like that are very hard to spot. Who does not like surprises like that.

I started the season off with a few trout from the Wisconsin Driftless region.

Summer I was pretty busy working however I was able to squeeze two days of chasing summer run Skamania steelhead in Indiana. Generally that year was hot and low water but the few times it rained brought some furious action for a few days. I tried soaking the shrimp under a bobber and throwing hardware, however it was the fly rod with a size 12 red tag nymph that was the ticket. If you have never tried going after those silver beasts give it a shot but be warned, Skamania are steelhead on steroids that can spend as much time airborne than in the water when hooked. Once you finally hook into one you might think about selling your bass rods.

Now late summer was a trip to up North with friends. Unfortunately we did not hook into any elusive “M” fish (read Musky), but got plenty of northern and bass.

But the fall was a finally a season when the bags opened. Since summer was hot and dry, all lake Michigan tributaries were also running low. It was not till October when the fall weather finally arrived and so were the salmon. In the low water conditions the best tactic is to focus on the larger rivers since they will be carrying enough water to bring in the fish. In my case I chose to hit Milwaukee River in Wisconsin. That year I caught my PB King which I did not beat till this day, and my PB Coho which I did not beat until the fall of 2019. Despite low water the run was massive and lasted way into late fall.

The first pic is my biggest King salmon so far. He measured even 40″ and was heavy. I spotted him at the end of the long run when he was harassing other males. After making like 5 or 6 casts he got spooked. Then a little disappointed I moved to a new spot and successfully landed 36″ female salmon. Upon release she dropped some eggs. I picked up few, squished them and soaked my egg yarn fly in the juice. Eventually I made my way back to the previous spot and spotted the big male in exactly the same place. After few deep breaths my hands stopped shaking and I was able to make clean cast. This time he chomped down on my fly immediately. When I saw the head shakes I knew he was hooked good. What followed next was aerial jump and drug screaming 100 yard run down stream followed by the same treatment upstream. After initial mayhem followed a dragged out tug-of-war battle. Lucky for me eventually I was able to muscle him into shallow bar where he literally beached himself like a whale. I threw a rod away and literally tackled him like wrestler. It must have looked pretty impressive because I got quite and applause from the group of people watching from the bridge above. The whole battle lasted about 40 minutes.

The second pic is the beautiful Coho that gave me quite a nice battle too. What was special was I caught him in the supposedly “unfishable” spot that had literally 0 people and wilderness scenery that made me think I’m in some wilderness instead in the largest city in the state of Wisconsin.

The third one is another nice male Chinook. He was not the largest nor the nicest looking king that I caught. But what was special about this guy is the incredible battle that he gave me. I spotted him alone in the deep run with a strong current. Since it was already getting dark I tied on hot pink egg fly and after about 4 drifts I got hookup. What followed next was literally pure carnage. In less than few seconds my line was gone and my backing was peeling off. As he was taking off he pulled off a series of aerial summersaults one after another, I lost the count after 8th one. All I remember that for the first 2-3 minutes I was just clutching my fly rod and holding on for my dear life. Eventually the fish calmed down and I was able to muscle him out. The battle like this is as good as you can get on the fly rod in fresh water (at least from my experience). If you want anything better than that you have to hit the saltwater.