Salter Season

I'm back in MA this week for the holidays, and this morning I was able to spend a few hours on a salter stream.  It was a little chilly when I got there, but the sun was on the water and tide was high but receding.

This is the time of year when some of the trout head downstream to the salt, so I focused on the estuary. I ended up catching all of my fish under the road bridge. I've found that this is one of the most productive spots in the estuary. I think it provides the perfect combo of cover, current, and depth, so the fish stack up there. 

I caught three brookies, all decently sized, in the span of about 15 minutes. After that, nothing, so I called it a day. 

Tomorrow is forecast to be rainy and in the low 50s - great conditions for winter trout. I'll be out with Geoff all day, so hopefully we can replicate some of today's success. 

Highlights of 2016

My friend Geoff made the Orvis Friday Fly Fishing Film Festival with his video highlights of 2016. While I couldn't be there for every moment in the video, you might see some familiar hands at some point....

Check it out here or on Orvis News

The Off Season

The WI trout season closed on October 15. I unfortunately had to travel for work for the first 10 days of October, but I did get a couple trips in before the end of the season.

The season opens back up January 2, so fortunately I don't have to wait too long. In the meantime I can still fish lakes and ponds.

A Beautiful Weekend in Wisconsin

The weather this weekend was gorgeous here - sunny with a high in the low 70s both days. I took advantage and did some fishing out in the Driftless. The fishing seems to have slowed down bit. It's been colder at night, so it might have been wiser to fish in the afternoons rather than the morning.

I found a couple of fish though, so I was happy with the fishing, and I found a lot of cool scenery, including some rock outcroppings that wouldn't look out of place in the Whites.

The leaves are just starting to change. I'm excited to see what this area looks like in a few weeks when the colors are at their peak

September

I just realized how badly I've neglected this blog - no posts in the month of August. The last two months have flown by. It's hard to believe it's already mid-September. I've appreciated the shift to cooler weather. I'm not sure how thrilled I'll be come winter, but there's good winter fishing out here at least. I haven't had as much time to fish as I would have liked, but I guess that's just something I'll have to get used to.

I have gotten some fishing in though.

On Monday I drove about half an hour to a trout stream after work. I only caught one fish, but it was a big one. This stream has wild browns, and I couldn't find any evidence of rainbow stocking nearby. It looks like a stocker, so I guess it must have come a long way away. It absolutely smashed my chernobyl ant - luckily I was using 3X so I didn't have to worry about breaking off.

I also made a few trips to some Driftless streams farther west. It seems that the stream gradients are higher there, which mean rockier bottoms and slightly easier conditions that some of the glassy low-gradient streams near Madison.

Big Fish, Tiny Stream

Deep valleys dissecting a flat plateau

I made two trips west to fish this weekend. On Saturday I was kept off the water by thunderstorms, but on Sunday the weather stayed relatively clear. Thanks to the recent rains, the first stream I tried was very stained. I decided to drive upstream to the headwaters in search of clearer waters.

The stream was tiny in most places...

Near the top of the valley I crossed a small tributary. It wasn't on my map of classified trout streams, but it was somewhat clear and the pool near the bridge looked deep. I fished the bridge pool first, but caught nothing but a few small chubs.

...except for under the bridge

I moved downstream and realized the stream was tiny - below the bridge pool it was just 1-2 feet wide in most places. I didn't catch any fish in the few small pools I found here, so I decided to try the big pool one more time before leaving.

This time I tried to cast a bit farther under the bridge. I let my small wooly bugger sink for a few seconds then began slowly pulling it in. I felt a tug much stronger than one from a chub, and soon pulled in an extremely light-colored brook trout.

Almost colorless

Emboldened by my success, I decided to try again. A few casts later, I felt an even strong tug. A nice wild brown put up a great fight, at one point jumping a couple feet out of the water.

I kept going, and soon found the best fish of all. Unlike the previous brown, this one never came near the surface. It stayed deep and pulled hard, putting up a strong fight against my 2 weight. Luckily he had nowhere to go in the small pool, so I was able to net him. I don't know exactly how big he was, but I would estimate somewhere in the 14-16" range and very fat with a bit of a kype. Easy my personal best wild brown.

Though a great fish anywhere, it was even better catching it out of such a tiny stream.

Freestone Brook Trout

I had a great outing to a small brook trout stream this past weekend, but I’ve been busy and haven’t had time to post about it until now.

I’ve spent most of my fishing time over the past few weeks exploring some of the nearby spring creeks. While these creeks can offer some great fishing, they’re pretty tough to fish this time of year. Streamside navigation is difficult, with my East Coast nemesis, poison ivy, being replaced by stinging nettles, wild parsnips, and 6’+ tall prairie grasses. The silty bottoms found in these streams make wading an even more unpleasant proposition.

With those difficulties in mind, I decided to set out for the stream I fished my first weekend here. There, at least, I knew I could probably land a few fish without waging constant battle against the local environment.This stream, unlike most nearby, is essentially a freestone, flowing down from the Baraboo Hills, the remnants of an ancient mountains range.

I decided to try a foam hopper, one of my go-to flies for freestone brookies, especially later in the summer. I wasn’t disappointed, and I soon began picking up fish in nearly every pool. This stream is quite small volume-wise, but it forms plenty of deep pools as it moves over the boulders in its path.

