[AtitAgain07]

My brother and I were set on getting a muskie this past trip up to Conover, WI. We were seriously thinking about getting a local guide for the walleye and muskie fishing, but poor planning led to plan b. Plan b consisted of buying couple muskie lures and putting most of our time we had on water and keep casting away.

The week before heading up to the Northwoods, I ran across a deal that I could not pass up. I purchased a bow mounted 65# minnkota trolling motor from Cory.
I am not exaggerating when I say that this purchase has to be one of the BEST pieces of fishing equipment that I have ever bought.



I thank Cory again for the killer deal! I love this trolling motor so much that I named it "Mad Max" due to it's ability to keep us on spots with strong winds(15-25mph) on an open body of water.

So after coming up with a way to strongly secure it and still able to remove it after trip, we headed out for little searching and if you look close enough on depth finder, you will see the bait fish that we were after. We started jigging gulp leeches right on weed line and picked off couple little fish. I got one decent keeper walleye at 20".



Also got a visit from the scarce green fish......



The next morning we decided to do a little walleye fishing at twilight and muskie fish the rest of the early morning. We motor up to my spots and start weaving in and out of weed line with Mad Max. We saw absolutely nothing in form of bait. I should add that a severe cold front was passing through. We worked a guesstimated 1000 yard stretch of weed line and decided to motor back to original spot and fish it for 15 minutes or so just to confirm what the depth finder was telling us....(no bait = not many fish).

I drop trolling motor, turn on depth finder, and presto! Bait everywhere! A lot of fish marks were hanging around the 8-10 foot mark in about 14-17fow. My brother and I started to get excited and just as Mad Max gets us turned around and headed on the right path, a muskie thrashes the surface. Down went the walleye poles and we started to cast bucktails and rizzo inline spinnerbaits.



We picked off small bass and brother got a 26" snake pike.



We had no follows or whacks from our targeted prey(muskie) after couple hours and decided now would be good time to get a lil work done around the cabin.

Late afternoon we decided to get out and the winds picked up pretty good. I believe they were around 20mph and started slammin' us pretty good.



We tried open water spots but it started to get a little bit hairy with a couple waves threatening to come over bow of the 14' watercraft.....



So we headed to areas that with less wind and the difference was like night and day. We still had to use our trusty "WE WILL SINK BEFORE WE DRIFT OFF OUR SPOT" anchor.



I ended up getting an 18" walleye off muskie lure in 2-3'fow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think we fished 16 hours for the muskies to no avail but a lot was learned and hopefully we can get one when we get up for closing the place for winter.

[Bubbalouie]

Great Post Steve- you always come thru with good reports. Nice walleye there, Esox would be proud of you, especially with the good picture.

Looks like you've got a good setup now- with Mad Max with ya- and the anchor- well - if, .... if, ... you ever lost it- it would just create a lot of structure down there-

Good luck on your quest for the Muskie- I know you guys will pull one out.

[1775ProV]

Great post Steve, did you fish North or South Twin? I got a chance this summer to fish South Twin for Skies but same results as you. Cool lake though! BTW I finally got out to Chicago again and got my first smallie! Hope all is well.

[AtitAgain07]

Thanks Bruce! I wish it was my boat but it stays up there for visitors. They view it as eyesore on boat.....Guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. As for our anchor choice.....your are very correct! We had to slowly let her down towards bottom so it didn't bury in weeds or silted in areas.

Steve! We are at boat launch off s.twin. We fished both n. and s twin on regular basis. Due to it being pretty crazy on sat-sun with boating traffic and crazy guys casting right up to our boat, we figured to finally go learn other less pressured areas. Of course when everybody left and we were seriously one of the only boats out there, is when the winds picked up and made it rough to fish some of the big humps/rockpiles on n.twin. Getting turned around too quickly and we would've had water over transom in a matter of seconds, but it was a blast!

[hans59]

Steve-

I'm heading to Three Lakes Columbus day weekend. You have any plans to get up there again? Its looking like I'm solo for that one. I can't believe that family commitments can get in the way of fishing.....though I can honestly say that my bud who cancelled to take his dad to Green Bay is probably the lucky one. Let me know if you're up there and interested in hooking up.

Hans

[JakeSmith]

Great post,Looks like you guys had a good time.Gotta love that anchor too.Craziest anchor I ever used was a flywheel off of an air cooled VW engine.Worked good untill I got it down in some rocks,would'nt come loose no matter which way I tugged on it.

[AtitAgain07]

hans59 wrote:

Steve-

I'm heading to Three Lakes Columbus day weekend. You have any plans to get up there again? Its looking like I'm solo for that one. I can't believe that family commitments can get in the way of fishing.....though I can honestly say that my bud who cancelled to take his dad to Green Bay is probably the lucky one. Let me know if you're up there and interested in hooking up.

Hans

That sounds about the time we will be going up...not 100% yet due to work. Will let you know for sure .

Sounds like a plan.

Thanks Mr. Smith. The anchor will need to be retired soon enough......we are probably close if not a little over with weight limit.

[Chas E.]

JakeSmith wrote:

Great post,Looks like you guys had a good time.

Exactly what he said! Careful, that muskie fishing can get very addictive.LOL!

[AtitAgain07]

It is very addicting and I have not even had a swipe! I have landed a small tiger muskie(24" or so) and had a monster(guess would be in the 40" class easy) but was panfishing at the time out of an anchored canoe! That was an adrenaline rush. Had the fish within 10-15' of canoe but was only gonna take pic and then cut line....third main run cut my line.

I am addicted to most species of fish!!!! It has gotten out of hand!!!!