About Your Guide

Greetings, I'm Paul Schlagel.  Fishing has truly been a life-long passion for me.  Growing up, nearly all summer days were spent walking to a nearby lake for panfish or riding my bike to the Mississippi for smallmouth.  Since then I’ve fished as far north as Alaska and as far south as Santa Catarina, Brazil, and many points in between. 

It’s been a long time since I was infected with incurable muskie-fever.  My first time out was with another first-timer, and we were lucky enough to put two in the boat and I remembered thinking, “That’s not so hard.  What’s the big deal?”  Talk about beginner’s luck! I was hooked.  That was over twenty years ago.

I’m sure glad I started when I did.  All the years spent in dedicated and thoughtful pursuit of musky has brought me to an elite level at a time when my home waters have become the best anywhere.  Living on Mille Lacs during the musky season gives me the opportunity to fish daily on the most productive trophy musky water in North America.  I can share that experience with you. 

I enjoy a variety of musky-fishing techniques and have a few I can call a specialty.  I love summer time night fishing - it's a great time to be out on the water and it's really when the muskies go on the prowl.  The whole musky catching experience is more thrilling and intense after sunset.  Though the conditions can be harsh and the fishing sometimes slow, I love the thrill of a late-fall trophy hunt.  And although it's seldom the most productive way to fish, I really like chasing muskies with a fly-rod.  Because of guiding I don't get to do it often, but it's an option for anyone experienced in flycasting.

Any day on Mille Lacs can turn into a trip-of-a-lifetime experience.  Join me for the best musky fishing in the world and you’ll see what I mean.