CategoriesFishing Report

September 12th Fishing Report

Showers and possibly a thunderstorm before noon, then a chance of showers between noon and 3pm. Patchy fog before 11am. High near 67. Calm wind becoming west 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
The ground is finally saturated and the rains last night have some creeks running muddy early this morning, but already starting to clear up as of 8 this morning. It might take a little more drive time in the am to find good water, but most creeks will be in good shape later in the morning and into the afternoon.
Fishing has been great overall, with the cold weather and clouds (both in the water and in the sky) putting the fish in a great mood. Olives are hatching, fish are also eating caddis and even hoppers and foam on the surface! Subsurface fishing has been across the board with smaller, thin bodied bugs working as well as scuds and pink squirrels, as well as leeches and streamers. If you are not getting any eats, keep changing the profile and size of your bug until the fish let you know what they want!
In the murky water this morning, streamers, leeches and worm patterns are key!

CategoriesFishing Report

September 11th Fishing Report

Showers, mainly after 3pm. High near 59. East wind 6 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.
What a week! Cold temperatures, cloudy weather, and happy fish! We’re seeing olives start to hatch around mid day under these conditions and the hatch can last through the day. Don’t be afraid to fish an emerger or even a greased pheasant tail early in the hatch (or a kilnkhammer/film star!)
Otherwise fishing scuds, pink squirrels, perdigons and spanish bullets subsurface. Still fish them below a hippie stomper, but go wild with the colors (pink yellow and orange).
Leeches and streamers are excellent right now. Fish are very grabby, and while you might not hook a ton, there are some larger fish hunting streamers right now.

CategoriesFishing Report

September 10th Fishing Report

Showers, mainly before 1pm. Patchy fog before 9am. High near 54. Northeast wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Things are rolling along in the Driftless! Creeks remain clear to slightly stained as the rains have been steady and slow instead of coming all at once. In the afternoon, the olives have been hatching and bringing fish to the surface.
Early in the day, fishing is best subsurface on scuds, squirrels, and other thicker bodied nymphs. Leeches and streamers work very well all day too, especially on the creeks with a medium stain. Do not neglect the squirmy wormy! It fishes very well under these conditions.
On the surface, fishing a indicator attractor fly is still working, but the terrestrial bite is definitely slow due to the cooler and wet weather. We need things to dry out before terrestrials fish again. Watch for olives hatching mid day, and swing some soft hackles below the riffles.

CategoriesFishing Report

September 9th Fishing Report

Showers. High near 49. Northeast wind 7 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.
The rains yesterday were not enough to ruin fishing. Most of our creeks are in great shape, crystal clear to slightly stained. Coupled with the cooler temps and cloud cover, on paper we have perfect fishing conditions in the Driftless right now!
Terrestrials will be much slower as the cold and wet weather keeps the naturals from crawling around. Attractor foam patterns with a bead head in the mornings (or streamers and leeches….) will catch fish. In the afternoon and evening we have had some pretty solid olive hatches that are getting fish to rise.

CategoriesFishing Report

September 8th Fishing Report

Showers, mainly after 11am. High near 51. Northeast wind 8 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
We’re getting a preview of fall weather this week! Cool and cloudy pretty much all week long. This should have trout in an excellent mood and feeding well all day. Look for potential hatches of olives in the afternoons.
Scuds will become increasingly important with this weather. They prefer the cloudy weather and with the water temperature dropping they should become active all week long!
On the surface, terrestrials are still the main menu item, but they really will not get going until things warm up and dry out a bit. Attractor foam patterns with a bead head below will still be important all day long regardless of the weather, just do not expect lights out hopper fishing this week.
Subsurface fishing will be good on anything, but squogs, squirrels and scuds will catch more fish than the past few weeks.

CategoriesFishing Report

September 6th Fishing Report

Just a brief update for the Labor Day weekend. Shop is closed Monday but will reopen Tuesday with extended hours.

