Wisconsin Driftless 2016

TR The "Spillway" Tour

Hit water at 9:21am. Outside temp was 56 degrees. Southeasterly wind with a few gusts. Water temp at first stop was 46 degrees.

Barb wire fences have been my Nemesis as of late. I picked easy pastured areas. The back doesn't like bending and fitting between strands much anymore and leg over fences is a disaster waiting to happen.

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This spill produced 3 small browns below and 6 small browns above it.

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A change of position brought another 11 small browns to hand. Water temp 48 degrees

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8 small browns to hand here. There were 3 or 4 trout following each cast for a while. Water temp was 50 degrees. Outside temp was 60 degrees.

I had another dozen at least momentary hook ups.

Easy walking means typically small fish. Nothing worthy of a photo.

Lots of sitting and stretching was in order today.

Got home at 2pm.

Sure looks a lot like the "winter" water in the Lind Coulee in Wa. state. Small hatchery rainbows can be pestered in the winter. After irrigation starts, the water is so muddy you can cut it with a knife. Great winter entertainment though. ;-)
.....lee s.

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We fished non-designated water in Richland county. We are happy to report that this stretch had NO other human being tracks on it and has a thriving population of browns without the micromanagement of the WDNR.

I watched Josh most of the afternoon. The crawl down the bank was still hard on my knees. I timed my casts while Josh was already stream side unhooking a fish. I sat on down trees often and watched Josh work his magic. He is a very accurate caster. I counted my casts for the day and there were 31 casts and I caught 7 browns. My biggest was around 16 inches.

I caught little trout of the day at 6 inches. It was an unusual catch. Right at shore a 23/24 inch brown stormed at my little 6 incher flailing in the shallows and turned off abruptly before it could envelop it and disappeared back in to the deep.

Josh landed big trout of the day at 17 or so inches. The camera man was slacking and only got a blurry photo of it.

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The rest of the outing was fish after fish. Josh landed 41 browns.

The majority of the brown were in the 13-15 inch range. Josh had a close to shore release of an 18-19 incher.

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Drove down to southwest Crawford county and accessed some streams from the road.


One stretch screamed for me to wet a line. I fished for 1 hour and landed 21 browns. One was decent sized but got off before I could net it.

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Landed 5 from this hole.


Landed a dozen from this huge beaver dam. Is where I lost big fish of the day.

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Went to another nearby stream and caught a couple more.


About 300 yards from the vehicle I saw movement in the weeds about 50 yards from me. There is a hound that visits some of the time while I fish. I remember it well. A big floppy eared coon dog that always wants petting and swims in the water in front of me and ruins my fishing.


The movement kept getting closer and I finally caught a glimpse of color through the weeds. No coon dog colors. It was black in color and way big. I had seen bear tracks on this stream before. My mind began to race.


I thought bear and then I thought mother bear and it being protective of its cubs. I started searching my vest pockets for my bear spray. I then remembered I gave it to my wife for her hiking.


Next thought was to climb a tree. No decent trees and if there was I might have a hard time getting up one with my bad knees. Running was out of the question also.


I then remembered reading about yelling at bears trying to scare them away. I started to yell and the yelling had an opposite effect on the movement. It sped up and came at me faster.


This big black thing ran like no dog I had ever seen and I was certain it was a bear. It lumbered and really looked wider across the chest. I had my Swiss army knife out and was ready to be eaten.


It broke through the weeds and out into the open. Its head was huge and it was all black. Then I caught a glimpse of a skinny medium length tail. No bear has a tail like that. I was relieved. I had a run in with a Rottweiler once on stream and it was really tense for a while. This thing was another half size bigger.


I pride myself in reading a dog's body language and this one seemed like it might be friendly. It ran up to me at full speed and slowed clumsily as it got close to me. This all black 150-170 pound dog looked like a black lab and mastiff cross.


It demanded to be petted and rubbed on me so hard it nearly knocked me over. It jumped up on me and put its paws on my shoulders. I petted it for a while and then walked back to the vehicle. The dog stayed out there exploring.


About a mile down the roadway I saw a lady walking along the road. She flagged me down and asked me if I had seen a really big black dog. I told her where I had seen it. She grumbled about how much trouble the dog was in and off she walked.

I'm glad that turned out OK! A charging bear would have been a much worse predicament!

Boondocks

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Definition:
boon?docks
ˈbo͞onˌd?ks/
noun
North American

plural noun: boondocks
rough, remote, or isolated country. Where the big trout live.

"we're out here in the boondocks, miles from a telephone"

synonyms:

backwater, hinterland, backwoods, backcountry, middle of nowhere; wasteland, bush Large Trout; informalboonies, sticks, trout as big as your arm.

Every April my anticipation grows. My favorite kind of water is almost ready to fish. I affectionately call these areas the Boondocks. I always need to wait until the water warms up a little. A trip there early will be void of trout. They are the areas that are over grown by the end of May and not able to accessed by foot.

