Charlie’s Haus

I got back from Canada real early on Sunday morning. It was a great trip again this year, but with a pleasant surprise. I caught the most Muskies! I had 8, and Andy had 7. Thats 15 for the two of us in our boat. The other boats had 3 guys and they didnt come close to that many which is hard to believe. We had perfect weather for fishing too.

The 30 mile ride from the launch to camp sucked hard. It was windy/rainy and we had the smallest boat. What normally takes a little over an hour took us 3 hours. At one point we took a wave over the bow that swept me off the front deck onto the bottom of the boat there was so much water….and at another point there was an inch of water on TOP of the floor…we put the bilge through its paces for sure. Luckily the rest of the trip went much better.

First the weather. It was nice cool nights in the 40-50’s, and highs during the day of upper 60’s and a few days of low 70’s. There were only 2 days of real sun, the others were overcast or rainy. We definately had better luck during the rain (thats when Andy got his biggest fish ever, and the biggest of the camp tis year of 49″…a real monster).

The first night (around 4 hours of fishing) I decided to throw nothing but my Double #12 bladed bucktail. The size of the blades is crazy. The lure weighs 2.5oz…an arm buster. The blades are so big that I jokingly refer to them as hubcabs. I thought double #10’s were bad, but this is a whole new level. Anyways, the first night, nothing. Not even a follow. That worried me that we were going to have a slow week, but not so.

The next day I started throwing a jig and trailer and swimming it back. I figured the water was cold 66*, so subtle and smaller would be best. Boy was I wrong. Andy got hung up in a pine tree and had to cut his line to get his bait out. We were in front of a weedy beach so I said lets just sit here and Ill fish this hard while he retied. I finished casting with the jig and saw the #12 monsters sitting there so I said why not. First cast, BAM! That was the 42 1/2″ that I got. I couldnt believe it.

I proceded to cast that for the rest of the day, catching another musky and 2 decent pike. The next day I casted it for the first few hours, but my arms, back and wrists hurt so bad that I could no longer stand it. I went to the “small” double cowgirl (double #10 blades). Last year I tried the double cowgirl for about 10 casts and said screw this, it was too much. But this year after throwing the double #12’s, it felt like a baby lure. I ended up using it almost exclusively for the rest of the trip. The only time I changed away I went to a spinnerbait because I couldnt get through the weeds with it anymore.

To make a long story a slightly less longer story, we only had 1 day that we didnt catch at least 1 musky. Most days we caught more. The first full day we had 4 (we both had 2). The last day we had 5 (I had 4 and Andy had 1). Thats just a crazy number of fish. We also had a crazy number of follows. We converted a few of them to hooked, but not many.

As I mentioned, the last day I boated 4 muskies. They ranged from 36″ up to 42″. Not a bad score really. I couldnt be happier with our performance. Andy also stepped up his netting skills and did a great job. No more repeat performances of last years debacle….which cost me a fish near or over 50″.

As I mentioned earlier Andy caught a nice 49″ Musky. It was a beast, and it was a treat to see him catch it. We watched it come up behind his rumbler (a topwater lure) and inhale it. It reminded us of watching a jaws movie. It was a site to see for sure. The only sad thing is that the net we had isnt really made for fish that big and it ended up cutting half of his tail off (you can see it hanging there in the pics). Hopefully he gets by just fine without it (my guess is as long as it doesnt get infected it will be fine).

So this year was a great success and we learned a few new things. First is that the double cowgirl is nothing to mess with. We caught over half our fish on it. The second is we need to buy a real musky net. The 49″ ended up putting a hole in the brand new net of Andy’s father in-law. That sucked.

With the price of the large bucktails I have decided to buy the stuff to make them myself. I really have a hard time paying $25 for a single lure. Now I should be able to make them for around $10 or less each. I would also like to make a few spinnerbaits. I really like the one I got at the fishing show this spring, and plan to make a few like them.

