Fishing Report

Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 5pm. Increasing clouds, with a high near 82. South wind 5 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Recent rains have either missed us, hit hard then disappeared, or soaked into the ground. In our trip county area, creeks are clear to stained and up just a little.
While we are waiting for sulphurs, craneflies, or caddis to hatch and before the fish are rising, the hippie stomper and brush hog combo have been deadly! Nothing like fishing the old, familiar driftless guide combo.

Practice good social distancing on the water. The Centers for Disease Controlrecommends staying six feet apart from others. We’re taking it a step farther — we’re asking anglers to stay a rod’s length apart from their fishing partners whenever possible. The standard fly rod is nine feet long.

Wear a multi-layered face covering when in the vicinity of other anglers. Even a double-layered cloth mask can help slow the spread of the virus.

Avoid fishing from a boat with someone you haven’t been in lock-down with. In other words, if they’re not family, don’t fish from a boat with them — it’s just not possible to practice social distancing while in a drift boat.

Drive to the river separately to get to the angling destination.

Stay local, if at all possible, to limit exposure to others, and limit others’ exposure to you.

We’re still watching the virus cases in our area closely. They have recently showed up and are climbing. We’re following the advice of the CDC, WHO, and state and local health agencies and have the storefront and guiding closed until at least June 1st. We will begin curbside and drive through on Tuesday.

Showers and thunderstorms. High near 70. East wind 11 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
As of now creeks are clear and flowing a bit low. Sulphurs have arrived and are added to the bug soup along with olives, caddis, craneflies and midges. We have even spotted some yellow sallies here and there already.
Subsurface fishing has been good on heavy nymphs rolled along the bottom. Check out the featured fly below, the thread frenchie, as it has been excellent for us lately!
Chance of rains starting this afternoon and through most of next week. We will keep you posted!

We’re still shipping flies from the store every day, please shop using our online store, or email us your orders. The shop will remain closed the rest of the week and we are exploring the possibility of resuming curbside and drive through starting next week. The problem in our area is we are just now starting to see cases of coronavirus in our 3 counties and the numbers are rising. This has been a very difficult spring for everyone and we are asking for just a bit more patience while we sort out what the near future is going to bring. Anyone have a crystal ball for sale?

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm. Cloudy, with a high near 61. Breezy, with a southeast wind 7 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.

Creeks are low and clear with temperatures in the 50s. Hatches have not been great with a few caddis showing up throughout the day, but not in great numbers. Subsurface fishing has been decent on scuds and brush hogs.

Creeks are low and clear. The recent rains did not do anything to our flows or clarity.

Tomorrow is regular season opener, which is the busiest day of the year on our trout creeks. This season it is more important than ever to respect landowners and each other if you decide to fish. We’re still recommending that you do not come here to fish. Vernon county had it’s first reported case of Corona virus last Friday with a gentleman with no travel or contact history. In other words, somebody brought it into our area. People here are nervous and many are still unhappy (understandably so) seeing out of state and out of area vehicles parked together on our creeks.

If you do fish, please remember that Wisconsin is still under a shelter in place mandate. All campgrounds in the county are closed. Resaturants are take out only and services are very limited. Make it a day trip, fill up at home and bring your own food. We also encourage you to be on even better behavior on stream. Do not park near anyone else, social distancing rules still apply in Wisconsin meaning you are supposed to be at least 6 feet from anyone else etc. Do not jump above another angler, if they are already fishing upstream they do have the right of way to the water upstream!! If in doubt, it is simple to ask the angler.

There have been numerous reports of trespassing, Please respect landowners!! Conservation easements give you a bit of land bankside. You are not allowed to walk access roads, crop fields, or pastures! If the crowding and bad behavior persist we are at risk of losing our angler friendly properties, as well as future easements. Respect our community, respect our property, and respect our landowners!

The shop is still closed and doing shipping only for a few more days/weeks.

We’re over it. Sick of it. It’s devastating the local economy. But we still need to consider the health and safety of our area. As rural areas become hot spots from the virus spreading from larger cities we are asking you to please, do not travel to fish here from outside the area.

Yes, fishing is extremely healthy and safe, and it’s great for mental health as well, but as we see more and more anglers crowding access points and more landowners start to be concerned for their families and community we need to stop asking what we are allowed to do, but rather what we should be doing.

Fish locally, tie flies, watch videos, practice casting. The fish will be here after this craziness ends. Wisconsin is on a path to east some stay at home restrictions at the end of the month. We ask you to please do not travel long distances to fish here until then.

A chance of sprinkles after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 47. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
While fishing has been ok, it is not where it should be this time of year in terms of hatches and fish activity. This is mostly due to the cold front that has been on us the past few days. A few degrees warmer and things should change dramatically with caddis hatching alongside of the olives and midges.
Lately, the hatches have been near dusk. As things warm look for rising fish in the afternoon when caddis start their hatching.
Subsurface fishing is still solid on pretty much anything as long as it is slowly drifted through the runs and pools.

Increasing clouds, with a high near 40. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
A very chilly night and a thermometer that will not rise much will keep things a bit slower today, however the sun shining bright first thing in the morning will warm the stream bed and get the bugs moving for the afternoon.
Midges, olives, spring stones, and a few craneflies and caddis are hatching. Expect the caddis hatch to pop anytime soon with warmer and sunnier weather.
Subsurface fishing has been good on pretty much anything fished in the shin to thigh deep runs below riffles. Do not neglect the shallow riffles when the hatches are coming off as many trout will push up into the riffles to be first in line to eat hatching insects.
Creeks are clear with water temperatures in the low to mid 40s, this will bump up again during the next few days and get the spring hatches back on track.

A chance of flurries after 2pm. Sunny, with a high near 34. Northwest wind 5 to 11 mph.
Still chilly today, but it looks like the last cold day for a bit. Nights are still chilly, so no real reason to get up early to fish. Look for the best fishing to start around 10 and hatches to come off in the afternoon.
Before the cold snap we had midges, olives, spring stone, and a few caddis hatching. Expect the caddis hatch to strengthen and the others to slow down a bit in the next week. Add some craneflies to the mix this week and we have the recipe for some extremely fun dry fly afternoons!
Subsurface fishing is good on pretty much anything. Flies like the purple drink, coulee scud, and soft hackles (materials with movement and collars on the fly) are great right now to mimic hatching caddis and craneflies.
Streamers and leeches are now going to always be effective, but even more so when the sun is off the water.
Creeks are clear and running pretty normal for spring. Temperatures are in the 40s.

A 50 percent chance of snow showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 33. West wind 13 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
It’s cold and windy again today. If you feel like nymphing and streamer fishing with a few olives and midges hatching you can still catch fish, but it isn’t going to be pleasant for humans.
Thursday the weather turns nice again and we should see the return of the bug soup. Before this cold front we had midges, olives, spring stones, craneflies, and caddis hatching. With a bit warmer weather and sunny days, expect it to happen again!