CategoriesFishing Report

July 28th Fishing Report

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between 1pm and 3pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 90. Heat index values as high as 102. Light south wind increasing to 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Super hot and humid out there. That on top of some locally flash flood style rains… Fishing will be difficult today.
The good news is that the rains were brief. While there is some minor flooding happening in some valleys, the creeks will clear out quickly and the rains should help cool things down temporarily. The next few days look to be FAR better than today. There is a high enough heat index today that we can not really recommend that you go fishing!

CategoriesFishing Report

July 26th Fishing Report

Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Light west wind becoming southwest 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
Everybody’s new favorite word to hate: “Heat dome”. The edge of it is sitting over us right now, and we are starting down a string of at least 3 more days of hot weather. The nights are not cooling off much, and the creeks are struggling to keep cool right now. While there is still some fishing available in headwater creeks and upper portions near the springs, the list keeps shrinking daily under these conditions.
It is a good week to switch species to fish for, or stay home and save on travel. If you are planning on fishing, please make sure to stay in the upper portion of the creeks and use your thermometer often. Any water temperature over 65 will be poor fishing and much higher than that can be lethal to trout.

CategoriesFishing Report

July 23rd Fishing Report

Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Southwest wind 6 to 10 mph.

Creeks are low and clear and warming up quickly. There are a handful of waters still below 65 degrees, but that number is shrinking and will continue to do so with the heat we have coming over the next few days.
It isn’t a terrible idea to take a pass on trout fishing when the weather gets like this. It has been an exceptionally difficult season with low water and heat!
If you do fish this weekend and into next week, please use a thermometer!!! Anything over 65 will be poor fishing, and much warmer than that you can start harming or even killing trout. Seek out the shaded areas, headwaters, and colder tributaries. Fish very early and very late and avoid the mid day heat.

CategoriesFishing Report

July 22nd Fishing Report

Widespread haze before 11am. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 84. South wind 5 to 9 mph.
Creeks are clear and low with temperatures in the low to mid 60s.
While there are creeks out there that have decent fishing temperatures (below 65 degrees), the number is shrinking again, and will continue to do so the next few coming days as we stare down reaching the upper 80s for the next 4-5 days. It might be a good weekend to go fish for warm water fish! If you are coming here to fish, please use a thermometer. Not only will you be sparing the trout from unnecessary stress in warmer water, but you will be doing yourself a favor as fishing slows down to a crawl above the 65 degree mark.
The best fishing is in the morning hours when the water has cooled down overnight. There is also a trico spinner fall in the am on many of the smaller creeks too.

CategoriesFishing Report

July 21st Fishing Report

Widespread haze. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. Southeast wind around 7 mph.
It’s summer in the Driftless. That means lots of terrestrials with bead heads, tricos in the mornings, and using your thermometer to find the water below 65 degrees!
Fish early, fish late, avoid any mid day sun and heat for your best fishing. The key is finding cooler water and the happy fish. Be prepared to move to plan B or C in some cases.

CategoriesFishing Report

July 19th Fishing Report

Sunny, with a high near 83. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Going to warm up through the week. The recent heavy rains have a coupe of creeks still running with a stain, but most are clear and temporarily cool.
Remember your thermometer. Anything over 65 will be poor fishing. While temps are good now, as they creep up this week, making sure you are fishing productive water and keeping the fish safe will be key.
Tricos in the mornings, hopper dropper all day, then midges, ants and parachutes in the evenings.

CategoriesFishing Report

July 16th Fishing Update

Heavy rains a couple of nights ago are working through the creeks. THere is fishable water, but most everything is ugly right now. We expect more water to continue to open up barring any more rains.

The weekend weather is not too hot, but definitely summertime weather. When things clear up watch for tricos in the mornings, then fish hopper/dropper through the day. Please remember to use your thermometer as anything over 65 will be poor fishing.

CategoriesFishing Report

July 10th Fishing Report and Updates

The week ahead is looking great for fishing! The weather is comfortable for summertime and the clouds and drizzle will only help the fish get into a good mood.

Mat is out of town for a few days, so the fishing reports will be spotty, and we have temporarily shut down the shopping page for some maintanence.

The shop is open 7 days a week so please call with any questions you have!

CategoriesFishing Report

July 8th Fishing Report

Mostly cloudy, with a high near 71. North wind around 6 mph.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temperatures in the high 50s to mid 60s. Only the largest creeks are still giving us over 65 degree surface temperatures. It is still a good idea to use your thermometer, but there is more fishable water thanks to recent rains and cool temperatures than the last couple of weeks!
Tricos are starting to show up in the early mornings. Hopper/dropper through the day, then egg laying caddis, craneflies and generic mayflies will catch rising fish in the evenings.

CategoriesFishing Report

July 7th Fishing Report

Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 2pm. Patchy fog before 1pm. Otherwise, cloudy, with a steady temperature around 66. North wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Rains last night did nothing to mess up the creeks. They did cool down temperatures in the air (thankfully!) Area wide we received half to an inch of total rainfall. This will leave the majority of the creeks clear to slightly stained with only a few exceptions showing mud this morning. The more rain the better at this point!!!
Clouds and light rains today mean that fishing should be a bit more solid subsurface on scuds, pink squirrels, energizer hare’s ear, and other thicker bodied nymphs.
The weather forecast for the next few days is in the mid to high 70s for a peak temperature and clouds and potential rains. Much better than the heat and sun of the last few days.

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