spring smallmouth report

The lack of recent posts can only mean one thing... Smallmouth season is upon us.  Our pre-spawn trips started the first Saturday in May and we were greeted with tons of water.  The flows were roughly double what they normally are for early May and the water was chilly.  This had the fish very lazy and lethargic for the first few days.  However, a little sunlight and the longer Spring days quickly warmed up the rivers and by the end of that first week, we had very hungry smallmouth.  Once the rivers creeped into that 55 degree range, the bass were ready to eat and fight.  Slow twitched Murdich and Barto Minnows worked magically, as did poppers and diving bugs (also worked really slow).  The fish were fat and healthy and appear to have come through the long winter just fine.  I even had a "first" yesterday...  My client landed a fat 14 inch smallmouth on a Barto Minnow.  I netted the fish and lipped her to remove the hook.  Seeing that the hook was down a little ways, I turned to grab my hemostats.  When I turned my head, I felt something on my left thumb, which was holding the bass.  I looked down and saw a snake slithering out of the bass' mouth and onto my hand!  It was a little Garter Snake, maybe eight inches long and the diameter of a no. 2 pencil.  He was alive and well, so I released both the bass and snake into the water.  It's still shocking to me that a 14" bass will eat a nine inch snake and a five inch minnow, both in quite short order.

We still have yet to see great numbers of smallmouth spawning on the rivers yet.  I'm not sure why, as the river temperature, flows and time of the year are all "right".  Obviously, there's something that they're not finding adequate quite yet.  I've designed a new minnow pattern that has really worked well this year.  I'm going to try to get a tutorial up and on the site as soon as possible.  It's simple and effective, which are obviously both good things.  Rumors are that we're going to have full internet this year at guide camp, so hopefully I can keep the blog posts coming more frequently this season.  At minimum, I'll try to get more pictures up, even if I don't have time for the writing.

cool photo app

There's a thousand different photo apps out there for iPhone, Android, iPad, etc.  I've used a lot of them and very few are as interesting as Tangled FX.  It's easy to use and the results are definitely unique and eye-catching.  Some remind me of "The Scream" by Edvard Munch...

boom

Underwater release shot of Andy's third steelhead of the morning.

at long last

After two months of not-so-patient waiting, I laid my hands on my first steelhead of the year.  It felt good.  First light provided little action, with neither the swung fly or dead-drifted nymph/egg combo  yielding any results.  I liked the overcast skies and even the little bit of snowfall, but the wind was brutal.  At about 9AM, I fished one of my favorite runs in all of NE Wisconsin and went 2 for 6 in about 35 minutes.  I must have averaged one hook-up about every three or four casts, with the rest of the time dedicated to retying and adjusting my nymph rig.  I released the second fish, a bright hen, and headed to the fly shop for hot coffee and dry clothes.  The way things are looking, we'll be catching steelhead well into May...

driftless adventure

Our annual fishing trip to the Driftless Area last week was phenomenal.  We got super lucky with the weather and the fish were more than cooperative.  Despite the generally overcast weather we had, we didn't see much for blue-winged olives, which was a bit of a bummer.  We did have great numbers of midges and a few stones, but very few olives and no black caddis that we noticed.  The fish hammered nymphs and streamers in a variety of water types, running the gamut from slow pools to hot riffles.  When we saw risers, the fish were definitely active in the shallower riffles.  They were very picky about our dries and it was challenging to get them to eat our offerings.  It would have been much easier if there were more fish coming to the surface, but there just wasn't.  Tungsten scuds, caddis pupa, midge larva and even large stoneflies (sizes 10-14) worked really well below the surface.  For streamers, it really didn't matter what we threw at them.  We had eats on just about every color and style that we tossed.  We got lucky with the weather, caught a ton of fish, found some new water (for us) and just generally had a hell of a good time.  I think I could spend every weekend down there...

easter strike-out

Easter with my family was perfect... except for the trout streams.  Nearly a half-inch of rain and a lot of snowmelt made things near impossible to fish by the time we got to the river Saturday afternoon.  I'd say that, conservatively, there was four inches of visibility right along the shore, with the rest of the river being very dirty.  There was also a lot of debris coming down, which was kind of surprising considering the fact that the river really wasn't that high.  We tried bright scuds, San Juans and some big dark streamers.  After a few hours, we gave up and retreated to dark beer and great food.  I would have loved to have "guided" my dad to his first trout on a fly, but we'll have to get it done next time.