A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11am. Partly sunny, with a high near 83. Breezy, with a south wind 11 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.

Rains missed last night. We only received 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch which means perfect conditions this morning. Crystal clear to stained waters area wide! A cold front is blowing in which will drop temperatures to downright chilly next week. This cold and cloudy weather will do wonders for the trout creeks. Water temps will drop and fish will be very happy. We should even see olives hatching in the afternoons.

Hopper/dropper will remain successful, but it will take a while for surface activity to get moving after chilly nights. Nymphing or streamers in the morning, then switching to foam with a dropper mid day until you see fish rising to olives and midges.

CategoriesFishing Report

September 3rd Fishing Report

Partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny, with a steady temperature around 67. Breezy, with a northwest wind 13 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph.
Great terrestrial day with the winds!
Creeks are clear and flowing a touch low. The recent rains did nothing to muddy things up and everything remains fishable. THe morning tricos have been underwhelming. You may see a few here and there. Watch for some olives hatching in the afternoon and evening alongside the midges. With cooler weather on the horizon the afternoons will start to give us more rising fish.
The main menu item for trout however is still terrestrials. Small hoppers, ants, beetles, etc on the surface are quite a bit of fun right now! Add to that some fantastic subsurface fishing and we have a good reason to skip a couple of days of work or extend your labor day holiday.
Subsurface fishing has been great lately. With the cooler water temps the fish are eating pretty much anything (mid day sun they still prefer the smaller, thin bodied nymphs) from pink squirrels to zebras to scuds.

CategoriesFishing Report

September 2nd Fishing Report

Sunny, with a high near 78. West wind 6 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.
We’re in the part of summer that things hopefully continue to cool down (we are forecasted for excellent weather all week and heading into the holiday weekend). We can’t exactly say that we are transitioning to fall yet as we can still get a warm spell (happens every year!) this month.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained and flowing just a little low. Water temperatures are in the mid 50s to 60. Even the larger creeks that were too warm last week are giving good water temperatures and fishing has rebounded.
A few tricos in the morning showing up and doing their spinner fall, but it just has not been very strong this season. At about 9 a.m. there is a brief slowdown in fishing as the aquatic insect activity lessens when the sun hits the water. Once the dew on the grass disappears the fishing picks up again on terrestrials. Fishing a hopper (ant/beetle/cricket etc) with a dropper is deadly all day long. In the evenings the guides have been cleaning up by skittering simple CDC and Elk caddis patterns as well as continuing to fish terrestrials.
Subsurface fishing is still best with the thinner bodied patterns, but pink squirrels, scuds, and energizers are starting to work quite well, especially when the sun is off the water.
Leeches, streamers, and mice are still good, and will get better once we get some clouds in the sky or a heavier stain on the water (or the sun goes down….)

CategoriesFishing Report

August 31st Fishing Report

Showers and thunderstorms before 2pm, then a slight chance of showers between 2pm and 3pm. High near 72. Southeast wind 6 to 11 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Threatening to storm this morning, The major part of the storm looks like it will pass north of us a bit.
Creeks overall are clear and flowing well with good temperatures thanks to cool days and overnight temperatures being great for summertime!
Olives are showing up again late in the evening and first thing in the morning. There is also a sparse trico spinner fall on some of our creeks first thing in the morning. Otherwise we are in peak terrestrial season! Hoppers with a dropper, ants, beetles, they are all working!

CategoriesFishing Report

August 29th Fishing Report

Sunny, with a high near 74. Northwest wind 5 to 14 mph.
The rains yesterday almost all missed us! We only had about an inch of rain total in our area. The ground was dry enough to soak the vast majority of that up so we have clear to slightly stained waters for the weekend!
Expect the terrestrial bite to continue to be strong. Hoppers, ants, beetles, they are all the main thing on the menu right now. Tiny olives and tricos are showing up at first and last light too and fish are rising to small parachutes and emergers.
Streamers and mice at night are a great way to catch fish now too.

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