The Most Insane 12 Days of Muskie F...

This story, “The Twelve Days,” appeared within the September 1956 situation of Outside Life.

A couple of minutes earlier than midnight of October 29, 1955, Tony Burmek and his brother Fred set out from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on a visit that produced one of the vital unimaginable catches of muskellunge within the historical past of this unpredictable sport.

On the finish of 12 days of fishing, a lot of it in climate that froze strains to rods and began the primary ice of the season creeping out from the shores of Sawyer County lakes, Tony and his companion had introduced 17 muskies into the little Wisconsin city of Hayward. The smallest was a 25-pounder, many have been over 30 kilos, and one in all them, at 43 1/8 kilos, was the most important muskie reported from the Hayward sector that yr.

Virtually from the primary day of their fishing, October 30, once they caught a 31¾-pounder and a 38½-pounder, the Burmek brothers had Hayward popping with pleasure. That’s fairly an achievement, for Hayward calls itself “the muskie capital of the world.” Day after day the Burmeks fished, usually in freezing winds which made it not possible to carry a ship over a bar lengthy sufficient to get in two casts. And every night they got here again to city with their fish, principally of trophy dimension.

Haywardites puzzled how lengthy the Burmek luck would maintain. And so they speculated, as fishermen will, that the Burmeks is perhaps getting their monsters with setlines or through the use of suckers for bait, a lethal methodology that’s fairly authorized however thought of unsporting by many.

Having been directed to the Rifkin common retailer in Hayward to weigh their first day’s catch, the Burmeks thereafter weighed all their muskies at Rifkin’s. Fred and Tony drove to and from the dock in a station wagon, and folk quickly started flocking to the shop when the station wagon pulled in every evening.

Like baseball followers following a participant on a home-run spree, native folks grew to become more and more because the Burmeks piled up extra muskies. Ultimately as many as 50 individuals would crowd across the scales, and Julian Gingras, who publishes the weekly Sawyer County Document, mused that he’d wish to have a every day paper to run a field rating for readers who have been now rooting for Fred and Tony.

When the 12 days have been over the Burmek muskie take totaled 533¼ kilos, plus 26 kilos for a single northern pike. They gave fish away as they caught them, and freezers in Hayward started filling up with muskies that must be lower in two to get them into ovens.

The statistics of the Burmek catch may be had from virtually anybody in Hayward, or from the newspapers. However over and above the statistics, spectacular as they’re, is the story of an actual fisherman, Tony Burmek. Tony, who makes most of his residing guiding fishermen on the waters round Hayward, is 43 years outdated. For 20-odd years he has executed little else however fish for muskies.

There are any quantity who’re “loopy about fishing,” however virtually all the time these anglers fluctuate their sport by pursuit of various species. Not Tony. Tony fishes for muskies, nothing else. I’ve recognized this shy, courteous information for 10 years, and if he had the literary potential of an Ernest Hemingway, he may write a guide about muskies that will be a traditional of its form.

Tony bought all for muskies in 1934, whereas visiting relations within the Hayward nation. Since then he’s devoted most of every summer season to finding out these fish, particularly these in Sawyer County lakes. If he spots a very good fish he’ll preserve after it for weeks.

He believes that the very best fishing is when the barometer is rising. There’s nothing new in that. However there may be in the way in which Tony carries out the barometer’s orders. When it begins a sensational climb, Tony will drop something to get on muskie water.

He additionally makes use of contour maps. These, too, can be found to all anglers. Of the greater than 8,000 lakes in Wisconsin, some 1,200 have been contoured, a high quality job executed again within the C.C.C. days. However in 20 years there have been slight adjustments from silting, so Tony, the perfectionist makes annual airplane flights over the lakes to review variations within the bars. As soon as he discovered a productive reef that wasn’t proven on a contour map.

When Tony and Fred left Milwaukee late that October evening, that they had no concept they have been going to write down a startling web page in Wisconsin muskie fishing. On the way in which north they bumped into slightly snow. After they bought to Hayward the barometer was low.

