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| Tuning in late to the project musky auction, got there just in time to here them taking bids on a John Kleczewski donation of a guide day(http://www.lakexlures.com/guide-services), and the bidding was dragging a little so, not knowing John, but knowing he fished in the area I normally come up to fish each late summer, bid and got the day.
Got in touch with him a couple weeks back and we arranged a day. John was happy to come over and guide me wherever, but the action was slow for me and I hoped to see a little new water. Well, John graciously took me to"Lake X", and I was impressed he would entrust me with such a secret location. Of course, that was before I realized going there, included a heavy dose of narcotics, blindfold, ear plugs and more than a few miles of bone jolting, kidney bruising gravel and dirt road, but...we got there, and it looked pretty exciting, and also like a healthy ecosystem, bugs in the water, the air etc. I was pretty excited about fishing by now, uhm........until I found out that due to the condition of the landing, I was going to have to swim out to the boat. Oh well, people up around Sworall's age have problems with their skin drying out and cracking if they don't soak it every so often, so it was all good. Got to the boat and after a short ride, John gifted me with one of his Dr. Evil surface baits, a nice loud little tail popper, with a deep fast pop. We quickly established there were fish in the area with 2-3 follows but no commit. Due to John's eagerness for an early start, I had blindly blundered around in my lodging and managed to leave my prescription sunglasses and my camera at home, and it was a bad day for glare, with a slight ripple and lots of sun. I was missing seeing the fish, but my fault. The camera bag and glasses were sitting right by the charger where I had left it the night before with best intentions. We were soon fishing a weed edge that dropped off into deeper water on one side, and we were into the bait changing mode, I had run topwater of a couple types and now started with a couple bucktails, and was happy with what I was throwing but no go on the fish. Next something very suspicious happened, John who was casting out of the back of the boat, decided to change to the Big Rubber. And then one cast to the off side of the weedbed and he hooks this great big headed lanky fish. ONE CAST. Looked mighty suspicious, and did I mention that John has side scanning sonar??? 
So now we have a nice big 44"er in the net and some proof that we were not nimrods out for an outing. The day remains pleasant, though warming and we keep fishing, soon reaching another bar of sorts that I actually have some visibility into the water due to the wind direction and sun at our backs(never forget your sunglasses). I am not liking what the fish are doing. They are rejecting the bucktail, surface combo, though following. I change to a perch suick 9", and John has a bucket of rubber, bucktails, and the under floor is full of a dizzying selection of hardbaits. A few casts with the suick and ZOOM, a smaller model musky comes out and grabs it. I set and get it to the boat. 2. I keep the suick on as we fish further down this bar and a short time later, another fish runs out and grabs it, set, land it and now...3. John, at some later point asked me if I used the suick a lot, and I said no, thinking it is actually not a preferred bait, it is further down the list, but I guess over the years of fishing, I actually have used it a lot. We won't say how many years, more than 2 though. 
As we continue to fish, conditions change, I make the mistake of sharpening the hooks a little on the suick, now the hooks cling and disturb the action, as does the fact that the suick is taking on water, and dredging a little. It isn't running the way I like and I adjust the blade, curse it a little and eventually throw it back in my box when we get the sun in a different direction and I can no longer see the bait(NEVER, EVER, forget your sunglasses). We go back to the surface, bucktail, rubber rotation.
Things get kind of dull, then John perks things up by donating a big glob of rubber to the lake. Professionally though, I might add, very professional! So here we are again, a couple of nimrods on an outing, one blind, and one unable to manage his tackle infrastructure. We establish that there are still fish to be had but not biting. Changing lakes and changing baits doesn't get it. We pull out and change lakes again and have some lunch. At this point I discover John has a big bag of ice under his drinks and sandwiches in the cooler, THE BUGGER!! I had been drinking warm water, but the afternoon just got better. We continued on fishing another body of water after lunch. We pounded, and I know from the concentration on a few areas that we were hitting John's pet places. Unfortunately the fish weren't going, though we did see what was probably the first musky ever caught on a fly rod, caught in another boat. It was hotter and muggier, but still the fish didn't quite seem ready. Kept fishing, interesting, fishy looking water, really interesting. I was enjoying the trip and had asked John 1,157.5 questions up to this point, all of which he answered graciously, as best he could, We had compared some results of other water. Other lakes, what was going on in northern WI etc. The afternoon kept looking better with a breeze and cloud cover moving in, but the fish were raggy and not bitin. I knew John had extended his time for me and I was perfectly willing to go in whenever(color me "fished out but not willing to admit it to the kid"). John suggested we hit a few points on the way to the boat. Ok. then it happened, another musky gets up and makes a run out of the weeds after a Yellow Headed tail whacker John had notably made fun of earlier. Unlike the fish I am used to, this one came all the way to the boat hot and happy to go into the figure 8 as I dipped the bait under water, and on the second round ate the bait on the eight. John made fun of my bait, but with no sunglasses, that yellow head made it much easier to see when the fish actually crunched it. 4.
Nice day. Most of the action with muskies that weighed less than 25 lbs, but we caught what was there, and it was overall a great day on the water. John said that the two that completely ate my bait, which I couldn't see(NEVER forget your shades), would have brought the total for the day up to 6, had I set the hook. But, I don't know, I couldn't see them.
Good deal for the vets, and good deal for me-John has a lot going on with his work, his house, his family, some Walleye group he is the prez for, and some deal with Fur Fish and Game to get kids interested in the outdoors, he is definitely a giver not a taker. Thanks for your donation John, and you made my donation a gift to me!
Hope everybody has had great karma with their auction items | |
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Results of items from the Project Musky auction?