Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph. . Creeks are in good shape as we did not get the heavy rains forecasted. Overall this weekend the Viroqua area got just over an inch and a quarter total. Weather is pretty normal for summertime, we do get a cool down Tuesday and Wednesday nights which means Wednesday and Thursday could be some pretty solid morning fishing. Water temperature is the limiting factor right now, please be sure to use your thermometer. Anything over 65 will be slower fishing and potentially lethal to trout. Tricos early in the morning, then terrestrials with droppers to mid day. Take a nap, and have at it again late at night when the sun goes behind the bluffs.
Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 2pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Mostly cloudy, with a steady temperature around 78. South wind around 11 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between three quarters and one inch possible. Tonight potential rainfall of 1-2 inches. Sunday could be more. It has been hot and humid for quite a few days now, and the clouds could open up over the next day or two. If heavy, we could receive a much needed flush of our creeks. If light, it will recharge and refresh some spring flows as well as drop water temperatures. These are the events that hit the ‘reset’ button for summer trout fishing in the Driftless. The mornings for a few days after can be quite good fishing! Tricos are key early right now with the spinners hitting the water from early morning until about 9 p.m. After that, keep checking water temperatures (65 or lower is still good fishing) and tie on a terrestrial with a dropper.
Areas of smoke before 1pm, then areas of smoke after 3pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 79. Calm wind becoming southeast 5 to 7 mph in the morning. The conditions from the cooler nights are starting to fade and the good morning fishing is getting shorter. As overnight temperatures warm up, the window of opportunity water temperature wise will start to get smaller and smaller. Fish as early as you can stand to wake up, things are slowing down around 9-10. We are still seeing some Tricos early, and then switching to a hopper dropper rig later on.
Areas of smoke. Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Northeast wind around 8 mph. This morning was more than pleasant. Cool and cloud cover until about 10 a.m. This should continue through the weekend and into next week as well. We are seeing trico spinners on many of our creeks, and fish are eating beetles, ants, and even hoppers on the surface too. Subsurface fishing has been solid on zebra midges and pheasant tail type flies. Water temperatures are still an issue, but much less so with the cooler overnight temperatures. The wildfire smoke in the sky is also helping keep temperatures down a bit.
As a heads up, the online store will be down for about a week soon.
Showers and possibly a thunderstorm, mainly before 1pm, then scattered showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. High near 72. Light and variable wind becoming east 5 to 9 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. . We have had a solid cooldown of overnight temperatures, and we have clouds and drizzle all day long today. The next couple of evenings also look good temperature wise, which means we should have a pretty good dew days of trico spinner falls in the morning, and some foam/dropper fishing into mid day. . Water temperature is key. Make sure you are fishing water temperatures below 68! The recent rains were not at all heavy in our area, leaving our creeks crystal clear.
Here in the Driftless, our tiny spring creeks can be frustrating! Fish seem to spook from 40 feet away even before you start casting on some days. The shallow water, slow flows, and crystal clarity can drive even the best anglers to insanity. Stealth is key to being successful in the Driftless.
We’re always looking for even a small advantage to being more stealthy here. The first, and easiest, answer is to simply increase leader length. That isn’t always an option here. If you have never fished the Driftless before (and we highly suggest you do sometime soon!), it is a small creek, short game fishery. This is a putt putt course, full of obstacles and angles, and short distances. Many of our casts are 20 feet total. If we start with a 9 foot leader, that only leaves us with 11 feet of fly line out of the tip of the rod. This can be difficult in most of our settings to get enough line speed to turn the leader over and present the fly, not to mention having to curve around vegetation or a tight corner etc.
So where does this new line fit in? The first 10 feet of the magnitude line is CLEAR! That is an automatic, baked in 10 foot ‘leader’ before we even tie an actual leader on. So with the line, and a shorter, more manageable 7.5 foot leader, we have 17 feet of stealth between our fly line and our fly. We can not stress enough how major this is for spooky fish in our tiny spring creeks.
After a couple months of testing in all conditions, we have found the line to be an overall excellent choice for most Driftless conditions. Performance and durability have been excellent, and it only needs a few extra cleanings as you will notice dirt build up on the clear tip more than you would a regular line (you should be cleaning your lines fairly often anyways!)
The drawbacks are:
Cost: This is an expensive line using some pretty cutting edge stuff on it (EST+ PFAS Free,eco friendly coating, new clear floating technology etc) the box price for the smooth is $150. Please don’t cast your new line on the grass or in the parking lot!
Range of use: While this is good for 90% of your fishing in the Driftless, the core of the fly line to make the clear floating tech work is different than standard lines. It tends to coil in the winter, and feels gummy in the summer. If you fish the normal season in the Driftless this will not be a problem however. It only lags behind in the hottest and coldest conditions here.
Memory: Keep in mind the core of this fly line has much more memory than what you are used to. While performance wise, this is not a problem at all, if you are a lazy angler and keep your rods strung up between fishing sessions, the fly line will develop a kink at the tip of rod where it is stored. This is not any kind of major problem as it can be smoothed and straightened before your next fishing session, it is just an inconvenience.
Overall, we are in love with the magnitude line and highly recommend it to anyone who wants a super simple way to increase their stealthiness on the water!
From underwater, the clear line looks like a disruption in the water, not an intrusive shadow!
Isolated showers and thunderstorms between 2pm and 4pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 84. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. We received about 1/10th of an inch of rain last night. Nothing major, but any rain will be good right now! Looking ahead, we might get some storms later tonight, and tomorrow looks overcast and drizzly (with a great cool down Wednesday night too). This could trigger some much better fishing tomorrow and into the weekend if the cooler temperatures hold. Summertime trout fishing in the Driftless is all a weather game. It is never a great time to be here and fish, but if the weather and rains cooperate (like they are predicted to do) we can have some great morning fishing! Typically the afternoon and evenings are much slower. The menu: Tricos in the morning, hopper or foam terrestrial with a dropper the rest of the time.
Sunny, with a high near 91. Heat index values as high as 97. West wind 3 to 5 mph. Hot, hot hot today. It isn’t worth being out there except for the first couple hours of the day. Watching overnight temperatures things will not cool down until about Thursday this week. UNLESS we get some of the possible rain tonight through Wednesday. This is a pretty typical summer schedule. Things are hot and the fishing stinks, rains come and put some water into the system (hopefully a bit of stain too!) and drop water temperatures and fishing is good (in the mornings) until things superheat again. Tricos in the earlier morning, then hopper dropper all day long. The creeks are low and clear, lengthen your leader and approach with stealth. If you are in need of a new fly line, check out the new clear tip magnitude line! We’ve been messing with it for a few months now and are impressed!
Mostly sunny, with a high near 84. Calm wind becoming east around 6 mph in the afternoon. Heading into the weekend, we are looking at highs of 85/89/92. Not favorable trout weather! Please remember to use your thermometer and check temps often. Anything over 65 will be slow fishing, and much higher can be lethal to trout. We are still finding cool creeks in the early morning (smaller, headwater streams) and catching fish on trico spinners and hopper/dropper, but the fishing usually drops off around 10 a.m.