In one place I found a large pool alongside a giant boulder. The water moved slowly along the edge of the boulder, where it must have been at least 3 feet deep. I bounced my fly off the edge of the rock and watched as a dark shape emerged from the depths and grabbed it. I ended up landing 4 or 5 brookies out of this pool before the fish finally decided to stop biting.

After catching a good amount of fish I contemplated leaving, but I decided to try one last spot. It didn’t look like anything special, just a small plunge feeding a small pool about 5 feet wide. But when I cast my fly into the current tongue I was met with a surprise - a heavy and hard-fighting brookie.

I was amazed to find such a fish in this stream - ~10” and very fat - the only brookies I’ve caught that rival this one are salters.

It was a great day, and more than made up for my struggles on the spring creeks. We got 3-4” of rain over a period of about 2 hours last night here in Madison, so I think the local streams will be blown out this weekend, but I’m going to head west into the heart of the Driftless in search of clearer waters. If only we could send some of this water back to MA - I know you guys need it out there.

First Wisconsin Explorations

I made my move to Wisconsin last week, and I was able to get my first fishing trip this week. On my way from Madison to Minneapolis to visit some friends,  I stopped to check out a small stream flowing through a small group of hills. Based on the pictures I'd seen of this stream, I thought it would be more like the freestone streams I'm used to than the spring creeks common here.

I found the flow low, but quite cold. Despite the freestone character of this stream, it must have some springs feeding it. I tied on a mini hopper, and it wasn't long before I got hits. I found brook trout in most pools, ranging from 5-10", but my hook up ratio was terrible. I only landed one fish in the hour and a half I fished. It was a beautiful brook trout though, and as my first trout after the move it's at least somewhat special.


I've also discovered that wild black raspberries grow prolifically here. There are some in MA, but I've never seen those yield nearly as many berries as the bushes here.

I'm now working full-time during the week, but there is a trout stream abutting my office, so hopefully I'll get some before or after work fishing in once I get settled.

A Few Nice Small Stream Trout

I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to fish recently, mainly due to time spent recovering from Lyme disease (check for ticks!). I did get out in the rain for a few hours last week though, and the fish were cooperating.

I started fishing at a pool just upstream of the road. I usually fish this pool first, and I almost always get a hit. This is mainly a brook trout stream, but there are a few browns around, especially in this section. I let a small wooly bugger drift downstream, and just as it passed under some overhanging branches I saw a wake and felt a strong tug. The fight was tough in such close quarters, but I was able to land this beautiful 10” brown.

Later I met up with Geoff, and we started working downstream as the rain began to fall. We found a few small brookies, but the action was slow, so we decided to drive downstream to a different access point.

Near the head of a now-drained mill pond a nice brook trout slammed my foam hopper. Geoff got this short gif of the release:

We decided to bushwhack upstream through some nearly impassable terrain, an area in which the stream completely disappears under bushes for several stretches. After working our way through the swamp we found ourselves at a small beaver pond. Geoff skittered a caddis across the surface and it was quickly smashed by a beautiful 10” brookie.

Beaver pond brookie

After that we called it a day, satisfied having caught some nice-sized fish.

Escaping the Heat on a Salter Stream

Rhododendrons are blooming

I spent the weekend visiting family in southeastern MA, and I was lucky enough to do a little sea run brook trout fishing while I was there.

Dawn on the stream

Yesterday I met up with Geoff and his friend Justin, a member of the Sea Run Brook Trout Coalition. While temperatures were in the 90s inland, the high on the coast was in the upper 70s. The stream we fished was freezing, as it's fed by springs which keep temperatures cool all season long.

We started near the head of the tide and were into fish right away swinging small streamers downstream. The first few fish were in the 6-7" range, which is respectable in most wild brook trout streams, but somewhat small for this stream. Justin told us that several fat 13-14" trout were found in a recent electroshocking survey. 

Later we walked upstream to the last trail access point and fished back downstream. In this stretch we starting hooking into some nicer fish. I caught this ~10" brookie in the first pool we entered. He came out from under a root wad and smashed my streamer.

As we moved down we all got into fish, landing a few each and hooking many more. The average size in this stretch was probably 8".

This morning I had a couple hours to fish before I needed to leave for home. I woke up with the sun, hitting the road at 5:40  and arriving at the stream around 6:00. As I pulled in to the parking lot I saw a group of teenagers loading up two cars with music equipment, including a guitar and a banjo. They left as I was rigging up my rod, so I'm unsure what I stumbled upon. Maybe they were shooting a folk music video at sunrise? I guess I'll never know. 

The fishing turned out to be great. I got my first fish in a riffle near the road a few minutes after arriving. I moved upstream and began fishing down, hooking into several nice trout. 

After that I moved up to farthest access point to work my way down the same stretch we fished the day before. In the first pool I hooked what I believe was the same 10" fish from yesterday, but I wasn't able to get a photo to compare patterns. 

I hooked into several more nice fish, with the highlight of the day being this beautifully-colored 11-12" brookie. He hit three times as I drifted the fly past the undercut bank he must call home. Each time I thought he would spook, but fortunately I was able to land him on the third. I finished up around 8:30, leaving before anyone else had arrived.