For some reason, fishing has been on my mind a lot lately. It’s not that I’m any great sportswoman. No catch-and-release for me. I’m a catch and eat proponent. Take the yellow perch, for example – Perca flavescens. It even sounds delicious. But I also love just sitting in the boat thinking and fishing. It’s been too long since I’ve done that, so I thought I’d do a little research.
The people over at Fishweb have posted information about fishing in Torch Lake. They claim that a person could catch lake trout, rock bass, yellow perch, small mouth bass, ciscoes, brown trout, rainbow trout, whitefish, and something they call a muskellunge. Now I may not know a lot about fishing, but where I grew up, we caught muskies. Everyone who fishes northern waters has seen the word “muskellunge” somewhere, but does anyone know how to pronounce it? Muskies. We know what to call ’em. We know how to catch ’em. And I can’t believe there are any in Torch Lake.
If you ever caught a muskie in Torch Lake, I want to know about it. I will post pictures. I will post warnings along the shoreline. Here is what the Minnesota DNR has to say about them:
A muskie will eat fish and sometimes ducklings and even small muskrats. It waits in weed beds and then lunges forward, clamping its large, tooth-lined jaws onto the prey. The muskie then gulps down the stunned or dead victim head first.
The Michigan DNR keeps these matters quiet, although it has warned of Piscirickettsia – Muskie Pox – in Lake St. Clair. (Don’t worry. It’s not catching. To people I mean.) This is a muskie:
Why, you ask, would anyone fish for these monsters? My theory: the lure is the lures. Muskie lures are gorgeous. They are elaborate. They have great names: bucktails, jerk baits, crank baits, spinners, jigs, spoons, buzzbaits, sucker rigs. When I was little my best friend Amanda Campbell and I spent hours sorting muskie lures at her dad’s tackle shop. It’s a wonder we never put an eye out. But I ask you, how can you resist these?
<< Spinner
Buzzbait>>
I know I can’t go fishing for muskies right now, and besides, they’re not really fish you want to eat. They’re more like, well, fish that want to eat you. On the other hand – and I hate to break this to you gardeners – it’s too early to plant petunias, too. So we’ll just continue dreaming about spring and digging in the earth or fishing in the lake, none of us 100% certain of what might come up.
Torch Lake Views 
uphilldowndale
March 28, 2008
I could sit and look at the water for hours, not sure I would know what to do with a fish though!
Gerry Sell
March 28, 2008
I think the watching-the-water part is the main thing – unless you’re hungry of course, in which case what you do with the fish is whack it, remove its innards, and saute it quickly in plenty of butter. Unless it’s a muskie. If you don’t have any experience with muskies, and you land one, I recommend you run.
Leslie
April 5, 2008
I haven’t been fishing for over a year. I think my sons might be too grown now at 17 and turning 20, to want to drive to the coast with me.
It’s the most relaxing thing I know…
Gerry Sell
April 5, 2008
I recommend you tell the sons about the hazards of muskie fishing. In my experience, no male between the ages of 15 and 25 can resist anything dangerous, particularly if it frightens his mother. You can appear frightened of muskies, Leslie, I know you can. Or perhaps not – I gather there’s even fiercer wildlife where you live.
Failing all else, drive to the coast with a good book and a fishing pole and rent a boat. Sit in it. Read. Have a little sip of something good. Sit some more. Have a little nap. Oh, and if you should happen to catch a muskie, send us a photo!
Bob Sell
April 6, 2008
As I recall it, musky fishermen carried a pistol to finish off the aggressive dangerous catch. They also had to have more patience than your average fisherman due to the wily musky. One last thing, the fish out here seem to really like tail rotating topwater lures such as Tally Wackers, Stompers and Topraiders. Here’s a link to the fishing in the Rhinelander area.
Gerry Sell
April 6, 2008
Holy Wah! My very own Dad links the world to a site that describes my ancestral lands as a place where an icebox is a major tourist attraction, the resorts are converted logging camps, and people fish for muskies by whacking ’em with a pike pole. Then he tops it off with the pistol thing. Do you wonder that I turned out the way I did?
David Asher
February 12, 2009
When I was a young boy in the 60’s my Grandparents had a cottage on a bayou on the mouth of Torch river. Every night one summer at dusk we would go to the end of the dock and like clockwork a six foot muskie would slip by the dock. It was a long scary shadow in the water!
We used to see mud puppies there and all kinds of stuff back in the day.
Gerry
February 13, 2009
David, I am astonished. So far as I know, the world record for a muskie is 57 inches. But then, nothing about the mysterious Skegemog Lake should surprise me. If you say giant muskies haunted a dock where the Torch River flows into Skegemog, I will keep an open mind on the subject. The mud puppies I can understand. The big salamanders are pretty common in rivers around here. I have to say I think they’re, um, well, ugly. The other thing I know about the Skegemog area is that the adjacent swamp is home to a fine crop of massasauga rattlers, which has rather put me off visiting. I wonder if muskies eat rattlers? It would explain a lot.
David Asher
February 13, 2009
Gerry, I can’t say for sure that it was 6 ft. But it was HUGE! I just visited that place a couple of days ago, for the 1st time in 33 years, which is why I was visiting this board. The bayou is to the left of Torch river, not to far from where Torch Lake flows into it. Speaking of rattlesnakes, I love in Vassar, in Mid-Michigan. We occasionally get them there out by the Cass River and I have seen them sunning themselves myself! Yipes!
Gerry
February 13, 2009
Ooh, David, now you have my mind running to my first spring paddle on the Torch River. How far should I venture? I am only 63 inches tall, and even with Dad’s trusty pistol, I am reluctant to encounter six-foot muskies. Definitely don’t want to meet basking rattlesnakes. Then there’s the mud puppies. Maybe I’ll just stick to the north end of Torch Lake . . .
David Asher
February 13, 2009
The south end of Torch when the river flows into the bayou is one of the most beautiful places in the world, imho. Thanks guys!
Gerry
February 13, 2009
David, all kidding aside, I agree. The whole Chain is full of wondrous places, and I intend to explore them all before I fade into a Torch Lake sunset. I like to joke about the muskies because they are iconic figures from my childhood, too. I’m glad you got to revisit your special place. Vassar isn’t so far away. I hope you get back up here again, and if you catch a muskie – any muskie, they’re all monsters – I want to hear about it.
David Asher
February 14, 2009
Thanks Gerry, I really enjoyed this exchange.
Meanwhile check out this pic:
All the best to you and yours, David