Fishing Personal Bests

A Silver salmon(coho)..11lb 13oz...on a blue floating Rapala flat line   north end Kenosha break water April 1969

I guess as I've gotten older, I care less about what I catch.  I care more about what my wife and friends catch.
And my wife had herself an evening in Vilas County a few years ago.
We were walleye fishing a very popular lake on a very popular spot.  I counted 34 boats around us.  We saw 3 fish get caught from the boats around us.
In 2 hours, she caught 27 fish.  She let me catch 8.  She was on the spot on the spot on the spot.  And she was giggling the whole time.

At one point, an old guy in a Ranger Reata came within 6 feet of our boat.  I saw it, told her to turn around and she said if he took a leak, she could shake it for him.  That's when we got a dirty look and he left the area.  Another boat was about 2 casts away, being respectful, not catching anything.  As we are packing up to leave, he asks if he can have our spot.  She says, "Sure".  He thanks us and she shows him her bait, and where to cast.  As she said it, "I'm casting into the setting sun!".  As we pulled away, he caught us a fish and gave us a huge smile and waved his arms at us.

We were just on a tip of a drop off.  She was casting out deep and working her jig slowly up the drop off.  Can't imagine the number of fish that were stacked up there, but it was a trip I'll never forget.  Not for size, but for volume.  And almost all were for her.

And I'll always love that lake and that spot.  Not only for that trip, but because it was the last spot I got to fish with my father.  He got me 6-2 in a short trip and he caught a walleye on the last cast he ever made.

My personal best fish are a 18.75" White bass and my wife caught an 18.25" White bass the same day.  They are both on the wall now.  Caught many 30+ northerns.  They were all delicious.  Not many walleyes.  A few bass in the 20+" range.  They were also delicious.  Just never fished for a trophy.  Many cats in the 30+" range, also were delicious.  Guess I never thought of fishing as searching for my personal best in any category.  Just like to fish.

All-time best day fishing for Northerns.  Day before Father's Day 2006 fishing for Northerns on Big Muskego with my Brother-In-Law.  In the course of 3 hours, between the 2 of us, we caught and released over 100 northerns.  Yes, you read that correct.  We were anchored by one of the deep holes, big storm moving in.  It was absolute insanity.

I went 4 consecutive casts boating a 30"+ fish.  I kept going bigger with spinners and my BIL was going smaller.  Had an absolute riot.  Couple instances of one of us saying, "Get the net.." and the other saying, "...hold on, I gotta land one..."  I kept one 33" that inhaled a MEPPS #5 into the gill plates and was bleeding like a stuck pig.

50 pound Bay musky.  A 53 inch inland lake musky.
30 1/8 inch Vilas Walleye.
Too many 30 inch walleyes in the Bay to count, largest as 31.5.
24 inch smallie, Bay.
But the best?  A 28 inch walleye and a 30 inch walleye on the same trolling bait at the same time.  

Not a musky fisherman but did land a 40 1/2” 20 lb 2 oz musky while bluegill fishing. Also landed a 36 3/4” musky walleye fishing. A couple 28 1/2” walleye on the Winnebago/Wolf River system. 22” smallie from Kentuck Lake. 14 3/4” perch from Green Bay some 30 years ago. Some perch and bluegill catches that made great fish fries. I have a 13 year old grandson, a 24 year old nephew and a wife who all enjoy fishing. Anytime I can put them on fish is a good day. Age has slowed me down so now time on the water is precious especially with those I mentioned. Fair weather and shorter trips now rather than tolerate the elements and make a full day of it. 

Musky- 50 1/8"
Northern Pike- 41 1/4"
Walleye- 31 1/4"
Small Mouth- 22 1/4"
Large Mouth- 20 1/2"
Crappie- 15 1/2"
Bluegill- 10"
Chinook Salmon- 44 1/2"/36# x 2
Great Lakes Brown- 16# (can't remember how long)
Great Lakes steelhead- 19# (can't remember how long)
Inland brown- 23"
Inland rainbow- 19.5"

Nephew and I had a day on the Bay and had 9 walleye over 28"
Buddy and I had a day on the Fox with 76 walleye, average size was 25"
Caught two smallmouths on one bait twice.
Had an hour muskie fishing (verified by timestamp on camera) where I caught 5 muskies in exactly one hour. (46", 44 1/2", 41", 38", 32" and also lost one, which I think I landed a half hour later.

Two walleyes one was from the Mississippi River the other was from Wisconsin River by Petenwell damn

Both still swimming 😵‍💫

I'm not the best fisherman in the world, but I'm old so I've got plenty of stories.   
Biggest freshwater fish; 25# King Salmon, Lake Michigan
Biggest saltwater fish; 30# Pacific grouper, Southern California
Eleven Canadian fishing trips; best two were North Spirit Lake Lodge and Lac Seul
Some of the most enjoyable were smelt fishing and perch fishing in Lake Michigan, back in the day.
Strangest; fishing in the Phu Cat River in Vietnam using concussion grenades. (Best chow I had in the Nam)

I still get out there with friends and family, so probably a few more stories on the way.

Tight lines

One hot August about 30 years ago I was fly fishing on Black Earth Creek. One of the first times I fished there. I caught and released 36 brown and rainbow trout on a parachute Adams pattern in about two hours.  A couple of years later, I caught and released a 21” brown on 7X tippet. Was fishing with a buddy so I had a witness to back me up. Two personal bests on the same stream. 

I once caught an armored catfish off my grandparents dock down in Florida back in 2014. That's gotta be my coolest catch! 

Over the weekend I did some fishing and went to a spot a friend of mine recommended.  He said to tie two crappie jigs tandem and cast out.  I did that and in the first 12 casts I caught 13 fish! One was a double.  Over the next two hours I caught several doubles of crappie and ended up catching over 100 of them!  They weren't real big - most of them were about 8 inches long, but it was a blast catching that many!

So that was a new PB for me - over 100 fish in just two hours!