Northwoods Musky Float

It's officially fall, and I can smell musky in the air. That SOB old man winter isn't out in full force yet, but it's only a matter of time. We're getting ready for our annual Chubs U musky float in the northwoods land of beer and cheese farts. We can't wait to get our chubs chomped by some big  ugly esox! 

Here are some shots from last years chubventure.  

The wind is always in your face in musky country 

Nothing like a 20 degree wake up in October

Mad musk

To catch a musky you need beer that tastes musky

In addition to the dutch oven you make in your sleeping bag, it's also nice to cook with one.

I guess these things have teeth 

Axe handle and coffee grinder

Northwoods love

Summer is for Smallies

In the summertime the best way to beat the meat, I mean heat, is to get out on a river, sip on cold beer and catch a few smallmouth.

At Chubs U we've been lucky enough to get out a handful of times and actually catch good numbers of fish except for that one float we did at high water and all of us got skunked (seriously though 3 guys all day not one fucking smallmouth brought to hand, its ok though we each brought 10 beers from hand to face).

As far as the beer goes, keep it simple and cold. I like double IPA's and of course we all like to guzzle down an Old Chub here or there, but not when your grundle is as humid as Southeast Asia.

Smallies don't often swim away peacefully.

Football

Summer is winding down, I can feel that SOB old man winter waking up. Get out while you can.

Springtime Driftless Camp

Spring might be the best season to fish and camp in Driftless country.  You don't have to be on the stream at the crack of dawn so you can afford to get a little sauced the night before, and cook a full breakfast in the morning.  You can start the day rolling scuds along the bottom, and as it warms switch to emergers and eventually dries.  The weather is perfect warm during the day cool at night.  My dog seemed to agree as long as she had a tennis ball or fish to chase.  

Ramona loves trout

Coffee, Corned beef hash, eggs, and biscuits

A breakfast big enough to almost kill a man

Going to church

Horses on the hill

This is how you're supposed to eat at camp

Spotting risers

Caddis eater

A haipoo I wrote...

Dazed in the haze of

former blazing summer days

when smallies were raised

- Ded Fist Phillio

In Bloom

Spring is here again. 

 A couple of the CUM's decided to head driftless for Easter weekend and try some new water.  It was chilly and overcast most of the time, but the BWOs made an appearance and the browns were hammering them.  

Nature is a whore

Look out behind you

Blue steel

Be careful you never know what cracks these guys might squeeze into

Don't be an animal, throw it in the toilet, or swallow it like a man

Winter Driftless

With the Wisconsin early trout season now starting in January I decided to head up for some winter camping, hiking and fishing.  I spooked a few nice browns, and didn't see another person fishing all weekend.  I got pulled over outside Madison, but got away with a warning, then I got stuck in a snowbank, and smashed the shit out of my bumper trying to get into a campsite, a good trip all around.  

I know a dog who does not enjoy winter camping

This creek is straighter than most of my friends 

Black coffee and wood smoke 

Nothing like a nice stiff chub to start the day.

Its a damn coyote highway on top of that bluff