I still can't believe it!!!!!!!

Finals week in college, and a fried (who caught 6 skies last fall) and I decided to get up at 4:30am this morning to leave for fishing the Wisconsin River for skies for the last time before I go back to MN tommorrow. (Muskie below highway 10 in WI opened May 3)

This was pretty much the first time I casted for skies this year cause on opener weekend water temps were about 50-53 and we saw them trying spawning so I left them alone there, and fished eyes and bass instead.

I got to the spot at about 5:30 am and waded out to my waist in the river and started casting my 9 weight fly rod and after about 7 casts I felt a lot of weight and set the hook real hard! I saw the fish break water and roll around and saw it was a muskie and started screaming I had a muskie on. It fought real awesome!!! but didn't take long to land at all on the fly rod.

length of 38 inches!!!!!!!!! don't even know what the actual name of the fly is, I got it from the Fly Angler/Thorne Bros and its kind of a clouser/whistler streamer about 6.5" long with a nice tinsel tail and synthetic fabrics that puff up real nice. By the way for any fly anglers I was using 3 feet of 25 pound maxima mono tied to a barrel swivel with a uni and then tied to about 20 inches of 50lb tyger wire to the fly with a non-slip loop (thanks for the knot recomendation RK). By the way water temps were 57.4

Congrats!!! Awesome story and great pics!!!

Wow, that's very exciting! I'm bringing my 9wt rods, I've just gotta find some suitable water for them.

Was the fish in slow water? Riffles? Behind a rock? Catch it on the swing or retrieve?

I've gotta find a good river to hit for muskies, this fly fishing in lakes stuff is for the birds...

Way to go... that head shot is awesome!!!

Water has been really high lately and is down some now but still pretty high compared to normal and there were pretty much a few main eddy areas that looked good right off of strong current. I know a guy that caught a few the other day so I knew there were some in the area. Pretty much once they were done with spawn related stuff I think they probably head over and munch down on food, so wherever I would go for all the other fish like walleyes right now. But anyways I was casting into a big swirling eddy near strong current (not sure how deep it was but there was a hole in front of me and didn't want to wade further) and my fly was drifting mostly straight at me and I was keeping up with it and giving it short pulls (not aggresive at all) and it was probably only a couple/few feet down over 8 plus fow when it just bit down on it, it didn't slam it.

Rivers are probably the best way to go like you mentioned when it comes to flies. Pretty much fish where their food is. This time of year I would expect them out of the main riffles or current most of the time like mine was. However, when the water is warmer the guy I was fishing with caught some in shallower riffles, and I have heard it can be good to target (like a couple feet) in summer months. I know you were looking for areas to try in MN before, and I know some people go for them on the upper 'sippie like around Brainerd, and there are big smallies there too from what I hear.

Nice story and pictures, congrats! A muskie on the fly is quite an accomplishment.

I'm a bit jealous of the part about it only taking 7 casts.....

I'm going to be in the Shell Lake/Spooner area for at least a week and may feel like hitting a river while I'm there. Maybe the Chippewa?

Chippewa and Flambeau are both the best bets in the area, Chippewa being a little bit closer. The only place I've seen the Flambeau though it looked more like a smallie river than a muskie river.

nice!ive always wanted to catch a ski on a fly rod

I really like the color on that fish. Great story. I can feel your enthusiasm!!

Congratulations. Who ever said studying pays was not a fisherman. Way to go.

Nice catch! No teeth on that old timer?

Awesome story! Looks like a ton of fun!

nice fish!

Thanks guys



Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. However, while I hadn't been casting for them long I have been sort of trying to follow them to know where to look for them and where not to look without even casting for them. We have been taking water temps and guessing at where they would be and opening weekend here was May 3 and we looked for them and actually saw them spawning. We were guessing on the timing on when they would start eating good again, and I got a "hot" tip from a guy that said he found them in the same areas we would go for the Wisconsin rivers dinky walleye in that section of river (lots of muskie food). So while I wouldn't have bet on it, I think I was just at the right place and the right time and with these postspawn fish a streamer fly might have been just the ticket.