CategoriesFishing Report

September 21st Fishing Report

Mostly sunny, with a high near 73. South wind 7 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
A slight uptick in temperatures this week with highs in the mid to higher 70s. This will not influence the fishing in a negative way except for the mid day lull. The past few days the fishing has been good in the mid morning to about mid day window then things seem to shut down until around 2. After that it picks back up again.
Creeks are clear and flowing well with temperatures in the low 50s. Hatches are sparse but we still see fish rising to some midges and olives in the last part of the evening. Otherwise surface fishing continues to be solid on terrestrials. Fishing a larger foam pattern or hopper with a dropper is still the way to go, but do not neglect fishing an ant or beetle close to overhanging structure.
Subsurface fishing is best on anything purple and tungsten, as well as leeches and smaller streamers.

CategoriesFishing Report

September 19th Fishing Report

Sunny, with a high near 63. South wind 5 to 9 mph.
Creeks are clear and flowing with temps in the low 50s. Conditions really could not be better for this time of year! While the hatches have slowed down a bit we are still getting some rising fish later in the day to small olives and midges. The hatches will return when we get a bit more cloud cover. However, the terrestrial bite is quite good right now!
Early in the morning most of the fishing is subsurface on food, purple drank, and euro squirrels. As the ground warms up and the dew burns off, then the terrestrial fishing starts up! Fishing a training wheel or hopper with a bead head below is the way to fish all day long!
If you’re looking for some larger fish, leeches and streamers (and even mice) are getting some larger and aggressive fish to eat, especially when the sun is off the water.

CategoriesFishing Report

September 17th Fishing Report

Mostly sunny, with a high near 63. North wind around 8 mph.
Fishing remains more than good on hippie stompers and training wheels with bead heads dropped below. With the bright sun, the olives will not hatch as early, look for a few in the evening. The sun will get the terrestrials moving again though! Go back to fishing ants, beetles, hoppers etc.
Creeks are clear and flowing well with temperatures in the low 50s. In other words, just about perfect for late summer/fall fishing!
Remember to try leeches and streamers too. With the water temperature dropping we are getting more aggressive eats on bigger bugs.

CategoriesFishing Report

September 16th Fishing Report

Mostly sunny, with a high near 72. West wind 10 to 13 mph becoming north in the afternoon.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temperatures right around 50 degrees.
With the recent sunny and drier weather, terrestrials are back on top! Fishing a hippie stomper, or a training wheel with nymphs below has been excellent lately. We’ve been getting some bigger fish to eat the surface bugs too!
Subsurface fishing has been good on brush hogs, perdigons, squogs, and energizer squirrels.
When you are done fishing a spot with dry dropper, run a leech through there and hang on! Leeches and smaller streamers are cleaning up!
If fish are rising, they are most likely eating olives. We’re seeing olive emergences pretty much area wide even on the sunniest days.
Remember season ends after the 15th of October, get out here and fish before season closes.

CategoriesFishing Report

September 14th Fishing Report

Areas of fog before 9am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 73. South wind 6 to 9 mph.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temps in the low to mid 50s area wide. Excellent late summer conditions!!!
We are seeing olives daily, and with the drier weather, fish are feeding on hoppers, user friendlies and hippie stompers again! Guides are fishing foam with a dropper until the afternoon when the olives are hatching. They are then switching over to mayflies when fish are rising.
Subsurface is a mix of everything. From squirrels and scuds to spanish bullets and zebra midges. Just keep switching profile and color and the fish will let you know what they want.
The streamer bite is on! Fish large and small are chasing and eating small streamers and leeches.

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.

Add to cart