As I sit here writing this week’s outdoor report I realize that today is the last day of the northern zone musky fishing season for 2017. It has been a very good year for musky fishing, and whether you caught your first musky, your largest musky, or maybe you had the season of all seasons, congratulations to each hand every one of you! They are not an easy fish to consistently catch and landing one, especially your first one, is an experience that you will never forget!
 

The 2017 gun deer season will go down as one of the worst in recent history. Record low numbers of deer were killed during the 9 day gun deer season and with that comes a lot of questions. Was the non-registration with tags a part of that total where guys just didn’t register? Were there really that few deer shot and killed? What about the no age restriction on allowing any age person to enter the woods hunting? And after reading license statistics, how do we justify 10 infants purchasing licenses? I think there are going to be quite a few meetings about this past season and with that I hope that we as sportsman get the answers we are looking for.
 

If you are planning on doing a little fishing in the next week I urge each and every one of you to use extreme caution. To be totally honest, stay off of the ice and wait until we get some colder temperatures. There was a very unfortunate accident last week and 2 people died on Red Lake in Minnesota trying to get out ice fishing, it is not worth it! If you are thinking about fishing and want to get out, there are plenty of open water locations below area dams on the Wisconsin River that are producing great catches of walleyes. A simple jig tipped with a medium sized sucker minnow will catch walleyes all day long in the deeper pools below these dams. Target water depths of at least 14 feet but don’t be afraid to go as deep as 24 feet of water or even deeper.
 

Have a great week,
 

Phil Schweik
Hooksetters Guide Service
Phone: 715-693-5843