Turtle Flambeau Flowage, Iron County

It has been a strange fall in the north woods. The hot weather in late September had an effect on two of my favorite fall occurrences, fishing and the transformation of the leaves on trees and shrubs. We have been catching walleyes on places I fish in the fall but not in numbers these deeper water locations normally hold at this time of year. This pattern almost always takes place by late September past years mid September, we're well into October and the fish are just starting to show up. We've been using 1/8 jigs and extra large fatheads, often I use regular round head jigs this time of year in the less snaggy cover but this year still using the Jack's jigs, been fishing some wood and some rocks, they work through both very well. Getting occasional perch and crappies with the walleyes. In addition to deeper water we've caught walleyes in 5-10' where there exists current, another fall pattern.

I got to spend all day yesterday musky fishing and a mix of walleye and musky on Saturday. Saturday the muskies didn't seem to active for us we had one boatside look at a suick the fish came off a rocky point that extended deep into an original basin. Yesterday we netted two muskies, one on a sucker and one on a medusa, we also had two other fish take suckers but missed them. Interestingly one caught fish and one missed fish came off of deep wood and the other caught fish and missed fish came off of deep rocks, we did concentrate on deeper water most of the day (12-24'). Had a great day fishing with avid musky fisherman and his son, son caught one of the fish in the morning before he had to make the long journey back to college.

Mercer Musky Madness this Friday and Saturday at the Gateway Lodge. Last year over 2,500.00 dollars was donated to wounded warriors in action. Saw Wayne yesterday, they have over 5,000.00 in prizes in addition to cash prizes for the first three places. Contestants can sigh up at the meeting Thursday night or last minute Friday morning. Hats off to Wayne, he puts a lot of effort into the event.

Another of our catches yesterday was a very recently lost fishing pole call to identify, the bait was missing from your jig but no walleye attached. Ran out of time to post pictures, I'll try that tonight.

Launched out of fishermans this afternoon.  Connected on walleye, mostly small fish.  deep wood and channel edges, 17-20ft.  Picked up a few large perch, i sure wish i could develop a pattern to target them specifically because i would rather leave the walleye and crappie alone and just eat perch.  Got on one nice spot near the end of the day with fish biting for an hour and a half straight.  Let them all go today.

Nice crappie Edward.   I love this time of year.   I'll be out looking for muskies next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday...  can't wait!

Fished this afternoon out of fishermans.  Misjudged the wind and temperature, as such boat control and angler comfort were limiting factors.  Couldnt get anything going on walleye, preferred spots were too windy.  Played bumper boats on a popular crappie spot, stopped ourselves at 8 fish kept, just what we needed for our fry tomorrow.  Large sized fish, didnt get many under 11".  Plastics were best