Weed growth around the area lakes fell behind schedule. I believe this was a result of the cold spring. It played a big role in finding early season walleyes and muskies. Find the waters with better weed growth or the few weeds that were up on the water you were fishing and you got into some fish.  Many folks were complaining about the slow bite and finding the weeds was key to ending the drought. One other observation that I would make to this last spring's fishing is that I fished some of the clearest water in this part of the state that I can remember in a long time. I think it was due to our above average rain fall which started as the snow left and never really let up till late into the fall. I had noticed that many of the stained flowages, while dark, still seemed to be much clearer than in years past. I never really realized how ALL the area waters were being affected untill I fished Grindstone one day. For what is usually pretty clear water, it was exceptionally clear. To the point that many of the deep weeds that I like to fish were visible to the naked eye...........just look down into 15' to 18' of water and you could look right at the weeds! Needless to say, this was not helping the walleye bite. The waters stayed like that into mid-summer. The normal algae blooms seemed to be delayed as well. I can only attribute this to the constant flushing of water that was going on in most systems due to the rains that would not let up.

Musky fishing had been slow for much of the area till the warm up in late June. For me, most of the musky season was sub-par. Yeah, I caught fish, but overall, it was not what I have come to expect in a normal year.  More about that with my closing numbers for the year. One memorable fish was taken on July 7th. I was fishing the Big Chip with some real musky novices. Terrin Haggerty and his group had never fished muskies before and they wanted to come to the Chip for a week and give it a try. We spent many nights on the phone getting them into the proper gear and tackle for the trip and in early July they came from the Dakotas for a shot at a nice musky. The plan was to have Terrin and his brother Tadd in my boat and the two other guys, Joe and Chris, were to be in a follow boat. We stayed in contact by way of hand radios and started to work our way around some of the better spots close to their camp, where they could pound for skies all week. About midway into the day, Terrin is just calling the other boat to see if they are about finished up on a spot they are working 300 yards from us.  At that exact moment his brother Tadd gets slammed at boat side. He has a nice low 20# class fish eat his bucktail just as it gets to the boat and in the heat of the moment Tadd forgets how to give the fish line. He ends up landing this fish without ever having it on more than six feet of line - pays to have the right gear for the job. I could tell that he was no stranger to a fishing rod, even though this was his first musky. 

A few other catches of 2002. For being a bit of an off year, I will have to say that it was one of my better years for putting people onto their first musky.  For most of the folks that were looking for their first fish, we definitely hit many more times than we missed, just wish the average size of many of those fish would have been better.

Terrible thing, but all I could think about throughout the whole fight was, "How is this fish going to find a way to get off?". I guess the year was starting to wear on my mind. As I slipped her in the net I remember thinking, "Man, that was way too easy. Maybe things are going to turn around"! NOT!! Eighteen days later, on the 29th, I successfully lost two 30# class fish in the same day. I was out with client Mike Strong. He was tossing a bucktail and I had a suick. As we finished up on an underwater point, I tossed a long cast to deep water off the point and got hammered on my suick. The fish came completely out of the water and tossed that suick quicker than you could say, "Hey, but wait, I've had a frustrating season". Later that day Mike boated his first musky, but he had to leave the water by 3PM. With one fish in the boat and a low 30# class fish lost, I was not about to quit for the day. I continued to fish the rest of the day, seeing a couple of other fish. As dusk approached, I slid up onto a spot that has been a good evening producer for me over the years. I was throwing a Bull Dawg over some deep weeds. Just as the bait got below my feet at boat side, about six feet down, a HUGE skie tries to eat it. I set with everything I had, actually rolled the fish over, seeing three sides of her, and she was gone! I'm just thankful I was fishing and not golfing, because had I been golfing I think my clubs would have been half way across the lake. I just could not seem to get a break. That fish ended up being the biggest fish I dealt with all year, which is not surprising, as she was WELL into the upper 30# bracket. I talked with another angler who had dealt with that same fish earlier in the year and he also put her at the upper 30# mark. He lost her in the net on a Cobb jerkbait. I'm pretty sure she is still swimming.............so maybe next year!

The best summer time musky bite in the area that I heard of was on the Chip. In mid August, when the water temps made their first decent from their summer time highs, the fish in the Chip went nuts. I missed out on the whole bite, as I had guiding commitments elsewhere. But the guys who could get in on it did well. As one guide told me, "All those followers that had been reluctant to bite all summer turned into hitters". There were several fish over the 30# mark caught and a hand full of fish over 50"s caught in a relatively short time frame.

