CategoriesFishing Report

July 3rd Fishing Report

A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Sunny, with a high near 88. North wind 3 to 6 mph.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained. Water temps are at 60 and starting to creek higher with this weather. Remember anything over 65 will be poor fishing and can be harmful to trout. Seek out smaller headwaters and shady areas, the fishing will be much better there.
Fish early and fish late, avoid the mid day sun!
Hatches are still fairly sparse, but the terrestrials are making up for it on the surface! We’re fishing hippie stomper and dropper on the surface through the day. Mornings and evenings if they aren’t hitting parachutes or crystal wulffs (PMD and adams) we will toss an ant out there (size 16/18).
Mousing is heating up! Fishing mice on the surface at night in the summer can be an absolute blast!

CategoriesFishing Report

July 1st Fishing Report

A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 85. Light southeast wind increasing to 5 to 9 mph in the morning.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temperatures in the low 60s. We’re in full summer mode where fishing is best early and late and anywhere you can find shade.
Hatches are sparse, which is normal for this time of year. You will find some fish rising first thing in the morning, and late in the evening. The morning fish will take a generic parachute pattern or film star, while the evening fish will also eat ants readily.
During the day, it is terrestrial time on the surface! Fish ants, beetles, even small grasshoppers. Targeting creeks with overhanging grass or even trees gives you a better chance at finding terrestrial eaters.
Subsurface fishing is starting to become a game of thin bodied patterns. Perdigons, spanish bullets, zebra midges etc are more effective when the creeks are clear and the sun is shining.
Leeches, streamers and mice can be quite good right now when the sun starts to set until the sun starts to rise.

CategoriesFishing Report

June 30th Fishing Report

A 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 86. Southeast wind 6 to 13 mph.
Hot and humid out. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temperatures right around 60 degrees. All week there is a chance for thunderstorms (which would provide cloud cover and some cooler water).
It’s summertime in the Driftless. Fish early, fish late, avoid the mid day sun and find shade. Terrestrial or attractors and a dropper mid day, and ants and generic parachutes in the evening.

CategoriesFishing Report

June 29th Fishing Report

Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. South wind 8 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained area wide with only a couple still showing a medium stain. Looks like scattered drizzle through the day which will not do any harm to the creeks, and the cloud cover will only benefit anglers!
Thing are getting back on track after some up and down weather the past few days. While hatches are still sparse and unimpressive, fish are rising in the evening to simple parachutes and emergers.
The terrestrial bite is starting to really heat up as ants and beetles as well as hippie stompers starting to be eaten very well by trout. Even for rising fish, tossing a beetle or ant will get them to feed it seems.
Subsurface fishing has been solid on a mix of bugs including scuds, midge larvae, brush hogs, and hot spot purple PT jigs. Fish a thick pattern then switch to a thin bodied pattern and the fish will let you know what they want!
Post rains, in the stained water, leeches and streamers are great!
Mousing is starting to get good too, especially as the grass dries out a bit.

CategoriesFishing Report

June 28th Fishing Report

A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 84. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained except for the West Fork and the Bad Axe watershed which are still mildly stained to murky.
The sun is the limiting factor again as creeks have dropped and cleared for the weekend. Fish early and late and avoid the mid day sun if possible.
Early next week looks like a chance of rains most every day. This isn’t a terrible thing unless an unexpected gully washer shows up. The cloud cover and potential stain on the creeks makes fishing much better and the rain drops water temperatures slightly.
Hatches have been sparse with a few lighter colored mayflies around as well as some egg laying caddis. Ants have been hot on the surface, and fishing a hippie stomper with a dropper is the go to setup throughout the day.

