|
|
Posts: 1203
| When were the times on the water and in the woods best for you? |
|
| |
|
Location: PA Angler | Back then I never really fished for Muskie but for all the fishing I’ve done never really saw one. Now since our states been stocking them. The fishing has been great for them. The back then times were good for our traditional trout openings. Seems some change for the better and some not so much. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 34
| All the time! |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2240
Location: SE, WI. | Before Wake Boats…;( JD |
|
| |
|
| I have always enjoyed time on the water and in the woods. Different eras have different pros and cons. Growing up in the 1960s, lived two blocks from the Wis. River, in Wis. Rapids. My folks let me and my buddies go by ourselves starting in middle school. The independence was great but the river back then was a open sewer. Last time I was back, a few years ago, young guys caught muskies from an area that once held only carp, fishing from shore. Personally, I still would not eat a fish out of the Wisconsin River anywhere below Rhinelander.
Lot more traffic on the lakes in northern WI, but more musky as well. And much easier to fish them with modern trolling motors. When I started, you took turns manning the oars, unless the wind was just right and you could get a good drift going.
My kids give the look when I stop fishing and watch an eagle or osprey soaring overhead. They take that for granted, I don't. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2280
Location: Chisholm, MN | When I was a kid, fishing and hunting was more exciting for sure. Just catching a 2 pound bass or seeing deer in the woods was better than catching a 50” muskie at this point. You have to remember that when taking kids fishing. Their standards are a lot lower than mine. Keeping it simple can be the best day of their lives. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1261
Location: Stevens Point, Wi. | Places and circumstances change, but each and every one I consider a gift. |
|
| |
|
| ghoti - 3/26/2023 4:01 PM
Places and circumstances change, but each and every one I cons
ider a gift.
This a wonderful way to look at the time we spend in the woods and on the water. I am sure all of us have had days where we spent many hours hurling baits, battling wind, rain with no results yet felt satisfied when we came back to the dock at the end of the day. As I get older, I think I appreciate those times more. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1189
| I have very fond memories of being an 8 and 9 year old, in the early 70's, and taking my little Zebco, a sandwich bag with some frozen corn, and hopping on my bike and riding across town to fish creek chubs in creek that ran through town. Every now and then, a 3 pound carp would find it's way into one of the holes, and you'd think we caught a whale, by how excited we would get. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 94
| The first time fishing in the Detroit Lakes area. I know I will catch flak for it with all the other great Minnesota lakes and the fact that the town itself may seem a bit run down compared to Fergus Falls, but I always love it there. In particular, Big DL, Sallie and Many Point. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 430
| Before social media, Go-pro and the fact that everyone had to pretend to be a fishing superstar.
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 300
| Interesting question. Crazy how perspective changes over time. Couple years ago I would have told you a specific fish I caught on a glider was the best day on the water. Now I would tell you - after my father passed away - that any time on the water I got to share with him was priceless. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1203
| My dad and grandparents started fishing up North in 1936 when my dad was 4 years old. They would stay at couple resorts, then they would go to different lakes and rent a boats so they could fish all over. Pack a lunch and out at first light and come in at dark. Fished with old baitcasting gear (reels with no drags, silk lines) kinda Bass gear. If they went pan fishing They would tie on what they called Cat Gut with a gold hook. If they went to a Flowage they could drop there gold hook down in the snags and catch fish on a bare hook. My dad fished with spoons, River Runt's, Paw Paw Frog and Small Pikies. they would catch Panfish, Walleyes, and Northerns and some one would lose a big Muskie every once in a while. When my dad got older he would fish with his cousin and they caught lots of fish. Fishing was easy back then, but there would people who still could not catch a fish to save there life's. Then the resort owner would tell them "if you want to catch fish follow the little blonde headed kid" My ten year old dad did not like grown men fishing his spots. When my dad was seventeen he caught his first Muskie fishing with his cousin and his uncle Paul. a 40" 20 pound fish. A few days later lost a 25 pound Tiger and he got a 31 pound Muskie he got mounted. His uncle Paul fished his whole life and never got a legal Muskie (30").
My dad went in the Air Fore during the Korean War and left Wisconsin. In the 70's My Grandma and my dad's step dad retired a moved to home on the lake. That first summer went up and fished for a week. A family friend lost a good sized Muskie on light tackle and broke the fish off. I went out with my dad and his friend trying to catch they fish. And the muskie was rolling trying to throw the lure. The muskie throw the lure after some time and it got hooked on my dad's Pikie and they got the lure back. Between that and getting tangled up with a 22"ish Northern with a cane pole I guees you can say I was hooked. (the Northern got away.)
