Spinning for Trout

Gin Clear

This morning I fished a section of the West Branch of the White River. This stream is so clear, sometimes I forget it’s made of water! Whenever I see the phrase “gin clear”, this is the river that comes to mind.

The clarity of the water makes the stream difficult to fish. Where on most streams you can have two or three chances to hit a promising spot with the lure, here you get one and only one. The sight of the lure flying overhead sends the fish scrambling.

Whenever I fish the West Branch, I secretly hope to complete a “grand slam” - all three trout species in one day. I’ve caught browns, rainbows, and brookies out of this river, but never all in one day. I missed again today. I got several browns and a rainbow, but no brookie.

I think the gin clear water made me a better fisherman. At least it made me very aware of every mistake today.

I got in my first swim of the year after fishing when I stopped off at Lake Alpine on the way home. I can’t say the water was warm yet, but at least I didn’t have to break any ice!

The Bugs Are Out

Well, the mosquito-free part of the season is over.

I fished a part of Willow Creek I haven’t been to for five years last night after work. I had to lather up with 40% DEET right after I put on my waders.

It was a pretty part of the river, near where I caught my first really big brown trout. This time, I flushed a lot of big ones, but it was only the little ones that were biting. I caught a couple of small brown trout.

After I got home, I found that a tick had gotten through my defenses, so it wasn’t just the mosquitoes that were waking up for summer. Time to stock up on insect repellent!

Two Little Brookies

Yesterday, I got up early and headed for my favorite section of the Little Wolf River. I wanted to see what it’s like there in the early season, before the wood ticks infest all of the brush I need to push through to get there.

For me, it seems the Little Wolf is either on or off. On a good day, I catch a lot of brook trout. When it’s off, I don’t catch much.

Yesterday was an off day. The boulder gardens and pocket water I like in this stretch were still underwater from the spring melt. I caught just two small brookies in about four hours, and counting wading and hiking I covered over four miles according to my GPS.

The weather was highly variable, and so I was glad I had layers of clothing to add and subtract. The hike to the river through a swampy area was pretty humid and actually was  starting to feel a little warm. Later, it started raining and got cold and windy.

At least I caught some fish. Someday, I’m going to figure out why little brook trout hit lures that are way too big to fit in their mouths.

The best news of the day? No ticks (or mosquitoes) yet!

Fishing in the Rain

Yesterday after work I headed back to Willow Creek to see if I could erase the foul stench of being skunked there last month. It was raining steadily, but not hard, and I decided to see what it would be like to wade a mile under those conditions.

Once I was in the stream, I pretty much forgot about the rain. The fish, though, appeared to be enjoying the weather, and I was able to tally double digits of brown trout before it got dark enough to quit.

My first catch, shown here, was napping under a small bridge when my spinner fluttered by to wake him up.

I was really back in the woods pretty far from the roads when I was surprised to encounter two other anglers heading downstream while I was heading upstream. It’s rare for me to ever see other fisherman on the streams I fish, let alone during such a rainy evening. Hats off to those gentleman, and to all others who are willing to brave the elements to catch some trout!

Fox River Smallie

I let work get in the way of the trout trip I had planned for tonight, but there was still time left over to head down the hill and try my luck in the Fox River. The weather was pleasant, and there were lots of people at the park there enjoying spring (finally!).

The river is still very high and swift, so I wasn’t too hopeful. I fished about an hour without seeing anything. It was hard to keep the lure down because of the high flow.

But after dusk I found a calm spot. I lost my silver spinner to a snag, so I switched to chartreuse. Before too long (and before it got too dark), I landed the bass shown here.

I hope I can say winter is over now! 

Radley Creek

The regular season opened in Wisconsin this weekend. I waited until this morning to get out, because I like to avoid the frenzy of the first day.

I set the alarm for 4:30. Now that the streams are warming up, I guess I’m done sleeping in.

I fished the stretch of Radley Creek, south of Waupaca, where I caught my very first trout a few years ago, It’s very overgrown, dark and mucky, and today the smell of manure freshly spread on farm fields really added to the swampy vibe.

This section always delivers, though. It’s upstream from where I see most others fishing Radley. The reward for hacking through the brush is brown trout in quantity, with some nicely sized ones thrown in the mix.