CategoriesFishing Report

June 27th Fishing Report

There is fishable water out there today!!!
Sunny, with a high near 84. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph.
The heavy storm in Vernon County hit around 2:30 and dropped almost 2 inches of rain in half an hour. Things blew out quickly, then started to drop and clear pretty quickly too. Since it happened so early in the day, we have quite a bit more fishable water than we expected. The larger creeks (West Fork, Bad Axe) and creeks below flood control dams remain muddy to heavily stained, while the smaller creeks and headwaters are in good shape. Clear to stained.
Fish scuds, leeches, and pink squirrels as well as squirmy wormies in the murky water. In the clear water fishing foam with a dropper below (hippie stomper and brush hog etc) will catch fish.
Hatches are sparse but having a few PMD colored parachutes is not a bad idea. Guides have been throwing ant patterns to rising fish with great success too!

CategoriesFishing Report

June 26th Fishing Report

Update 2:40 Heavy rains are over, but the damage has been done. True flash flood rain and creeks are up and muddy. It should calm down for tomorrow though.
UPDATE 2:19 Heavy, heavy rain and the storm is still on us.
UPDATE 2:15 Round 4 is hitting us. Medium to heavy rain. This will stain things up but it is moving quickly and shouldn’t ruin things outside of this afternoon.
UPDATE 12:45 Round three died on the Mississippi. Dry so far. #4 and possible #5 look ominous and will be here in about an hour.
UPDATE 11:00 AM: Round three is coming and will hit. It looks like only some more light rain though.
UPDATE 10:00 AM: Round one lost a ton of power when it crossed the Mississippi. We only had some light rain around 9. Round two is passing south of Vernon County. So far, everything is still in great shape!

Showers and thunderstorms. High near 80. Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 10 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible.
Creeks are in great shape this morning, clear to slightly stained with temperatures in the high 50s to 60. We’re watching the radar closely and it looks like the first round will be some scattered rains hitting around 9 a.m. The ground is fairly saturated so if we get a bunch of heavy rain all at once things will get muddy for the rest of the day. If it is spread out a bit then we expect a stain on the water but fishable conditions. We will keep you updated!

CategoriesFishing Report

June 25th Fishing Report

Sunny, with a high near 81. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Creeks are clear to stained. The larger creeks and those below flood control dams still have a heavy stain on them. Temperatures are in the high 50s to low 60s.
Things have calmed down since the rains and fishing is back to ‘normal’. The sun will be the limiting factor so make sure you are out there early and late, and find shade mid day. The exception to this is fishing terrestrials. Once the dew dries off the grass it is game on to throw ants and beetles near the banks and overhanging vegetation. Ants have been particularly deadly lately.
Hatches are sparse with a few sulphurs and other lighter colored mayflies still hanging around along with a few egg laying caddis and yellow sallies. Having a few parachutes in light and dark colors will cover the evening hatches.
Subsurface fishing has been great on scuds and purple drank as well as on Food and zebra midges.

CategoriesFishing Report

June 24th Fishing Report

A chance of showers and thunderstorms between 11am and 3pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 3pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. West wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Looks like the summer weather pattern is on us! It might rain a bit, but probably not…..
Creeks are clear to stained with only the ‘larger’ creeks still remaining muddy. Temperatures are excellent right now
On the clear creeks, focus on terrestrials with a bead head dropper. The terrestrial bit is starting to gain some momentum and on sunnier, drier days fish will key in on beetles, ants, and foam attractors (we have even started to see some grasshoppers). Tying a small bead head dropper below your terrestrial when possible ups your chance at catching fish! Brush hogs, purple drank and food are our favorites this time of year.
On the cloudy water, leeches and large scuds fished under an indicator are excellent. As are streamers.
Mousing will get better again when the bankside vegetation dries out a bit.

CategoriesFishing Report

June 23rd Fishing Report

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 73. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
While not crystal clear, there is far more fishable water out there this morning than we expected! Look for slightly stained to moderately stained area wide this morning with only the larger creeks and those below flood control dams to remain muddy.
With the stain on the water fishing a hippie stomper or training wheel with a larger scud or thicker bodied pattern below is very effective.
Guide trips have been doing very well on the surface on ants and beetles throughout the day. Hatches have not been impressive the past few days (even before the rains) but having a few parachutes or klinkhammers for the evening is never a bad idea.
When all else fails, throw a black leech!

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