Making Memories, Brookie Style!

  I had a friend call me up asking me about some good trout streams in the area. We go way back to our running days in college. He is one of the top runners in the nation at the Division III level and is focused on taking the individual Cross Country crown this November. He was looking for some new territory to cover and to get away from a stream he felt was pressured heavily. I told him my recommendations and offered to take him to some of my favorite stretches of water in the area. We decided that Thursday would be a great day to fish with overcast skies and low air temperatures. In the car ride to our first location, I discussed the habitat we would be fishing and some of the fish I have caught on this particular stretch of water in the past. I could start to see Tim’s excitement and he was more than eager to get streamside. Tim had left his waders at his parents’ house, so it was old running shoes and jeans as his means of navigating the stream. Tim is strictly a night crawler fisherman and has this method down quite well. He uses a rather large split shot and what appeared to be size 8 hooks. He would cast upstream and jig the night crawler off the bottom of the stream while gently raising his rod tip followed by a slow retrieve. I was sticking to my favorite Panther Martin that has fooled more than its fair share of big trout over the years. In the first section of stream the bite was slow but with a stream temperature of 60 degrees, I was encouraged and we kept proceeding upstream. Over the next two hours we landed over 40 trout between the two of us. Tim was greeted with a healthy looking 12” brookie, his biggest trout of the season! Tim and I had nothing but grins on our faces the entire stretch reeling in one trout after another. In one hole alone we landed 3 trout over 10.5 inches and our first double.
     From 1:00-3:15 I took Tim to the second stretch of water that has produced some hogs this season with my latest trophy a 15.5 inch brookie. At this point, some light rain sprinkled the stream and kept the stream temps constantly at 60-61 degrees and the fish continued to feed excessively. On this stretch I told Tim he should give spinners a try. He was a little reluctant at first but with my success from earlier in the day he was becoming a believer. I needed to make a phone call and told Tim to start fishing upstream. It wasn’t 2 minutes later and Tim had his first brookie on a spinner, a solid 10 incher. We made our way upstream catching a lot of brookies in the 9-10 inch range. There was a brief 20 minutes where the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and the bite was rather slow. It soon fell behind the clouds and a rather large thunderstorm to north was vastly approaching. In the nick of time we reached the best hole of the day. It was a deep hole at least 8 feet deep with exposed roots and an undercut bank. I casted real short upstream and let my spinner slowly fall to the bottom. Before I could start my retrieve, FISH ON! It felt real good and it slowly uncovered itself from the depths below and I was granted with a 12 inch brookie. I told Tim to put on a spinner as all he was catching were chubs with his night crawler outfit. He casted further upstream and nearly at his feet a flash from below smashed his size 4 Panther Martin. After a short battle Tim successfully landed his second biggest brook trout ever! He was ecstatic by its size and girth! I put him into my net while I reached for my camera. With the fish in Tim’s hand we were unsuccessfully able to get a photo before the fish flopped out of his hands and bolted between my legs back upstream. The brookie was just under 14” and his second biggest ever to his 15” brookie which on his wall at home. By this time the thunderstorm was directly above us and it was time to head home. After it was all said and done we had nearly 75 brookies to hand and 6 brookies breaking the 12” mark. We have planned another outing for tomorrow evening and another trip report will soon follow.

Same Fish, Different Year?

After a successful outing the previous day, I had asked my dad first thing the next morning to join me on another stretch of the same water. He needed to get some work done first, so we agreed that we would head out for a couple of hours that evening. My idea was to start fishing on a private stretch of property that we ended with the last time we went fishing together. The water upstream from our last outing would be new territory for my dad and I had only fished this section one time last summer with good results. I was hoping that we would get passed everything I had fished last summer and still have enough daylight to explore newly acquired fishing rights to the neighboring property. I was ecstatic this past spring when I received permission to fish this section as I knew it had the potential of holding some whopper Brookies and it was the only stretch of this stream I had yet to fish in my 15 years of trout fishing.

