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Posts: 199
| I'll date myself here.
I believe 1974 I wanted to learn Trout lake so I fished with Russ Smith. Small boats, small motoros and the guides rowed. |
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Posts: 757
| August 1984. Guided by Wayne Gooch, creator of the tallywacker, on the Chippewa Flowage. Kdawg |
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Location: Neapolitan Chain Of Lakes | 10 years old guided myself on Lower Eau Claire. Thru my youth I Caught many muskies, Pike, and all kinds of fish on that lake and Cranberry and Middle and Upper. Never hired a guide in my life like to learn myself. Just listen real closely to the guys in the resort bar's (Especially after they've had a few) and a kid can figure out the rest with a lot of time on the water. What would be child endangerment today was just fine back then a kid gone ALL day locking his 14 foot lund with a little round Johnson 9.5hp on the Eau Claire River all the way up to Middle Eau Claire and beyond. Learned early on to carry a spare shear pin. It's a long row from the river mouth across Lower Eau Claire to get home. #*^@ I miss those days. |
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Posts: 2011
| Year 1999 , had fished LOTW on the east side prior, but it was first time to the Angle, so called Mr. Doug J to line up a day a month before the trip, he was only available mid-week, ironically of the dozen spots he took us that day, we'd already fished 4 and they were producing..so we knew studying the paper maps for months before the trip had paid off..Was a great day on the water we put 4 int he bag and could have had a couple more.. I'll never forget it and turned into a love affair with a great section of the lake!
* no GPS back then was fun 
Edited by IAJustin 4/13/2020 11:18 AM
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Location: Milwaukee | 1994, John Dettloff, out of Indian Trails Resort on the Big Chip. Position fishing with oars, working the Church Bar and Cranberry Bar. My buddy caught his first, a 34 incher. We though we were on top of the world!!
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Location: Vilas | Sept 1988 with Tony Rizzo.... sure learned alot from him, not only that day, but over the years |
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Posts: 398
Location: WI | June 2009 with Dave Dorazio. Trip was a birthday gift from my wife & I took a friend along for his birthday. We both caught 1 muskie & raised others. Learned alot while having a great day on the water. |
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Posts: 682
Location: Sycamore, IL | Must of been about 1987. Lake Tomahawk. Guided by Ray Kennedy. I was around 11 years old and my Dad had been bit pretty hard by the muskie bug a year or two before up on Eagle Lake. This was the first of many guide trips that we took in the late 80"s early 90"s in Wisconsin's Northwoods. It was one of those high sky, "blue bird" days and I remember Ray was in no hurry to get out on the water. He had a old (even back then) wooden Chris Craft boat with high sides. We moved a fish right around 11am on an Eddie bait and then he gave us a great piece of advice. He said: "you know sometimes your best bet is to just head on home, grab a sandwich and sit on the couch for awhile." He took us back to his house where his wife made us sandwiches and he told us plenty of Big fish stories. A great day that my Dad and I talk about with fondness, even though we didn't catch a fish. |
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Posts: 7
| August 2010. I was 18? Started musky fishing when i was like 11. All or nothing into it the year or two before this... and said I gotta go to mille lacs. Drove 8hrs to fish a day and a half with jason hamernick. A month before school started I spent most of my savings on gas and guide fee LOL. Get there late. First thing he asked was if i wanted a beer lol of coarse. Sit and talk about fishing. Sleep the night in one of his rental rooms. Woke up first day was too windy for mille lacs so we went to a small "secret" lake nearby. Caught three that day. We fished a full full day 7am to 11pm, awesome. Next morning we wake to a 30 degree temperature drop. He said were going to fish the sand they should be on it after last night. Partly sunny, rocking in 3-4 waves, reeling tiny bucktails as fast as we could possibly reel in 5ft of water. I fought and lost a 53+ he said at the boat and another the same size he lost too. Seen a bunch others and caught two mid forty. Ten years later, still one of the coolest, if not coolest 4hrs of fishing I'll ever have. Wish I had been a little older or got into musky fishing a little earlier to experience the "hay days" on mille lacs
Edited by Outkast 4/13/2020 4:19 PM
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Posts: 1356
| Tues. Aug 11 1993 night fishing on Big Saint in Vilas Co. with George Langley.