The cooling temps over the past 48 hours have stopped the bleeding, and most of the rivers are clearing up.  With a little sun this week, things should be rolling by this weekend.

sunday swing-day

As great as it was to get out and swing flies on Sunday, it was also a slap-in-the-face reminder that a lot of our northeast Wisconsin rivers are a couple weeks away from being ice-free.  The water below the dams on most of the rivers is wide open.  Most of the lower-river areas, however, are still iced over.  One of the areas I'd hoped to fish actually had snowmobile tracks running down it.  With the amount of snow still around, it's probably for the best that we're getting a slow melt-off.  If we hit seventy degrees all of a sudden (like we did last March), the rivers would be a mess for quite a while.

After seeing the ice on the lower river areas, we opted for our only option, which was swinging the upper river.  It was awesome to get out and unleash some long casts, even though the wind tried to wreak havoc on any cast that wasn't tightened up.  We fished through some great water with some great flies, but to no avail.  This time of the year is strange on some of our northern rivers... it's a little early and cold to expect much for steelhead and the browns that held over through the winter may already be back to the lake.  Or both may be around, but they're hunkered under the ice somewhere in a deep pool.  It's always tough to say after a long winter.  All you can do is be out there, casting and casting and casting, hoping that you'll get an answer.

sm 4

Being a big fan of the first three in this series, I'm really stoked to see Skagit Master 4.  Especially since it's filmed in the Midwest with some good dudes...

great waters expo

Once again, the Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo will be held at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minnesota.  This is a great event for Midwest fly fishing and showcases some of the best anglers, tiers, outfitters, shops and presenters in the area.  Joining the bill this year are Trapper Rudd, Brian O'Keefe, Jerry Darkes, Brad Befus and many more.  There is no better show in the Midwest for showcasing what we have locally as well as seeing some new products.  Follow this link for a schedule of presenters, directions and more.

baby steps

Last night I tied my first fly in over two months.  That's very abnormal for me... to go that long without tying at least something.  A big part of it is lack of motivation.  Here we are in the third week of March and we just got another dumping of snow last night.  Most of the rivers in this part of the state are weeks away from being fishable.  Another part of it is that I don't need anything right now.  My trout boxes are full. My steelhead boxes are full. My smallmouth... you get the picture.  And full may be an understatement.  "Overflowing" is perhaps more accurate.

Last night, however, I found a little inspiration.  We leave in a little over two weeks for the Driftless Area and we've all agreed that we'd like to spend at least one day throwing streamers on a certain stream for bigger fish.  Streamers are one of the last things I need to tie, but they're also the most fun.  I especially like articulated streamers.  Think along the lines of the Swimming Jimmy or the Dungeon...  Anything like that is right up my alley.  So last night I decided I would tie a couple "Spring Creek Dungeons".  I've seen everything from muskies to smallmouth to huge migratory browns eat the original Dungeon, but I've never thrown them for inland trout.  Mostly because it would be a beast to toss with a 4-weight.  I also wanted something with some drastically contrasting colors.  I have enough streamers that are solid brown, black, olive, etc.  I think a contrast in color or a splash of something bright is great in a streamer pattern.  The pictures below are what I came up with.  He's about 2.5 inches long and should be absolutely fine to cast with anything from a four weight to a six weight.  I can't wait to see what it looks like in the water.  I think I'll do a few more in white/olive and then I have a few more color schemes in mind.  Black/chartreuse and tan/pink would fish well, I think.

an oldie

Our first attempt at making a little fishing video.  Pretty rough, but we had fun doing it.  I learned that; #1 - I need a tripod.  #2 - Editing is time consuming and frustrating.  #3 - You can absolutely tell what was shot on the HD camera and what was not.  Oh well, my kids think I'm a movie star because they can watch daddy on TV, and that's pretty rad.
 

help me out...