     We arrived at our desired location and I took a stream temperature check, 68 degrees. It was nearly 4 degrees warmer than it was during the mid-day yesterday. I was slightly discouraged but I knew the stream temperature would drop as the night went on. In the first hour the bite was slow. We fished some great habitat with undercut banks and hollowed out logs with only a few follows and one 6” inch Brookie to hand. I was telling my dad as we proceeded upstream of a trout I had caught last summer on this stretch and we should get to that particular hole before it got too late. 

     We reached the desired hole that was nothing more than a couple of logs extending out from the bank and a clump of grass that eroded away from the washed out bank. The hole had not changed too much from the previous year and I had a strong feeling the Brookie would make an appearance yet again. Even though I fish more than my dad he always insist me to make the first cast into a worthy hole. He enjoys just being out in the outdoors, whether its trout fishing or deer hunting spending time with his 3 sons. With that being said, he wanted to me to cast into the hole despite my efforts to have him cast first. I positioned myself near a small sandbar just downstream and on the opposite side of the bank of the desired location. The hole was small and I wanted to get into best position to drag my panther martin over the top of the log and directly in front of the clump of grass. My first cast was spot on and as I proceeded to lift my rod tip up, to allow my spinner to get over the log a quick flash from underneath the log presented a whopper Brookie. I was able to wade out into the middle of the stream and detached my net from my back. I was able to make a quick battle putting little stress on the giant and made a clean sweep with my net. My dad and I both appeared into the net and were shocked by its true beauty and size. We were both expecting a 13-14 inch Brookie but it was all that and then some. My dad put a tape measure to the fish as I kept the fish underwater in the net. The tape revealed a stunning 15.5-inch Brookie with a small kype and deep girth. I once again stuck my net into the bank allowing the big male to be completely submerged in the water as I took out my iPhone. 

Below is the one snapshot my dad was able to take before the trout flopped out of my hands back into the water. My experience tells me this is the same Brookie I caught the previous year in the same hole. I was unable to get a picture of the fish but the main photo on my blogger page shows the release of last year’s Brookie. I never made it to the new section of water but I hope to get back later this week with the BIG cool-down.

Blurred image as the trout slipped out of my hands

Mid-Summer Breeze

This past Sunday was the first day in Western Wisconsin where we failed to reach the 80-degree mark. Despite the limited cloud cover, I headed to my favorite brook trout stream. The temperature was 76 degrees with low humidity and the cooler air reminded me that fall is nearing.  I was busy during the morning and did not have the opportunity to hit the stream until nearly 1 pm. Once stream side, I immediately put my thermometer in the water to see if the cool night and the slowly climbing air temperature were keeping the stream temps at bay. The thermometer revealed 64 degrees, the coolest the stream had been in sometime. Another factor keeping the stream from quickly rising was the cool breeze that was at times gusting to 20 mph. Needless to say this section of stream I was targeting was miles from the closest feeder stream. Sections of the stream to the north were definitely cooler but my game plan wasn't changing this late into the game. As I proceeded upstream, I came to a large bend in the stream with a large pool with several old stumps hugging the outside of the streams outer bank. The hole was nearly 8 feet deep with a serious "step drop" from nearly a foot of water to 5 feet in a matter of steps. I hugged the stream bank and used the tall weeds along the bank to keep a low profile. Since it was such a large pool I felt it was best to break the pool into sections by casting to the low side of the pool before working my lure towards the back near the stumps. The front side of the pool revealed no takers. I worked my way towards the back of the pool that was completely shaded and several hollowed out stumps provided plenty of cover. My first cast was brought through the upper side of the pool with no strikes or follows. I made the same presentation as the previous cast but was able to get even deeper under the shade tree and right next to the hollowed out stump. Before the spinner could reach the depths below a heavy pull was felt on my slacked line! Even though I was using my ultra-light rod, I knew this fish was something of quality. I quickly tightened down my drag to keep the fish from diving down deeper into the pool towards more debris increasing my likelihood of a lost fish. After tightening my drag I was able to get a birds-eye view of the miraculous fish. It was full of vibrant colors with a solid red belly. After a mere 20 seconds the net was out and the trout was scooped up from below. A quick measure indicated a 13.5-inch male! I stuck my net into the side of the bank and took out my iPhone for one quick shot before releasing the fish back into the water to be enjoyed another day. I proceeded upstream for another hour catching 4 more brookies over 11 inches. Pictured below are two of the holes where these quality brookies were caught. This section of the stream, I will normally fish early season and into the first 6 weeks of the regular trout season as the water really warms up by the time it reaches this section of the stream. I went with my gut instinct with the cool night proceeded by next day air temperatures in the mid- 70s and took a gamble that paid off this time. 

