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Posts: 14
| I have a seasonal home on a good-sized northern Wisconsin lake (6000+ acres) and last year and this year decided to stay at home and focus on learning my lake. I hope to fish muskies 80 days or so this year. Do you have a "home lake" or do you consider yourself to be a musky fishing nomad? Could you envision yourself fishing one lake all year?
Edited by PaulB 4/26/2018 1:34 AM
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Posts: 1425
Location: St. Lawrence River | Pretty much fish one system exclusively. |
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Posts: 430
| Interesting question. I, too have a lake home and have been trying to figure out the pattern. The way I look at it is you should have your own lake dialed in before you venture out and try others. But then again saying one thing and doing is another. There have been many a time that I fished my lake for the first three days with zero to show and ventured to another only to catch a couple. |
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Posts: 20178
Location: oswego, il | 100% me. 
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Posts: 3469
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | hahaha!! the younger generations aren't going to get that one Todd!!
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Posts: 1220
| 1956 model? I was seven! |
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Posts: 688
Location: Already Gone | ToddM - 4/26/2018 6:39 AM
100% me. :)
Yes. 100% also. Sweet ride Todd.
IF I had a lake home, I would absolutely dial it in asap and stick with it. Especially if it's larger and had trophy potential. And I include multi-species in that statement. I enjoy changing it up.
As it stands now, We (Team Polock) have about 5 different favorite lakes that we like to fish, depending on the wind, water temps, and the mood of the day. We have alot of notes, alot of great spots, things that we've dialed in over the many years UpNort. We would prefer it this way, and it's worked out really well for us.
Nomads We are. Nomads We will stay.
But if I lived on a lake up there that large, I would probably never leave it, once I had things figured out. Good luck Paul.
Edited by Mark Hoerich 4/26/2018 7:53 AM
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Posts: 101
Location: Niagara on the Lake, ON | Niagara River is my home water and I like fishing it but its a tough grind. Water is super clear and fish are not abundant. But Im lucky to be in Ontario so I have a lot to choose from if I want to travel. Hoping to get onto the Ottawa again this year. Love to get to St. Francis. Eagle and Seul are far but I love those two lakes. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | The lake 5 minutes from my door that I have fished over 35 years contains 50's, the river 7 minutes from my door contains 50's, another lake 20 minutes from my door contains 50's. The St Lawrence an hour and 5 minutes from my door contains FAT FIFTIES |
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Posts: 523
| There are several lakes in the area near my home that all have big fish... Each has its own quirks and times that they "go"... I have my favorite, but am still a nomad I suppose... |
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Posts: 50
| I have a "home" lake in northern WI where my parents have a cabin. I fish that most of the time. It's a tough lake to fish though, so now that I have my own boat, I'm trying to learn some new lakes. I also go to Canada for at least a week each year, that I sort of call a home lake as well. |
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Posts: 343
| I'm a nomad because I don't have much muskie fishing nearby therefore I fish in Utah, Nebraska, Montana, a little bit here in Wyoming and try to hit some southern fisheries I learned while I lived in Tennessee. |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | ToddM - 4/26/2018 6:39 AM
100% me. :)
Screw the Muskies, that is a sweet ride. |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | Nomad for sure. Though I haven't fished the Fox Chain in years I guess that would be considered my original home waters. After beating it to a froth in the mid 90's I asked Terry O'Malley (my mentor) "What do I need to do to get good at catching fish quickly?" his answer, "1st fish alone as often as possible to eliminate distractions". 2nd "fish as many NEW waters as possible". "The more you see the more you'll understand just what makes a lake tick". "You will see and experience for yourself the common thread that all fish use in there movements and migrations". From that point forward I fished no fewer than 30 different lakes, rivers or reservoirs a year for the next 10 years. I haven't counted lately but it's +/- 150. Mapping a strange body of water is where the excitement is, the same lake gets boring to me but yes I do have favorites such as the Detroit river, Eagle lake in Ontario and others but still manage to check out at least 1 new lake on every trip.
Edited by jerryb 4/27/2018 6:57 AM
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Posts: 315
| I built a little cabin on a WI flowage 15 years ago and pretty much fish it exclusively. It's around 1500 acres plus roughly 5 miles of river upstream that is accessible. While I have fished roughly 20 other lakes, I love my home flowage & the challenge of trying to figure it out year after year. Current, water clarity, weed growth (or lack of) and wood structures are variables that constantly change. Plus I like to grab my big mug of coffee each morning and walk to the dock, hop in the boat as the sun is rising while trying to decide if I want to fish the lake or head upriver.....Gotta love the north woods! |
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Posts: 255
| I'm like ToddC above. Cabin on flowage system, boat in the lift. Get up, put troll motor in, and start casting. Head back for breakfast with the fam, and get out few times a day or none, depending on our activities. Flowage is tough to figure, but love the variety it offers. |
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | I'm on a 2 lake chain and spend a majority of my time on Palmer/Tenderfoot. It's too easy to just get int he boat and go, rather than load it up on a trailer and go. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | Both ... one year at home i made a conscious decision to focus the entire year on the Minocqua Chain and map it completely as if i were trying to learn a Canadian Lake. It's paid off and i recommend it. all of that data and all of the learning puts me in a position of confidence when looking for all species throughout the year ... and confidence is what it's all about.
