Last Anglers Standing

My partner and I wanted to do something on our birthdays that we both enjoyed. Well, fishing was on the top of our list. This is an outdoor activity we enjoy so much! Hence, we made reservations for 3 days at Sportsmen’s Lodge. This resort is located about 25 to 30 miles from Hayward, WI. It is in the Chequamegon National Forest. This is where you can’t leave any food on your cabin’s front porch, unless you want to take the chance of sharing it with a bear. Therefore, this area is pretty rugged and wild, but it is this that makes the vacationing here exciting and worthwhile.

Most people are satisfied with catching small fish, you know, the ones that fit in a fry pan or can be brought to shore without a net or a small one. But this was not the case with us two women. No, we wanted to catch muskies! This was the monster fish that my father adequately called the alligator of the fresh waters. If you have ever caught one, you know exactly what my father meant. They are long, some over 53 inches long, and can weight as much as 80 pounds. And these fish have a mouthful of teeth. Although the size of this fish and its teeth should have scared us enough to maybe want to catch its gentler neighbor, the walleye, it didn’t. As a result, we sat in our boat shivering in the October/November northern Wisconsin weather just to catch this mighty giant! For a couple of women who never fished for Muskie before and had rubbish for fishing equipment, we ended up boating (fish lingo for landing the fish) two muskies!

Even anglers need a break from fishing, so we went one mid-morning to Hayward to shop and eat. We revisited my old stomping grounds, such as Tremblay’s Candy Store and Angler’s Bar and Grill. I couldn’t deny my sweet tooth. We ended buying a half-pound of maple fudge with nuts and a half-pound of turtles. And at Angler’s we ordered lunch.

Although our trip was all about the fishing, revisiting Hayward, WI was fun too. Where else but Hayward honors the mighty muskie with a statute/museum and a childhood candy store and your parents’ favorite bar is alive and well after several decades.

Quick Tips:

I have three suggestions when you visit the Hayward, WI, region to fish. One, if you fish in the fall, like we did, you must bring winter clothes. It is extremely cold and sometimes very windy at that time of the year. We each had to resort to wearing three pairs of pants, three shirts, and four pairs of socks in order to somewhat tolerate the weather but were still cold. Two, bring the appropriate fishing equipment when you go muskie fishing. For instance, check your equipment before you leave home to see if your reel, rod, and line can handle the weight of a muskie. And if you do have the right equipment, make sure they are in tip-top shape. Last, when you visit this region, give yourself a chance to go to the city of Hayward to shop, eat, and swap fish stories at Angler’s Bar and Grill.

Best Way To Get Around:

The best way to get around the Hayward, WI, region is by car. You must have one to get to your resort and drive to various lakes or take a drive into the city of Hayward.

Sportsmen’s Lodge is located on Moose Lake in the Hayward Lake Region. This lodge is open year round. It is within the Chequamegon National Forest. Sportsmen’s is about thirty miles from the city of Hayward, WI. It is a small resort with resort owners who have big hearts. Linda and John Mejer are probably the most kindest resort owners I have ever encountered in the Hayward, WI region; and I have been here more times than I can count. They have a genuine concern that you have a grand time on your vacation. For instance, the lodge offers a variety of sandwiches, pizzas, etc. you can purchase and if you have forgotten your fishing pole or don’t have an adequate one for fishing muskies, John will loan you one of his for $8 a day. And if you are into snowshoeing, ice fishing, skiing, or snowmobiling, this is also available here. These activities are available because of the Chequamegon National Forest.

Concerning the accommodation here, this resort offers three cabins. Two of the three are basic fishermen cabins. By this I mean, there are no real frills here except a 13-inch TV that has satellite channels, a microwave, linens and cooking utensils. However, these two cabins are very clean and have sufficient space for your needs. For example, our cabin had a kitchen/dining room area, a bathroom, two bedrooms and a screened in porch. The kitchen had an old-fashion refrigerator and stove but both worked well. The bedrooms had metal bunk beds which had a double on the bottom and a twin bed at the time. The log cabin sleeps eight people. It was new, rustic pine inside and simply gorgeous. It had the dining room, kitchen, living area, futon, bathroom, and a bedroom downstairs. And the upstairs had another bed.