13.5 inch Brookie

Every Dog Has Its Day

     The past couple of weeks, I have put trout fishing aside besides for a couple of trips to some brown trout water. The extreme heat and low stream levels have put a hurting on area trout streams. My last two outings, I ventured out from 7:30-9:15 pm with only two little browns to hand. I have been throwing Panther Martins, X-Raps, Countdowns and Floaters with no takers. I did not have any access to a nearby feeder stream and perhaps that is the missing component? With the extreme temps and humidity I have explored plenty of new water catching Smallies, and my first ever walleye a couple of weeks back. My purchase of a new Old Town Saranac 146 XT canoe awhile back has allowed me to fish a wide variety of species. I have come to realize that in the larger rivers you have no idea what you are going to hook into.

     Today, I left the canoe behind since I did not have anyone to float with. My goal was to target a major river that has a couple larger trout streams flowing into it. I was hoping to hook into a large brown sticking its nose into at the mouth of the feeder. I started off at a spot that is known to have its fair share of nice Smallies and I thought my chances of hooking into a brown were quite good. I waded out into the river where the feeder stream dispersed its cold oxygenated water into the larger body of water. I was able to walk out about 20 yards into the river. I started off throwing a gold Rapala Floater Size 9, with no takers. As I was reeling in and turning back to shore to switch lures, I noticed several large fish swimming in place a pole length away. I splashed the water with my rod after a few casts with my Rapala and three large Carp darted in front of me. However, one large fish 40-45” didn’t move an inch. I took a step back and the fish jetted directly in front of me hanging tight to the rivers bank. About 5 yards downstream the fish exposed itself for the first time with a gigantic leap out of the water, a MUSKIE!!!! It was absolutely going crazy swimming in circles and making one leap into the air after another! The fish had its nose right where the trout stream fed into the river, hunkered down in 3 feet of water. I was unaware that so many species hunkered down near the colder water during the summer months.

     I exited the water and went back to my lure bag to tie on a leader and the biggest bait (Mepps Aglia Size 5 with a silver blade). My instincts told me to climb up the bank and make my way downstream where the fish was last seen. I was now standing directly above where the Muskie and the 3 large carp were swimming. I looked over the edge of the bank to see the 3 carp back again, but no Muskie. I made one cast downstream of the carp and about halfway into my retrieve an immense strike was felt down my rod into my hands. I was certain that I had either hooked the Muskie or a Carp that was originally unaccounted for. After a loosening of the drag, I was able to bring the fish to the surface as a got a bird’s eye view of the fish from the bank. I was shocked to see that it wasn’t the Muskie or a Carp, but rather an enormous WALLEYE! I slid down the bank into the feeder stream to get a better angle on directing the fish. After a couple of minutes the fish was in my net and a quick measurement indicated 29.5 inches! I was absolutely sick to my stomach as I had never thought in my wildest dreams that today would one of the greatest fishing experiences of my entire life. After getting the fish under control, I was able to get a more accurate measurement of the fish and the tip of its tail brushed the 30 inch mark. Follow the link to my blog page to see photos of the Walleye. Also, feel free to follow my blog page as I try to update my page on a bi-weekly basis.

Changing Things Up!

