I will be on a trip next week just west of Madison. Any advice on streams or hatches.
Thanks,
Jay
Jay,
I was thinking of heading up there this weekend. If I do I’ll let you know. But in the mean time here is a little info:
http://www.flyfishingwis.com/
http://www.driftlessangler.com
There are some nice streams west of Madison with Black Earth being one of them close to Madison. If you go a little further west there is the Kickapoo River and Timber Coulee. The web sites above should help you in your research.
Good luck,
Pete
After managing a brief thunder storm and a tornado watch Sunday evening I was able to get out onto the West Fork just north of a small village called Avalanche. Along this stream are lunkers constructed by locals and a chapter of the Trout Unlimited. It is an 8 mile stretch rated class 5 for catch and release only with artificial lures.
The evening hatch was I believe blue wing olive but I used a Parachute Adams so that I could see it close into the overhanging grasses along the shore. My night was cut short due to the weather and I needed to set up camp at the Sportsmen’ Club in Avalanche. The West Fork is a great small stream easy to walk but one needs to stay close to the banks and off private farm land. I released about four brookies all very healthy specimens around 8 to 10 inches.
The next morning I head south along the stream to try nymphing with a bead head, flash back copper john with rubber legs. Small nymphing was the ticket. I got out early and by 7:30AM I caught a nice 15 inch brown trout out a fast riffle. Most riffles and pools held fish. The water was stained a little from the previous nights rain. At least three other browns hooked up and released early on my tiny size 18 hook. One brown gave me quite a aerial show before it got off on its own. By 10AM it quieted down and I decided to break camp and return home. Amazingly for a Memorial weekend I had the stream to myself both the night before and the following morning. Perhaps the threat of storms kept people away. At any rate it is was fun weekend in a pastoral setting in the SW coulee region of Wisconsin.