Hayward, Wisconsin Fishing Report 10-31-14

Happy Halloween everyone!  We’ve got a dusting of snow on the ground this morning at my house and rumor has it that there’s more just to the south.  Wish I could tell you I’m happy to see it…  The 2014 open water season has officially come to an end for us, and it seems appropriate that I’m looking at snow and a weather forecast predicting lows of 13 degrees for us tonight.  It’s definitely been an amazing season, and we sure ended it with a bang.  Mark Hayman from Siren, WI and Steve Naglosky from Shell Lake, WI joined me on Wednesday for a day of late October musky fishing.  Both Mark and Steve have put some big critters in my boat on previous trips, and I was feeling pretty good about our odds.  Well, we’ve been on one heck of a roll over the past month, and a tough day was probably overdue.  The muskies weren’t active period.  We worked deep water spots and steep breaks with crankbaits and Bull Dawgs all day long with only one fish showing some interest in one of our suckers.  Water temps held at 47 degrees on a dark and gloomy day.  In the afternoon, we took a little break from casting and caught a few walleyes in 25′ – 30′ of water on jigs and minnows.  Mark landed a nice 25″ fish, and it was good to see the boys stretch the line a little.  Even the walleyes were slow however as we missed several fish before finally hooking up.  We finished out the day working hard to put a musky in the boat, but it wasn’t to be.  Fortunately for Mark, he had one day left on his trip, but Steve was out of luck.  As always, it was good to have these two old friends back in the boat.  It’s always great to catch up, tell war stories, and laugh.  Thanks for the day Steve.  We’ll get em next time my friend!  Mark better get a good night sleep, because a big day was in store…

Thursday was our last day on the water for 2014.  Mark and I  were back at it in search of a big late fall musky.  The results from our previous day on the water had us switching gears from a lake to a flowage.  There are definitely times when each type of system turns on and off at this time of year, and we were gambling that a flowage was our best option.  It didn’t take long to realize we had made the right choice.  We were into fish almost immediately to start the day, but had a few unfortunate circumstances result in a couple of misses.  One thing about flowages…  There’s a lot of hazards to contend with!!!  After regrouping and reorganizing, we had a fish grab a sucker in 15′ of water around mid morning.  Mark did one heck of a job battling it into the net, and it was exactly the kind of fish we were looking for.  The incredibly fat mid 40″ fish was a great reminder why we grind through sometimes brutal late fall conditions in search of that “one last fish”.  It’s always satisfying to land a musky, especially at this time of year.  As you can see in the picture, the build on this fish was incredible.  I can’t imagine what she’ll look like in a few years, but I intend to find out!!!  Mark and I had one more encounter with a fish that dropped a sucker, but the rest of the day was a bit slow.  We didn’t seem to mind.  That was a perfect fish to end our season on.  We threw a variety of crankbaits and jerkbaits throughout the day with no follows, and water temperatures ranged from 43 – 45 degrees.  Rain, sleet, and snow began to fall as we loaded the boat at the end of the day, and it was a fitting ride home to close out the season.  Congratulations Mark on another great musky.  You deserved it brother!!!

This will be our last fishing report for 2014 until the lakes freeze.  Ice Fishing Reports will follow once the augers get fired up.  Stay tuned, and take care everyone…  Trick or Treat!!!???