The last two weeks have been all over the board.

Fishing Conditions

Rain has not fallen in the area for almost 2 weeks. Most of the rain that hit the cities did not make it across the border. The rivers are back to clear and spooky. 

We are definitely into our summer pattern as far as insect and trout behavior. This is about 2 weeks early, no surprise. Sunny days and water temp warm up are making daytime angling more difficult.  The evening 6pm-9pm shift has become the best bet for finding rising fish. There are still a bunch of yellow crane-flies and some light yellow to green mayflies enticing fish during these hours. Some anglers have gone to their headlamps and  report the heaviest feeding activity to be in the 12am to 3am period. Strong work guys, I hope there was beer involved.

How Many Babies?

This is the time of year where tactics must be wide and variable in order to prompt takes from the persnickety trout. Be creative, work every bit of water in the river. Drag your fly, move your fly, twitch your fly 1 inch at a time if dead drifting does not work. Fish down and across, practice your deep water fly swimming. Throw that mouse. You get the idea. There are no rules, and all boundaries of tradition and convention can be tossed to the wind. If it ain’t working, move and try something different. You CAN get them to eat. Smallish fish seem to be more prevalent now  during the daylight hours than in the early spring. Not exactly sure why but the fish taken during the day have moved down in size a slight bit from the spring.

Look for shade and fast water on sunny days and BWO’s on overcast days.

Change flies,,,,,a lot. You just might stumble onto something that works better. Keep your sense of humor. Be the Bug! Nymphs are your friends.

A Short Story

The picture above shows how my morning started last week. Yes, my coffee was on the hood. After getting a block down the street, I grabbed for the cup handle. Realizing I had left my cup outside the cab I made my u-turn. I envisioned the cup lying on the side of the road with most of its contents intact. I had done this before with this cup and it has a tight fitting cover and rock solid construction. Each time I go through this scenario, the cup has landed in a manner where a few gurgles of coffee has spilled out but that is it. I gather it up, brush it off and I am on my way singing like a bird. Not this time. Squishified! Damn, and I didn’t even hear my truck run it over. 

I met my clients a few minutes late. As we made our way along the stream we stopped to chat at a little riffle located right next to the bank where we stood. I determined that it was deep enough to hold some trout. It was a perfect spot to begin a short roll casting lesson, instructing the new fly angler how this spot could be fished with a short amount of line and an easy flip into the moving water. This tactic has worked there before, and there is no better teacher than simple and effective for building confidence in a new fly angler. One small problem. The bank vegetation had grown to a level that obstructed a clear view and a clear cast to the little run(note this for current conditions). I had to do a bit of clearing.

As I swung my leg with the ark of a soccer style field goal kicker I felt the larger plant stems buckle just as I had intended. My foot slowed down and then contacted something a bit more solid. At this point the bank vegetation erupted with ears and spots and the goat-like bawling of a baby fawn who’s mother had planted the youth stream-side. I had just drop kicked a baby deer. All three of us jumped, recovered, and then began laughing. I was still somewhat traumatized but the fawn ran off without issue and was unharmed.  This incident took me off my game for a bit but the fact that the subsurface trout cooperated  shortly after that helped me get my mojo back. The day ended well. Thanks Barry and Jill

On a side note; Congratulations to Bruce who had the first brook trout, brown trout double that I have ever seen. To bad we didn’t get the photo. Congrats as well to Steph and Jill on their first stream trout.


What Made This?

Kinni F Bridge Construction Update:

– Temporary Sheet Piling has been installed to encompass the existing bridge structure removals and also to encompass new construction for protection of the Kinni.
– Most of the perimeter silt fence and some erosion bales have be installed throughout the project site with a few exceptions.
– Danger Buoys will remain in place for project duration. Two upstream and two downstream.
– Recreationists are allowed to proceed through the bridge site but are encouraged to use caution.
– Local residents will continue to have access to their homes within the project limits at all times with a few interruptions of short duration to allow driveway entrance work.
– Intersection of CTH F and CTH FF will remain open to the south and east only until construction operations begin in that area. No access to the north will be allowed.
– 820th St. will remain open and CTH F to the north of 820th St.
– A few more barricades and signs were installed and/or moved at various locations to accommodate a few calls/complaints from locals.

* Lunda plans to drive piling for the north pier beginning tomorrow and finishing Thursday. They plan to pour the north pier column on Monday of next week. Recreationists are to continue to use caution when passing through the structure and overhead construction activities must cease when recreationists do proceed through bridge site during work hours.

* Clearing operations are continuing this week with tree chipping and grubbing operation beginning tomorrow on the north side.

Safety and Protection of the Kinnickinnic River are the main concerns of all parties involved.