# [Fall Salmon Run Trip in Wisconsin]



## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

*Wednesday Night through Thursday Night:*

Our salmon trip last weekend began on Wednesday night. AJ, Tylor & I left Pensacola around 10PM. Our target? King salmon country. But more specifically, the stretch of the Sheboygan River near the mouth of Lake Michigan in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. A 1,000+ mile trip in a 2007 Focus jam-packed full of a trio of 6' tall dudes & all of their fishing gear isn't exactly Webster's definition of "comfortable," but with the help of about 30 gallons of gas, countless McDoubles, & some good tunes, we made it there in one piece. We arrived at our first destination (Monroe, Wisconsin), around 2PM on Friday afternoon. We stretched our legs, visited with my grandparents, unpacked some of our stuff, ate some killer Tex-Mex grub at Pancho & Lefty's, said goodbye to AJ, & then re-packed our gear into my buddy Alex's car. This began the second leg of our journey. We drove an hour north to Madison, Wisconsin to grab my buddy Drew & then headed two more hours northwest to Sheboygan. 12AM marked our arrival at my Grandma & Grandpa Fischer's house, which happens to be conveniently located about five minutes away from some sick spots on the Sheboygan River. I introduced my friends to my grandparents & then we got to work rigging up our rods, since we knew we wouldn't have the motivation to do it when we woke up a few hours later. By 1:30AM we were zonked out....

*Friday:*

5:30AM came quicker than we wanted it to, but we toughed it out & woke up to the first alarm, eager to go look for our first kings. We got to the first spot just before daylight. We unpacked the car, grabbed our gear, & then navigated our way through a few hundred yards of brush down to the river. We stepped into the frigid water & began to walk downstream. Drew immediately found out that his left wader boot had a massive hole in it that would plague him for the entirety of our first day of fishing. However, he found out later that a big king salmon screaming off with his spoon made him forget about his chilly left leg pretty quick. The day consisted of us bouncing around from spot to spot, some full of kings, some not. Though many of the spots we hit had kings busting around on the surface and rocketing out of the water just yards in front of us, we were only able to hook into them at one area. We had plenty of heartbreaks with 20 lb.+ kings lost for a number of reasons, but we still managed some great fish, many of which were personal bests for us. Around 6PM we headed back to Madison to take Drew home, since he had a wedding he had to attend in Milwaukee the following morning. Since Alex decided that he didn't want to fish on Saturday with us, we said farewell to him & transferred our gear from his car to my buddy Troy's car. After a quick salmon cookout, we left Drew's & once again headed 2 hours north to Sheboygan. We arrived at 11:30PM & made short work of unpacking our stuff. Unfortunately Tylor realized at this point that his Shimano Calcutta 200B & GSX combo was nowhere to be found. We sped down to the last river spot that he had it at & spent a half hour looking for it, but it had evidently been grabbed by someone. With our morale down the drain we headed back to the house to get some shut eye before day two...

*Saturday:*
Who knew that getting just 4 hours of sleep for the second night in a row would leave you groggy and unmotivated? Thankfully we're obsessed fisherman & didn't let the immense tiredness get the best of us. This time we didn't mess around with any of the other spots. 5:45AM came & we headed straight to the spot where we had slayed them the day before. It wasn't 15 minutes before our first hookup, but luck wasn't on our side & the salmon took off after shaking free of Tylor's rattletrap. The day consisted of about 30 situations similar to the one I just described, but we were persistent and refused to throw in the towel until we had put some big fish on the bank. I never got a big male like I wanted to, but I was more than ecstatic with the pair of big females I got, & words can't describe how stoked Troy was with his monster rainbow that he got at the end of the day. Around 3PM we decided we had better go get the fish cleaned & then head back to my grandparents house to pack up so that we could get home to Monroe at a decent time. After saying goodbye to my grandparents & then dropping by for a surprise visit to my Grandma Schraham in the nursing home that she now lives at, we finally headed home to Monroe. 

Tylor's lost rod & reel, holes in both sides of my waders, blown up bearings in my Stradic 1000FH, and dozens of lost fish between the three of us couldn't ruin the fun that we had on this trip. The rest of the weekend was filled with plenty of Miller, fresh grilled salmon, bonfires, & great fun with some of the best friends that anyone could ask for. It was truly one of the best fishing trips I've ever been on & I can't wait to do it again next fall. 

