Wisconsin Driftless 2020

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Long Way Home

The wife and I had to get out of the house last night. We picked up food curbside at the Rooted Spoon in Viroqua and ate it "Greek" in the wayside near Readstown.

It was too early to go home so we visited my mom at the cemetery and her mom in Gays Mills. After those stops she was not ready to go home so we wandered.

I took her to my stream I had caught my last big one on. She wanted to see the stream because I had described it to her. I wanted to see if it was clear enough to fish.


Barb was astounded I walked so far just for fishing when I would not take a walk with her in town.


Barb snapped a photo of the stream at the beginning bridge. She could tell I was excited because the stream was clear and I wanted to hit it at first light in the morning. I talked about it all the way home.


I set the alarm clock for 4am and went to bed. The sun woke me up at 7am. I thought I had slept through my alarm and was mad at myself. Barb woke up shortly thereafter.


I asked her if she heard the alarm at 4am. She admitted to turning off the alarm when she came to bed. This is what she said: "It is supposed to get up to 87 degrees today." "I have gotten kinda use to you through the decades." "You should pick another day when it is 20 degrees cooler."

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Nearly skunked this morning...Landed 6.

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The wife has a week off so I took all my fishing equipment out of the SUV and went "Waterfall Hunting"

Is truly a on odd feeling being so close to water and not having a rod in my hand.

Hamilton Falls and Big Falls in Eau Claire County.

[Steve Molcsan]

Looks like a great day , lovely photo of the wife,,


Be well..

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The Surface Action Was Amazing

I drove an hour to a promising stretch of water. The last time I was there I rolled a really big trout. I was unaware there was a prior engagement at the pool.

[lee s]

We get a lot of that pond fishing around here. 'course most of the ponds we target have to do with the dairies we service hauling hay.
....lee s.

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Trip Report "Unusual" and "Wow"

The overcast skies and cool temperatures drew me to the stream. I targeted a trout I had chase my lure and slightly kiss it and off it went in early spring.

69 degrees outside and water temp 62 at noon when I began.

First cast on stream was hammered and the fish came screaming downstream at me. I had to reel really quickly to keep up with it. As it swam past me I saw about a 20 inch hammer handle pike..... landed it and released it. Next cast was a 10 inch brookie. 10 minutes later I was up to a dozen trout and then I landed a small mouth bass.

I got up to where the springs feed into the stream and scored my first photo worthy brown.

I scored a few more and one more photo worthy.

My thirtieth trout was a wow trout. It ran down stream like its tail was on fire. I turned it after I tightened my drag.

I always look for a landing zone prior to making a cast and this time was the same. I worked to the edge and went in the water for this one. I was not wearing waders. This one was worth getting wet for. My cellphone is always in a zip lock bag so I waded right in. My wallet is drying as I type.

It alligator rolled as I netted it and broke the line. This stretch has regulations of 2 under 12 inches only to encourage large trout longevity. I snapped a couple photos and sent him on his way.

Longest trout of the year with an enormous kype. I could not get all of the trout in the photo with an out stretched arm...that means big in my book. I did not measure it.

I was only half way done with the stretch but decided I was done. I walked back to the vehicle.