An Outdoorsman's Journal

Operation Musky/A Barrel of Laughs

Hello friends,

      From 1981 to ‘87 I did a 6 year enlistment in the Wisconsin Air National Guard with the 115th Tactical Fighter Wing out of Madison. I was a jammer driver on a 3-man weapons loading crew. At first, it was OA/37s and then A10s. I got out to attempt to canoe up the Mississippi River when my enlistment ended in ‘87 and basically stayed outside and on adventures since then.
     For the last 26 years I have been a part of what we call Operation Musky which is a group of 6 men that are still left from that era and my deer camp, "The Red Brush Gang," and a few other really fun people.
     We stay at The Hiawatha Motel in Eagle River and fish the Eagle River Chain. I highly recommend The Hiawatha as a clean, friendly and very laid back place to hang your hat and tie up your boat.

     Friday, August 28th
     High 77, low 52

     Perhaps the most fun day of this 3-day outing is day 1. No one really fishes as the fishing runs on Saturday from 6am to 8 pm and Sunday until 11:00. Last year I got real lucky and caught one each day. On day 2, my 2nd musky was landed, photographed and released with 4 minutes left. The real joke and everyone knows it, is I suck in this tournament, and got lucky, but my partner Jeff Moll and I won.
     All about the Friday fun, we all hang out in front of The Hiawatha, cook really good food, most people make fun of me and we laugh a lot.

     Saturday, August 29th
     High 62, low 48

     My partner was a bit on edge as we did not start fishing until 7:30. I was well aware that we would not get out of the boat until 8:00 pm and my mood was excellent. There was off and on rain in the air all day and the conditions were like fall not summer. This kept 90% of the people not with our group off the water and we loved it.
     What Mr. Moll and I do is fish, chat with others a few times a day, and have a beverage with our friends as we tie our boats together and drift. Most importantly, we laugh. As long as a person was dressed for the conditions, the weather was superb. For Jeff and I the fishing was slow, we did have a nice talk with one of my bosses from back in the day, John Meier, his son Robb and grandson Garrett. Minutes after that ended, Robb had a good fish hit the green and yellow "Swimmin Dawg" that he was throwing and his 14-year-old son Garrett netted what would be a 38-incher, which would be Robb's first musky ever in this outing. The following morning Robb would land a 34-inch northern pike which would earn him first place with that side bet.
    This evening our group had a very cool party in front of The Hiawatha and all we did was sit in lawn chairs and visit with each other.

    Sunday, August 30th
    High 77, low 53

    The mood was excellent for all teams this morning and some musky were caught. Jeff and I had several experiences of which none included catching fish. First, we came across a kind of family member, Kenny Schuster and his 34-year-old grandson Jade Tylinski. The 20 hsp that Kenny was running had a serious problem and it was dead on the water. I mentioned him working his way back to the landing and casting as he was over some good water.
   Kenny is in his mid-70s, the definition of a seasoned outdoorsman, as he spends a lot of time each fall chasing elk and has a good sized chunk of land near Mazomanee where he raised his family. Kenny was throwing a black Top Raider and had a dandy hit it and Jade ended up netting a 43.75 inch musky that would be his first ever in this event and would earn him top prize. Moments later Kenny had another dandy hit but get away. Bottom line, Kenny and Jade won Operation Musky this year.
   Next event was seeing my brother Mike and his partner Chris Grinde. It appeared they had a problem and they did, as in Mikey had a good-sized treble hook in his thumb, which Mr. Moll removed.
   With 6 minutes left to catch a fish I had a dandy hit my Creek Chub Pikee 3000, clear the water by 2 feet and sail across the top of it for 8 feet as it threw the hook, what a cool way to end a great outing.
   Tommy Gilbertson was my immediate boss back in the day and runs this event about as perfectly as possible. We fish, laugh and enjoy life!

   Sunset