Booked the trip in the winter and on July 9th I fell and broke my elbow We got up to Eagle River the weekend before and I did not fish for Muskie till the night of the trip I was ok fished a surface bait not sure what would have happened to my arm if I would had to set the hook ? My dad lost a fish and boated a fish in the low 20 pound class on a bucktail witch he released.
on the way home from Big Saint back to Dam Lake we saw 6 different foxes. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | So I've fished muskies since the mid 70's and I've never had a guided muskie trip. two of my fishing partners guide and I have fished in their boats and they have fished in my boat and I caught some fish when all three of us were in the same boat. I have fished my home lake for 40 years so I'm starting to know it fairly well and at my age I like sleeping in my own bed. I have a lot of world class fishing within an hour of my bed so no need to venture afield. The only time I thought it might be interesting to hire a guide would be to sit in the back of Mike Lazarus boat and watch him come on to my lake cold and see how he fishes it. At one point after retiring I had considered guiding but realized I couldn't spend all day in a boat with someone I wanted to throw over the side but couldn't because they gave me a few hundred bucks.Over the years I have fished with a lot of good muskie fishermen and learned something from all of them but I have never hired a guide. Just cheap I guess.
Edit:
With all the money I have spent on boats , rods, reel, lures, and other tackle maybe I could have fished with a guide every weekend for the last 40 years and been money ahead.
Edited by horsehunter 4/13/2020 6:42 PM
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Posts: 665
Location: Twin Cities, MN | 1998 with Larry Ramsell. We started on the Big Chip with some great clouds that early September day, and my buddy got a beautiful 40 inch tiger musky on an extremely top secret spot near some kind of sand bar ... Then the sun came out, and after meeting Ty Sennett at Herman's landing during a quick lunch, we moved to Lac Courte Oreilles where I managed to yank in my best Wisconsin musky to this day, a dandy 45 incher Larry said should be near 30 pounds.
I had a number of subsequent good days with Larry on a variety of lakes in WI including the Turtle Flambeau. Thanks for the memories Larry.
Paul |
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Posts: 390
| Was 2006 with Rennis Radloff, fished the bay in October, even fished into the dark as he wanted to help my father get his first 40"+. We fished about 11 hours and didn't see a fish. Learned more about fishing the bay that day than I had learned previously. |
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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | i believe my first Musky trip was in 1997 with guide Travis Richardson. Fished the Madison Chain and caught a 36” musky and 24” Pike. Had a great time and it hooked me on Musky fishing for life.
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Posts: 20211
Location: oswego, il | I was a replacement partner for a November trip to Hayward last year. A couple days before my partner says he had booked a guide trip and did I mind if I went on it. Fished with Scott Keiper and had a great time!
I have fished with other guides before but they were not guide trips, just two people fishing.
Edited by ToddM 4/14/2020 12:04 PM
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Posts: 351
Location: Vilas County, WI | Although I've musky fished a handful of years, I never had with a guide. June 2013 on Pewaukee with Mike Koepp. Great guy, awesome time, and learned a ton. My biggest take away that day was how important boat control can be. That summer I went on to have my best season (by numbers) and won my first tournament. Fished with Mike a few more times after that. Worth every penny in knowledge, laughs, and catching muskies. |
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Posts: 41
| This does bring back some memories... Back in 1979 when I was in 7th grade, my best friend's Dad took us muskie fishing to Vilas Co. We fished High, Fishtrap, and Jute Lake that weekend. We did not catch a thing that weekend in August. However I wanted to learn more and read more. The stout rods, and large leaders had me hooked. I wanted as many of the different lures I could get my hands on. I wanted to catch this fish of 10,000 casts. Later that year I ended up with a copy of Tony Rizzo's book, "Secrets of a Muskie Guide." I read it quite a few times. And I wanted to go muskie fishing. My father was not much of a fisherman, but in June of 1980 we stayed near Glidden, WI and spent a weekend muskie fishing. We had flat bottom boats and we floated the East Fork of The Chip. I had my first follow on that trip and I still remember that. I actually had several follows. I also saw my first muskie caught - a 36" fish. Now I was truly hooked. I was almost as excited as my friend was after he caught his first muskie. My Dad knew I was wanting to catch a muskie so he booked a trip for my brother and I. This was August 12 of 1980. He booked us a trip with Tony Rizzo! We stayed at the Silver Muskie Resort on Star Lake for 4 days. I was just getting ready for my Freshman year in high school and my brother was going in to 6th grade. We were young! So my parents ended up going shopping to Eagle River and Tony took us out fishing. We fished all day and I think we saw 3 muskies total. My brother was still young enough where he was not very good with bait casting gear so he used a spinning rod and reel. Our last night there, I went out by myself and managed to catch my first muskie - a 32-1/2 fish which I kept and had mounted. I was the proudest person in Wisconsin - at least for awhile. We fished with Tony Rizzo the next two years. We never caught a fish with him however. But the things he taught us still are with us today. Boat control, working structure, hard work, using the best gear you can afford, paying attention, and making every cast count were several things that we learned that are a big part of our muskie fishing today. I have no idea how many muskies we have caught after that first one. But we would not think twice about a 32-1/2 inch fish anymore. But for me that is where it started. The feeling of catching that first one I can still remember. And that is why I still go for muskies. There is nothing like it. And no fish brings us memories like the legendary muskie. I don't recall the first bass I caught but I do remember my first muskie I caught.
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