Hayward, WI

If you ask people in Hayward, Wis., (pop. 2,161) where they’ll be the first Saturday in May, many will tell you they’ll be at the lake—wetting a line.

May 5 is opening day of general fishing season in Wisconsin, and based on the hundreds of trophy-size fish photographs that appear in the Sawyer County Record each year, many residents of Hayward are hooked on the sport.

“It’s a tradition to get out for a couple of hours on opening day,” says Ted Dzialo, director of the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward.

Surrounded by lakes and rivers, Hayward has a reputation for producing large fish, particularly record-size muskellunge or musky. In 1949, Louie Spray caught the world-record musky (69 pounds, 11 ounces) on the 15,000-acre Chippewa Flowage, Wisconsin’s third- largest lake, 10 miles southeast of town.

“A lot of people fish for bluegills and crappies, but virtually everyone takes a shot at a musky,” Dzialo says, explaining that the predatory fish, also called the “water wolf” and the “fish of 10,000 casts,” can be elusive.

“They’re not as common or plentiful” as other species, Dzialo adds.

When Dzialo isn’t spending a day at his favorite fishing hole, he’s likely at the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, which is open from April 15 to Nov. 1. The hall has more than 400 specimens of freshwater fish and maintains a permanent record of the largest freshwater fish caught around the world.

“If you catch a record fish in Japan, it has to go through us to be recognized,” says Bob Kutz, who founded the hall of fame in 1970 with his wife, Fannie.

The hall’s centerpiece is a four-and-a-half story, 143-foot-long walk-through musky, reported to be both the largest fish, and fiberglass structure, in the world. The hall’s museum also displays 300 antique outboard motors, thousands of antique lures, rods and reels, and other fishing tackle donated by Hayward residents and visiting anglers.

Hayward also is headquarters to Fishing Has No Boundaries, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to provide and improve fishing opportunities for people with disabilities. Bobby Cammack, who grew up on the Chippewa Flowage and was a fishing guide for nearly 40 years, founded the group in 1986 after he encountered a problem getting in and out of a boat with a broken leg.

Since the first Fishing Has No Boundaries event was held in Hayward in 1988, Cammack’s small team of volunteers has grown into a national organization with 14 chapters in eight states. “Little did Bobby realize how many thousands of lives he would touch, able-bodied and disabled,” says Diane McNamer, the organization’s executive director.

Fishing isn’t Hayward’s only claim to fame. The northern Wisconsin community also plays host to several other world-class events: the Lumberjack World Championships, a skills and athletic competition for loggers in July; the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, a grueling off-road bicycle race in September; and the American Birkebeiner, the nation’s largest cross country ski race, held in February.

Still, it’s the bass, crappie, perch, pike, walleye, and prized muskellunge in lakes and streams around Hayward that gave birth to the town’s long-standing fishing tradition.

The annual Musky Festival, now in its 52nd year, is proof of that. The event, scheduled June 22-24, commemorates angling writer Cal Johnson’s 1949 record fish—a 67-pound, 8-ounce musky—caught just months before Louie Spray hooked the world-record.

When musky season opens in northern Wisconsin, you can bet anglers on lakes around Hayward will be trying to break Spray’s record—even if it takes 10,000 casts.

Ann Hattes is a freelance writer in Hartland, Wis.

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