I've been messing around with some of the settings here on my blog to make it more optimal for viewing pictures.  This included changing the width of the entire blog, header, sidebars, etc.  I've checked it out on both my laptop and my desktop and the blog "fits" the screen well, but I'm concerned that it may not on some computers.  Please leave me a comment and let me know if it doesn't fit on your screen.  Thanks ~ Nate

poke (and hope)

The past two years have spoiled us, blessing us with early Springs and early steelhead.  Unseasonably warm temps have opened rivers early and brought steelhead into the rivers even before St. Patty's Day. That, unfortunately, will not be the case this year.  I spent a good part of the day yesterday kicking around some of the tributaries north of Green Bay and what I found wasn't exactly shocking...  Rivers with lots of ice still on (and in) them.  Don't get me wrong, there was open water.  It was just flowing over the top of a considerable amount of anchor ice.  There were very few places where I could actually see the river bottom.  I was also kind of shocked at the amount of snow still left up there.  I drove by a drift on a little country road that was up to my driver's window.  So when it does actually decide to warm up, I think we'll be inundated with water.  There may be fish in some of the rivers already, I would not doubt that.  I just don't think they'll be fishable for a couple weeks or so, with the forecasts as they are and the amount of snow still on the ground.

The trout reports from the western-side of the state are still very positive.  From the Illinois border to the River Falls area, fish are hungry and eating flies well.  The one thing that remains constant is that the majority of the action is occurring from about noon until 4PM.  Before and after that time, there are still some fish being caught, just not with the consistency that there is in that warmest time of the day.  Stoneflies and midges are bringing fish to the surface, streamers are working well in the slow pools and nymphs are working very well in the runs.  The fish are there and they're hungry, just pick your poison and get out there!

day trip

I was sick of talking about fishing.  I was sick of reading about fishing.  And I was really sick of watching fishing on TV.  The cure was simple... I needed to fish.  I had spent almost two weeks in the house with my kids, both of whom were sick with fevers, ear infections, teeth coming in and nasty coughs.  I made an attempt last week to catch a few trout, but the few streams in our area that are open to early season trout fishing were still in a solid state.  I did find a chunk that was open, but at two feet wide and six feet long, it didn't offer much of a drift.  There are few things more disheartening to a trout angler than driving around with waders, rods, reels and flies and having no open water to use said gear in.  The day was a bust.  I needed a fix and knew what had to be done.

My fishing buddy Matt and I decided to do a "hero trip" on Friday.  We left my house at 6AM and drove all the way across the state to my home waters in West-Central Wisconsin.  We got there right as the temps were creeping over the freezing mark, so the timing was perfect.  The fishing from 10-12 was a little tough, as I figured it might be.  We landed fish, but they made us work for them.  The early sight of stoneflies and midges on the snowbanks told me that the afternoon would be different.  We went back to the truck at noon, ate our lunch, drank a beer and drove to another stretch of river.  We started off in the first pool by landing three or four really nice, fat fish.  Fly selection didn't matter much.  We each chose the big fly/ little fly route.  Matt fished a tungsten Twenty Incher paired with a little caddis pupa and I chose a Jimmy Legs paired with a size 20 JuJu Midge.  The fish chose equally across all the flies that we fished.  It was way more important to read the water well and get a good drift than it was to pick the "right" fly, as there clearly was none.  We moved on upstream and fished a long, straight run that offered the best fishing of the day.  Matt chose the hot water where the riffle transitioned into the deeper run and I took the slower middle section of the run.  We went almost two hours with countless strikes and dozens of fish landed.  There would be times where you'd get a strike or have a fish on every cast for six or seven casts in a row.  It was just what we needed after a long winter.  We fished one more corner for a little bit, landed a few more nice fish and hit the road.  Three and-a-half hours later, we arrived back at my house.  We should've been tired, but I think the day was just what we needed.  It refreshed our souls and cleared our heads... The drive was worth it.

early season = awesome season

After a busy past three weeks, filled with fly fishing shows, presentations and travelling, things are finally settling down a bit...  Just in time to greet the opening of the Wisconsin early catch-and-release season.  For those of you who don't fish the state of Wisconsin, this is a special opportunity for Wisconsin anglers to get out on the streams in the early part of the year and fish (what I think) are two of the best months for trout here in our state, March and April.  It's a catch-and-release/ artificial only season, which I think is in the best interest of the often greedy and hungry springtime trout.