One of those nice ones taxed my skills. There was a nice pool, but it was completely surrounded by brush. The only way to hit it with the lure was to climb out on a deadfall, lean over, and flip out a short cast. The effort was worth it, because a big brown struck immediately. After I steered him around many submerged branches, I landed him successfully. I had to jump down into the stream to release him.

After all that, I feel like I earned my trout fishing merit badge.

I ended up hitting double digits, marking a great start to the regular season. Now I’mlooking forward to more.

On the drive back home, I passed several groups fishing further downstream, in the sections that come up right next to Highway 22. I’ve caught some big ones down there, but overall I think there are more fish upstream. The wading and stream access is much more convenient, though. I hope all my fellow anglers had as much fun as I did this weekend.

P-U

Well, my first after-work excursion this year was a complete skunk. Willow Creek was starting to flood from the snow melt, and the fish were in hiding. I neither saw nor caught a single trout tonight.

But a bad night of fishing is still better than a good night not fishing. Better luck next time!

Many Brookies

It was a good day on the world-famous Lawrence Creek. The creek is well known because it is where many modern stream improvent techniques were pioneered.

Despite its famous status, I had the whole stream to myself today, once I trudged down a snowmobile trail to get there. The trail allowed me to avoid having to plow through the snow.

It was a grey winter morning, and the brookies were biting on my stock silver spinners.

They weren’t big, but there were a lot of them, displaying a wide range of coloration from very dark to lighter with brilliant red markings. They looked like little jewels.

I caught the most in the downstream section and very few in the highly “engineered” stretch. The last five were caught in the upstream section, primarily in one shallow pool.

Although the snow is still deep around here, I’m starting to notice hopeful signs of spring.

I saw a lot of deer out and about this morning on my drive.

I saw the first robin on the stream while fishing.

And I heard the calls of and saw my first Sandhill crane this trip.

Hopefully, we’ll get some warm days to take care of the snow and make the fishing a little easier.

Ten from the Mecan

Yesterday started cloudy but finished up with only a few scattered clouds. At about noon, I started fishing a stretch of the Mecan River in Marquette County. The last time I fished this section was also during the early season, a couple of years ago. That time, before I could catch any fish, I tripped over a rock and went swimming in my waders. I still remember the cold and wet walk back to the car. That walk was over a mile, and I had to blast the heat all the way back to Appleton to get warm enough to stop shivvering.

So my objectives this time were:

  1. Stay dry

  2. Catch some fish

The walk through the woods to the river was a little tricky. The snow was two feet deep in the drifts. I could stay on top of it for a few steps, but then I would bust through the crust and sink to my knees. That was hard work, but good excersie.

The work didn’t stop when I got into the stream, either. This part of the river has a soft sand bottom, and I kept sinking to my knees in the muck, as well. In the deep holes where the water was already up near the top of my waders, sinking a few more inches was extra exciting!

This time, though, I was able to fish for several hours without going into the drink. I caught my first brown a few minutes into the wade, on a silver spinner. It seemed to be the big ones that were active in the deeper holes, so I had some fun pulling in some nice trout during the course of the afternoon.

When the sun really came out, things started to get slow, so I switched to my new black-bladed home made spinners. That seemed to do the trick, and I caught and released several more big ones.

Thanks once again to troutpig for suggesting dark spinners for sunny conditions! Now, I always keep a few in my vest.

In the end, the day was quite sucessful, giving me my first double digit catch of the year. And, I did it all without getting wet this time!

Winter - Willow Creek

Today was a classic grey sky blustery winter day. My drive to the Redgranite area passed through snow, sleet and rain, but when I got to Willow Creek there was no precipitation. It was just cold and cloudy.

The walk to the river was about a third of a mile through drifts of snow up to 2-1/2 feet deep. I’ll check off the box to say I got my exercise today!

The wading was a workout as well. I was out of practice pulling my feet out of the mucky spots in this sand counties stream.

The fishing started slow. At one point, I was almost resigned to getting skunked when I started to flush some big ones. Eventually I caught two in the same pool in the course of a few minutes.

After those, there wasn’t any more catching going on until just before the bridge I climbed out at. I didn’t intend to fish so long, but stopping before the bridge would have meant a long walk through deep snow to get to a road.

Lots of work for three fish, but they were respectable in size and they put up a good fight.

So far, I’m enjoying the early season, and it’s fun to be back out in the streams.