So here is a pic of my largest fish, and if you click on the picture, you will go to the gallery containing all the fish we caught.

Monday I took off of work and went fishing.  I started out for bass on Mendota (Im still trying to break the 18″ legal mark).  I thought I was for sure going to do it too.  The first dock I got a 17.5″ Largemouth.  Good start to the day.  A couple of hundred feet up, on a weedy point between docks I got a small snake northern on a spinnerbait.  I was like all right!  Then the wind started to pick up a bit…it wasnt too bad at that point though.  A few more docks up, I nearly had the rod ripped out of my hands by a 16″ smallmouth.  I set the hook and he set it back!  That was a treat since he was way under and it was one of those crazy metal docks with supports everywhere.  I fished a few more docks and the wind really picked up.  To the point where I was only getting 1 or two casts at a dock before I was either blown past it or into it.  Also, its that time of the year when they start pulling docks out of the lake, so I was loosing docks too.  So I decided to head over to the University bay area.  The weeds were about 1 – 2 feet under the surface, so I thought I would try my new 1 minus crank bait I bought this spring.  First cast, small northern.  Second cast, little nicer northern.  At this point I was kicking myself for forgetting my pike/musky tacklebox.  I had planned on fishing bass so I didnt have anything real big with me.  I stuck on the largest bass crank I had with me, a rapala DT4.  Not much bigger, but what the heck.  A few casts later I had a northern in the 35″ range on.  I got him up to the boat 1 time, then when he took off he shook the hooks out.  Not surprising considering how small they were.  I ended up catching 3 or 4 more smaller northerns before I left.  I was going to fish second point area but there were two boats there already, so I decided to call it a day.  Not a bad day for 5 hours of fishing.  Im sure I could have had some larger ones if I had some bigger baits. 

Next time I go out, it will probably be for Muskys on Waubesa.  Who knows, maybe tomorrow.  It may be my last time out for the year with how cold its been lately.

OK, so the reason I havent posted about the rest of Europe is because I was in Canada last week at my yearly Lake of the Woods Musky fishing trip.  It was kind of weird being back for 5 days and then leaving again for another week.  You sure burn a lot of vacation that way!  Anyways, as always it was a good time, and this year we had a phenominal showing.

We had 9 guys sharing our 8 man cabin, so it was a little crowded, but really, I was surprised that it didnt feel too crunched.  There were 4 boats between us.  In the boat with 3 people we had the priviledge of being in the presence of someone “famous.”  He writes for Musky Hunter magazine and was pretty cool about sharing information…a drastic change from last year.  The rest of the guys still kept pretty quiet about where they were fishing, but he would tell you everything.  That was very helpfull and helped you pattern things better.

This year we definately didnt do as much eating.  The 3 man group liked a different schedule.  They liked to get up at dawn, fish until 10 or 11am, then come in for brunch, take naps, play cards, etc.  They would then eat and leave to go back out around 4pm for the rest of the day.  Now I completely understand why they were doing it that way, but because of that, some of the other guys tried to follow suit.  That ended up in a giant clusterfuck of not knowing what was going on.  Normally we would eat around 7:30am, then pack lunches and come back between 2-5pm and eat then go back out right away.  I like that much better since after all, this is still a vacation and I am definately not an early riser. 

So I said we did well as a group, and we really did.  Between the 4 boats we caught 30 muskies.  Not bad at all.  I boated 3.  2-39’s and a 36.  I had one in the upper 40’s on (Im guessing around 48″) but after an awesome battle, I lost it boatside before we could get the net under her.  Very disappointing.  My boating partner Andy got only 1.  The rally hat came through for him and on the last night at dark (litterally last minute) he got a 46″ fish at the boat.  I expertly netted it, and that was the last fish of the trip for us. 