This hinterland is seldom fished and the trout are shy and weary. They are much more likely to hit a large offering this time of the year. Their stomachs are aching for a big meal.

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The cold harsh Wisconsin winter has them near thermals. Above and below the picture above are tiny trickles feeding into the main waterway. They are almost magnetically attracted to these thermals. Even a four degree temperature upgrade can mean catching Mr. Big or him hiding under the lip of the banks.

These days the trout are ultra sunshine weary. They are use to the weeds hanging over the banks and covering their movements. Running slowly close to the banks on the non-sunshine side is key these days.

They have not decided to venture very far from their winter lays yet. They still shun fast water and an under cut bank by slow water can by fruitful.

Thermals can be springs feeding in or even the run off from a swamp. Swamps are nothing more than large springs spread out over a large area.

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This wide bodied female put quite a bend on my rod.

Jeff landed 18 browns and caught the 2 biggest of the day.

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None of the trout were measured but this one below was obviously big trout of the day.

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Andy Nezworski is from Waukesha and a new friend I met from the internet. He is good fly angler and we had a ball this morning in Richland County.

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We fished a half a day and matched his best full day outing ever for numbers. He landed 30 browns. He had one hole that he had a 40 casts 40 bites run. It was amazing. I also cast in there and got four hits. I picked up a dozen browns today also.

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I watched most of the morning. Andy wanted to continue to fish so I dropped him off at a seldom fished place upstream and he will be on stream until 5pm.

Was a little cold today but the cloud cover was perfect for fishing. The water clarity was about perfect.

Andy used a variety of nymphs and buggers on his 5 weight rod.

Two Hours On Water.

Used my net twice. Attempted use two other times and fish got off before I could net them.

Thirteen brown to hand. Four under fifteen inches and the rest were over.

The two biggest pictured below.

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Couldn't get all of her in the photo.

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Trout all tight to structure or along banks tight. Water temp was 46 and a slow on and off sprinkle.

Trip Report Richland County


Found a clean enough waterway to fish.

Water: Stained a little high

Temps: Outside 60 degrees Water: 60 degrees

Has been a month since fished this stream. Lots of weeds in water and weeds on shore almost too tall to fish from shore.

35 browns to hand.

Only one photo worthy.

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Favorite Waterway Clean Enough To Fish

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Was sunny and a little on the dirty side.

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Only fished 80 yards. The weeds were a pain. All fish were in shaded areas.

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Quit at a dozen fish to hand. Fishing more seemed flat out selfish.

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Andy N Goes A Mousing

So len I finally found some time to make it out mousing...never did that last time I emailed you a few weeks ago...just never had time to make it out fishing...but last night I made sure I did...

started around midnight at castle rock...few splashes there but no hook ups..then fished the plunge pool on mill by the community park with no hits..was 4 am at that point so I headed westward...

arrived there around 430 and got in the river and started casting mice patterns on my 7wt...second cast I hooked up with a monster....but was a big male brown and had the fly in his jaw...5 min later he did a big head shake sending the fly back into my face...

thought I was going to cry...so took two last cast as far upstream as possible....second cast a monster inhaled my mouse on the third strip....

prolly a 15 min battle...thank god I went and bought a bigger net after fishing with you....thank you again for all your help...truly caught a fish of a lifetime and he is still swimming.

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measurements were 27.5"...guessing over 8#...fish was a true tank

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WOW!!! Sweet fish! Fishing the Midnight-5am shift....that's dedication! :)

Dan Braun Scores With The Green Turd

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Dan Braun and I went fishing this morning. Dan landed 2 dozen. Biggest brown was about 18 inches and biggest brookie around 12 inches.

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Dan did most of his damage with a fly he called "The Green Turd." It is a beadheaded bugger variation of his creation.

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One absolutely monster brown male inhaled Dan's turd and sent the line back limp.

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Very nice reports Spinner!
A buddy and I are headed up a week from tomorrow for our first trip to the area and hope to have some success.
We're planning (so far anyway) to camp in the Viroqua area and fish all around.
Thanks
Jay

Dave Martell and I went out this morning.


Dave landed 10 browns and I landed 19.


One was really nice male.

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Hard Sledding

The weeds were high and woven together.

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The sun burned off the fog really fast.

Three hours later only little dinks to hand.

I always look for other things to photograph when the fishing is poor.

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Beautiful fish and photos. Are those fish all native to your area? They're not stocked fish?

no stocking in counties i fish.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spinner1

no stocking in counties i fish.

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That's awesome. You guys do all you can to protect that water. What a great resource. We have a few native brown trout fisheries here in Central, PA, where I live that we're working like hell to keep wild and native, too. Good for you all.

Trip Report Richland County

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Many hits without hook ups.

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lost 2 monsters here

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Has been 3 month since fished this stream.

Stained/high/muddy/slippery/edges

Weeds on shore knocked down due to high water

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28 browns to hand.