Fishing Report

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July 20th Fishing Report

Partly sunny, with a high near 83. Breezy, with a west wind 11 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph.
The temperatures have actually kept quite stable due to recent cloud cover. Creeks are clear to slightly stained and flowing in the low 60s. The lower sections of larger creeks are the only ones that are warm enough to not fish. Keep using your thermometer to find the best conditions (60-65 degrees).
The rest of the week looks good for fishing, especially in the mornings and late evenings.
Fish are eating trico spinners in the mornings on many of our creeks, then switching over to eating terrestrials on the surface. Watching trout cruise out from beneath cover to crush a beetle or sip an ant is one of the best things this time of year! You can fish a hopper with a dropper all day long from here to the end of season really.
Focus on fishing the shin to thigh deep water below the riffles and as close to undercut banks or overhanging vegetation as possible. Finding shady areas will also help you locate happy fish.
We have had quite a few reports that mousing and streamer fishing from dusk and into the night has been very productive too!

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 19th Fishing Report

Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Breezy, with a south wind 7 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
Despite the hotter temperatures, fishing and water temperatures have remained really good for the summertime! So far most creeks are holding temperatures in the low 60s. The exception is the lower section of waters and the larger creeks. Please keep using your thermometer and make sure you are not fishing anything over 68 degrees!
The menu is very simple right now. Tricos in the mornings, then switching to a terrestrial with a dropper. Fish are dashing out of cover to eat beetles and smaller hoppers right now!
Fish early and late, and take a break mid day. Finding shady sections of creek is also key to the best fishing in the summertime.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 18th Fishing Report

Sunny, with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming west 5 to 8 mph in the morning.
It’s a hot couple of days, followed by a normal summer week. Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temps in the low to mid 60s. Summertime means thermometer time. Make sure you are constantly checking stream temperatures. Anything over 65 will start to slow fishing down, and over 68 can be lethal for trout. Luckily we have quite a few feeder creeks and spring heads that keep temperatures down on some of our creeks!
Tricos are showing up in the mornings on many area creeks, the rest of the day fishing a hopper or beetle with a dropper below (they are crushing terrestrials lately!) will work all day long.
The sun and heat are the limiting factors, so fish early, fish late, take a break mid day and find as much shaded water as you can. Shade not only gives the fish a break from heat and sun, but it also usually has terrestrials dropping from it throughout the day!

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 16th Fishing Report

Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 81. East wind 3 to 7 mph.
Creeks are crystal clear to a medium stain depending on where the rains hit heaviest yesterday. Some areas saw 2 inches or more (near fennimore some spots got 4 plus inches!!) and some only saw a quarter of an inch. The heaviest rain fell pretty much along highway 14 from La Crosse to Viroqua.
In the cloudy water, fishing scuds and worm patterns is excellent. In the clear water, fish are picking up on hoppers (even larger ones now) with droppers below.
Mornings without fog, we have been seeing tricos early, and in the later evening egg laying caddis and midges are getting fish to rise.
Summertime is excellent for mousing and we have had some customers catching really big brown trout at night!

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

ACTION ALERT

Quick Background. Roth Feeder Pig II is looking to expand (it is the only CAFO in Crawford county right now) and open a new facility. This mega factory would be Wisconsin’s largest pig facility smack dab in the Driftless. 9.4 Million gallons of liquid manure seeping into our groundwater. Thousands of pigs. Millions of gallons taken from the ground that will be returned polluted… This is a foot in the door for more of these to open up! Read below for the e-mail address to send comments to.

More information here

We spoke at the public hearing as Mr Roth proudly claimed that his operation would be perfect, never have a problem (even though he only has about 1,00+ acres to spread millions of gallons of liquid pig manure on), and would create 20 jobs! Seriously, this disaster waiting to happen has been rubber stamped by the DNR basically telling everyone in the area and the community that could care less about the ground water, drinking water, and tourism/recreation in the Driftless.

100% of the people who spoke were against this. If you would like to join us, our only hope now is that the Crawford County board will actually listen to the people they represent.

Please e-mailcomments to Dave Troester dtroester@crawfordcountywi.org .

