Almost every year a 50-inch fish is taken including one of Wyss' fellow DNR employees who caught a 52-inch, 38-pound lunker.

Keep the bass boats at home. The only navigable waters for anything larger than a canoe or small aluminum boat is the Black River Flowage and Lake Arbutus. Float trips in canoes are popular, but the upper river above Black River Flowage is rocky, and you can expect to swap paint with a rock or two. The lower river has long expanses of shallow sand flats that make navigation difficult and creates distance between locations that are holding fish. Muskies are found as far upstream as Clark County.

The Black has good access on the lower end from Melrose downstream. Launch areas below Melrose include Highway 108 and North Bend. Carry-down launches include Irving, Hawk Island and off Haugstead Road.

For more information, contact the DNR in La Crosse at (608) 785-9002 or in Madison at (608) 266-5222. The Hatfield Sports Shop may be reached at (715) 333-5009.

CHIPPEWA RIVER
The Chippewa Flowage has produced outstanding muskie action over the years, while the riverine waters are overlooked. The 44-mile stretch of the Chippewa River below the Winter Dam down to Lake Holcomb is a muskie fishery in its own right.

"You're likely to encounter fish as big as those in Lake Holcomb or the Radison Flowage," said fisheries biologist Frank Pratt in Hayward. "There are 50-inch fish in the river and if you can find woody cover combined with deep water in the main stem, you'll be on muskie habitat."

Pratt has caught his share of the toothy predators and has used a fly rod to do it. The fish are shallow enough for flies to tempt them with an average depth of only 2 feet. The river bottom fluctuates between riffles and deeper holes, some of which can be quite a distance from each other.

Topwater baits are good options for the same reason, Pratt said. There is seldom a need for a crankbait that dives very far.

Guide Steve Genson has found that fall fishing on the Chippewa ups the odds of tangling with the biggest fish of the year.

"There are a couple of seasonal events that clue me in on when we should be hitting the river," he said. "The first is the fall turnover period on the lakes in my region. As the water cools, fishing can be inconsistent and slow. The second are the migrations of prey fish that move up the river."

Poor fishing in other waters combined with the surge in muskie forage spells success. Focus on current breaks and slack water. The fish will occasionally follow the bait into the flow before smashing it, so keep the bait moving.

Bulldawgs, Shallow Invaders and Swimming Joes do the job, Genson said. Work the baits with a sweeping motion to keep them from hanging up. The Just Add Water series of spinnerbaits are a great option and can be fluttered down into holes.

The Chippewa River in this stretch can be floated in its entirety. Accesses are scattered and it can be a far paddle between some of them.

For more information, contact the DNR at (715) 634-9658 or Genson's Fish Hunts at (715) 766-2710 and online at www.fishhunts.com.

For lodging information, contact the Wisconsin Department of Tourism at (800) 432-8747 or visit online at www.travelwisconsin.com.