From 1976-79 I got to fish all summer or at least a half summer on the lake. In 76 got revenge on the Northerns and caught 22" and 1/2 on a Bobbiebait. In 1977 I caught my first Muskie 40" 16 pounds. We caught and kept Muskies in the late 70's and in the 80's we went up North a lot but only caught dinks, but we went out for dinner a lot closed a lot resorts at night.
In the early 90's we moved to Colorado from California, My dad retired and by then Grandma lived in town, so we lake jumped and started catching fish and letting them go. From 2000-04 We would spent two weeks in Canada in summer and a week in Wisconsin or Minnesota in the fall. That was the best fishing ever. After that dad got old and he passed. Have not been up north since 2018, but the good news is going to Hayward in late October. |
|
| |
|
| Juhas - 3/27/2023 8:13 AM Before social media, Go-pro and the fact that everyone had to pretend to be a fishing superstar. Agreed. The fishing for me was the best from 2005 to 20016. In my opinion there is a significant decrease in the number of muskies and there is also not as many big fish as there once was. I still have some good days but they are fewer and further between. I have had to lower expectations compared to 10+ years ago. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2280
Location: Chisholm, MN | When looking back I picture a day where my whole family of 5 was packed in into my dad's 14' lund with a 7.5hp merc. I was probably 8-9. My dad just slowly trolling us along the shoreline while my brother and I casted a big white spinnerbait into lily pads and logs, while my youngest brother was sitting in the bottom of the boat whining because his reel was all tangled up. He'd always just sit down and say quitely, "I can't fish". He was probably 5. It was a nice afternoon and I whipped that spinnerbait under a big down red pine and watched as a big largemouth came out and hammered the bait. I set the hook and immediately snapped the line. I watched the bass turn around and slowly swim back under that log. I was crushed, but I think that started fueling the addiction to big fish right there. At that time I was hoping to become a bass pro. But Northern Minnesota was not the place to learn to be a tremendous bass fisherman. Mainly because you had pressure to be a walleye guy from everyone. My uncle was a prominent walleye pro at the time too. I eventually switched gears to mostly walleyes but had muskies on the brain, though I hadn't caught one or given it an effort. This would have been in the mid 90s. I can remember other days like that too. Once my dad dropped me and my brother off at the landing with his boat while he drove the truck back to our cabin. I'd been studying bass pretty hard before hand and made a plan to just fish our way back to the cabin which was only a 1/4 mile away. My plan worked well and we both caught some very respectable largemouth. It was September and I don't think I fished much that time of year before that. We were always hunting instead. It's days like this that gave me the drive to learn and get better and I won't forget those days. I'd go back if I could. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 596
Location: Duluth | While water quality, angler awareness, and DNR stocking efforts are improved. I have seen fisheries degraded by unchecked development that could undermine all of the hard work done in the last half-century. |
|
| |
|
| CincySkeez - 3/27/2023 3:31 PM
While water quality, angler awareness, and DNR stocking efforts are improved. I have seen fisheries degraded by unchecked development that could undermine all of the hard work done in the last half-century.
It baffles me why anglers just kind of ignore the impact of water front development, zoning regulations, etc. About 7 or 8 years ago a state senator at the time for northern WI successfully lead a legislative effort that significantly weakened shore line zoning laws and took away the ability of county and town government to pass zoning that was tougher than very weak state guidelines. Developers loved it. For instance about a half mile from my home, a parcel that could have been subdivided into 6 waterfront lots, suddenly could have 14. When I tried to talk to fellow fishermen about opposing that bill, their eyes just glazed over. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 8725
| I'd have to say the 70's for sure. The quality of fishing in Wisconsin was dismal compared to today, but as a young kid every fish was special. Every weekend was a new adventure on the lake, and catching a 12" bass was as special as a perch as a rock bass as anything else. Being out in the woods, shooting a bow for the first time, my first adventures with a .22 or a 410, catching frogs and salamanders, spearing carp during the spring spawn, bonfires, fish fries... Many great times since then, and hopefully a lot more to come, but the novelty of it all as a kid was truly special. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1203
| It's really cool to hear everyone's stories from great times up north, there's more to going up north then fishing. Finding a good Pizza place or fish fry, or a good Steak. Also finding road by a potato field (good place to see Deer) or go to a dump and see Bear. And looking at the Stars and hoping to see the northern lights. And I do miss some of the old places like the Mint Bar in Eagle River and Barefoot Charlie's by Land O Lakes. The fishing bottomed out in the 80's, the fishing is best in Canada but there is nothing for the non fishing people in our families to do in Canada. About the time we got dialed in on the big Muskies in Canada the rest of the family were not going so that ended that. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 8725
| What I find amusing, and a little bit sad is revisiting some of those places from my youth. So many times I've seen them after a few decades and thought: "Wow, this place is a dump!" or was truly shocked at how small and insignificant they really are compared to my memory of them. Perspective I guess... I remember spending the better part of an afternoon as a kid fishing in a pond I discovered in the woods and thinking there had to be a monster fish in there because clearly I was the first one to discover it. Some years back I was in the area and tried to find it again. Pretty sure there was never any fish in there, as it was only about 30 yards across and appeared to only hold about a foot of water and only after a significant rain.
