Lake Chippewa Flowage Vacation

This particular Snag Seemed to be Moving!

July 20th, 2016

I was fishing with Bill and Jeff the other evening. We started out fishing for Walleyes. To say the least, things we’re a tad slow. Caught 3 shorts (under 15 inch min) and a few Gill’s down deep. We then switched gears and turned our attention to Crappies. Figuring we could drum up meal in that department. Started getting into them pretty good and boating quite a few and then’ I ran into a snag.
Well, so I thought..

This particular snag seemed to be moving somewhat. That’s when I knew something BIG was on the other end. At first I thought that it was a super nice Walleye! But it didn’t react like a Walleye. It just stayed down. Way down. With my 5-1/2 ft Crappie rod just bent to the hilt, I couldn’t tell how big, whatever, was at the end of my line.

I had one of the guys in the boat pull up anchor and put the trolling motor down to stay with this fish, from fear that I was going to get “spooled” if we stayed put.

Luckily, this fish was heading out to deeper water in the main river channel. There was nothing for this fish to get tangled in. Just had to stay with it and ride it out and see who tires first.

After 3 times of finally gaining on it and getting it closer to the surface each time, the 4th time up we got to see what it was! ONE. HUGE. MUSKY!!

I could see my little jig had her perfectly hooked on the side of the jaw. With the net man ready and having it in the water next to her floating tired on her side, the net man went for it! He scooped her up head first. With 3/4’s of her body only fitting in the walleye net, he then tried to lift the net in. Big mistake! Snapped the handle in half! I immediately grabbed the broken half with the fish and brought it in!

I couldn’t believe we had her in the boat after that 30 minute fight! We quickly measured her and got her back into the water. After another 20 minutes of reviving her, she left my face wet with a splash of her tail to fight another day.

She measured 48 and was estimated close to 30 lbs.

I brought this 48 inch beauty in on 4 lbs. line and 1/32 jig with GULP on an ultra-light rod!

Crazy things can happen I guess..

Tim Czub – Licensed Guide