By midday of that first day the barometer climbed from 29.75 to 29.90, temperature was 39, wind west, sky over­ forged. That was sufficient for Tony. He and Fred put a ship in Spherical Lake, six miles east of Hayward. It is a “title” muskie lake of three,276 acres, in a category with neighboring lakes similar to Grindstone, Lac Court docket Oreilles, Teal, Lostland, and Ghost.

It was to be drift fishing in mid-lake over bars Tony is aware of properly and which few others hassle with. Fred selected a do-it-yourself plug whittled out by Tony two years earlier than. In its few earlier assessments this plug had failed, so it had been forgotten in a sort out field.

On his third forged Fred hooked a small muskie and launched it. Within the time it took the boat to float 20 ft or so, Tony, casting with the identical plug, hooked a muskie which weighed 38½ kilos. That fish shook the hook because it lay exhausted alongside the boat, however Fred bought a web below the fish and heaved it aboard.

You’ll get no lengthy tales from Tony about fights with fish. He says, “You get one hooked strong and also you play him instinctively. The large second in muskie fishing is while you get the fish to strike.

Again over a mid-lake bar they went. It was Fred’s flip with the do-it-yourself plug. He took a muskie that went 31 1/4 kilos — the most important male, Tony says, he’s ever seen. Huge muskies are females, normally.

A lot of the fish taken on this journey struck upward in deep water, generally in spots the place the underside was 25 ft straight down. The plug, which has a violent tail motion, was stored three or 4 ft under the floor. Tony says perhaps different lures would have labored as properly. He doesn’t know. He and Fred stayed with the one which was producing.

There’s a concept within the north that muskies go on feeding sprees in late autumn, and Tony is a robust supporter of this concept. However, as he says, “Simply attempt to get most people out on these lakes in late October or November.”

Right here in Wisconsin it’s well-known that after Labor Day, and the opening of faculties, the fishing lakes are abandoned. You may rake the Chippewa flowage with cannon hearth and endanger nary a fisherman.

The second day discovered the Burmeks again on Spherical Lake — barometer larger, wind nonetheless west, temperature 38. Tony’s diary data laconically that they didn’t get onto the lake till midday as a result of “All of the Hayward of us have been round us speaking muskie fishing.”

Over the mid-lake bars within the first half hour they every launched muskies. The wind picked up, the boat pounded. They went inshore, and off a degree in deep water Tony hooked one. “It didn’t rush towards the bait on the floor such as you see ’em do in summer season,” says Tony. “Only one lunge up from the underside, then, increase,” Tony boated that fish. It weighed 28 kilos.

The third day was hotter. It was cloudy, with an east wind. Over the bars in the course of Spherical Lake they drifted for 2 hours, releasing three fish weighing greater than 12 kilos apiece. They moved in to the purpose of the day gone by, caught an 18-pounder and launched it.

The following fish hit a good distance out from the boat. It was large. Tony noticed the entire plug outdoors the muskie’s mouth. He knew it was flippantly hooked, and for15 minutes he sweated it out. Fred saved the present. He bought a gaff into the fish simply because the plug dropped out. This one weighed 48½ kilos.

It was the most important muskie of the Hayward space for the season — as much as that second. They took that fish proper into Hayward, left it there, and returned to Huge Spherical after lunch.

That afternoon over a mid-lake bar Fred felt that acquainted jolt of a fish arising from under. “We had fairly a time with this one,” Tony’s diary re­ cords. “He wouldn’t floor. I rowed fairly a method with him. Then he got here up. Fred labored him in shut and I shot him with a pistol. The fish weighed 36 kilos.”

By the top of the third day, all Hayward was speaking of the Burmek brothers. Writer Gingras made a date to go along with them subsequent day, then needed to cancel it.

For the fourth straight day they tried Spherical Lake. Fred misplaced a medium-size fish after which, over those self same mid-lake bars, caught a 26-pound northern pike. (Each the Burmeks will inform you that large northerns combat as arduous as large muskies.) After the northern, Fred bought an 18-pound muskie and launched it. It was one in all their coldest days, the day knuckles began to bleed from chapping. Tony additional battered his knuckles enjoying a 31-pounder that beat up his numbed fingers with the reel deal with.