*Tally for Day One:*

*Drew:* A stud male king salmon & a big female king salmon
*Tylor:* 36'' 17.5 lb. king salmon & a stud 22'' 5.25 lb. brown trout
*Me:* The ugliest king salmon in the entire river
*Alex:* Nada

*Tally for Day Two:*

*Me:* Fat 34.5'' 16.5 lb. king salmon & a spawned out 35.5'' king salmon
*Tylor:* Met the skunk
*Troy:* A lunker 27'' 7.5 lb. rainbow trout

Tight lines everyone.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

There's going to be a lot of these.....

*If you look close in the last photo in this set, you can see a sweet action shot I got of Drew's king jumping!*


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

& some more.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

Hopefully you guys aren't getting tired of these photos.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

About halfway through I think...


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## How2RemoveAHook (Sep 16, 2015)

dude, i think the salmon with the broken back and the multiple scars was the most beautiful one.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

I've never had to upload this many photos to one report before...


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## MoganMan (Feb 24, 2013)

Should have been using Matrox Vortek shad, could have emptied the river of salmon.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

TYLOR YOU ARE HILARIOUS MAN. FOR REAL. 

But you know what's even funnier? The last photo in this set. Toasted.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

I wanted to use a Matrox Shed but I'm not sure if they live up to the hype...


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## How2RemoveAHook (Sep 16, 2015)

There is no shame in a #selfie


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## XxReel_FisherxX (Jul 31, 2013)

Boy oh boy... these images sure are decent..


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

XxReel_FisherxX said:


> These images sure are decent


Keep making comments like that & I'll cut you out of last night's salmon dinner photo next time.

Which, by the way, was dynamite. Fresh baked salmon marinated in Worchestershire, parmesan, lemon pepper, & & minced garlic paired with some four cheese pasta alfredo & sauteed spinach. I didn't hear anyone complaining, that's for sure. :thumbup:


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## XxReel_FisherxX (Jul 31, 2013)

ThaFish said:


> Keep making comments like that & I'll cut you out of the salmon dinner photo next time.



That ain't right.


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## WAReilly (Jun 2, 2014)

Looks like a blast fellas! That river looks absolutely stunning. BUT it looks like I need to teach all of y'all how to fillet fish!!


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## stc1993 (Nov 23, 2014)

Did a lamprey get that one fish? Pretty fish, no doubt about it. One of my old bosses use to go to Alaska king salmon fishing every July.

Those salmon roe are suppose to be good bait.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

stc1993 said:


> Did a lamprey get that one fish? Pretty fish, no doubt about it. One of my old bosses use to go to Alaska king salmon fishing every July.
> 
> Those salmon roe are suppose to be good bait.


Yup, definitely a lamprey that got to that salmon before I did. We actually found a dead one nearby. Creepy looking things for sure. I can't wait to go again. They really pull, they're a crazy fun fish to catch.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

WAReilly said:


> Looks like a blast fellas! That river looks absolutely stunning. BUT it looks like I need to teach all of y'all how to fillet fish!!


It was BEAUTIFUL man! Such an awesome place. 

& it was cold & my hands kept slipping on the fish & on the knife. Are those acceptable excuses or should I try to come up with a different one?


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## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

ThaFish said:


> Keep making comments like that & I'll cut you out of last night's salmon dinner photo next time.
> 
> Which, by the way, was dynamite. Fresh baked salmon marinated in Worchestershire, parmesan, lemon pepper, & & minced garlic paired with some four cheese pasta alfredo & sauteed spinach. I didn't hear anyone complaining, that's for sure. :thumbup:



Ughhh. Yankee food
My mom used to cook salmon- salmon patties! Delicious FRIED!!!
Lol I'm just kinda sorta kidding!!


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## fla_scout (Sep 28, 2007)

Great report and pics! Looks like a blast.


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Sawyer, 2 guys and 3 gals......nice odds!!!! Way to have a great time brother!


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## LIM-IT-OUT (Aug 26, 2014)

Mmm... 1 more guy is needed I see. Where was my phone call hahahaha 

Super sweet pics and report!!!


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

Jason said:


> Sawyer, 2 guys and 3 gals......nice odds!!!! Way to have a great time brother!


Yup, being outnumbered isn't always a bad thing brother!


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

LIM-IT-OUT said:


> Mmm... 1 more guy is needed I see. Where was my phone call hahahaha
> 
> Super sweet pics and report!!!


Hahaha, sorry about that bro. Next time we cook salmon it's either gonna be at your place or you're coming over!


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## NLytle (May 13, 2014)

Awesome pictures! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Great pics and report! I keep getting invited on a trip just like this and haven't gone yet. Maybe next year.


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

Chris V said:


> Great pics and report! I keep getting invited on a trip just like this and haven't gone yet. Maybe next year.


MAKE THE TRIP. I promise you won't regret it. & you'll definitely be able to put those Conflict/Fenwick combos to work.


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