     A couple of months back, I invested in a canoe to expand my fishing opportunities and to enjoy the great lakes and rivers near my hometown. With the slowing of trout fishing, due to the extreme heat, it was time to switch gears and try for some Smallmouth. The float trip is about 3 hours with a variety of deep slowing moving sections to sections of rapids filled with large boulders. I floated down the river throwing Rapala Countdowns and Floaters and the bass just went crazy from behind the large boulders. In two separate trips I landed roughly 20 Smallies and a surprise Walleye that was measured at 22 inches. I managed to hook into a couple nice Smallies on each trip that were fat and healthy and hit the tape between 17 and 18 inches. The Smallies sure do put on a show jumping out of the water as a last resort to snub your lure. Below is one of the nice Smallies from the trip. I plan on floating a longer stretch of the same river this coming Thursday with my brother and another report will follow. Also, I went out tonight from 7:30-8:30 on a nearby stream and the temperature was 70 degrees. My dad and I called it a night and went home to keep the brookies from unneeded stress and to escape the plethora of misquotes. 

Angler Education- Gill Lice

I am in the second week of an "Angler Education" class teaching 3-5 graders about fishing and encouraging young anglers to join the sport of trout fishing. I have taught them the different types of reels and rods, casting, tying fishing knots, giving them a basic understanding of fishing regulations (all of my students now understand what the different color trout streams mean as far as bag limits and minimum size), first aid, water safety, and fish identification. Today, the topic was invasive species and gill lice which are threatening our trout streams here in Wisconsin. I pulled up Len's "Stream of Time" blog and showed an example of what gill lice looks like. The students were so attentive and curious to learn more about gill lice and I even had several students give their input on possible solutions. One of my students told his grandpa who is the head of a local fish and game agency and is bringing it up at the next meeting (he had not heard of gill lice). I also played 10 or so minutes of one of the Len's trout fishing videos developed by Pronghorn productions. Throughout the video, I had to stop it nearly every 30 seconds because I needed to answer a question or a student wanted me to rewind the video so he could hear Len's advice on various fishing practices and strategies. I had a sign-up the first week of class for taking each student and their parent/guardian to an area trout stream. I had 6 of the 21 students bring in their signed slip and after learning about gill lice and watching Len's video, I had an additional 8 students request a sign-up sheet to be sent home! I am looking forward to taking each student out on their own trout fishing adventure and learning everything there is to know about trout fishing. Thanks Len for all of the insight and getting all of the students excited about a sport that needs more young anglers!

Father's Day

      This past weekend was the first time in nearly a month that I was able to go fishing for more than an hour straight. I decided to take my dad trout fishing for Father’s Day and have some much needed bonding time. He won’t go fishing by himself and will often shoot me down because he has work to do. We went out Sunday evening from 6:30-8:00 and had an amazing time. The Brookies were hitting every cast and several eager brookies would barely let it hit the water before making an attempt at the #6 Panther Martin. I managed to land the two biggest fish of the evening which were caught within 10 minutes of one another. The first brookie was a real plump 13” brookie with vibrant colors that had his nose right where a small feeder stream fed into the larger river. After the catch and a quick photo, I took a water temp (59 degrees). We worked our way upstream and came across a deep bend in the river that had a step drop. I casted it directly upstream and drug it along the outer bank and a quality fish caught me by surprise nearly 10 feet from my feet.  After a short battle and clean scoop of my net I was surprised by yet another 13” brookie. I was curious to see the temperature differential from the my last 13" brookie. The thermometer read 63 degrees a 4 degree difference in a matter of 50 yards. It just go to show the positive role small feeder streams have in giving brookies places to navigate to during the hot summer months. Even though I catch more than enough fish throughout the season my dad enjoys walking the stream and taking in all that nature has to offer. He doesn’t necessarily care about catching all the fish but the chance to spend time in the great outdoors and navigating his favorite trout stream. 

Pictured below is the first 13" brookie.

Pictured above is the small feeder stream and the tree on the right is where we hooked up. 

Monster Brookie

It seems this year has been the year of catching the big brookies. Bobby and a few others on the board have landed fish of a lifetime. I mentioned on my blog awhile back that my goal this season was to catch a brookie similar to one I caught back in 2010 (17"). I had no idea that I would exceed my expectations so quickly and have another one for the wall. I was contemplating about taking girth measurements and length to have a replica made and release the bruiser, but I decided to keep it.