He is the county conservationist and has said that they are reading and recording all input they get. Let them know where you come from and how bad an idea it is to put the CAFO in the Driftless. Remind them that you spend money (I am sure we have more than 20 people who spend money in Crawford county) in the area and that you are concerned for the water and air quality in the area. Please be polite and respectful.

Let’s keep this terrible idea from turning Crawford County into CAFO county.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 15th Fishing Report

UPDATE: Getting heavy rain 10:30. This is enough added to what we had earlier to get things pretty muddy. We will keep you posted, but if it mellows out after this last storm then tomorrow will be ok with medium to light stain area wide.

Showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. High near 76. South wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible.
We had about 1/4 to half an inch of rain overnight and into the early morning. This is nothing that will mess up the creeks. We are forecasted for about an inch of rain today which will potentially muddy things up for the rest of the day. We will keep you posted!
While the rain isn’t the best news, it is much needed in the summertime and will help keep water temps lower. When the water gets murky, leeches, worm patterns and large scuds are the way to fish!

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 14th Fishing Report

Sunny, with a high near 80. Southeast wind 6 to 9 mph.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained with temperatures in the low 60s except the larger creeks and lower sections which will be mid 60s. Remember to use your thermometer as anything over 65 is generally poor fishing and much warmer than that can be harmful to trout.
The sun is your limiting factor right now. Fish early (we have started to see tricos in the mornings!) avoid the mid day sun or find shaded areas, and fish late. When the sun is high in the sky, fish are far more spooky and less likely to eat.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 13th Fishing Report

Mostly sunny, with a high near 78. North wind 5 to 8 mph.
We are in the summer cycle now. It warms up, then rains hit, then cooler weather. Right now we are in the ‘cooler weather’ phase for a couple of days. That is typically the best fishing!
Creeks are clear to stained with temperatures right around 60 overall. Use your thermometer as lower sections and spots with less spring influence are over 65. Over 65 water temps mean fishing is very slow and potentially harmful to trout.
Summer means terrestrials! Fish a hopper or beetle with a thin bodied bead head below to find fish all day long. When you come to overhanging trees, or long grass in the water, tie on an ant and hang on!
The sun is the limiting factor right now (after water temp of course). If you can find shade, you will find happier fish. This means fishing early and late when the sun is down and looking for overhanging vegetation, undercut banks, and trees streamside.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 11th Fishing Report

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 3pm and 5pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 83. West wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
The sun will shine quite a bit this week. The creeks are very low and clear with temperatures in the low to mid 60s. It is thermometer time. Make sure the water you are fishing is at 65 degrees or lower for best fishing, and to keep from overly stressing trout With sunny weather and warmer summer temperatures, you will find the best fishing very early, very late, and on shaded or headwater creeks. Chase cooler water temps and you will find happy fish!
It’s hopper/dropper season in the Driftless! Fishing a foam beetle, ant, or hopper on the surface with a small, thin bodied bead head below is the best way to catch fish right now. Early and late you could see some rising fish, so have a few CDC and elk caddis and some simple klinkhammers in both a light and dark color and you will have the hatches pretty much covered.

CategoriesFishing Report
Post By Driftless Angler

July 9th Fishing Report

Sunny, with a high near 80. East wind 5 to 7 mph.
Creeks are clear to slightly stained. The stain in on the lower section of the ‘larger’ creeks in our area. We don’t advise fishing on those as they are also the warmest parts of our water right now. Please remember to use your thermometer. It is summertime and some water temperatures are creeping upward. Anything over 65 degrees and fishing slows down and much higher than that can be stressful to trout. We are lucky enough that there are still many headwaters and middle sections fed by our springs that water temperatures are still right around 60 on many of our creeks.
It is full on terrestrial crazy season now with fish happily eating ants, beetles, and even hoppers on the surface. Pairing a foam pattern with a bead head tied on as a dropper below is a great way to catch summertime fish. When you see rising fish, using a caddis type imitation, or an unweighted pheasant tail just below the surface is deadly! While most of our major aquatic insect hatches have slowed down (totally normal for this time of year) there are still some mayflies, midges and egg laying caddis the fish will feed on especially late at night and early in the morning.
Summertime also means mousing! From dusk until dawn you can have some fun slowly stripping a mouse across the surface.

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