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ISA Road Trip 2019


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I had Alan in my boat on Sunday and Monday.  We did well both days.  Each of us boated probably around 13-15 fish daily.  19”, 18.5” were the largest.  Many were in 17-18 range.  But majority was in the 16-16.5” slot.  On Tuesday morning, I had Larry in the boat for only 10 minutes.  Unfortunately a mishap occurred that cut our time on the water together short, but not before he boated a 19”er.  I continued to fish solo to the take-out for a half day and boated 8 fish that day.  The best part of the trip for me was sharing whisky around the campfire and telling fish stories. 

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Catching fish during our time has been more difficult than any of our previous trips. Even with that we still have caught many nice smallies and walleye, I have had a great time spending time with my daughter and the other guys here. . At the end of today we witnessed the most incredible rainbow I have ever seen! I will a picture could really capture the view. We happen to be at a perfect spot on the river.

 

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From the last two days. Fishing has been slow. The threat of rain this morning caused everyone to get a late start. High winds made life miserable for those floating. The rain never really happened in our area, so the river hasn’t come up and is still wadeable.  Tomorrow, the weather should be great, we’ll see if the fishing improves. 

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The second week of the Road Trip proved to be the toughest week of fishing on the Menominee River that any of us have ever seen.  I  floated a section 50 miles north of the cabin, a flowage 30 miles north of the cabin with guide Mike Mladenik, and the 6 mile section that the cabin is on. It seems the entire river had just shut down.  Everybody got something, and for the most part, the average size for most fish was 16-17 inches, but even with low numbers of fish, we all had a great time. 

Next year's trip is filling fast and we are already over 70% sold. If you want to get in on the 2020 Road Trip, don't  wait too long to make your reservation.

 

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Chris Sharas go this one from my boat

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Mark Kasick has a nice one while wading

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Guide Mike Mladenik with Dick Gronlund hold a fat smallmouth.

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Although the numbers were way down on some days, there were still a lot of nice sized fish caught. Once again, several good looking fish came from right behind the cabin.

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The pictures from our group are almost misleading, granted everyone caught at least one quality fish but the numbers are few.  Having fished this river for the past 10 years

and approximately 30 trips this was the toughest fishing I have ever come across. Nobody could come up with  a pattern and everyone was skunked at least once if not more.

I fished with my brother everyday managing at least one quality fish each per day except the first day.  2at 18 1/2 , 4 at 17plus and for a couple of hours we fished  at

what I call the Niagra  nursery catching about 15 small bass up to 16 inches.

That being said we all had a great time,  the weather was perfect and you can't beat wing night at the local restaurant, 6 wings for $2. add on a micro brew for $4.

Here's a few pictures

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This was only my 2nd time fishing that section of river. You definitely had to work hard for the fish. I was able to establish a slow but steady pattern focusing on the middle 1/3 of the river. I only caught fish on 2 lures, the large sized chug bug and the big TRD in green pumpkin. There was a lot of grass floating down river the 3 days I fished and other topwaters like the whopper plopper would get fouled quickly. I could cast the chug bug perpendicular to the current and fish it slow drifting the same speed of the current. This kept it pretty clean and seemed to work. The average size was really good as most fish were 16-20".  The best advice I can give someone fishing that section is to learn what mid river current breaks look like and how to fish them effectively. That could be some boils formed by boulders or a sudden change in depth or current speed. A lot of these spots are subtle but they hold quality fish. My best 3 went 20" ,19.5" and 19" which are pictured below and came within a 1/4 mile of the cabin.

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I was able to catch my wife a walleye for a fresh fish dinner. Its hard to beat the quality of a walleye coming from a clean Northwoods river and going from flopping to oven in 10 minutes.

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I had to pull out early for work the last day but was able to capture a nice sunrise behind the cabin. Slow fishing or not this is a pretty special river.

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2 hours ago, WILLIAM C. said:

The pictures from our group are almost misleading, granted everyone caught at least one quality fish but the numbers are few.  Having fished this river for the past 10 years

and approximately 30 trips this was the toughest fishing I have ever come across. Nobody could come up with  a pattern and everyone was skunked at least once if not more.

That's true and the river dropped probably close to a foot- easy 10" from when we got there. 

I found 4 big hellgramites flipping a few rocks.  Did not have a float and stuff to rig them.  If they did not catch fish nothing would.

 

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Here's a few more non-fishing related pics from my wife's camera. Here is the best group pic I could find. We never did pose for one.

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We saw eagles pretty every day. One landed on the opposite shore and hung out there for a long time.

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She just happened to catch the tail end of a sturgeon jumping. I saw a bunch of sturgeon both swimming and jumping.

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