Fishing enthusiasts like Homer Glen resident Ted Koski say once you’ve caught a muskie there’s no turning back.
“As far as the lure of catching muskie – no pun intended – it’s the size. They’re an awesome fish to catch,” he said Friday afternoon on opening day of the three-day Muskie Expo Chicago over the weekend at the Kane County Fairgrounds in St. Charles.
While the muskie fishing season remains months away, organizers of the expo did their best to stoke the fires of those looking for new equipment, the best muskie fishing spots and more.
Mike Veserat, who serves as president and owner of the Muskie Expo, said the event has been held since 1988 and offers shows in both St. Charles as well as in West Bend, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee.
He said the show first came to Kane County in 2018 and has continued with just one interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The show, he said, remains a winter staple since “people wouldn’t be here later in the year, they’d be fishing.”
“There is no muskie fishing now. There’s river fishing year-round and depending on your state, there’s different timelines and even within Wisconsin there are different seasons as well as places like Minnesota and Canada,” Veserat said. “Typically, there’s no fishing for muskie until after they spawn.”
He said the expo offers guests the opportunity “to meet the best people in the sport and the manufacturers of the products that are coming into the sport.”
“It’s not like going into a retail store and looking at a rack of baits. You’re coming to a show where if you want to go fish these guys know the waters and know what your best odds are of catching something,” he said.
Veserat said fishing for muskie is special because “they’re not easy to catch. They’re a bigger fish and an apex predator.”
“Even if you get one … there’s no guarantee you’re getting it into the boat,” he said. “It may take many trials, but after you get one there’s very little in the world that’s like catching a muskie.”
Nevaeh Duncan of Plainfield came with her father to the expo and said she fishes with him from time to time “in order to hang out with my dad.”
“I’ve not had much luck getting a muskie but I almost had one the first time I went fishing,” she said.
Duncan’s father, Robert Peterson, said he started fishing for muskie a dozen years ago after fishing “for bass and all that and I decided I wanted to start going after some bigger fish.”
“I had a buddy get me into this and I did it once and never looked back,” he said.
He said he goes out muskie fishing about “a dozen times a year if I can.”
“I’ve gotten about 10 of them,” he said.
Peterson said he likes coming to the expo to network with others who like fishing for muskie, something that Jeff Farnsworth of Lockport said he likewise enjoys.
“I come every year,” he said. “I bought some glide baits and have been doing this for 10 years.”
He said the allure of fishing for muskie is simple.
“It’s the thrill of the hunt,” he said. “Once you just get one – I’ve got buddies that don’t understand and once they come on a trip with you they get the fever.”
Betsy Kowalczyk of Woodridge declared she “was all in” when it comes to muskie fishing, something that she has done for the past six years after being introduced to it by her late husband.
“He was a big muskie fisherman and had been going up to Canada and that was the first time I got to go with him,” she said. “I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve gotten four so far and it’s been hundreds of hours. We fish hard – 10 hours a day in the boat, constant casting.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
