Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1921-12-07

"A Splash OF MdNdA NAAaN AAAeA~
wholegroup gasp, and a big gray
form a moment later shot into
the air like a thunderbolt. Forty
minutes fight followed this ex-
hibition before he was ready TO
quit. and we took him aboard.
He was a little over twenty-eight
pounds. and / don't think there
ever was a muskie caught on
much lighter tackle.
II is remembrance of that fight
that makes me like to praise
White Sand and its neighbors.
The Ohioans will join me, for
they were converted firmly IN
those forty minutes, and stuck
till each got his own big fish.
One of its neighbors is a river
the Manitowish, a broad sluggish
stream that winds for miles thru
dead tamarack swanmps that IN
places cover with an impenetrable
tangle hundreds of acres. Most
of the lakes thereabout are con-
nected with the Manitowish, and
one inspection of the spawning
grounds which this river con-
tains, and which positively can
be fished, will dispel any doubt OF
the lakes ever being "fished out.
And can give additional proof.
In September, 1916, Joseph k.
Scholaro. now in Detroit, and /
spent a week at Fish Trap lake,
and one hot Tuesday morning
started down the Manitowish for
muskies. 1t was about 80 de-
grees most of the time and there
was never a breath of air the
whole day through. Yet the pre-
vious Saturday, the day we had
arrived. had been the day Of the
first snowstorm of the season.
Il is impossible not to connect the
two extremes of weather in as
signing a cause for the phenome-
non Scolaro and and Truman
Lumpkin, the guide, witnessed.
Scolaro will confirm this story;
Lumpkin now rests somewhere
in France.
Hundreds of muskies, from
babies to leviathans, lay on the
surface of the Manitowish, a gray
fin always showing, occasionally
a bit of tail. They were so thick
that we used them as targets for
casting-and the only thrills we
got in ten hours of castihg was
when we hit one of the beasts on
the snout. If we made a cast
good enough TO accomplish this,
he'd move quickly, and cause the
water to boil in earnest. If we
hit only his back or tail, he'd
disappear with haunting slownessi
and if we missed altogether, even
if by only an inch, he wouldn't
move. And we didn't get a strike
nor an attempt at a strike, IN
hundreds of casts.
Two DAYS later they bit like
demons. You could get the two
six-pounders the law allows you
in an hour. We shook the little
ones off, and kept four aggre-
eating sixty-three pounds.
The musky is called the tiger
of the inland lakes. He's tigerish
in his fighting, but I'd rather call
him the grizzly of the lakes, for
that describes his color and Wis
ualizes what the musky fisher
man ought to do in pursuing him.
The musky must be hunted
and he ought TO be studied. Study
| am sure, would solve the pro-
blem of defeating his internal
temperament.
Don't get the impressian that
this temperament / speak of Is
insuperable. In the aggregate,
the output of muskies is large.
White Sand turned out at least
forty last summer above twelve
pounds; Boulder furnished sixty,
one weighing thirty-eight pounds;
Fishtrap, half as many; and High,
fifty or sixty. That's good, con-
sidering that you can take only
two a day, and the average man
quits when he gets a trophy fish,
exactly as a bear-hunter quits
when he has beaten his record.
Due to its depth. I'm inclined TO
give the edge TO the White Sand
ers for aggressiveness, but you'll
find boosters for every lake; gen
orally we praise the lake of our