Snow shoveling was the order of the fifth day. The Burmeks scooped the snow out of their boat on Spherical Lake and labored Leder’s Bay. Every hooked and launched small fish. Tony had determined to relaxation the mid-lake bars. Off White’s Level Fred hooked, performed, and shot a 29-pounder. On the entrance to Hidden Bay, Tony hooked and launched a small one. Then, properly contained in the bay, Tony took a 26 1/4-pounder.

Monotonous? “No,” says Tony. “There was additional enjoyable in stepping into Hayward each evening with these fish. We had the skeptics wanting fairly sick.”

On the sixth day the Burmeks virtually surrendered to the chilly. They labored Spherical Lake for 2 hours. Fred caught and launched a small muskie they usually went ashore and began a fireplace. In later afternoon Tony took a muskie off Pine Level that weighed 33 kilos. Fred launched a small one. They stop.

On the seventh day Fred put again a muskie he estimated at 25 kilos. The fish was performed a very long time and was exhausted. To revive it they slipped it right into a moist gunny sack and sloshed the sack backwards and forwards within the water to make the gills open and shut, thus forcing oxygen to the fish.

This was Fred’s final day together with his brother. He took yet one more muskie of about 14 kilos, returned it, and referred to as it quits. Shortly afterward Tony wound up the day with a 25-pounder. It was the smallest of the 17 muskies the Burmeks displayed in Hayward.

On the eighth day Fred was on his method again to Milwaukee. With the barometer at 30, highest of your entire interval, Tony went alone to the sprawling Chippewa flowage — the well-known “Huge Chip” recognized to muskie madmen from many states. It holds the world muskie document, a 69 pound 11 ounce fish taken in October of 1949, and is among the nice muskie-producing waters of the continent.

Utilizing the identical plug and system to fish over the Church Bars of the flowage, Tony caught and launched slightly one. Then he motored to the narrows, took a 30-pounder, and was again in Hayward by supper-time.

At this juncture Tony was wishing he had 100 all-out muskie fishermen with him. “I’d have assigned them to completely different lakes,” he says, “so we may nm an actual take a look at. I believe the muskies have been hitting in all places.”

Once more alone on the ninth day, Tony tried Lac Court docket Oreilles, a 4,827-acre lake well-known among the many muskie devoted since earlier than the flip of the century. There was six inches of snow on the bottom. Tony remembers that day very properly: “There’s a degree on this lake — Winter’s Level — and it seemed prefer it was named proper that day. I drifted throughout the purpose as soon as, hooked and launched a small one. On the following drift I took a 27-pounder.”

That evening there was a tough freeze and on the next day Tony didn’t fish. However he was again on the muskie bars the following day, this time with Clayton (Sergeant) Slack, flowage resort operator, for a companion.

Over Andres Bar, Slack took a 38¾­ pound muskie. Tony launched one hooked off Muskie Level and on the following drift throughout the identical level boated a 28-pounder.

By now Hayward was buzzing, if not seething, over the improbable Burmek marketing campaign. The nightly weighing on the common retailer was drawing onlookers like a circus sideshow. Burmek muskies have been displayed on ice within the glass case on the Moccasin Bar. And folks have been speaking. A couple of thought Tony is perhaps violating the regulation by having too many fish “in possession,”   the possession restrict being just one muskie a day. However Tony — and Fred, too — gave away every day’s trophy earlier than going after an­ different. Some skeptics nonetheless thought the Burmek haul was the results of some mysterious and unsporting system. Nevertheless, most individuals, amongst them George Curran, state sport supervisor at Hayward, merely accepted it as a run of fine luck by persistent and knowledgeable muskie fishermen.

On the eleventh day the barometer was rising. Once more Slack was Tony’s companion and once more they fished the large movement­ age. Within the first hour Tony launched three fish. He thinks one weighed about 20 kilos. Then he hooked and shot a 28½-pounder.

He and Slack went ashore for lunch. Again at it once more within the afternoon, Slack hooked and misplaced a extremely large one. Tony doesn’t understand how large it was. He by no means noticed it. Slack stored on casting and earlier than the top of the afternoon boated a 37½­ pounder.

At this level the Burmek diary will get about as emotional because the Burmek diary will get. Tony recorded: “Slack was beside himself with pleasure.”

