Louis Spray Memory by Mike Dorazo My late uncle, Leonard Dorazio, was 14 years old when Louie Spray caught the World Record musky. My uncle told me that he was working at my grandparents’ resort (Nicholas and Sophie Dorazio) (Arrow Resort) on the Chippewa Flowage when he got a call that a
Some of the season’s best Walleye fishing in the Hayward area takes place in May and early June. My favorite choices in lakes at this time of year are Flowages. They warm up quicker than the clear water lakes and for this reason offer the best Walleye fishing of the season
A Shore Lunch featuring fish freshly caught and cooked outdoors over an open fire perfectly complete the circle of the life in the outdoors. Many anglers consider fish cooked like this to be the best they’ve ever eaten and the most memorable part of the trip. On the Chippewa Flowage there
Julius and Dugan Back in the 1970’s there was a pair of anglers know only to the author as Julius and Dugan. Julius and Dugan stayed at Baumgarten’s Resort and were primarily walleye fishermen. This is way back before motor trolling was allowed on the flowage so the pair would row
Long Before Catch-n-Release: Shooting Fish In the “Old Days” it was common for some anglers, and/or their guides to shoot their catch rather than use a gaf hook or a net. The photos below are from the late 1950’s or early 60’s . Guided by Bill Baumgarten; William “Bill” McGilligan, John
July Musky Fishing 42″ Musky in Shallow Water Picture taken and then fish released.
First trip to the Flowage? Hire a fishing Guide! If you are unfamiliar with the Chippewa Flowage and don’t know where to begin, we suggest that you hire a fishing guide. Hire a fishing Guide for a full day or for a half day. Our Chippewa Flowage fishing guides are top-notch
Congratulations to 12 year old Calvin of Antioch, IL on his very first Musky. It was 30 inches caught off of Horseshoe Island on a spinnerbait. Congratulations buddy!
The Smallmouth action on the Southeast portion of the Flowage has been outstanding. Those fishing in those areas report a lot of action around stumpy and rocky shorelines. Spinnerbaits and Mepps have been popular, but the real action has come on imitation plastic craws. The imitation craws have been outperforming other
Beside the world famous Musky and the elusive Walleye the Chippewa Flowage contains Panfish, Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike, Bullhead, Sturgeon, Carp, and Catfish.
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
The Wolter Report (Max Wolter, DNR fisheries biologist, Hayward): Anglers fishing the Hayward area may occasionally catch a warmouth, a small brown or almost purple sunfish with black stripes around the eyes.
Rick Richter of Hayward caught this 53-inch, 46-pound musky Monday, Sept. 1, on the Chippewa Flowage.
Labor Day 2014 I guided a father and son team, Greg and Cory Oimoen, from Blue Mound, WI. They were interested in a Musky hunt. They both had never fished for musky at all and with Greg having limited mobility in his left arm, this kind of fishing could possibly pose
PT was new to musky fishing. His intention was to practice throwing a musky bait in Jackie’s Bar/the Sticks, in preparation to moving around the corner to Mittens Bar. It was 70 degrees and…..
Thirty-one competing teams brought 117 bass weighing 267 pounds to the scales at Hayward Bass Club’s annual Chippewa Flowage Open Tournament on July 28th. The fish averaged 2.28 lbs and all fish were released alive and lively. The day was cold and wet with temperatures starting at 49 degrees and eventually
The Real World Record Musky By Tony Welch In the waning days of 1942, an avid fisherman by the name of Louis Spray forfeited his 1940 world record musky title, together with all bragging rights. The new record – and we’re under oath here – was nothing short of colossal. It
The Landing on County Road CC – PRIZES – PRIZES – PRIZES!
Weekly News article published: June 5, 2012 by the Central Office http://dnr.wi.gov/news/DNRNews_article_Lookup.asp?id=2177 MADISON – Work to help understand and respond to why bass are booming and walleye waning in many northwestern Wisconsin lakes just got a big boost. A consortium of researchers and fisheries biologists from the University of Wisconsin’s Madison
Many of the Lures below were found by walking the shore of the Chippewa Flowage in the spring when the water was low. The lures were found by Bill Baumgarten and John & Ruth McGilligan. The remaining lures are from the Dr. D Collection. Dr. D and his partners Dr. G
Oct. 20, 1949, Louis Spray caught an enormous muskie in the Chippewa Flowage. The fish weighed 69 pounds, 11 ounces, and was 5 feet, 3 ½ inches long. How and Where the Musky Was caught By John Dettloff – IndianTrailResort.com Louie caught the big musky late in the afternoon, on the
By Pat Lindgren & Barb Czarnecki What do you know about Fishing Has No Boundaries? FHNB was founded in Hayward, WI by a local fishing guide, Bobby Cammack, in 1986. The idea came to him as he was recovering from a broken leg, a temporary disability that gave him insight into
WDNR Fish Team Leader Dave Neuswanger and several friends from Missouri stayed in the Sturgeon Cabin and enjoyed a great week of fishing and camaraderie. The warm, welcoming hospitality of Barb and Pete Czarnecki was second to none! Dave has summarized the group’s experiences and observations below. Dave and Pat Shannon
New “Musky Jaws” found on the Chippewa Flowage! On September 28th, 2008, nearly 10 years after a massive musky jawbone was discovered on Lake Chippewa Flowage another apparently larger set of Musky jaws was found by duck hunter Chris Weber. Weber was walking along the shores of Hay Creek down from
Fishing with my son: Here are some pics of a musky I caught on the big Chippewa flowage 9/9/07 she was 51 inches 33 lbs, it was a long week for me. I work for the heckles marina so I don’t have a lot of time off so I took the