Far worse however are places from my childhood that have since turned into subdivisions and shopping malls. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2
| I browse this website quite regularly. I seldom, if ever, reply. I have to admit to loving this topic though. I'm from Indianapolis. My Dad had a firefighter buddy, who knew a guy, who used to own a small resort in northern Minnesota on a little lake called Silver Lake. Silver Lake is in the town of Cass Lake. My Dad took the family up there in June of '72 for the first time. The cabins were as rustic as you can imagine. No hot water. No shower. There was a community shower that we shared with 2 other cabins. I absolutely loved it! How my Dad talked Mom into staying there, I have no idea?:)
The boats were extremely basic. 7.5HP motors. Oars were the only way to "troll" the pencil reeds, casting for bass. I remember I had a green Johnson closed face reel. Not sure the model? Each morning and evening, the lake would usually lay down looking like a mirror. Dad would row me along, as I would cast towards the pencil reeds. Often times my top water baits would end up 20' up in a tree, or so deep into the reeds, that I would instantly be hung up. In that rare instance I would make a perfect cast, my baits would land a few inches in front of those reeds, and it seems more often than not, the water would explode! Catching a 1-2# largemouth, as a 6 yr old, was the greatest experience I could ever ever dream of!
We went to Clores Resort on Silver Lake for 13 years, till my parents eventually bought our own cabin on Buck Lake. Those memories with my Dad on Silver Lake are the reason I'm as passionate about fishing as I am. At the time, it seemed like we caught fish on every cast? Now I know the fishing wasn't much better than it is today. The bonding with my Dad is what I really enjoyed the most.
Todd |
|
| |
|
Posts: 77
| My first rip to the Northwoods was in the mid 70s with my grandfather. We went to a small resort on the Three Lakes Chain. I would have been around 11 years old. My grandfather grew up catching perch off the rocks on Lake Michigan and asked the resort owner if there were any perch. Yes was the reply. Around the point at the edge of the weeds. We had the standard resort boat of the time. My grandfather showed me how to work the outboard and told me I was driving. We were catching perch and having fish dinners each evening. It rained one night and we had three buckets on the floor catching the rain water from the leaky roof. We were having a great time. There was a father/son team in the cabin next door muskie fishing. One day the father brought in a 32" fish. I thought it was a monster and they let me hold it. While I stood there holding that fish as it breathed it's last breath it's spirit passed to me.
Edited by R/T 3/28/2023 8:39 AM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 1203
| One trip that sticks out for me was 1987, My Grandpa died the summer before and my Grandma still was living out on the Lake.
I lived in California at the time so I flew into Rhinelander some friends who owned a resort across the Lake along with my Grandma picked me up at the airport. I did a lot of work around the house for Grandma, then one night I walked to a resort for old time sake to have a couple beers and shoot same pool. (ten years before my friends and I made this walk all the time) As I walked down the road three people were walking the other way and we said Hi and kept going. Then I herd one of them say "who's that" to the other people walking. And I was thinking "who's that" Ten years ago I would have known any walking that road and they would have known me. Then a cousin came up and he had a Canoe so we found a wild quiet river to fish and we caught some Northerns on our ultra lights it was a blast. He left them another cousin up and we fished Muskies. (only got some Northerns) I was a very fun trip but it was also the changing of the guard two years later she sold the place and moved to town. Freddy the second cousin used to fish a lot with me in the 70's and he took all kinds of pictures over the years. The first cousin was killed in 2002 and Freddy died in 2009? and his older brother in 2015.
I never got to see all those pictures and who has them now? |
|
| |
|
Posts: 20181
Location: oswego, il | Just being able to fish some heydays in Illinois and Indiana when we had been able to have many double digit and always multiple fish days. I do wish I could have hit the Minnesota lakes and GB during those times as well.as LSC before vhs but it's still pretty good.
Edited by ToddM 4/2/2023 7:54 AM
|
|
| |
