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