Remains of a large Musky was found on the Chippewa Flowage The remains of what is believed to be a large musky have been found on the shoreline of an island on the Chippewa Flowage, Hayward, Wisconsin. I will share with you what I know as factual and keep you apprised
This story starts out with the annual pilgrimage to the Chippewa Flowage for the Hayward Chapter of Muskies Inc October Tournament. This tournament is always a camaraderie trip with my partners and myself really looking forward to this event year after year. The weather is always the hot topic immediately prior
September Tradition by C. Meyer (Guest Writer) Without checking my fishing log books I am going to guess Steve and Bud have fished with me each September for eight years. As you can imagine over that amount of time some interesting things have happened during our trips. The year 2003 was
Melanie’s First Musky By C. Meyer (Guest Writer) Melanie got hooked on fishing in a big way this summer. While Melanie has caught her share of panfish and seen her brother land a few smaller northern pike her quest to catch a musky had not happened. She would exclaim, “I am
Lucky Charlie By C. Meyer (Guest Writer) On a beautiful fall day on the Chippewa Flowage my client Charlie Bark “Lucky Charlie” and myself mused about what we would catch that day. We would be shore fishing with circle hook rigged suckers and even though Charlie was not too sure of
Group Effort by C. Meyer Group Effort: You can always tell when the kids hook into anything larger than a panfish when fishing off the dock by the trailer at the Lake Chippewa Campground and this time was no different. The sounds are like a cross between James Brown screeching and
Flying Pike – By C. Meyer (Guest Writer) The battle cry of “Who wants to go fishing” was met with enthusiastic response. So the family piles in the boat in search of fish and adventure. Well as usual the adventure part of the day by far exceeded the fishing as I
By The Moon Man (Bill Meiser) You can see the storm front coming in over Pete’s Bar on a late Wednesday after noon–after 25 minutes on Pete’s, these two Musky were caught and released in less than 10 minutes on four casts. Guided by Tanner Wildes out of Treeland Resorts.
2003 A Tremendous Big Chip Musky Year According to the Big Chip musky historian John Dettloff, “these are the “good old days” on the Chip. More muskies are being caught of larger average size than ever before.” In the 1970’s, records show that the average musky caught on the Chip averaged
Although the muskie action in 2001 had its normal ups and downs, as all muskie seasons have, overall… this past year was a great muskie year on the Chippewa Flowage. The season started out a little slow because of the cold early June nights, but once mid June set in we
Some of you may recall the story of the giant set of musky jaws found on the Chippewa Flowage on October 31, 1998. According to Frank Pratt, the Hayward Area Fisheries Manager of the Department of Natural Resources, the jaws were most likely from a giant musky which had for some
A Flying, Floppy, Fish Tale: This is a story about a fish I caught. Today, July 29, 2001 we started our family fishing trip. 1 minute, nothing 2 minutes, nothing 3 minutes, nothing 5 minutes, nothing 10 minutes, BAIT GOT CAUGHT IN A TREE BRANCH OVERHANGING THE WATER. Just as we
Walleye Secrets: Anglers like Blank, Bergman, Bartlett, and Haack certainly have a knack for getting walleyes from the Chippewa Flowage. It comes with getting acquainted with the sections of the flowage that they fish and discovering which methods have worked during their combined total of some 175 years of fishing on
Eleven-year-old catches first two Muskies: After fishing several hours on the northeast section of the Chippewa Flowage Neil Weigen, age 11, of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin caught his first two muskies on Monday, July 3, 2000, within 30 minutes. the first fish, caught around 2 p.m., was 36-1/2″ and the second was
By: Terrell Boettcher Huge Skeletal Muskie Jaw Found: The year 1998 was a phenomenal, unprecedented year for numbers of large muskellunge caught in the Hayward area, and nowhere more so than on the Chippewa Flowage, where at least nine muskies from 50 to 54 inches long were boated (six of them
A four-year-old Phillips boy, Josh Lemke, caught a whopper 46 1/2-inch, 24-pound, 10-ounce Monster Musky on the Chippewa Flowage on Sunday, June 21. The boy was accompanied by his parents, and three older brothers ranging up to 7 years old in the boat. It was the first time he had ever
Muskie Caught Four Times: A 47-inch, 27-pound, 2-ounce Chippewa Flowage muskie caught on Aug. 11 by Jim Kniprath of Wisconsin Rapids had been caught and released four times before, records show. The last angler who released the tagged fish, Jim Chinnock of Hayward, dubbed the fish “Long Face” because of its
Louie Spray’s Muskie Reinstated Louie Spray’s Muskie Reinstated: Four years ago on Aug. 6, 1992, Art Lawton’s world record muskie, originally thought to have been 69 pounds, 15 ounces and 64 1/2 inches long, was discovered to have been falsified (greatly exaggerated in size) and was officially disqualified jointly by both
Muskies Put Big Chip On Map: By Dan Small Sawyer County’s Chippewa Flowage is one impressive body of water. A Northern States Power Company hydroelectric dam near Winter at the confluence of the East and West Forks of the Chippewa River flooded 10 lake basins back in 1923, creating the Big
In around 1939 Jacob Kuykendall, Jr.’s grandfather Fred Kirk “caught” a musky that weighed 72 pounds out of the Chippewa Flowage, in the Blueberry lake area. As the prize was taken by spear, he did not record it as a catch but he did weigh it on an ice scale and
