Muskie Float 11/2022
When you are born and raised fishing Wisconsin waters you know two things. First of all, bad weather is not going to stop the fishing, and cold weather means muskie fishing. We decided to load up the Flycraft raft in mid-November, travel to northern Wisconsin, and chase the fish of 10,000 casts with our fly rods.
As usual, Jake and I briefly planned a trip, our schedules align rarely, so when they do, we make it happen. Our plan was to fish a stretch of river in northern WI for muskie. Google maps showed a few rapid sets, but nothing the 14 foot raft could not handle, or so we thought. After some texts back and forth we had a plan. I’ll load the raft on the trailer, hook it up to the Raptor, and aim north bound. On my ride up to the cabin I got into a convoy of Raptors heading to a rally in the Upper Peninsula (which I opted out of for this fishing trip). I got to the cabin Thursday evening, and Jake shows up Friday. The plan is to float a stretch of river that is roughly 10 miles of snaky curves and some rapid sets.
Launching the raft is easy. All we have to do is unstrap it from the trailer, make sure the air pressure is good, and gear up. Well, easy isn’t in our vocabulary…. Jake busted his knuckle open on the ratchet strap which left a large amount of skin hanging, and a lot of blood dripping. We decided to take it easy unpacking until we figure out if he needs a hospital or not. While we were slowly unpacking things and rigging rods a Jeep Gladiator pulls up to us. Decent guy who also chases muskie on the fly. Pretty rare breed. A short conversation later and he heads out with one of our business cards. We finally finish loading the raft with gear, get the Gopro set up, and begin the mission of a few hundred yards of walking a narrow trail with the raft. As we begin this mission of carting the raft down this hilled trail, we hear a vehicle pull up. It is once again the Jeep. We get flagged down, so of course we go talk to him. He was telling us about how he floated the river a ton of times, but never this stretch and could not remember why. Well, he remembered. There are some rapid sets known for taking out drift boats and rafts. After some conversation about the rapids, and known guides avoiding the area, we decided that our first float in the raft should not include this stretch of the river. After some review of the river map, we reloaded the raft onto the trailer and headed down river a way.
New launch, new problems. We unload the raft, get all the gear in it, and go to put the raft on the cart. Where is the cart?! Well, it’s at the launch we were just at. We dump the trailer and I take off to get the cart. We cannot let this ruin our trip. I let that 6.2 sing down the back roads. The cart is back in our possession, and I make way back to the launch. We pick the raft up, strap it to the cart, and snake our way down the narrow canoe portage pathway. Piece of cake. We get in the water, turn on the Gopro and get floating. Finally.
Hear muskie muskie. Of course, no response. The float is going great. The raft is super stable and holds a ton of gear. Sadly, fishing as not anything exciting. Jake was able to land one pike and move one muskie. Even with the float being cut a few miles short, darkness began to approach us. As we begin our final stretch of river we go under a bridge and guess who pulls up. That’s right, Ol’ buddy in the Jeep, he saw we still had our vehicle at the takeout and wanted to make sure that we were okay because it was very close to dark. This is what the community is about. People that genuinely care about others. Granted, he did not care enough to tell us where the fish are, but still, a good guy.
The takeout was pretty easy, Jake ran to the launch, grabbed the truck and trailer, and left his truck there. Once he got back to the raft it was dark out, we loaded up all the gear and headed out. Next time, we are floating the entire stretch.
Chris Hernet
