more beginner questions

[gacurt]

I was all fired up for my second attempt with the fly rod this morning. When I get to the Prairie River winds are about 20, so I end up just throwing weighted streamers with the ultra light. I've been fishing for trout this way for a few weeks and have been modestly successfull. When I see a trout move around my fly, it has been hitting it, today I had a few follows and swirls but no hits. We had a cold front move in and was wondering if this affects trout similar to other fish. I am using a larger size - # 2 hook.
Are there flies/techniques which are better for use during cold fronts
When fishing streamers with the ultralight, I am using a reel -twitch - reel retrieve, faster fishing upstream vs downstream. When flyfishing wooly buggers or streamers would I want to duplicate this approach when pulling in line?
Two more questions
Other than during a hatch, is there any reason to use dry flies and not use wet flies?

I'm trying to get my wife interested in wading the rivers and would like to find someplace to take her that has easy wading and a good possibility for catching a reasonable amount of fish, any kind of fish.
We are in northcentral Wisconsin, the Wausau area.

[flyandtie]

yes cold fronts do affect trout.
a #2 is quite large for trout you might want to try smaller sizes.
there really is no wrong way to fish a woolly bugger.
try a fast retrieve,,if that doesnt work, then progress slower until you find what they want.
also depth let the fly sink to certain depths before staerting your retrieve,,, count down as you do it so that if you find a level where your catching fish you can just count back down to it.

and of course there is a reason to use dry flies other times than a hatch,,, some people use exclusively dries all the time and they catch plenty of fish.
most trout will always hit a dry fly, because its food to them
and seeing the take of a trout to your dry fly is breathtaking,, well worth it to me.

and sorry i cant help with your last question.
hope that helps a little

[flybop]

There is no wrong way to fish a bugger. Try to dead drift as in nymphing and also strip it like a streamer. I just want to politely disagree that a size 2 bugger, or any other streamer, is not too big for trout. I have had far too many smaller trout wack a size 2 bugger or streamer. However, if you get follows and short strikes with the bigger buggers, then try a smaller fly. If there are big browns in the stream that you are fishing then definitely go with a bigger streamer. Fish it very deep and as close to structure as you can. Big browns love structure, so get your flies in tight. If you're not loosing a few flies then you're not fishing them as close to the structure as you should.

In the summer you can catch lots of trout with dry flies that imitate terestrial insects when there is no hatch going on. Ants, beetles, hoppers, etc all fall or are blown into the water on a regular basis. Trout are used to seeing terestrials and often those flies will be the most productive.

While not a trout stream (at least where I fished it) I did have a blast catching muskies on my fly rod in north central Wi. on the Black river. There are good trout streams in Wi, and there should be a few books on the streams there. Just google or do a search on Amozon.

[J Castwell]

A close flyshop might have a guide for you.

[Erik Osterby]

I grew up in Wausau. I'd probably still be there except for that thing that lasts 6 months of the year called Winter.

I sent you a PM.

Erik

[danbob]

Here's a way to fish a wooly bugger that you don't hear about often....toss it directly upstream into the river abpve a pool, and strip like crazy to make it swim downstream......like a minnow that got washed away or wounded and is trying to escape. It's surprisingly effective.
DANBOB