It's also become my favorite time of the year to fish our inland trout streams.  I like the snow on the riverbanks.  I like the thermos of coffee and flask of bourbon, strictly for emergencies and only to keep oneself warm.  I like the finicky afternoon midge-feeders, even when they make me want to throw rocks at them.  And most of all, I like the mystery of not knowing.  You see, in the spring-creek region of Wisconsin, we never know what hand we could get dealt when it comes to fishing in March and April.  I've seen record-low streams with water so clear it actually looks like there is none.  Fish so spooky and alert, even the tiny blue-winged olives spook them.  On the other hand, I've seen raging torrents of muddy water where there once was a peaceful and serene spring creek.  Your only chance those days is to fish big and dark streamers near the shore, hoping for a little clearer water.  But you really know that you should drive to another valley, or to the local diner for coffee and eggs.  Lastly, there are the days where everything is just right.  The runoff has added a tinge of stain to the water, making the trout not wary in the least.  The afternoon sun has warmed the waters a bit, making those trout not only bold, but hungry.  Everywhere you put the fly, it gets eaten.  You catch fish by pure accident, when you're not truly "fishing".  Fishing so good, that only those who have experienced it, will actually believe it.  You drive home happy, content and maybe even a touch cocky.

I can honestly say that I don't know which of the aforementioned I prefer.  Maybe all of them, in moderation.  I think that when March rolls around, I really don't care.  It's just nice to be out there, enjoying the fish and the water again.  Even sitting on the bank, watching friends fish the prime water, offers a peacefulness that few, if any, recreations can replicate.

ice fishing and a little r&r

Thanks for bearing with me, it's been a really busy past couple weeks.  I got back into town today from northern Minnesota after a long weekend of ice fishing and hanging out with some buddies.  The fishing was alright considering we happened to hit the tail end of a cold-snap that swept across the upper-Midwest.  The perch fishing was slower than we had experienced in the past, but we did find some that were willing to eat.  We also landed some really nice bluegills and some great walleyes.

The next couple weeks are a very exciting time for us here in Wisconsin.  Trout fishing is just around the corner and anytime now we could start seeing our first steelhead.  All we need is a little warm weather to melt some of our snow and open those first runs of the season.  I'll be out exploring some new areas in the next two weeks and I'm excited to see what I find. There's comfort in fishing familiar runs, but there's a rush in hooking a steelhead in a run that you've never fished before.

This Saturday is one of our last local fly fishing shows.  Trout Fest is put on by Central Waters Trout Unlimited and is held at the Fin 'n Feather in Winneconne, Wisconsin.  This is a great little show with local tyers, Trout Unlimited chapters and a great lineup of mini-seminars.  It's a free show and worth a stop if you're in the area. Tim and I will be there all day at the Tight Lines booth.

Here's a few shots from our Minnesota trip...

almost here

Only 22 more days until Wisconsin's early trout season opens.  Stretch the lines, stock the boxes and check your gear.

new shop gear

Stop by or call Tight Lines and check out or new logo gear.  We've got a good lineup of Tight Lines hoodies, 715 hoodies (our local water area code) and the new 715 hats from Simms.  These are great lids made on high quality Simms hats and rocking our smallmouth 715 logo.  We've got them in trucker and traditional styles and a few different colors.  Call the shop, these won't stick around long!

fly fishing film tour

Tonight is the De Pere stop for the Fly Fishing Film Tour.  Tight Lines is honored to be hosting this event once again as it's always one of the highlights of our year.  For those of you that have tickets, the doors open at 6:30 and once again Caliente will be doing drink specials and a taco bar before the show.  Stop on by, we'll be hanging out there before the show.  For those of you that did not get a ticket, we apologize.  We've never sold out this quickly and we're exploring options for next year such as a two-night show or a larger venue.  As always, it will be a fun night... We'll see you there.

brule river day

Our first ever Brule River Day at Tight Lines was a big success.  Special thanks to Tim, Damian, Steve and Luke for coming down to spend the day with us and our customers.  The guys spent the day at the fly shop tying flies, displaying art and answering lots of questions about their fishery.  This is an amazing resource in the state and a truly special piece of water.  If you ever have an opportunity to help it, in any way, please do so.  And if you ever have a chance to fish it, do not pass it up.  If you have any more questions about the Brule or would like to contact Damian, you can do so via the Fly by Night link on the right side of the page.