Straight to the Point:

I had casted several times into the hole with no strikes or follows. On my third cast, I was reeling in and all of a sudden my reel stopped spinning and my hand literally slipped of the reel, followed by a huge pull on the line the other direction. I knew the moment the fish took off in the opposite direction of the bank I had hooked a quality fish. I immediately loosened my drag to exhaust the fish and to get the net off my back. All of sudden the fish exposed itself for the first time and leaped completely out of the water followed by another run. At this point my arms and legs were shaking so bad that I could barely hang onto my rod with a firm enough grip. I managed to gain control of the trout and was able to scoop up the fish from underneath. As I lifted the fish out from the water, I first saw its true size and I was literally in shock! I stood along the bank with the fish in the net thinking about what had just taken place and what I was going to do next. 

19.25" with 11" girth

Much To My Surprise!

    Went to Cabelas on Wednesday with my Dad to look for a bigger rod and reel. This season I am going to fish streams that hold both brookies and browns or browns and wanted to be prepared in case I hooked into a 20+ incher. In years past I never thought of trying to fish for Browns but after seeing all the photos of such quality fish on DriftlessTroutAngler I decided to pursue brownies myself.  I ended up picking up a 6'6" Abu Garcia medium action rod and a 6930 Pflueger reel (set me back $90).

     On Thursday I headed to a stream that is known to hold nice browns and decided to park at a bridge and wade upstream. The choice of lure was a #9 Panther Martin and my philosophy was to cast into the same holes I would as if I was in a brook trout  stream. I waded upstream for 10 minutes before the first real hole appeared from around the bend. I casted in the lower section of the pool first and hooked into a 12" brookie and was encouraged by what I saw. I moved myself a few paces upstream and positioned myself to cast on the upper side of a log that had fallen across the water. My polarized sunglasses allowed for me to see the bottom of the pool and if anything were following the spinner from out behind the log. I got into position and casted towards the opposite bank and dragged the spinner underneath the log and saw a faint flash in the water as the spinner came out from behind the log into the pool when all of a sudden a massive strike! Sure enough a monster brown (for me at least) ambushed my PM and took my reel for a ride. There were several times I had to adjust my drag to keep tension on the line. I was blown away by the pure strength of this fish and how much of a fight it put up. I grabbed my net and was shocked by the size and depth of the brown. I unhooked the trout unharmed and took a quick tape on the fish, a respectable 21.5”. It wasn't the length necessarily that had me going, but its girth. It didn't take me long to understand why fishing for browns can be so much fun and the anticipation an angler has of hooking into such a miraculous fish. I took a couple of real quick pictures (didn't turn out great) before I released the fish back into the water.

Brookies Galore!

   I took full advantage of some time off and ventured to some of my favorite brookie streams. As always these two streams did not disappoint and on several occasions I had a fish on the line before I had time to reel. Got out for most of the day on Monday jumping from bridge to bridge and I was able to land roughly 45 brookies with the biggest being 13". The trout all seemed to be healthy and no apparent gill lice.
     Ventured out again on Tuesday and had another successful day landing another 30 brooks and 5 browns to hand. The actions picked up in the early afternoon and was steady until I called it quits @ 5:30. Nothing too large just a ton of brookies in the 9-11" inch range and the biggest brown was 14". It was great to get back out after being tied down at work the past week. I was able to snap a couple of photos with my iPhone before a quick release back into the stream.

The Highest of Highs to the Lowest of Lows

     I finally had the opportunity to go to my favorite stream after work today. I had not been out since my last report March 11th and needed a little time to myself. I arrived at the stream @ 6:30 and only had about an hour to fish before sundown. I decided to fish a new stretch and was curious to see how the trout had rebounded from the flood a couple weeks ago. I immediately took the temp and was surprised to see a staggering 52 degrees (up 14 degrees from a couple weeks ago). I soon became optimistic with new territory, warmer temps, and an overcast sky. It took only one hole to produce a beautiful 10" Brookie and was catching one trout after another thereafter. By the time it was time to go I had 14 trout to hand and made it a whopping 200 yards over the course of 45 minutes..

