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