Taking the time it takes to see the lake without water in your mind's eye is always what i'm thinking about |
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Posts: 386
| I have a home water that I fish when I have less than 4 hours to go fishing. And she's a stubborn one. But occasionally, it's worth it. I also have a lake I consider my home water when I have a full day at my disposal. It's almost a 2 hour drive one way, but given the opportunity I will choose that lake about 80% of the time. I just enjoy fishing it and I typically get some sort of positive reinforcement for making the drive. I am a bit of a nomad though, in that I enjoy new water. It's always fun to see new scenery. And then there is the Musky Mecca list I have on my bulletin board. Places that have significance either through big fish or Muskie history that I want to fish at least once. You could call it the bucket list... That's jus t a bit too real for me though. And then there's the other species... I'll never get to them all but it's fun to dream and cross a few off of the list occasionally. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | home waters, for sure, Madison lakes. Use to lake hop a lot in Vilas/Iron, good to have various lakes to hit depending on wind/weather/conditions. Canadian trip now is just to LOTW but we always talk about getting back to Lac Seul. on avg put fish in the boat from about 8-10 different lakes per season... good to mix it up, keeps you sharp on all waters. |
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Posts: 32784
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | As many as 4 lakes per week, sometimes with no repeats for a couple weeks. I have a dozen decent muskie lakes less that 15 minutes from the door. Used to guide Pelican exclusively, will be hitting that hard this year. |
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Posts: 612
| 95% home lake: it's only 40 minutes away. Conesus has some nice tigers and pike (lots of small ones too unfortunately) but very few giants. Still 5 to 15 pound esox are fun for me any time. Get to Chautauqua ~ x2 a year for pure breed musky's, they get big here. Some year God willing I'll get back up to Canada, but it's presently not in the cards.
Edited by NPike 4/27/2018 1:23 PM
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Posts: 753
Location: Ames, Iowa | I have a seasonal on Leech. We love it but it is 7 hours from home. We wish it was 3 hours away, but there are great advantages to being far away. 3 years from retirement, so I am spending a great deal of time there after that. |
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Posts: 176
| Refer to my screen name. Nomadmusky.
I will go anywhere anytime, anyway for a Musky. I love fishing wide varieties of waters; rivers, lakes, flowages, streams, Canada, Northern States, new states, with a fly, traditional tackle, trolling or live bait, from a boat, canoe, shoreline or wading.
Nomadmusky
Edited by Nomadmusky 4/28/2018 8:17 PM
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Location: Northern Illinois | I'm stuck with the Fox Chain bummer.. I do make occasional trip to the Green Bay. |
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Posts: 1209
| Tool time, I have my normal stomping grounds but that's 2 hours away so going a different way definitely happens but if some asked me what my home waters are I definitely have an answer |
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Posts: 463
Location: Sw Pennsylvania | I have a home body of water that I usually spend about 1/3 of my time fishing a season. The rest get split up between 5 to 6 other bodies of water depending on the season. I pick and chose my battles, if conditions aren't right i'm traveling somewhere else to fish. |
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Posts: 359
Location: SW Ohio | Mostly Caesar Creek with multiple trips to Cave Run in the spring and fall. An occasional trip to Green River, KY. Will be fishing the PMTT this year so a couple trips to ST Clair are planned as well as the Barbee Chain. If it wasn't for CR being close I'd pretty much fish Caesar exclusively. That may yet happen if fuels prices keep climbing. |
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Posts: 705
Location: Alex or Alek? | I have 3 muskie lakes in my area I could fish during the week, but only hit 1 last year, and will probably hit 1 this year....When the weekend rolls around I make trips around the state with friends to different lakes. |
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Location: On the O | Realized last year I've never fished a lake for Muskies in the 7 years I've been targeting them. The Ottawa river is two minutes from my house the Rideau and Madawaska are 35-45 mins away and the St. Lawrence is just about 1:30 away 2 if we're going after the big ones in fall.
I have this idea that lake fishing would be so much easier (hahaha I know) as the rivers change so much year to year and even month to month. I'm going to try real hard this year to get on a lake and try to land one, but again I feel like I know where they are in my area so travelling to a new untested spot is just so hard to do.
Edited by BigC 5/1/2018 12:21 PM
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