Here are two of the fish we got. One of my 39″ and Andy’s 46″:

I have decided that for next year I am going to do a lot of studying on muskies so that we know where to fish more.  We are battling 3 other boats filled with DNR guys, so I think we held our own pretty good.  Especially since this really was my 2nd time ever fishing for them.  I think I have Andy convinced that you dont need to be so far away from shore to catch fish (every cast was a power cast….that wears you out fast).  At the end he went to the other extreme and was way too close, but I wasnt about to complain since I had complained all week about being to far away =D  Baby steps. 

If anyone has some good lake of the woods forums, or some good musky forums, I would be happy to have some ideas on where to look on my quest for knowledge.  The only forum I know of dedicated to muskies is the musky hunter/fishinfo forum.  The information there is pretty slim though.

For the rest of the trip pics…go here http://www.charliemaurice.com/?page_id=286&g2_itemId=518

I took off work Wednesday and Thursday to use my vacation before its lost at the end of the month.  I went fishing on Wednesday.  Silly me forgot all about all of the rain we had gotten, and when I got to the launch it was all under water.  I noticed a sign stating the entire chain is under an emergency slow no wake.  I had planned on fishing University bay, but after 10 minutes of driving towards it, I realized that it would take about an hour to get there and abandoned that idea.  So instead I decided to fish some areas I had never tried before.  I started in some flooded trees next to the shoreline.  I found one tree that I knew had a fish on it, and sure enough first cast…BAM!  16″ largemouth.  I tried fishing some docks with worms, but they were too flooded, so I switched to a spinnerbait next to the docks.  After an hour and a half I had had enough of it and decided to head in.  On my way back, I noticed the sandy bottom suddenly turn to weeds.  I decided what the heck and brought my spinnerbait out and fished them.  I caught 2 more largeys from the weeds, 1 – 16″ and 1- 17″.  I decided to make one more pass through them before going back in and got a small northern.  Not a bad day for 3.5 hours of fishing and never having fished the area before. 

I then came home and worked on the bar.  I also worked on it all day Thursday.  I got a lot of work done on it.  Its now all constructed except the top, and I the rest is all stained.  I just have to polyurethane it now which is going to take some time since there is a lot of wood.  Overall Im really happy with how its turning out.  Pretty good for changing my mind and changing things as I went. 

Today I painted the outside trim around the windows and on the shed after about a year.  I figured it was time.  I have a little to finish up on that, but I need some more paint.  Mandi comes home from Honduras tonight.  She said she had a lot of fun and has a lot of pictures.  Im sure the cats will be happy she is home since I have been busy doing things this entire week.

Its been awhile since I posted, but its for good reason, I did finally get fishing!   The first day was Memorial day.  It was a bad day to be out since a thunderstorm went through the day before, but I did manage to get two dinks.  I then got out Saturday and Sunday of the next weekend.  I didnt do to good on Saturday.  Had I landed what I had bite, I would have had a great day….but unfortunately I had some issues.  I missed a 20″+ walleye.  I set the hook and my line snapped.  Luckily I was using a floating crank and it didnt hook they big eye.  Then I had a Musky on my buzzbait.  It was probably in the 35″ range.  He threw the buzz.  I lost a couple of small bass too.  I casted off a lure (but was able to retrieve it because there was so much line that went out with it).  Bad day.  Sunday was much better.  The wind was gone and the weather was warm.  I started the day bad.  I lost about an 18″ bass.  Lost a 16″.  Then decided to check my hook.  It was dull.  The next 16.5″ actually made it to the boat.  I cought a rock bass and a small dink later.  A pretty good day considering all the boat traffic.  Everyone and their mom was out.

Before the season started, I purchased a recessed trolling motor foot pedal tray.  It allows the pedal to be about floor height which makes it so much more comfortable to use the trolling motor.  I have to say, I am glad I got it.  Worth every penny.  I wish it was a little bit farther forward, but my boat is old and the front deck isnt that big.  Still, it helps a lot.