The resort offers you a boat and a motor without charging you more for either. This is a great since most resorts will charge you an extra charge for both. Also, there is a special air water tank that John allows you to store your bait in so they will live longer. Last, we received a discount (25%) on the rental because it was not the normal tourist season (it was late fall). But you have to stay at least 3 days for this discount.

There only two drawbacks of this resort. One, the resort is located on a steep location. When you have to walk up and down the hill to the boat dock, it can be tiring. I would not recommend this resort for older people or people with physical disabilities. And two, after the normal tourist season is over (usually the second week of October), the power and electric company drains some of the water around the resorts on Moose Lake to safe energy. This leads to difficulty in getting into the boats because the boats are not close to the water and there are huge boulders around them. We had to have John rig up an aluminum stepladder for us to get out of the boat, and we had to slide off the dock and land standing up in the middle of the boat to board it.

In spite of the two drawbacks I listed above, I highly recommend this resort. The resort owners are kind and the accommodations are clean and comfortable. The resort is located on Moose Lake; the address is 7595 W. Pine Point Rd., Hayward, WI 54843; and the phone number is 715/462-3847 or 715/462-9402.

Angler’s Bar and Grill is one of a few local Hayward, WI, shops that has been in business for several decades. As I look back on the existence of this place (I am 44), it was my parents’ town playground. This is where they got a break from us kids and went there with other couples. When I entered this bar/eatery, I had to check to see if the bowling alley was still there, and it was! This was where my mother got her finger stuck in one of the holes of a bowling ball and started to go down the alley with it.

Besides the bowling alley, this place has liquor, food, and a video/arcade area. When you walk in, the bowling alley is a step up from where the bar is, and to the left in another room. The bar faces you as soon as you walk in. The walls here are adorned with various stuffed wildlife. I saw fish, a moose head, a bear, etc. There are also vintage photos, such as fishermen from the early 1900s holding up their trophy fish and men drinking beer during the prohibition time.

There is various seating here. If the weather permits, you can dine outside. There are plastic chairs and tables there under patio umbrellas. Inside, at the bar, there are stools but in the dining area there are wood tables and chairs, booths and a long bench seat. The vinyl color used for the seating was hunter green. After I noticed the seating, my partner and I ordered from their menu. If you are looking for an elegant dining experience with fine-dining food, it is not here. But if you are looking for a place that serves scrumptious short order tavern food such as fried cod, hamburgers and fries and sandwiches then this is the place to be.

My partner ordered a chicken burrito combo and I ordered a Rueben sandwich here. Sharon’s meal consisted of a burrito with nachos and salsa. The cost of this was $6.95 and she paid 35 cents more for sour cream and her soda beverage was $1.50. My Rueben sandwich had marble bread and it came with a pickle and French fries. The cost of this was $6.95 and then I purchased a soda for $1.50. My food was served in a plastic basket with a checkered paper on the bottom of it. Sharon’s meal was served on a ceramic hot plate. The only thing that could have been different here for our dining experience would be the waitress being more considerate before she attempted to bus our table. I mean, Sharon was still eating when she grabbed her plate and started to take it away. The waitress apologized after she knew she did wrong but still this was rude.

I would recommend this place if you are just looking for great tavern food, a place to bowl a frame or two or just to have a beer and swap fish stories. It is located at 10547 Main Street, Hayward, WI 54843. And the phone number of this place is 715-634-4700.

After we finished unpacking at our cabin, we headed for Hayward, WI. It was about 30 miles from our resort. We first went to Wal-Mart and purchased our 4-day licenses and then went to the Hayward Bait and Tackle Shop.

When you first walk in, you are overcome by the various angler’s fishing tackle, equipment, and apparel. You will see the walls full of bobbers, leaders, sinkers, lures, fish lines, etc. Then you will view the rod and reels. And lastly, you will notice the life vests, coats sweatshirts, etc., hanging on racks.

In the front of the store on the right side when you first walk in, you can buy various sizes of minnows or baby sucker fish. What you pay depends on their size. Most anglers are using the baby suckers for walleye fishing because they are bigger than the regular minnow and thus will attract the bigger walleye.

If you step down from where the minnow tanks are, you will be in an area where there are cement tanks for the various live bait. What I noticed was a lot of different sizes of sucker fish bait. Some muskie anglers like the bigger suckers-the 18-inch ones, but we bought the 12- to 13-inch ones. For this size, we paid $15 for 10 of them.