     Despite all the positives I took from this outing there was an incident that really made me take a step back. It is hard to go a day without encountering something like causes sadness, stress, or disappointment. I never thought I would say that the sport that I cherish so much would take such a dramatic turn but today things took a turn for the worse. In one of the last Brookies I noticed something on the gills and assumed the worst, gill lice! Late last summer I found some on a nearby stream but in all my years fishing this particular stream I had yet to come across this infestation. As I unhooked the Brookie I just so happened to look up and noticed a bald eagle soaring not 50 feet above. Perhaps it was a sign of good things to come and that my favorite trout stream would recover someday and that future generations will still have the opportunity to catch such a remarkable fish. I understand that the DNR says that Gill Lice alone cannot wipe out the trout population but it makes you wonder how much of an impact it will have the Brook Trout population in the long run. I drove home wondering what I could do to help put an end to Gill Lice, but came up with no real answers.

Lovin' This Weather!

I woke up this morning with anticipation of once again exploring new waters. The streams near my home are unfishable and many look like small lakes. With such a beautiful day and nothing but time, I decided to explore some new streams. I brought a long my ultra-light and some PM's and just drove to where I believed the snow melt had its impact already. I managed to find a crystal clear stream with water temps in the mid- 40's (Perfect). I managed to locate a huge pool that was just below where I had parked my car. I quietly snuck down the bank and waded along the side of the pool. The pool had to be 10 ft deep and I was certain a large brookie or brown was just waiting for an ambush. I made 15 or so casts and not a single strike! I decided to make a few more and casts not 10 feet from my feet a massive strike. I had no idea what was on the other end but new it was something quite nice and reset the drag. It was about 5 seconds later the trout jumped out of the water flinging his head back and forth. At this point I knew I had for sure hooked into the biggest brown of my life. I was able to land the trout after giving my ultra-light quite the workout. Upon further inspection a fat 18.5" brown! I don't think I had been this excited since landing my 17" brookie a few years back. I was able to snap a few quick shots of the fish before releasing.

I waded upstream hugging the shallower banks and casting in the deeper holes as I navigated toward the headwaters. I was absolutely amazed by the number of quality trout I spooked and that were traveling downstream. I had an 18-20" brown swim between my legs twice before taking cover under a rock. I probably saw 50-60 trout and the bright sun and having to keep my "feet wet" kept me from catching a lot of these trout. I can't wait for streams around my home to recede and begin to fish the streams I am all too familiar with.

Opening Weekend (Saturday)

I had the opportuntity to explore some new waters, while my streams back home had an opportunity to warm-up. I was unsure of what to expect trying these new streams during the early season and not really knowing where any large pools were located. I managed to stumble across a few large pools that were holding active feeding trout. I managed to land my 2nd brown trout of my life and another half dozen brookies.

Winter Wonderland

Had an opportunity to venture out and take some photos of a few local streams after a dumping of 11 inches. The streams were flowing of large chunks of slush that had fallen into the streams. Stopped by one of the local streams after work tonight and still was chock-full of slush and snow caves. I will check one last time tomorrow to see if there is any improvement. If not, I will wait until later in the week to make my first appearance of the season.

Outlook on the 2012 Season

This 17" Brookie is in my mind a fish of a lifetime. This past summer a pair of 15 inchers had to suffice. My journey to finding another "Monster" Brookie will yet again be my main focus for the 2012 season. More importantly, I am once again looking forward to navigating my favorite trout streams to find solitude.

Role of the Blog

I will be uploading photos of Brook Trout caught throughout the 2012 season. I will try to update the blog at least a few times a week through September. I plan to include photos, a brief description of the fish I caught, and any tips or strategies that may benefit the spinning fisherman.

Highlights of the 2011 Season