While pulling the boat I realized the shocks on the truck were bad (the backend slid out on my going over any bumps).  I got 2 new ones and started the task of replacing them.  Since I had the tires off I decided to fix the parking brake on the truck so I could launch at some different ramps….well that turned into a project.  I started a week ago on everything and so far I have replaced 1 shock, replaced the rear brakes, replaced the rear brake calipers, and am in the process of replacing the brake lines in the back.  I got in to do one thing and because of the condition of the truck, one thing led to another.  When I am done it will be like new at least.  No worries about any of the brakes (I replaced the fronts when I got the truck last year). 

Mandi leaves for Honduras tomorrow.  She is really excited.  Im a little jealous that I cant be a chaperone too =D  It would be cool to see the ruins.

Im sure other things have happened, but I cant remember everything!  If I remember, Ill post later.  Here is my picture to leave you with.

Today was a shocker.  It went from like 40* yesterday to like -7* this morning.  Thats a pretty big swing and made for a shock to the system when I walked out of the door this morning. 

Last week Monday I went fishing with Cory.  We had a great day of fishing.  Hardly anyone else was out since it was during the week.  Also it helped that it snowed bad Im sure.  I ended up taking home 12 or so really nice 8″ or larger bluegills.  We had a good day and actually threw a bunch of keepers back at the end.  I got to try out my new led lighstrip I picked up at Gander Mountain and it worked surprisingly well.  It made it much easier to see the bobers around dusk. 

Friday Mandi, Lisa and I went to Mandi’s coworker Rocky’s house.  We had some appetizers and wine.  It was fun.  Saturday was the big hockey game against Minnesota.  We had pizza at our house before the game.  It was good to see everyone.  The hockey team ended up with a tie Saturday night, but they did win on Friday night.  It was a good game and a lot of fun.

I have a pretty good start on the basement remodel.  I have the hallway walls up, and have started framing out the bar.  I have run into a few problems with the plans I drew out, so I had to rethink a few things.  It actually turned out better the way it will be anyways, so no worries.  Im pretty excited to get at least the bar part done though.  I know it will be a couple of months Im sure, but I want to see whats in my mind in the basement!

So far nothing is on tap for this weekend, and as long as it stays that way, I will be out one day doing some fishing.  Its nice having like every other weekend busy then free instead of having every weekend busy with something.

Well, its been cold out, but I have managed to get a bunch of projects finished up.  The truck is 95% done….done enough to say its done (the rest is waiting till warmer weather).  I have to do things like bleed the brakes, they are soft but work for now, fix the parking brake, and finish the exhaust (I have it to the mufflers right now, I need to get it from there to wherever its gonna go). 

Since I have managed to finish the truck, I have been able to do some other things.  I finished up trimming the windows after a year.  They look much nicer with trim.  Also, I started work on remodeling the basement.  I got the bar almost all the way taken down, and I started ripping the walls down.  I put up one package of the wood we are using for the walls up (pine carsiding, think northwoods cabin) and its going to look awesome.  The new bar is going to be a little longer and a bit further out from the wall.  Against the wall will be some type of shelves that match the bar and hold things like mugs and liquer bottles.  I will eventually pick up a new chest freezer that will be converted into a fridge to hold my kegs (for the homebrewing I am going to start doing).  I need to also finish setting up my soda gun (I need a new carbonator, the one I bought doesnt work).    It is going to be a pretty sweet setup really. 

I have gotten out fishing twice finally.  I went last weekend after I finished the truck, then yesterday.  Last weekend I went to Lake Waubesa off of Lake Farm.  I never even saw a fish down the hole.  Pretty sad showing.  Yesterday I went to the triangle by Monona bay.  I ended up taking 7 home, 5 bluegills and 2 crappies.  They were all decent size, about 8-9″.  I probably caught 2oo fish though.  I actually couldnt keep two rods in the water and gave up and only fished with one.  I plan on going out tomorrow too since I have the day off.  Not sure where I will end up yet though.