Muskie

I had originally requested this past weekend off, thinking Matt and I were headed down to bowfish for Asian carp on the Illinois river back by home. Turns out, Matt forgot he had work to do both Saturday and Sunday. So I had the three days originally requested, plus two more. That was a lot of days to fill.

Friday, I volunteered to drive to Racine and pick up the new gas tank for the ditch boat. We gave up on the old one, given that the sealing kit barely covered half of it. We got a new, plastic one for under $200. Shipping would have been almost as much as the tank itself, so I drove down for the day. After wedging the tank into the VW, I headed to the river there to fish. I went to the Steelhead facility, where Matt and I had been fishing before. Everyone I asked said there was little trout activity, and I wasn’t surprised- the water was pretty warm. So I cast for bass and whatever else might bite. I did find some bass. But there was a surprise in store for me.

Little bass

Whoa, hang on a minute.

Yup. A 6 1/2 muskie fingerling

My first muskie was about as big around as my index finger. Though, at this point, I think I have cast for one a few thousand times. Maybe my next one can be a little bit bigger. I released him & told him to go get bigger.

This weekend, not everything went according to plan. We nixed Summerfest and opted to go fishing instead. Thinking we had the Merc going again, we headed out onto Waubesa on Saturday afternoon. We got a little ways from the launch, and the motor started up on the second pull, only to chug and sputter out. Something was up with its sparkplug wire- it wouldn’t stay connected and the motor wouldn’t start.. We trolled and cast anyway. It was a weird day, weather-wise, but not unusual given this year. Lots of scattered thunderstorms. It would go from sunny to a windy downpour in a matter of minutes. Once we were on the water, though, it didn’t rain. The wind kicked up, nearly overpowering our poor little trolling motors.

For fishing Saturday, I had one solitary bite.

That night, Matt resolved to get a new outboard. Ok, so, it wouldn’t be new-new, but anything post-1949 would be a step up. Sunday morning, we somehow had the luck to find an estate sale going on less than a mile from our house. It was for a man who’d run a marine and outdoors repair/warehouse. I wish I’d taken some pictures, because my goodness. His son was cleaning out the warehouse before he had to return to Alaska. We didn’t even go all the way inside, but on top of having about 10 small fishing boats with trailers and motors, he had another 6 or so canoes, 5 outboards sans boat. Oh, and two sailboats; one that looked to be well over 35 feet- it required a big tri-axle trailer. There was also a horse drawn sleigh on top of a big shelf.

We took a little 3 horse Johnson motor. It’s a beautiful antique from the 50s. It also runs wonderfully. We took it out Sunday afternoon looking for muskie and pike. We saw a few of them jump, but no bites. We at least got the lures wet for the first time. Both days were quite windy, making for some good sized waves. Our little boat rocks a lot, and any waves make it difficult to stand and cast. It ends up being a mix of fishing and surfing.

Maybe we can make it out again on either a calmer day, or onto a protected bay. We also are looking at getting real trolling gear. Way easier than casting for predator fish. At any rate, we now have a working boat motor.