Tony was getting drained. The every day routine of bucking wind and waves, the fixed chilly, the moist, cracked fingers, the bleeding knuckles — all have been taking their toll.

Tony didn’t wish to exit that closing, twelfth day. However Slack was keyed up and Tony agreed to 1 hour of fishing, no extra. It was so chilly they welcomed possibilities to commerce off casting and heat up with the oars. Slack’s younger son was with them and it bought too chilly for him to fish. The hour handed however Slack persuaded Tony to remain a bit longer.

The following and closing fish of the journey was caught by Tony. It weighed 431/s kilos, largest muskie of the season within the Hayward area.

Remaining rating was 17 muskies boated in 12 days. The lads launched 22 and counted a complete of 42 that struck, both to be killed, misplaced, or launched.

It’s not arduous in Hayward in the present day to search out individuals who query the Burmek feats in a method or one other. Tony’s personal good popularity is the very best reply to those that whisper. I’ve to associate with Tony, understanding him as I do.

Tony and Fred had loads of issues on their facet. They know these waters. They know how you can make a plug run the gamut of its potentialities — shallow, deep, gradual, quick, side-to-side, up-and­down. They’d the muskie grounds virtually solely to themselves, and that’s vital. These have been fish that hadn’t been showered with {hardware} day in, day trip. And the fish have been clearly on the feed simply earlier than the freeze-up.

Most vital of all, the Burmeks had the good thing about Tony’s 20-odd years of devotion to the game. A person like Tony Burmek develops a information of fish and fishing that he finds tough to transmit to others.

Muskies do queer issues. They go for lengthy intervals with out hanging after which go on rampages. At Chicago’s Shedd aquarium, which Wisconsin retains equipped with muskies for show, they’ve had captive muskies that refused to eat for six months, nonetheless remained apparently wholesome, lastly started to eat.

“Ten thousand casts for one strike,” is the outdated and acquainted catch phrase of the muskie fan. However that sample can change violently, as witness the efficiency at Leech Lake, Minnesota, final summer season. There muskies have been boated by the rating in water which had by no means in residing reminiscence produced such fishing. The Leech Lake spree has by no means been defined by biologists; they simply understand it occurred.

Any longer Tony Burmek might be a marked man in Hayward muskie nation. When he clicks — and he’ll — folks will say, “In any case, this man is a professional. All he does is fish for muskies.” If he flops — and he’ll try this too — the Monday-morning quarterbacks of mus­kie fishing may have a high quality time. Luckily for Tony, he has the disposition of a pleasant St. Bernard pup, and underlying that, in nice depth, he’s as stolid as a clam.

I requested him if he thought he may duplicate final autumn’s efficiency. “Maybe not,” he stated. I requested if he was simply fortunate. “Sure, very fortunate — however I’ve all the time been fortunate fishing for muskies.”

Tony additionally is aware of the weak spots within the offense of the informal muskie fisher­ man: “They use rods which are high quality for bass, no good for hooking muskies. You want a stiff rod for muskies. And many individuals get so connected to their tools they neglect concerning the fish. Watch a fellow with a flowery multiplying reel. He’ll get right into a casting rut, like a hypnotized man. The man casts and retrieves, casts and retrieves — identical motions, identical speeds, identical distance of casts.

“Factor to do is attempt the whole lot within the guide. Forged brief and forged lengthy. Reel quick and reel gradual, with rod excessive, rod low. And as you crank, manipulate the rod, up and down, backwards and forwards. Do the whole lot you’ll be able to consider to offer the plug variation.

“One other factor — too many muskie fishermen follow the shoreline. Discover the bars out within the center and work them over. You don’t simply fish these bars. You discover them.

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“Should you get a roll out of a very good fish, toss out a marker on a sinker and are available again in an hour. Typically a fast change of lures will provoke a muskie into an­ different sprint. I exploit little cork floats for this objective, arduous to see within the waves, however then I don’t need others to see them and check out for a fish I’ve roused.”

And, lastly, Tony has this to say: “Autumn is much and away the very best time. The muskie fisherman who’s keen to exit and work by way of tough water and climate will do all proper.”