After purchasing our live bait, we had to buy what is called a quick-hit harness. It consists of a bobber and two treble hooks. The young woman working there told us how to hook the sucker fish bait to it. She told us to take the front hook and hook the sucker in the upper lip and take the back hook and place just in front of the top fin. For this tackle we paid $4.95 a piece.

When we purchased all our tackle and bait, we noticed the trophy fish hanging on the walls. We saw some muskies and a walleye on the wall. As we were amazed at their sizes, we left the store feeling confident we too would catch a muskie, even if it wasn’t a trophy.

I highly recommend this bait and tackle shop. I met the owner and two of his employees. All of these people are very kind and helpful. In addition, when we were there the owner honored his 10%-off Internet coupon on merchandise we bought. The phone number here is 715/634-2921.

Tremblay’s Sweet Shop has been in business since 1963. This is a store my mother took my sisters and me to when we were children. I remember us kids buying penny candy and my mother buying delicious fudge. Now, decades later, this place is still up and running. When we walk by it, we noticed a man stirring a chocolate mixture that was going to be fudge. He had a big cooking wand/stick and was stirring it in front of one of the picture windows.

This candy store has numerous jars, baskets, and racks of candies. And there are a variety of candies too. I notice what I call the penny candy, such as the red coin-looking gummy candy, the salt-water candy, the hard candy, etc. Then there are homemade chocolate candies, such as turtles and fudge, available behind glass cases. The turtles are my favorite homemade chocolate candy; hence I couldn’t resist. I bought a half-pound of these at $10.99 a pound. My partner bought a half-pound of maple fudge with nuts, and it was $5.99 a pound. Both of these candies were simply delicious. Now I know why my mother always came here and why this place has been in business for decades.

The young women working there were very helpful. When we first walked in, they offered us tastes of the variety of fudge they had for sale. And we did taste some. Then an older lady who was refilling the candy baskets, jars, and racks asked us if she could assist us in any way. Last, after we had purchased our candies, we then asked them where was a good place to eat at. And two young women piped up at the same time, recommending Angler’s Bar and Grill. Therefore, they were also helpful giving us advice on where locals ate.

I highly recommend this place for your sweet tooth. You can’t go wrong by selecting this candy store for your candy needs. There are numerous homemade chocolate candy, fudge, penny candy, etc., here. Hence, there is something for everyone to gnaw on. And if you can’t go on vacation to Hayward, WI, this shop will mail you your candy purchases. This place is located at 10569 Main St., Hayward, WI, 54843, and the phone number is 715/634-2785.

Moose Lake is an intriguing lake. It is not a pretty lake with clear or turquoise water. Instead, it is a dark-stained lake. In fact, some of the resorts by this lake don’t advertise to say you can even swim here. Hence, they realize that it is not inviting for swimming. However, it is noted to be a Class A Lake for muskies. This means it is a great lake to catch these enormous predator fish.

Moose Lake to some people is shaped like a horseshoe, but I saw a map of it and think that it looks like moose antlers. Despite the difference of opinions here on its shape, Moose Lake has an interesting lake profile: the size and depth of it is 1, 670 acres, with a maximum depth of 32 feet; the featured species are muskie, walleye, perch, crappie, and rock bass; the water is considered moderately fertile and dark brown in color; the bottom of this lake is 30% rubble, 30% sand, 30& gravel, 5% boulder, and 5% muck; the vegetation is cabbage, sandgrass, bulrush, and lily pad; the shoreline is 85% upland, with minimal development; and the forage is very limited, with sucker, redhorse, and perch.

What I like most about this lake is that it is best known for its excellent muskie population. There are 50-plus-inch muskies available here. This makes you want to fish, even in the cold fall weather, like we did to try to get that trophy fish. There are also trophy walleyes in this lake.

When you boat/fish here, you must take precautions. There are numerous stumps, boulders, submerged rock bars, and floating vegetation here. To avoid a disaster, I would purchase a map that has these obstacles marked. In our case, the resort owner of Sportsmen’s Lodge gave us a map of Moose Lake and marked the areas not to come in contact with.

I would highly recommend this lake for fishing. But I wouldn’t recommend it to water ski or swim because of the debris in the water and the brown color of the lake. If you are interested in staying at Moose Lake, I would call, write, or go to the Hayward Lakes Information Center to get more information. The phone number of this place is 800/724-2992, and the address is 15805 1st St., Hayward, WI 54843.

