An Outdoorsman’s Journal

By: Mark Walters

Adventures at Flater’s Resort

Hello friends, I have been friends with “Musky Joe” Flater who is a 5th generation owner of Flater’s Resort for a good 20 years. Joe is hard to describe in less than a million words. Old school, hardcore, fun, disorganized, one of the few in the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame, fond of beer, a Packer and Brewer die-hard, trapper, smells like an old bear just coming out of the den, etc.

I told Joe a while back I could help him, along with our very good buddy Dave Schmitt, with the 7 bear hunters that Joe was guiding this fall. Flater’s Resort has been owned by the Flater’s for 86 years and is located where the Chippewa and Flambeau rivers meet. If you have ever been in their very outdoor oriented tavern you are well aware that it is a fun place to enjoy a beverage.

Friday, September 6 High 61, low 42

I have been here since Wednesday when the season opened and am staying in a cabin with Dave Schmitt who lives near Adams and Hartland. Of the 7 hunters sitting over a bait, not a bear has been harvested but let me tell you, a lot of bear are being observed and there are some interesting stories. The first two nights, one hunter saw 11 and then 8 bears, every hunter but one has had bear experiences, but the bear were either with cubs or just too small for the hunters to take this early in the hunt.

There are 5 guys from the Jefferson area. John Hauser and his 26 year old son Alex, Mike Henningsen, Tom Ames and Brian Happ. These guys are rigged with the best of everything, very into the hunt and when day becomes night are a blast as we create a strategy in Flater’s pub for the next hunt. Wednesday, Dave was placing these guys in their stands and one of them had a really good bear at his bait 5 minutes before they approached. Thursday, the cellular trail camera told the same story. Today we placed them 2 hours earlier and it did not pay off. John Hauser did have 2 experiences with bear but no meat was made. On the other hand, Mike Henningsen, who shot his first buck with a bow last fall (and it was a dandy), passed on a bear early in the evening and did not pass later in the hunt and thus scored on his first black bear. This made everyone in Flaterville very happy, even though the Pack and the Brewers lost. A little sidebar story, Alex Hauser is 26 and had to leave camp as he was in a Friday wedding in southeastern Wisconsin. On Sunday Alex would come back to camp and on Monday, just before his hunting experience for this year was over, a 225 pound brute made the mistake of getting into Alex’s sites and thus another happy night at Flaterville would take place.

Musky Joe has more friends than brain cells and that isn’t saying much. One of them is Scott Stewart who lives near Bruce and is highly respected in this area. On Saturday night Scott needed some help as he had whacked a real good bear that after some extremely physical labor getting it out of the bush tipped the scales at 345 pounds dressed.

A couple of sidebar stories, Joe, Dave and I went for a drive down by Gilman to Tiny’s Taxidermy. We became quite lost, the box is falling off Joe’s truck, one of his tires has very little air in it and when we got to Steven Gross’s place in the woods, we had a lot of laughs. Joe had a 56-inch, 45-pound musky redone and it will be above the bar in Flaterville.

In closing, it is also sturgeon fishing season. Karen Wegerer caught and registered a 64-inch sturgeon at Flater’s. Her gang, who are from Medford, stays at the resort, is very into sturgeon spearing and a heck of a bunch of fun.

As you can well imagine Old MGW was mighty tired when he got home from Flaterville and literally was in bed 15 minutes after he parked the horse in the barn!

If you aren’t having fun, do something about it! Sunset

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Karen Wegerer and Laura Wegerer with a 64-inch sturgeon that Karen caught while fishing near Flater’s Resort.

Alex Hauser with a 225 pound black bear that he harvested on the last day of his hunt.

Scott Stewart of Bruce with a 345 pound dressed black bear that he harvested near Flaters Resort.