As fall approached, it looked like we would be having a late turnover. The end of September still had water temps in the high 50's to low 60's around the area. That all changed in a hurry as the weather snapped hard and fast after the first week of October. Turnover was complete on all the area lakes in just a few days and the fishing continued. Fast dropping water temps were the rule through much of October. We went from what looked to be a late turnover to what looked like an early freeze up in a couple of weeks. It's amazing how fast Mother Nature can change things when she has a mind to. I expected the cold snap to really jump start the fishing. That was not the case, it just kept plodding along on its same slow schedule. Even though I boated a normal amount of fish, I lacked the multiple fish days that a normal year brings. The fall pattern stayed the same after turnover.................work hard on most days and catch a fish, nothing too big, but you could get rewarded if you stuck with it. One thing became apparent as the fall season went on - I had finally, after three years of experimentation, developed a quick-strike sucker rig that I could truly say I had some confidence in. My hooking percentage was great this year - over 80% hook-ups. And man, did I need it. 

A few other nice fall fish:

A couple of memorable guys that I had out fishing this fall were a father and son team - Steve and Nick Lange from Florida. You have to admire anyone who lives in Florida and wants to come up here and musky fish during our fall time. They put on the warmest cloths they owned and we hit the water.  Steve had his back go out on him just before he made the trip, but he fished hard and it paid dividends for him and his son. Nick had said before the trip that he did not care if he caught a skie 16"s or 60"s, he just wanted to boat one - the pressure was on. In two days of fishing they were each able to boat their first muskies and Steve got a nice bonus 18# pike to boot! (See #21,22,23) Hope you boys are warm in Florida, it was 16 below zero last night here at my place!

The last memorable moment from the 2002 season was one of the few multiple fish days that I had. I was out with Bob Swanson and Mike Johnson doing some jigging and livebait fishing. We have made a point of trying to fish at least one day in the fall every year...............always fun to be in the boat with you guys whether we get fish or not. On this day we pull up to the first spot and I get the live bait out. Then, I turn to Bob and start to give him the quick 101 class on working the jig. He's no stranger to it as he has done it in the past. I hand the rod to him and turn away to look at my LCR and see that in my minute of explaining I had slipped off the 22' break line that I wanted to work and was now in 28'. As I turn back around, Bob is holding the rod which now has a pretty good bend in it. My first thought was that he must have hooked the bottom. But then I see the angle of the line and the depth change from 22' to 28' and I know it is a fish. He looks at me and says, "I think I got one on".  "Set the hook, set the hook," I'm yelling. After a short fight, we slipped the net under a 35"er. The jig had been in the water less than three minutes and already we had a fish in the boat...............could this be a sign of things to come? We fished hard the rest of the day and the only other action was a 34"er that Mike boated about 3PM. Overall, a pretty slow day for how hard we were fishing. Popping a fish right off the bat like we did really had me keyed up for a better day.  I was a bit disappointed as the day was winding down. I kept it to myself, not wanting to bring the other guys down, but man, I was really hoping for a better day. We were working a long drop-off and as the sun was setting I told the guys that when the boat landing was covered in shadow we would call it a day. The landing on this lake is a bit of a trick to get out of and I wanted the boat on the trailer before dark. As I'm watching the shadows fall across the lakeshore, I'm depressed that I could not get one of these guys onto a better fish. I told them that there was a little extension along the break we were working and that when we were around that we would call it a day. The boat landing was already in shadow. As we finished the extension, I reluctantly told the guys to bring in their jigs; we were wrapping it up for the day. As I'm saying this, I'm reaching for a sucker rod to start bring it in when Bob comes flying from the front of the boat to the back. He's yelling (something he's not prone to do as he's a pretty mellow guy) that he has one on! About the time he gets that out of his mouth a nice fish totally clears the water just out the back of the boat. Bob got the drag adjusted and a good thing it was because we were in for one of the better fights of the year. 

So ends another season here at Top Tackle. I'd like to thank all the great folks who shared a boat with me this year. Here are my numbers for the 2002 season.............be they good or be they bad, they are what they are. See you on the water next year.

MUSKY NUMBERS FOR 2002

52 fish over 34"s boated
10 of those were over 20#s
2 of those were over 25#s
No 30# class fish boated, lost two and saw two others that would have made the mark (better luck next year).