We were couple of women who had muskies on our minds. No, we had never caught them before, but the thought of catching these giant fish with enormous teeth intrigued us. And yes, if you are asking if we are loony, the answer is absolutely. But unfortunately, we didn’t check our rods and reels to see if they were in top shape or suitable for these predator fish. Shame on us for that! Our small freshwater poles (only can hold an 8-pound fish) and our salt-water pole, unbeknownst to us, had a rusted-out reel. In addition, none of these rods had steal leaders or braided lines. And when you try to catch muskies, you need these; otherwise, you take the chance of these fish chewing off the line and/or breaking the line. Lastly, we only had regular hooks on the poles. And any muskie angler knows that when you fish with live bait (sucker fish), you need treble hooks. Luckily, when we bought our bait at the bait shop, we were told what tackle to use. Therefore, we did have this tackle called quick hit harness. This consisted of a bobber and two treble hooks. Other than that right rig, we fished with our rubbish fishing equipment.

There is an adage about muskie fishing: a fish of 10,000 casts. Hmm, for the muskies we caught, we didn’t cast at all. Instead, we took our poles, dropped the lines not far from the boat and about 15 feet down into the water (water was about 25 feet deep), and waited for the giant. We used live sucker fish as bait (they were 12 to 13 inches long). And because the live bait is so large, you didn’t need a sinker for weight.

Sharon caught her muskie fish after 3 hours of fishing on our first fishing day. This was when she realized that the salt-water pole’s reel had rusted out. She couldn’t reel her muskie in. Instead, she let the fish play itself out and pull the line straight up while I netted it. We couldn’t believe our eyes--it was huge to us. We measured the length, which was 31.5 inches long, but forgot to measure the girth of it. Since the legal size was 40 inches (after we took pictures), we had to release her back into the water. Although Sharon didn’t experience the whole thrill of catching a muskie (the muskie running the line), she did bring the fish up without losing it, an achievement in itself.

Sharon also caught a walleye, but it snapped the salt-water pole’s line. We did see him arch up and then break the line. He was huge for a walleye. I would guess he was 24 inches long, and he did go after the 12 to 13 sucker-fish bait. Also, Sharon had another muskie on her line, but with that darn salt-water pole and reel, she couldn’t reel him in, so he got off.

I caught my muskie on our last day of fishing. But by this time, I had a good rod and reel (John the resort owner loaned it to me).Finally this giant, predator hit my line. In fact, he hit the line three times and I thought the first two times I was snagged. He was the dumbest fish in Moose Lake, I swear. The following is what happened: this dumb fish pulled down my rod and was on it twice before I hooked him. I thought I had a snag, so under the water I kept pulling the hook out of his mouth (dumb, but not as dumb as the fish). And on the second time, the pole bent in half, and I reeled it in to see if I had lost my bait. The sucker bait was a little marred up, but I dropped the line again. And then, all of a sudden, I noticed my bait came to the top of the water and was doing a backstroke frantically. And then, the next thing I knew, something gobbled the sucker, and my rod was bent in half again. I told Sharon I thought I had a muskie by how the fish pulled and I was going to let the fish play the line for awhile and then reel it in. And that is what I did. Well, we boated this muskie too, and it was a blast! This fish, like the prior one, was mean-looking because of his size and his mouthful of teeth. He measured 36 inches long. He would have been considered a legal size not long ago, but now the DNR raised the legal size here to 40 inches. As a result, we again took the photo opportunity and then released this toothy, giant fish.

For the hours we fished total (less than 12 hours) and the equipment we had to fish with most of the time, I think we did pretty well. Even our resort owner (who is also a guide) said we out-fished six men who arrived a week before we did. They rented a cabin for five days and fished many more hours than us and caught one fish between all of them. And they had the $300 rods and reels and an expensive fish finder.

I highly recommend fishing for muskies. They are mean, toothy, big, and they get your heart racing! They are fun to try to catch. This fish definitely makes fishing a sport. It is not an easy fish to land, and you have to respect this adversary.

We caught our fish not far from Sportsmen’s Lodge’s dock at Moose Lake. Sportsmen’s Lodge is located at 7595 W Pine Point Road. Hayward, WI, 54843 and the phone number is 715-462-3847 or 715-462-9402.