2024 will go down as one of my best local water fishing seasons since I was a youngster in Jackson Hole.  Two years ago everything here in Wisconsin was new.  I got my butt handed to me most outings but love new water and the challenges that come with.  Last year the results improved greatly as I gained experience.  This year I can honestly that a ton of time on the water has paid off.

It truly has been a great year and while I never want it to end, today was my last day of 2024 Wisconsin fishing.  Bob Butler, my main fishing partner on this memorable season, and a buddy of his Jason, met at 8 AM and enjoyed a foggy drive to a familiar musky lake.  We launched under partly cloudy skies and it was an unseasonably warm 50° with little to no wind.

The fishing was excellent – in spurts that is.  While Bob and I know this particular lake it’s still musky fishing and our bread and butter spots didn’t produce.  Finally about two hours in I got ripped but the hook pulled.  First musky of the day lost and that was it for a while.

We hammered away another hour.  We fished a long section of lake shore lined with bulrush.  Jason had a small musky follow and hooked what he figures was a walleye.  But that was it.

Around 1 PM the lake was glass.  It was one of the warmer November days I can remember and the jackets came off.  We wandered to a deep cut and ran our flies through.  In a matter of 30 minutes we hooked three muskies.  Jason lost his.  I managed to detach from my second of the day.  Luckily, Bob brought his to the net.

I said fishing was excellent in spurts, well we went another two hours at least of no eats.  It wasn’t that we didn’t see a few more muskies but they were stubborn.  Around 3:45 that all changed as the sun began to rest and the shadows set over a shallow bay.  Jason hooked up and landed his first of the day.

We don’t like driving home in the dark thanks to tons of deer, especially towing a boat.  So when we released Jason’s fish Bob said it was time to make way for the boat ramp.  Jason was looking at his phone as he took over the oars and said, “Hey, the full moon rises at 4:04 PM.  Almost as the sun sets.  That’s a great time for muskies.  Let’s do another 20 minutes”.

There are more theories in musky fishing than likely with any other species of fish but Bob agreed to another 30 minutes and I’m glad he did.  It’s no fun being the only guy without a fish and I continued working hard as we moved along.  To my disbelief I hooked and lost another musky.  Frustrated, I took the hook point of my fly and ran it along my thumbnail.  It wasn’t razor sharp like they need to be so Bob pulled his file and gave me a needed touch up.

I kid you not, but after the sharpening I lost yet another.  Four fish on and off.  At almost the same time Bob had a big musky follow.  Then Jason hooked up and lost one.  Jason’s rising moon and setting sun talk was legit.  Only one other day years ago fishing with legendary guide, Bill Scherer, had I seen musky action like this.

I kept casting and at last the fishing gods heard my cry.  I got a 5^th chance!  I went tight and stripped like mad.  It was a frisky muskellunge that jumped three times just shy of the net but in the end Jason scooped him up.  This is our smallest one ever on this lake but a musky nonetheless.  I avoided the dreaded blank on my last day and our boat converted the first ever trifecta – all three of us landed a musky in a day!

How cool would it be to catch a musky on your last cast of the season?  Extremely.  So I made sure I did.  I reeled it in and stowed my rod.  Then I took the oars, popped a Sierra and the guys fished it out.  Jason hooked and lost one more.  Then as fast as the fish turned on, by 4:20 PM it was over.

I leave on a payara expedition to Brazil on Wednesday.  Good friend Rodrigo Salles, founder of Untamed Angling, has invited me and a couple other buddies down to fish with him at Xingu.  Between now and then I need to paint a rainbow trout and do up a couple Cliff Boxes.  When I leave on expeditions I like to have as much of my work done as possible.  I’ll have more on this trip as the week goes on.  For now I’m reeling in the Wisconsin gear and relish that fact that I caught a musky on my last cast!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing